Haanpaa OK with decision to turn pro1/8/09
By Mark Lazerus
Post-Tribune sports editor
Somewhere in the south of France early?Sunday morning, a lone computer flickered with images from a dark and distant gym thousands of miles away.
Despite the tinny sound, the occasionally pixelated video, and the fact that he was watching it hours after the game had ended, the man watching might as well have been there --?in Valparaiso's Athletics-Recreation Center, in his No. 13 uniform, in the heat of the moment.
"I was living in the game, it was like being on the floor," Samuel Haanpaa says via e-mail. "You think you could be one of those guys playing out there. Still, that is one of the rare moments I?have put a thought on the issue."
That makes one. Back across the ocean, Valparaiso fans, players and coaches still invoke Haanpaa's name wistfully -- and regularly.
It'd be different if Sam were here.
Of all the losses Valparaiso suffered over the offseason, perhaps Haanpaa's has been the most palpable. Transfer Bryan Bouchie's size has been missed, but Urule Igbavboa is still there in the paint. Injured Brandon?McPherson's all-around skill has been missed, but Erik?Buggs and Logan Jones have been able to effectively man the point.
But Haanpaa? The sharpshooter with the knack for hitting big shots from nearly anywhere inside the halfcourt line? Nobody's been able to fill that role.
And the Crusaders miss him.
"Oh, sure, there's no question," says VU?coach Homer Drew. "If Sam's here, if Brandon's healthy, if Bryan's here --?we have a very good basketball team. All three can score, and we struggle scoring. We really don't have anyone who can shoot the way Sam could."
Indeed, it's been a tumultuous transition for Valparaiso -- but it's been nothing compared with what Haanpaa's dealt with in his first year as a professional.
Months after signing a three-year deal with Capo d'Orlando in Italy's premier league, the Serie A, and after playing in just three games in five weeks, Haanpaa's team folded due to financial problems.?A tax payment wasn't made, and the team was tossed from the league, and, after a few half-hearted appeals, ownership gave up.
Suddenly, Haanpaa found himself without a team for the first time since, well, since he was a toddler. So he went back to his home in Finland for a few weeks and waited for his chance.
That chance came in?France. After being invited to a tryout, Haanpaa was signed by Fos Ouest in Fos sur Mer in the south of France. It's a significant step down from the highly respected Serie A. In fact, Haanpaa's new league, National 1, is just the third-highest level of competition in France. He has only played four games in five weeks with Fos Ouest so far, chalking it up to the older, more experienced competition and the fact that he entered an unfamiliar team and an unfamiliar system at midseason.
Haanpaa's contract allows him until the end of January to find another team, but for now, he's content working on his game and living the life of a professional athlete while waiting to move up in the pro ranks.
"It was not the easiest start for a professional career, but it has been mostly what I?expected it to be," he says. "I'm able to focus on basketball at its fullest. There are no late-night studies for the next day's exams, and in the mornings the classroom has changed to a gym and a lifting room. … We practice here twice a day --?usually two hours in the evenings and an hour or two in the mornings. I?get a lot more out of this system than working out in one long period in the evening as in college. I?believe I?have been able to practice here smarter and more effectively, even if the total minutes might be the same as at VU."
Haanpaa admits he misses the atmosphere of American college basketball -- though he did make an unlikely connection after a recent game, when a 2008 VU graduate traveling abroad went to a random basketball game and was stunned to see a familiar face on the court. The two had never met, but talked for a while after the game.
"Especially after playing at a basketball school like VU, it is difficult to find the same kind of atmosphere here," Haanpaa says. "I never had a chance to thank the fans in Valpo, but they did an amazing job. It was always fun to play home games, knowing the sixth man is not a myth."
In both Italy and France, soccer is far more popular than basketball, so his sport is constantly struggling for media coverage and fans. Still, in Italy, Haanpaa described the fans as "aggressive and fanatic."
France has been markedly different.
"My Italian team played in a higher level, so everything was on a bigger scale," he says. "Players were followed even in their private lives and people noticed you everywhere you went. Things are well in France, but everything is less professional than in Italy.?For example, there have been times I've lacked either hot water or an Internet connection."
Nice as a hot shower is after a practice, the latter might be worse, given the fact that he's a Finnish native and an American collegian living in France. Haanpaa regularly talks online with his former teammates, particularly Benjamin Fumey, with whom he was supposed to room this season. He keeps tabs on all his old teams, from?Finland to Valparaiso, and checks the local papers online after each VU game.
He's especially excited that conference play has begun, so he can watch all the games on the Horizon League Network.
So he's been watching?VU basketball, he's been reading VU basketball, and he's been talking VU basketball. He knows the deal.
So the obvious question is, would things have been different for the Crusaders this season had Haanpaa stayed?
"It would be good to be able to help the team, but I?believe one player cannot make such a huge difference. At the end, it is still a team sport."
Regardless, VU's deficiencies and Haanpaa's difficulties have not caused him to second-guess his decision to turn pro after just two years. Even when a VU?guard bricks a 3-pointer, even when there's no hot water in whatever remote corner of France he finds himself in, Haanpaa knows he made the right call.
"I believe the time was right for me to make that decision," he says. "There is really no room for regrets. Even though the team folded, I?have been able to get better as a basketball player and that is what matters at this point in my career."
www.post-trib.com/sports/1367625,haanpaa.article