News in Brief 

Ukraine's Mykolayiv basketball club has recently returned from the United States. They preferred to play there rather than in the European cup tournament. The Mykolayiv team won five out of nine games it played during the 16 day tour. Overseas junkets are already traditional for the club; this tour was the fifth. A constant partner of the Mykolayiv team, the Basketball Traveler Company, which scouts for top NCAA, organized it. Ukrainian basketball players impressed Americans, who predicted they would have only three wins. According to Valentyn Berestniev, the team achieved such a result thanks to the experience it had from previous trips. He said, "We have been studying them for several years, and this time we were attuned to their game style. Though "their" game tactics are totally different from European ones and the rules also differ slightly. They value the ball more than we do. It is almost impossible to change the course of the game, if you make a few mistakes." Berestniev underlined that he was satisfied with the result and the play quality, Danylo KLIAKHIN of The Day reports from Mykolayiv.