a general manager at a basketball club in Finland was sitting in his office when the team's coach poked his head in Tuomas doesn't understand that he has to rest," Kyöstilä said you don't have a right to practice for the next two weeks," Kyöstilä told him His coaching career started inauspiciously at Tapiolan Honka in 2014 The club was dealing with major financial problems and was relegated Iisalo took a job as an assistant for the club's under-16 team he's preparing to coach against Steph Curry in an NBA postseason game "That's pretty unbelievable," said Antti Viitanen the general manager of Honka who hired Iisalo in 2014 impressing coaches with his shooting and attention to detail on the defensive side of the floor Iisalo made plenty of appearances for the national team but he was the last player cut before the 2011 EuroBasket tournament serving as a de facto extra coach for the team "Not a lot of professional players would do that," said Hanno Möttölä who served as Finland's captain for the tournament and was the first Finnish NBA player "If you're the last guy who's dropped out of the team when the team goes to the European Championships But that just speaks volumes for who he is." The seeds of Iisalo's future career were already there He coached a youth team during one of his stints at Kouvot then served as strength and conditioning coach during his final season as a player with Honka In early 2016, Crailsheim Merlins GM Martin Romig needed a new coach The team almost certainly was headed for relegation to the second division of German basketball and had the lowest budget in the league Kyöstilä knew Iisalo wasn't afraid of walking into a difficult situation which was relegated because of financial problems who was on a plane to the German city a few days later Romig hired him with 10 games left in the season "He didn't even have an assistant coach in the beginning," Romig said The goal was to revamp the club and get it back to Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) He did that in his second full season with the club and Romig was getting pressure from sponsors to make a coaching change "To find the next puzzle piece to get into a better position or to make the team better you could go to the gym at 5 o'clock in the morning and you knew your coach was there and your assistant was there analyzing and trying to figure out how to reduce mistakes and try to find a way to get out of the situation That team recovered and ultimately avoided relegation in dramatic fashion upsetting Oldenburg in a must-win game that had to be moved 65 miles from Crailsheim because the gym was unavailable due to a previously scheduled tattoo show The survival in 2019 laid the groundwork for one of the best periods in Crailsheim Merlins history There was a first-ever win over league giant Alba Berlin then a first-ever playoff berth the next season That kind of success leads to plenty of opportunities Iisalo left in 2021 for Telekom Baskets Bonn a bigger club in the BBL but still one that typically finished in the middle of the 18-team league Iisalo had developed a reputation for his style of play It hinged mostly on speed and quick decision-making It also put the point guard at the center of everything and it needed a certain type of point guard — a speedy one For his first Bonn team, Iisalo brought in former Arizona guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright winning Bundesliga MVP as Bonn finished second and took Bayern Munich to a decisive Game 5 in the playoffs "I owe a lot of my career to him," Jackson-Cartwright said The player most closely associated with Iisalo's success in Europe is T.J. Shorts Shorts had always been up against it as a basketball player He had zero Division I offers out of high school so he went to junior college before transferring to UC Davis He had zero professional offers after that so he joined a traveling team in China that played preseason games against Chinese League teams That earned him a spot on a team in Latvia 0 to represent the number of scholarship offers he had — had the same mentality as Iisalo waiting on the steps for Bossenmeyer to unlock the doors Iisalo didn't have to work hard to sell Shorts on joining Bonn Shorts had seen what Jackson-Cartwright had done in Iisalo's system They also won the Basketball Champions League for the first time in club history When Iisalo left Bonn for Paris Basketball after that season Since the Grizzlies fired Jenkins and installed Iisalo as interim coach the biggest question has been: What's his coaching philosophy "The main thing that stood out was the speed he wanted us to play at," Shorts said "His biggest thing was he wanted us to be three seconds to the 3-point line he wanted us to push the ball to the opposite 3-point line within three seconds Just to see if we had some kind of an advantage." and that made practices critical for establishing specific habits His famous drill was called "murderball," which Jackson-Cartwright thinks of as "just three minutes of hell." most notably in soccer under Uruguay national team manager Marcelo Bielsa The rules for basketball are relatively simple and each team has to get the ball to the opposing 3-point line within three seconds the other team just grabs the ball and goes in the other direction Assistant coaches are waiting on the sidelines so if there's a steal or even a deflection and the ball goes out of bounds the other team immediately gets the ball from an assistant and starts going the other way Jackson-Cartwright saw the benefits — eventually You're not going to get it in the first month 'We do this s--- every day.' That style really fits his teams." the benefits weren't just the conditioning but also the ability to play among havoc "Murderball" tried to put players in the most chaotic situation possible and see how they'd react but then everything would seem to slow down in the actual games Iisalo wanted his teams to take the ball out of the basket on a made shot in less than a second The goal was to create habits that eventually became quick decisions in games "If those wing players don't run to the corner you're on the line," Jackson-Cartwright said You've got to occupy that space.' His ability to teach spacing Shorts remembers when someone would miss a layup during practice Then there was the time Bonn lost a road game and Iisalo told the team it was because one of the players sat in the wrong seat on the train to the game Iisalo and Shorts went to Paris with a specific goal: Get the team promoted from the EuroCup to the EuroLeague the highest level of basketball outside the NBA but that only made Iisalo a hotter commodity in coaching circles He ultimately signed on to be Jenkins' lead assistant with the Grizzlies who had come to Paris to play in the EuroLeague with Iisalo but was now going to do it without him he has been one of the best players in the EuroLeague this season and has played himself on to NBA team radars everyone who knew Iisalo and his system knew how much success he'd had with speedy point guards Because if you strip away everything the Grizzlies have all the drama and questions about roster fit and long-term viability if there was only one thing left — it would be a speedy point guard In the first few games since Iisalo became interim head coach my first thoughts were maybe that's the reason he got signed in the first place," said Vesa Vertio who coached with Iisalo in Honka and Crailsheim and is now the head coach of the Helsinki Seagulls "I definitely believe that it could be very beneficial for Ja," he said I know what he did for previous point guards and Ja Morant is on a whole other level." But he's also viewed as a legitimate candidate for the full-time job And it's probably fair to say that even if he doesn't get it he'll be an NBA head coaching candidate in the future Could he play the same style that worked so well in Europe with NBA players Will he unlock Morant and get the Grizzlies back on track but Finland's first NBA coach has every opportunity to be here for the long haul When the Grizzlies face the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday (9 p.m Iisalo will be coaching only his 11th game as an NBA head coach (including the one in November where he served as acting head coach when Jenkins was away for a family matter) "I'm sure at some point I'll look back at this at the end of the season this whole process and be very proud of it," Iisalo said last week Reach sports writer Jonah Dylan at jonah.dylan@commercialappeal.com or on X @thejonahdylan Monona Grove boys basketball player Emmett Toijala discusses various topics during five questions at Monona Grove High School MONONA — Senior Emmett Toijala is one of the leaders of the Monona Grove boys basketball team who has been on varsity since his sophomore season forms a formidable backcourt with senior Isaiah Erb for coach Dan Zweifel’s team The 6-foot-2 Toijala said he got his start playing basketball in kindergarten and first grade and has played basketball with Erb since fourth grade is a Monona Grove boys basketball varsity assistant After Monona Grove rallied from an 18-point first-half deficit against Menomonie and won 75-73 on Jan Emmett Toijala said: “It shows that we can play with some grit and come back from being down We just have to stay together and get stops — one stop at a time.” Toijala had anticipated a difficult game against Menomonie “That just shows that if you stay resilient you can beat a lot of teams.” Toijala then took time to answer five questions Mount Horeb’s Josh Manchester (3) moves to the basket against Monona Grove’s Emmett Toijala (1) in the first half of a Badger Challenge boys basketball game at Oregon High School in Oregon Monona Grove’s Joe Otto (3) blocks a shot by Mount Horeb’s Griffin Hannah (21) in the first half of a Badger Challenge boys basketball game at Oregon High School in Oregon Monona Grove’s Isaiah Erb (5) shoots against Mount Horeb’s Chris Kiel (4) in the first half of a Badger Challenge boys basketball game at Oregon High School in Oregon Mount Horeb’s Owen Aeschlimann (14) looks for a pass against Monona Grove’s Lucca Svaldi (13) and Cal Woerth (12) in the first half of a Badger Challenge boys basketball game at Oregon High School in Oregon Mount Horeb’s Nick Vorwald (10) shoots against Monona Grove’s Cal Woerth (12) in the first half of a Badger Challenge boys basketball game at Oregon High School in Oregon Mount Horeb’s Chris Kiel (4) goes for a loose ball against Monona Grove’s Lucca Svaldi (13) in the first half of a Badger Challenge boys basketball game at Oregon High School in Oregon Monona Grove’s Kaden Connor (4) drives to the basket against Mount Horeb’s Josh Manchester (3) in the first half of a Badger Challenge boys basketball game at Oregon High School in Oregon Monona Grove’s Cal Woerth (12) goes for a loose ball with teammate Joe Otto (3) and Mount Horeb’s Landon Ellestad (12) in the first half of a Badger Challenge boys basketball game at Oregon High School in Oregon Mount Horeb’s Griffin Hannah (21) drives to the basket against Monona Grove’s Isaiah Erb (5) in the first half of a Badger Challenge boys basketball game at Oregon High School in Oregon Stoughton’s Ethan Zywicki (30) drives to the basket against Waunakee’s Eli Selk (22) in the first half of a Badger Challenge boys basketball game at Oregon High School in Oregon Stoughton’s Sawyer Schipper (0) shoots against Waunakee’s Owen Elliott (5) and Kaden MacKenzie (1) in the first half of a Badger Challenge boys basketball game at Oregon High School in Oregon Waunakee’s Keaton Frisch (2) shoots against Stoughton’s Carter Sullivan (12) in the first half of a Badger Challenge boys basketball game at Oregon High School in Oregon Waunakee’s Keaton Frisch (2) shoots a three-pointer against Stoughton in the first half of a Badger Challenge boys basketball game at Oregon High School in Oregon Waunakee’s Jake Bova (4) drives to the basket against Stoughton’s LeShawn Brown (15) in the first half of a Badger Challenge boys basketball game at Oregon High School in Oregon Waunakee’s Keaton Frisch (2) dunks the ball in the first half of a Badger Challenge boys basketball game against Stoughton at Oregon High School in Oregon Stoughton’s Ty Fernholz (3) moves toward the basket against Waunakee’s Devonte Bacon (23) in the first half of a Badger Challenge boys basketball game at Oregon High School in Oregon Email notifications are only sent once a day The gritty and grimy work isn't for everyone on the ice Here are some area players thriving in that rol… multiple hot 3-point shooting performances and more highlighted last week's girls basketball action Co-operative programs are the lifeblood of high school hockey in Wisconsin with more than 60% of programs involving multiple schools Love and support from her teammates and the hockey community is what's kept the Sun Prairie East senior coming back double-doubles and clutch shots helped highlight last week's girls basketball action Here are some of the area's top individual… Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device Account processing issue - the email address may already exist Invalid password or account does not exist Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account JOUNI TOIJALA APPOINTED AS THE CEO OF REVENIO GROUP CORPORATION 1968) has been appointed as the CEO of Revenio Group Corporation and its’ subsidiaries as of September 30th the long-term CEO of Revenio and Icare Finland is committed to supporting Jouni when he takes on his role to ensure a smooth transition Jouni Toijala has been the CEO of Innokas Medical Oy a provider of health technology design and manufacturing services to leading international and domestic companies since 2016 Between 2012 and 2016 he worked as the CEO of Symbio Finland Oy a software company specializing in digital services and products he held several international management positions in France and in the UK with Nokia Group and Meridea Financial Software UK Ltd the Chairman of the Board of Revenio Group Corporation comments: ”Jouni is a respected team player who also has a strong track record of results in leading people and developing organizations a significant weight was put also on Jouni's experience in international business as well as in the health technology and software businesses He is already familiar with the requirements of healthcare technology regulations and regulatory authorities and the opportunities digitalization creates for business Jouni's experience and skills give him an excellent ability to lead Revenio together with his team into the next phase of growth On behalf of myself and the entire Board of Directors ”Revenio's business is supported by strong health industry megatrends data driven health care and machine learning are creating a whole new set of future opportunities for health technology companies health technology regulations are increasing and becoming more complex making it even more important for organizations to be able to navigate in a rapidly changing operating environment Revenio is a strong grower and well-known player in the industry I am happy and proud that I will get together with my top professional team the opportunity to develop the Group towards the next growth phase Openly and in an atmosphere of mutual trust.” www.revenio.fi Revenio, a health technology group operating in the international markets, is one of the global leaders in ophthalmic appliances.  The Revenio Group consists of Icare Finland Oy, Icare USA Inc., Revenio Italy S.R.L, CenterVue SpA, CenterVue Inc, Revenio Research Oy and Oscare Medical Oy. In 2019, Revenio Group's net sales totalled EUR 49.5 million, with its net operating profit standing at 25.5%. Revenio Group Corporation is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki. construction on a bridge between Tampere and Toijala paralysed the country's rail network Open image viewerRail chaos: Tampere station was packed with "annoyed and indignant" holiday travellers as the mercury soared to around 30 degrees on Sunday Image: Kalle Parkkinen / LehtikuvaYle News26.6.2022 16:06•Updated 27.6.2022 9:34Track work in south-central Finland that was to have been completed on Sunday afternoon was delayed triggering chaos for thousands of travellers returning from Midsummer weekend festivities State Railways VR announced that trains between Tampere and Toijala would be replaced by buses beginning at 3pm VR also halted sales of all remaining evening train departures The reason for the delay was slow renovation work on a railway bridge The work was supposed to end by 3pm on Sunday but instead was not expected to be completed until around 1am Monday said Fintraffic's Rail Traffic Centre Fintraffic later readjusted its estimated completion time to 6am and then again to 11am the delay had "massive effects" on train traffic on the main line That includes the routes between Oulu and Helsinki and between Tampere and Turku overnight trains to Lapland from Helsinki that departed on Sunday were up to 13 hours late "All trains in the evening will have to be replaced by buses (between Tampere and Toijala) There will definitely be heavy congestion there because there are a lot of passengers on those trains," said Jari Lindström traffic manager at the Rail Traffic Centre Passengers were warned to expect delays of an hour or more all passengers must be prepared for delays of up to an hour," reported Yle journalist Tero Valtanen from Tampere around 4pm Tampere railway station was filled with people as dozens of buses stood outside He described passengers as annoyed and indignant as temperatures soared to 30 degrees Celsius or more across southern Finland VR has stopped sales of tickets for afternoon and evening train services so that the ticketholders could be accommodated in buses between Toijala and Tampere train services between Tampere and Toijala were replaced by buses A Jyväskylä-bound train at Pasila station on Sunday Image: Tiina Forsberg / Yle"You can buy tickets for some departures But tickets are not being sold now for most train services," Taina Kuitunen of VR communications told Yle on Sunday afternoon the timing makes the situation particularly challenging "Due to return traffic from the Midsummer holiday it may be more difficult to find seats on buses," Kuitunen said Kuitunen said that train passengers who have already bought tickets can cancel or reschedule their trips without extra charge A new dual track was introduced between Joutseno and Imatra over the weekend not all dual track systems had yet been fully completed as of Sunday afternoon delays of about 30–90 minutes were expected for train traffic in Eastern Finland as well At around 8:30pm Fintraffic announced that the rail work was completed and that train traffic would begin again You can check the current status on VR's 'Train traffic at the moment'Opens an external website webpage Meanwhile Fintraffic's Road Traffic Centre predicted that holiday weekend return traffic on southern Finland's main roads would remain heavy until Sunday evening Your browser does not support all the necessary functions Please update your browser to its latest version to ensure the best user experience Last mile connectionsSmoother commuter traffic in PirkanmaaUse the same ticket for the train and the city’s public transportAll the way with the same ticketTravel on local transport and hop on a train with the same ticket The cooperation between VR and Nysse extends in April 2022 to include the value ticket loaded on the Nysse card Together with long-distance train services the commuter trains in the Tampere region offer a green and fast public transport alternative that helps people travel throughout the entire region How to travel with a Nysse ticketNysse's travel card season tickets value tickets that have been loaded onto the card mobile tickets (single and day tickets and season tickets for students) as well as 1.5.2023 onwards advance tickets can be used to travel on VR's commuter and long-distance trains in the Tampere region On the Tampere–Lempäälä and Tampere–Nokia routes The Nyssykkä serviceThe Nyssykkä demand-responsive transport service provides train passengers with a minibus service between the centre of Orivesi and the Orivesi railway station whenever the Nysse bus service 95A does not operate Give us feedback and enable us to build a better service together.