From Soccer to Basketball, from Spain to St. Louis

But what about having to leave their home country to play their sport?

This would be the case for Pablo Hernandez, a junior basketball player from Ames, Spain, who loves the game so much he was willing to leave his home country in order to play at the college level.

“The first sport that I played was soccer and my mom introduced me to basketball when I was 8. So, probably my first year I didn’t fall in love with it but after that I sure did,” said Hernandez.

While his mother didn’t play basketball, she suggested he try basketball because he was tall and because his friends on the soccer team played the game.

Typically, the taller a player is, the more likely they are to be successful at basketball. While standing at 6 feet 7 inches tall, some may feel playing basketball would be a walk in the park for Hernandez.

However, the only thing that came naturally to him as it pertains to basketball was his height.

“Well, I’m tall. So I guess that came naturally to me. My height came naturally to me but all the skills that I learned, I’ve worked on that,” said Hernandez.

Most athletes only deal with challenges such as getting stronger, more athletic and becoming more skilled.

But what about having to adjust to a different style of the sport in a different country?

“In Spain I used to play the 2 and the 3 spots. When I came to the U.S. I started playing the 4 spot, which is a position where you have to be more physical and play against bigger players. I came here, my weight was like 178 and I was playing against players whose weight was 200 or 210 pounds,” Hernandez said. “So that was a big challenge for me. I wasn’t strong enough. I wasn’t big enough to compete with them. So I had to find a way to be able to compete with them even though I was weaker or not as big as them. I got bigger and stronger so that helped me during the years. But at the beginning, my freshman year when I first came here, that was probably the biggest challenge I faced.”

It would seem that Hernandez’s weakness became a strength as testified by Matt Brock, head coach of MBU’s men’s basketball team.

“The biggest thing, probably is, physically he’s much stronger and he’s gotten a lot bigger and that’s just a testament of how hard he’s worked in the weight room and working on his body. So, that’s the biggest thing you can see,” said Brock, whose 2017-18 squad finished with a 23-8 record, 15-7 in the American Midwest Conference. “Skill-wise as well. He’s worked hard on developing his game, not only in the post but on the perimeter as well. He’s just really exploded as far as how much he’s improved from when he got here until now.”

With Hernandez having to change positions when coming to MBU, does this mean the level of competition is stronger in Spain or the U.S.?

“Two of the main differences is the U.S. basketball is more physical, there’s a lot of physical contact, probably more than European basketball,” Hernandez said. “And it’s a lot faster even though the shot clock is 30 seconds in the U.S. and 24 seconds in Europe. Most of the possessions in Europe you would use the whole shot clock, but in the U.S. if you have an open shot, you’re going to shoot it. Doesn’t matter if it’s 29 seconds on the shot clock. So, U.S. basketball is more physical and faster.”