That first European win still eludes us but, believe me, we are giving it everything and learning lessons along the way.

Look at our game in Athens. We thought we had a chance against a team struggling a bit in their domestic competition and we were five points up after 20 minutes.

Yes, we had to play well to get there but we were not playing out of our skins. I've still got pictures in my mind of us being up by four, turning the ball over and them getting the basket and the free throw to make it a one-point game instead of us being up by six or seven.

Things like that are critical and always have been in European competition.

We deserved a five-point lead at half-time and we worked hard to get it but then in two minutes it was gone.

That really disappointed me and so did the fact that we were dominated on the glass and inside.

When that happens, as a team you can do one of two things. You can just say: 'Okay, as a team we are not big enough,' or you can fight. You can block out harder, jump a little higher or outnumber them.

I also look back at that game and think: 'Wow, that team was pretty good we played against.' I thought they did what they wanted as far as getting inside, where their big men really hurt us."

But I still think our guys can play better. I thought we had an outstanding game from Yorick Williams and Jason Siemon was pretty good offensively.

I also think Randy Duck and Andy Gardiner can play at a higher level than they played on Tuesday and that Kendrick Warren, though he played at a high level, can do it for more minutes.

We missed Tom Frederick and Andrew Allleyne. Tom is a springy rebounder and Drew is a big body who can do a good job.

Dave Morgan did a good job on his debut. He wasn't getting loads of rebounds but he was alright out there. He was strong and big. He was making them take tougher shots and he is a big European type player.

I'm also giving Ionikos a lot of credit for beating us. If that is a struggling team in Greece then I am really, really impressed with the Greek League.

They have a lot of quality big men and those guys do not come cheap. I'm sure they have spent most of their budget on their big guys and they sure hurt us.

Now we go to Sheffield. It's another tough one but I'm expecting us to go there and win. I know we had problems there in the cup but our team is a hell of a lot better than then. Let's get back on that bus and get the job done.

GO BEARS!