Aleksi Akpaso -back in Korisliiga
One of the first things you get when putting Aleksi Akpaso on to Google search engine, is an article with the headline (in Finnish) :Â Aleksi Akpaso – Fysiikka kuin James BondillaÂ
Nice little article about the versatility of the player, who as a kid used to play football – but when one his friends introduced him to basketball… that was the end of kicking the ball.. and instead starting to jump and drop the ball through the hoop. In the linked article, there is also a story of Aleksi popping by at the training camp for the Finnish National Volleyball team.
This season marks the return to Korisliiga for Aleksi, who has had previous experience at the top level with KTP, Kouvot, KarhuBasket and BC Nokia. And with the early season, Akpaso has been given plenty of responsibility by coach Palotie, and he has responded by almost doubling his per game points average to 7.8 point per game – with his best game coming vs BC Nokia, when he dropped 18 points.
Aleksi also has experience at the U20 level representing Finland, as well as the ‘challenger’ team to Men’s senior squad.
Getting promoted last year from the 1st Division to Korisliiga, Aleksi was one of the players who knew what to expect – but for some others it has been a steep learning curve to adjust to the pace and physicality of the Korisliiga – but with enough experience .. I can see the team doing quite well this season.
VIDEO INTERVIEW (in Finnish/Suomeksi)
Talking of every players favourite… road trips with the team, it sounds like Ura Basket has a good bunch of deep thinkers in their roster. As Aleksi says that depending on the trip, guys might be in their own little world.. or sometimes the guys just talk about life, and the more senior players share some ‘life wisdoms’ .. (I really should have asked him to elaborate on this 🙂 ).
On the court,  Ura Basket (promoted to Korisliiga for this season) have started the season nicely. With a record of 2/5 – the team is heading into a NBA-style week, with the Korisliiga computer allocating them 3 games in FIVE days. And few injuries plaguing the team, the guys will need plenty of recovery between the games. The stint starts today with a home game vs Kobrat from Lapua, continues on Tuesday with the Pyrinto “100 squad” and ends on Thursday with Seagulls. Luckily all these are home games for Ura, so the guys get to rest at home. And maybe this will give Aleksi a good chance to cook some of his favourite Nigerian dishes to enjoy.. although as he points out, they do take some time to prepare, so he likes to make a bigger batch at once. So let’s hope Aleksi had a cookery day on Saturday, and made enough to last until Friday. Otherwise, there is alway the ‘restaurant’ starting with an H outside Kupittaa Arena 😉
So – if you are in the Turku/Kaarina area – you could always join Ura Basket on their hectic week.. with a new addition coming to the team for Tuesday (hopefully).. it should exciting!
