Ex-Aggie Bertsch living the dream in Europe

By Bruce Gallaudet

Enterprise correspondent

After her brilliant career at UC Davis, basketball maven Morgan Bertsch’s massive talents are no longer foreign to the fans in Europe.

The all-time leading Aggie scorer — women’s or men’s programs — is in her fourth season abroad, tearing it up as the top point-maker for first-place Mechelen Kangoeroes of Belgium.

After a stop in Moscow and two campaigns in Poland, Bertsch is averaging almost 17 points a game, 4.3 rebounds and two assists this season while finally getting to play her attack-the-basket style in this third-century Flemish enclave of 86,000.

“It’s been really great,” reports the 6-3 power forward. “I’m loving the location I have this year. In seasons past, each place had their qualities, but being in Belgium … it has opened my eyes.”

New friends

As the only American on the Mechelen roster, Bertsch has new friends, has enjoyed living within a 20-minute drive of Antwerp and Brussels and has been able to immerse herself in an environment more compatible to her California upbringing.

The Netherlands, France and Denmark are all with an easy drive. She rang in the new year in Paris with her teammates; the City of Light is only a 90-minute train trip away.

Just last week, her oldest sister Mckenna and father Vince visited Morgan’s one-bedroom apartment in Mechelen. It was the first time Vince got to see his daughter play in Europe. When the Kangoeroes traveled to Hungary for a EuroLeague game, Vince and Mckenna were off to Budapest for a little sightseeing.

The opportunities that her new gig have provided Bertsch, and her family have the ex-Aggie singing the praises of her new basketball life.

“I would argue this EuroLeague is one of the best leagues in the world,” Bertsch told The Enterprise via Zoom last week.

“There’s the WNBA, of course, but then there’s the EuroLeague. The best competition there is.

“It’s been really cool getting to play against the top talent, while traveling all over Europe to do it. Fun.”

While Bertsch maintains lofty statistics, her Mechelen crew has won only one of its first 13 games in a season that continues through March.

But EuroLeague is only half of the Kangoeroes’ task. They simultaneously participate in the upper division of the Belgium league, in which Mechelen is undefeated.

In-country conferences

How it works, Bertsch explains, is that teams throughout the continent compete in their in-country conferences, and the top 16 of those European teams advance to the EuroLeague the following year.

In Belgium, the Kangoeroes are undefeated.

So, how does basketball abroad compare to college at UC Davis?

“It’s very different. The level is much higher … and it’s a very different style than what I was playing at Davis, or the kind of competition you got in the Big West,” Bertsch says.

“European-style basketball is a lot more ball screens, a lot more dynamic kind of plays. Whereas in the U.S., in general, it’s a lot more one-on-one, you rely more on individual skills.

“At least at Davis (head Aggie coach Jennifer Gross) was really good at catering our offense to the players we had. She was so smart at getting people in the right positions to do what they did best: positions to score or be successful otherwise.

“I think that was something I took for granted while at Davis because that was how I like playing basketball, and that’s how I learned to play basketball — I grew into the player that I am while at Davis.”

But when she was a rookie at Sparta & K (Vidnoe) in Russia, coaches were making players conform to predisposed team styles.

The same was true for her seasons in Lublin and Gdynia, Poland.

“(Michelen coach) Kristof Michiels is much more dialed into players and how to put them into spots that better use their skills and make them be more successful,” adds Bertsch.

“That’s something I really appreciate. Like I said, it’s something Jen did so well at Davis with all of our players. I see it as a different version of Aggie basketball here.”

Dallas Wings

In 2019, after rearranging the UCD record books, Bertsch was drafted in the third round of the WNBA draft by the Dallas Wings. She didn’t make the cut but, since then, has been asked to attend Connecticut Sun preseason workouts and to return to a Dallas camp. Each time no contract was offered.

But Bertsch — who has averaged double-digit points wherever she’s played in Europe — still holds out hope for a call from the WNBA (and a job that sticks).

So, as an American playing professionally in Belgium, is Bertsch living the high life — or just grinding it out, especially being in two leagues?

“Any profession you’re in, there are highs and lows, goods and bads, right?” Bertsch points out.

“Sometimes it’s glamorized a lot: ‘Oh, what an amazing opportunity. You’re living overseas, you get to travel the world and you’re playing basketball …’

“I appreciate all those things — and they are the best parts of the job. But there are also things that people don’t take into account when they think about how amazing it is.”

Friends and family

Bertsch doesn’t like being away from friends and family back in the States: “I get to go home maybe once a season, maybe during Christmas, but you miss all the other holidays.”

And playing in Europe hasn’t been without its drama.

Bertsch has played on both sides of Ukraine: Moscow before the invasion and Poland afterwards. Did she see anything that made her think one way or another about the current conflict?

“I was in Gdynia, Poland, when war broke out in Ukraine. It definitely impacted Poland because it was the country that accepted the most refugees from Ukraine,” Bertsch recalls.

See BERTSCH, Page B6

“Johnny Doskow is synonymous with River Cats baseball,” said Chip Maxson, president of the River Cats. “Johnny was a gift to the Sacramento sports landscape for over two decades.

“His unique spirit was the perfect narrator to many memorable moments in River Cats history, including three Triple-A Championships, a combined no-hitter, and incredibly emotional moments like Drew Robinson’s first home run during his storied return to baseball. We are so happy for Johnny.”

Doskow, who has 30 years of Minor League Baseball broadcasting experience, will join Ken Korach and/or Vince Cotroneo for select games throughout the 2023 season.

The North Tarrytown, N.Y. native has called West Sacramento home for 22 seasons, as the voice of the River Cats, calling 12 Division titles, five Pacific Coast League Championships and three Triple-A National Championships.

Softball

Brooklyn Paratore, 15, who played in the Davis Youth Softball Association, has made the U15 Women’s National Team. Paratore attends Oak Ridge High of El Dorado Hills.