West Virginia’s Mike Gansey talks about joining the Idaho Stampede of the NBA Developmental League, the grueling schedule of European basketball and his former teammate Kevin Pittsnogle (run time is 3:10; transcript after the jump).
Lost Lettermen: This is Jim Weber from LostLettermen.com and I’m joined by West Virginia’s Mike Gansey.
Mike, thanks for joining us, the first question I have for you is obviously people still remember you from your days as a Mountaineer, what have you been up to since then and how’re things going with the Stampede now?
Mike Gansey: Thing are going well. I’ve been overseas the last two years and this year I’m playing with the Idaho Stampede in the NBA Development League and it’s good. We won a close game last night against Utah. We’re 6-4 and everything is going well. We’re playing well and can’t really complain.
LL: How did you decide to come back to the states after playing overseas?
MG: Well last year I was in Germany and the season was ten months long and I got home around like middle of June and overseas teams wanted me back over there like the beginning of August. And ten months, that takes a lot out of your body and I just felt I’d need a little bit more rest and I thought, hey, might as well give the D-League a try and Idaho happened to draft me and here I am right now.
LL: People have obviously talked a lot about playing in Europe with guys going overseas instead of playing college ball. Could you talk about what the experience is like over there?
It sounds very grueling as you’ve described.
MG: Yeah, I mean, especially in college and even in high school, you’re practicing once a day, you’re playing maybe once or twice a day or w week. But in Europe you’re practicing five days a week, two-a-days, two hours in the morning, two hours at night. And then it’s very, very hard workouts.
It’s unlike the states where, and even in the development league, you’re practicing once a day. Over there it’s just basketball all day and that takes a lot out of your body depending on what kind of coach. If you get a tough coach or a hard coach, it’s a difficult ride.
LL: How tough is it with the language barrier, the cultural stuff, all the differences between America and Europe?
MG: When I was in Italy it was very difficult because our head coach really didn’t speak English. Our assistants barely spoke it and I had one other American on the team, so that was very difficult because I pretty much had to learn Italian on the fly. The whole practice was in Italian and even when you go to the grocery store or you go around town, at least where I was at, barely anyone spoke English.
But in Germany I had some more Americans and our coaches and everything was in English so it kind of all depends on what country you’re in and what kind of coach you have. But it can be very difficult at times and very frustrating.
LL: Yeah. Obviously people are also interested in your former teammate Kevin Pittsnogle, who’s now in the NBADL now. How often do you keep in touch with him and what’s it like seeing him in the same league?
MG: Yeah, he’s finally in Albuquerque. Last year he took a year off. He was teaching at a local high school. I’m just happy to see him playing again because he’s still fairly yo9ung and he can still shoot the ball and play. Last year he took some personal reasons to sit out last year but I’m just really happy for him to be back playing now and he’s playing well.
I’m really happy for him. I think we play them next month so I’m really looking forward to seeing him and catching up with him.
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