and what Kat says is true. Saw her team when the state championship when she was either a sophomore or junior. Played for Brea O'Linda.

chronicle spoke with lindsey and she said hind came to her and said she had to go back home & had a flight in a few hours with no solid explanations

gottlieb thinks she has already signed a pro contract

Shocky1;842282221 said:

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chronicle spoke with lindsey and she said hind came to her and said she had to go back home & had a flight in a few hours with no solid explanations

gottlieb thinks she has already signed a pro contract

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shockster, If true this is probably worse than the guessing that has been going on. Why, mid season, sign a pro contract? Doesn't sound like the character of the athlete I embraced. Suggests a reason we may or may not be entitled to. Sorry, but when granted a schollie, I believe there is a certain obligation on the athlete's part as well, and that is not signing midseason. So I would tend to believe there is more there than this suggests, and I really do not need to know. Best would be if someone just stepped up and say something of the sort that it was an adventure that just did not work out. End of story.

Shocky1;842282221 said:

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chronicle spoke with lindsey and she said hind came to her and said she had to go back home & had a flight in a few hours with no solid explanations

gottlieb thinks she has already signed a pro contract

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Geeze. Talk about blindsiding and abandoning your team. Well, on to the next one. Big series starting tomorrow that should be Cal's focus. Judging by last week the team has moved on. A Asha Thomas commit would certainly be great:p

I too saw Hartman in high school, and before her knee injury she was one of the top posts in the country.

That said, unless her knees are all but gone, it's hard to reconcile this Hartman with the younger one. Of course, one thing that is often in play is that girls who play year-round from age 10 burn out on the game. The goal, after all, is to get a scholarship, preferably to a big-name school, and after that goal is reached, a lot of kids lose a lot of their fire.

I'm not saying this happened to Hartman because I don't think I've ever spoken to her, but consider that by far the most difficult thing to do is rehab and work on your own on strength and conditioning. There's no obvious reward, especially if the player has no desire to play after college, so pushing 100% to get back to absolutely peak condition is a very difficult task.

Again, I'm not saying Hartman falls into this category, but many players do. The system is so focused on scholarships and landing with a big-name school that player development and simple pleasure in playing and competing often get left by the wayside.

bearchamp;842277131 said:

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Hind is gone. Why?

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fortunately gameday is here.

WayneBear;842280573 said:

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... I'm NOT suggesting Hind abandoned Cal just to help her club team. But IF she had already decided (for whatever reason) that Cal was not the right situation for her, and that her future was actually in the Belgian club system, then this was a somewhat "logical" time to leave. Maybe the timing was even worked out ahead of time between Hind and Cal. (It IS interesting that she stayed for the Stanford games.) ...

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Ha, so much for my attempt to put a positive spin on at least the timing of her departure.

I did also detect a somewhat negative spin that I chose not to offer at the time. Look at [URL="http://basketball.eurobasket.com/player/Hind_Ben_Abdelkader/Belgium/BBC_Sint_Katelijne_Waver/202880?Women=1"][COLOR="Blue"]Hind's web page on Eurobasket[/COLOR][/URL]. In the 3 years prior to coming to Cal, she had played on 4 different club teams (CRF AWBB and Waregem in 2010, Belfius Namur in 2011-12, and then the SKW team to whom she returned). Now, at least one of those switches seemed to be a move up in age or competition levels. And as CoffeeBear pointed out, that may be her brother listed as a coach on her current team so maybe his moves led her to follow him. And as a rising star, it would certainly be understandable if there were multiple teams competing for her.

But seeing all those clubs made me wonder whether she might have been predisposed to viewing Cal as just another club team, albeit in a drastically different environment. I have no idea why she switched club teams in Belgium, but if it was easy to do so when the situation wasn't right and/or there was a better opportunity elsewhere, this may have been her frame of reference when coming to Cal. She may have been initially ready to give us 4 years, and considering the fact that she did well grade-wise in the fall semester, she also seemed ready to tackle the academic side of basketball at Berkeley. But if she later discovered (for whatever reason) that the situation at Cal wasn't right, then to Hind it may have simply been time to move on to the next club.

She was also used to being the big fish in a very small pond. The fact that she was being overwhelmed on defense, was shooting only 19% on threes in the PAC12, and was given only five minutes of playing time by the Cal coaches in her last game may have also played a role. When the going gets tough, some people fly home to Belgium.

annarborbear;842282455 said:

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She was also used to being the big fish in a very small pond. The fact that she was being overwhelmed on defense, was shooting only 19% on threes in the PAC12, and was given only five minutes of playing time by the Cal coaches in her last game may have also played a role. When the going gets tough, some people fly home to Belgium.

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rumor has it that hind's big bro is already shopping for their 2015 deal in holland

suitcases packed#

Shocky1;842282500 said:

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rumor has it that hind's big bro is already shopping for their 2015 deal in holland

suitcases packed#

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No diversity issues on those Holland teams from what I understand. Too many diversity issues on those Belgium club teams.

while it is mildly entertaining and somewhat enlightening to speculate, regurgitate, and otherwise over analyze HBA's departure, it is also time to move on. justified or otherwise, she chose to leave her team at a very inopportune (for Cal) time. however, as once quoted by a few of the football players (including those who supported Mik's We A.R.E. Pride event) "we all we got, we all we need". Loved the effort of all 12 of our Bears tonight. Roll On You Bears!!!
:beer:

SiniCal;842282317 said:

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Nice bumpersticker/poster/whatever, SiniCal. You do add positive energy to this site (you should pardon the NorCalism).

BearBint;842282724 said:

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Nice bumpersticker/poster/whatever, SiniCal. You do add positive energy to this site (you should pardon the NorCalism).

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actually the *most* positive energy i've brought to cybers is personally kept semi-stickied near the top of the off-topic bbbs. um, where Positive Energy is the bad kind: http://bearinsider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=74732

#norcalism's R us


bonus whatever, below, was supposed to be posted yesterday in honor of vals..