Isiaha Mike, Bourg: 'I did not hesitate for one second!'

Mincidelice JL Bourg en Bresse power forward Isiaha Mike has made quite an introduction in his first season in the 7DAYS EuroCup. The human highlight reel comes off a double-double against Umana Reyer Venice in just his second game to help Bourg to its first 2-0 start ever in the competition. Born in Canada, Mike played college basketball in the United States and started his professional career with German side Niners Chemnitz. Now Mike will share his experiences about life in Bourg and playing in the EuroCup by blogging this season right here on EuroCupBasketball.com.

Hello, EuroCup fans! This is Isiaha Mike. I'm a new player in the competition, so I want to introduce myself before anything else. I would say I'm like a Swiss Army knife. I do a little bit of everything. Right now, my numbers aren't really reflecting that I can shoot the ball, but when it starts falling, I can shoot at a really, really high clip, can defend a lot of positions, pass the ball, rebound, defend... I can really do it all out there, but I think the thing that probably really stands out the most right now is my athleticism.

"I had a lot of other options... but I really wanted to shoot my shot in the EuroCup."

This is my third season in European basketball, I played for Niners Chemnitz before I joined Bourg. When I got their offer, I did not hesitate for one second! They offered everything I wanted: a decent salary, decent situation, a really good team, a couple of guys that I have played with before, so that already gives us an advantage in terms of chemistry. We can gel faster. A nice location in France, too, it's not too cold out here and it doesn't get too cold. And obviously, playing the EuroCup. It is my first opportunity to play in international competitions, and why not let that first opportunity be in the EuroCup? I had a lot of other options in the Champions League and the Europe Cup, but I really wanted to shoot my shot in the EuroCup.

We've won our two games. Our first victory was at home against Cluj. We were up 9 points with like 2 minutes left, but Cluj returned to the game. You have to play for 40 minutes, that's every game. Every game for sure. After that game, we took a tough loss in the French League because we couldn't pull out the whole game. So if anything, we have learned that we have to put together as many consistent minutes as we can together. Sometimes it's not going to go your way. The team can go on a run, miss a few shots to go on fastbreak and get easy baskets. So we just have to try to control the game for as long as we can keep control of it. They missed a lot of free throws in the final 2 minutes, but sometimes the cookie crumbles that way!

We were in the same situation against Reyer in Venice, up 10 with 2 minutes left, and this time we kept a safe lead for good. We played great defense. In the game against Cholet in the French championship, we didn't play really good defense. We gave up a lot of offensive rebounds and that was our focus going into the game against Reyer, to really crack down on the defensive glass. That's really where we try to build our focus to become a really, really good defensive rebounding team because we are not the biggest team in the French championship or the EuroCup. So I think a lot of teams are going to try and take advantage of that. But the more we build and put together defensive games like this and control the rebounds, I think we are very skilled and very versatile offensively and defensively to surprise a lot of people.

I like having Pierre Pelos as a teammate. I love playing with 'Pepe'. I hate playing against him in practice though. The guy doesn't miss! It's so frustrating! He's very, very skilled, and a great piece on our team. He has definitely helped me out trying to get my confidence going on the court. I haven't been shooting it very well, and he sees that. He knows that I can shoot. We do a lot of shooting together. So it's a little bit odd for him to see me not taking open shots and even trying to shoot, so he helps. He tries to give me confidence when he sees me struggling a little bit. It's kind of tough for me to learn how to gel, learn my position, where I'm going to get my shots and in terms of fitting in with the team because I did miss all the pre-season. These first few games, I'm still kind of figuring out where I'm going to be most effective. Pierre definitely helped me a lot in terms of my confidence.

Last year wasn't such a great turnout for the organization. We have a new coach and a new team, so we are looking forward to a better start this year and a better finish as well. So hopefully we can keep this level of play up and make this the standard for us.