First, this is not the guest blog, our guest writer is talking a big game about a great blog that he will write. Just one problem, he’s not typing it. Next I want to thank G num 41 and JT agent 0 for their contributions to the team this year. I realize they, along with everyone else would have hoped for more wins, but speaking for myself, I am learning so much more about life this year then basketball. So please come out and support your seniors in their last home game at the Buc Dome Thursday night at 7:30. This is also a very sad night for Glenn and I. We are sad to see them leave, but this also marks the last night of free Zaxby’s. Whoever came up with this idea, I hope that it is renewed next year, a truly novel idea.
As I promised before, I will talk about the day in the life of an average (well in my case below average) College Basketball Player. I picked a Tuesday to describe for you. It begins with my 6 alarm clocks going off from 8 52 to 8 55 waking me up for 9 am mandatory breakfast (punishment is dished out in the form of running). Yes I said 6 alarm clocks, I have 3 alarms set on my phone, one alarm next to my bed, a boom box that wakes up the whole hallway, and finally my ipod deck that I have across the room. I keep that across the room so I have to get out of bed to turn it off.(I guess you could say that I have phobia of oversleeping and missing a workout) It’s kind of a sickening feeling laying in bed hoping that I don’t oversleep. I would hate to be the first to miss a workout or anything because I was sleeping. This hasn’t happened to anyone on the team and being a walk- on I sure don’t want to be the first to mess up. I then brush my teeth put on my shoes and out the door headed for my bike. Yes, I cruise around campus on my bike. If you hear the horn, you know it’s me. Please go to the left so I can pass you without any confusion.
So I walk into breakfast at 8 59 and get my food. I then sit there and find a way to talk about how I don’t want to lift weight’s today (this is an everyday conversation that we engage in, I think it makes us feel better to say we don’t want to do it). Weights are at 9: 45, which isn’t a bad time but you don’t know who our weightlifting coach is. I’m going to take a stroll down memory lane to my first experience with Coach Jacobi. It was August and I was late (only because I had to be cleared by the Brad the trainer). So after working camp this summer at Clemson, Wake Forest, South Carolina, University of Penn, and the Citadel all of my clothes are camp related. Not having any CSU gear as of yet, I walk in wearing a South Carolina Shirt. That was mistake number two, mistake number 1 was walking in late. Mistake 3 was reaching my hand out to shake his, apparently he thought he wanted to start out on a power trip and told me to turn my shirt inside out. Needless to say he never shook my hand, but deep down he’s a big bear, you just have to get through all of his layers. After weights it’s a quick shower and off to class. I have a class from 11:00 to 12: 20 then from 12:30 to 1:50. That brings up another serious dilemma in my life, I love food. The cafeteria opens at eleven and closes at 1: 30. When is there time to eat in that ten minute window of going from class to class? Usually on a Tuesday I will have practice at 2:30, this means all I do is after my class is walk over to the gym and start to get ready. One of my favorite parts of my day is 15 minutes before practice when we pray in Coach Radebaugh’s office and anyone on the team is welcome. We usually have a steady 3 or so and a few different guys show up. We then have film at which I sit there preparing for a team that I know I’m not going to play against. Then practice from 3:00 to 5:00. Which two hours isn’t bad at all now that were late into the year. During the two hours of practice, I just try to hold my own the best I can and try to make coach not mad at me. Then it’s another shower and off to dinner ( another great meal in the cafeteria). Then after all of my exciting activities of the day it’s off to the Library at 7:00 for Study Hall for two hours. We usually get out at 9pm then it’s off to the room for some video games. Then off to bed and do it all over the next day. But for some reason I LOVE it and wouldn’t trade being a part of a Division 1 team for anything.
Now as some have filled up my inbox asking me what the good news is that I talked about in my last blog, I finally have the answer. It was a normal day of practice I was sitting on my stool preparing to watch film on a school that I knew I would never see the floor against. Then coach started talking about me. This caught me off guard (coach doesn’t talk about me in the meeting's to much); I thought for sure that I was in trouble. I had missed Study hall (first time I’ve ever missed study hall) that day because my dad was in town and I was a little nervous about that. Coach’s line was “Sean has been great but tomorrow is his last day”. In my head I was thinking wow, I miss one thing and they’re getting rid of me, not cool at all. But to my relief Coach said that he was just kidding and he was actually putting me on scholarship for the rest of the year and they had my books for me in the locker room. First I was in shock; I then thought it was some mistake. I went from playing Division 3 to earning a Divison 1 scholarship. I probably didn’t earn this because of my ability to knock down wide open 3’s. Nor was it for my killer crossover that I still haven’t developed. Nor for my defense or lack thereof. It was the luck of injuries that have made me the number 10 player in practice and valuable to the team. So basically my ability to show up and not get injured earned me a scholarship. For all of my faithful fans, don’t worry I will be back in my traditional role of” walk on” next year. But I do want to thank coach because he didn’t have to do that, and it is truly appreciated.
My last few closing comments, we played Presbyterian college at home. I know what you’re thinking, a home conference game probably a loss. Wrong! I was there and I got to taste the sweet victory of success. Did we have some secret game plan? Did we do something that we hadn’t done all year? No, we just went out and executed and played defense and believed that we could win. After the game it was great to get to jump up and down in the locker room celebrating a victory. It was also great because I was in the blue travel suit opposed to the shirt and tie. What a great change coach made to let everyone who is hurt or not eligible to wear the blue travel suit. It helps with the confusion of me being a manager and a player. Finally I was able to see the Liberty girls game against our girls. Wow they were fun to watch, they have triplets, and there all 6’3(what in the world did they feed these girls?). Being triplets and great at basketball, they then became my target of heckling. So I tried my best with my bike horn (the ref asked me twice to put the horn away) and dry erase board to get in their head with messages. But the one sister Megan, unshakable. You’re going to see her in the WNBA, mark my words. I also showed loved to the girl at the end of the bench, the only one that didn’t get to play. Liberty was up 25 with 40 sec, I yelled at the coach to ask him how she could mess up the game at this point. He then proceeded to finally send her to the scores table when I yelled how can you sleep at night knowing you’re not playing a senior? Unfortunately by the time he sent her to the scorer’s table there was not another stoppage in play and she didn’t get it. I’m going to have to talk to guys on my team to tell them to foul so I can get in the end of games like that next year. After the game I then got the triplets autographs, and facebooked them that night of course. Only to find out that they have a blog, sponsored by the NCAA, which is big time. To check that out you can go to http://www.ncaa.com/blog/liberty_wbk/. Lastly a shout out to my international readers, my boy Tyler in Iceland playing ball( Athletes in Action trip to Mauritius together) keep doing your thing, and my cousin Chuck and his wife Sam who live in Lithuania where chuck is playing ball.
yours truly,
Sweeney
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Time-Out intervention
I want to start this post off by expressing my disappointment in myself for the lack of posts in the last week. One reason for this is the lack of time. We have a tough conference schedule and spend many hours on the practice floor. Another reason is the lack of wins our team has gotten. It’s not fun and very difficult to write after losses but I’m going to try to look past it and keep a positive attitude. Since Sweeney’s last post, we have lost 4 more games, extending our losing streak to 5 games. As of right now we are 2 games out of the conference tournament which means we’re going to need a miracle on 34th street if we’re going to continue our season past our last regular season game.
Enough of the negativity, despite our losing efforts we have had great successes on the bench the past 6 or 7 games. This of course is because of the never failing to impress, “Pass the Rock.” During our drought of posts, there has been a lot of action in the “Pass the Rock” world. I’m not quite sure if it’s because the publicity Mr. Spalding has been receiving due to the blog, or if it’s just sheer luck. But this rare opportunity is almost becoming a once a game episode. For all you readers back home, yes we have been executing to perfection. Perhaps we took it too far at UNC-Asheville when Kenny was threatened to be kicked out of the game because of his dedication to the game. Kenny solidified his spot in the “Pass the Rock” hall of fame by denying the ball to a ref that was right beside him, ordering him to hand the ball over. Kenny showed his true love for the game by ignoring the ref and sacrificing himself for the team, and gave the crowd what they had all been waiting for. The ref abruptly ended the game when he said the unthinkable, “son if you do it again, you’re going to the locker room.” I wasn’t sure how to react, I sat there in shock for about 30 seconds and was forced to shake it off as a media time out was called and I was required to get up once again, which brings me to my next point.
Unlike Sweeney, I enjoy media timeouts. It seems as if every media timeout I am pinched out of the huddle. Maybe it’s because I don’t hustle to the huddle quick enough after hi-fiving the players that have been on the court, or it could also be the fact that it really makes no difference whether I see or hear what coach Radebaugh has to say. I am not upset or holding any grudges against the people who have pinched me out of the huddle (coaches, players, trainers, and sometimes managers), I just look at it on the bright side. This gives me an opportunity to do one of two things. I can stare into the back of a teammate’s jersey and make it look like I have a view of the clipboard, or I can take a step back, and observe my surroundings. Usually the ladder is always chosen. Not because I don’t care what is being said, I just can’t hear it, I’m a terrible fake listener, and suffer from ADD. But this has given me time to observe the surroundings and take a look at what I missed during my high school career. There are a lot of funny things that can happen and some not so funny. I have witnessed everything from cheerleaders being mishandled to kids falling on their faces after spinning around on a bat for 10 seconds and trying to run down the court and make a layup. Those kinds of things always keep me coming back for more. At away games there is always the element of surprise, who knows what crazy games they play and the kind of dangerous stunts the cheerleaders take part in? And there is always the possibility of an uncoordinated fan dropping one of the t-shirts that were catapulted into the stands, therefore giving me an opportunity to make the snag and possibly receive a standing ovation from the opposing crowd. (I’m still waiting on that moment) I also find it quite funny that I more often than not find people in the huddle doing the same thing I’m doing. We’ll make quick eye contact and they feel like they have been caught and quickly look back into the huddle as if they had been doing that the whole time. I cannot disclose their names but they know who they are and we can keep that our secret.
I highly dislike making promises or commitments, but unless everyone is ignoring the blog, our next post will be another guest blog celebrating our 2000th visitor. That would be 1990 more people than we ever expected to read this. I guess we can consider this a success, but we’re just here to give our perspective and whatever comes with that, we will embrace with open arms. Our next game is against Presbyterian on Saturday as we will try to make moves to get into that sacred last spot in the conference tournament. Come out and support the team if you’re able to.
Yours Truly,
Self
Enough of the negativity, despite our losing efforts we have had great successes on the bench the past 6 or 7 games. This of course is because of the never failing to impress, “Pass the Rock.” During our drought of posts, there has been a lot of action in the “Pass the Rock” world. I’m not quite sure if it’s because the publicity Mr. Spalding has been receiving due to the blog, or if it’s just sheer luck. But this rare opportunity is almost becoming a once a game episode. For all you readers back home, yes we have been executing to perfection. Perhaps we took it too far at UNC-Asheville when Kenny was threatened to be kicked out of the game because of his dedication to the game. Kenny solidified his spot in the “Pass the Rock” hall of fame by denying the ball to a ref that was right beside him, ordering him to hand the ball over. Kenny showed his true love for the game by ignoring the ref and sacrificing himself for the team, and gave the crowd what they had all been waiting for. The ref abruptly ended the game when he said the unthinkable, “son if you do it again, you’re going to the locker room.” I wasn’t sure how to react, I sat there in shock for about 30 seconds and was forced to shake it off as a media time out was called and I was required to get up once again, which brings me to my next point.
Unlike Sweeney, I enjoy media timeouts. It seems as if every media timeout I am pinched out of the huddle. Maybe it’s because I don’t hustle to the huddle quick enough after hi-fiving the players that have been on the court, or it could also be the fact that it really makes no difference whether I see or hear what coach Radebaugh has to say. I am not upset or holding any grudges against the people who have pinched me out of the huddle (coaches, players, trainers, and sometimes managers), I just look at it on the bright side. This gives me an opportunity to do one of two things. I can stare into the back of a teammate’s jersey and make it look like I have a view of the clipboard, or I can take a step back, and observe my surroundings. Usually the ladder is always chosen. Not because I don’t care what is being said, I just can’t hear it, I’m a terrible fake listener, and suffer from ADD. But this has given me time to observe the surroundings and take a look at what I missed during my high school career. There are a lot of funny things that can happen and some not so funny. I have witnessed everything from cheerleaders being mishandled to kids falling on their faces after spinning around on a bat for 10 seconds and trying to run down the court and make a layup. Those kinds of things always keep me coming back for more. At away games there is always the element of surprise, who knows what crazy games they play and the kind of dangerous stunts the cheerleaders take part in? And there is always the possibility of an uncoordinated fan dropping one of the t-shirts that were catapulted into the stands, therefore giving me an opportunity to make the snag and possibly receive a standing ovation from the opposing crowd. (I’m still waiting on that moment) I also find it quite funny that I more often than not find people in the huddle doing the same thing I’m doing. We’ll make quick eye contact and they feel like they have been caught and quickly look back into the huddle as if they had been doing that the whole time. I cannot disclose their names but they know who they are and we can keep that our secret.
I highly dislike making promises or commitments, but unless everyone is ignoring the blog, our next post will be another guest blog celebrating our 2000th visitor. That would be 1990 more people than we ever expected to read this. I guess we can consider this a success, but we’re just here to give our perspective and whatever comes with that, we will embrace with open arms. Our next game is against Presbyterian on Saturday as we will try to make moves to get into that sacred last spot in the conference tournament. Come out and support the team if you’re able to.
Yours Truly,
Self
Friday, February 6, 2009
I'm really on the Team I promise
To recap we have had two games since our last blog. In the first we got a Conference win on the road against Coastal Carolina. I would love to say that I was able to watch a great game, but then I remembered I don’t travel, so I don’t know how the game went(Except when Glenn texted me to say that we got W). Coastal is not a far drive and I was hoping to make it, but I listened to the guys on the team who said it was on Fox Sports South (big mistake listening to them, I knew this and I did it anyway). One of those teammates was Glenn, who even mentioned the game being on fox south in the last blog. So at 9 I turned the T.V. on and sure enough it wasn’t on. The game was actually on the middle Atlantic network which I have never even heard of. So that prevented me from enjoying the win from a distance with the team. The second game was at home, we engaged in a battle with High Point University. We were winning the game late and to say it lightly we let the game slip through our hands like Bill Buckner (for all of you who don’t know who Buckner is follow the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMbJ6UhK7pE). Then after the heartbreaking loss we had to walk through the line shaking hands. This is a demoralizing feeling as you have to look at the guys on the other team knowing you should have beat them. This is also a terrible thing because I wear at tie and don’t sweat at all. But when you shake hands you are forced to get your hand all sweaty .This loss pushed our record to 0-5 in the Conference at home. For all 10 faithful fans of the blog that are realizing that I haven’t seen a conference win. This is correct because both of our wins were on the road in confrence play. Yes this is an awfully frustrating ordeal; I would love to taste the success of victory in the locker room with my teammates. This is a truly unique experience that I can’t describe men jumping around celebrating, high fiving, hugging, yelling and showering in a non homo way of course. I do have complete faith that this day will come sometime this year. FOUR HOME games left I’ll be sure to keep everyone updated on our progress.
Next I wanted to clear up for all of my loyal fans that I’m a walk on NOT a manager. I can see how some people would get confused during media timeouts (the point in the game where the players sit on the stools while there is a break in the action for T.V. or radio, mostly radio for games at CSU). This brings me to my second point of that I hate media timeouts, all 8 of them. For everyone who doesn’t know what they are after the 16, 12, 8, 4 minute mark in the first and second half there is a media timeout. This is where there is a stoppage in play and the managers bring out stools. But the managers sometimes quit or are sometime M I A (they forget to do laundry, late to practice, but if there is free food they are all there nice and early) this puts myself into action carrying stools. A reasonable person would say but isn’t there 3or 4 guys that can’t play who can take turns with the stools. Yes that would be the reasonable response but those 3or 4 guys who can’t play, all feel as if there to important to carry a stool. Kenny will tell you that “Ken is too good to carry a stool”(Yes Kenny will talk in 3rd person very often)….Billy feels since that he has already played but know has a broken hand that he doesn’t need to carry a stool….Glenn feels that he is on scholarship and sits on the bench in warm up’s so that entitles him not to carry a stool. That leaves Tracy and me, the other walk-on on the bench. This is where I actually practice and he doesn’t (because of ncaa clearing house issues) so I feel like I can pull a little rank on him. But a lot of times there is only 1 manager, that leaves Tracy and I both carrying stools. So I swallow my pride and carry the stool because if that’s what it takes for me to help the team, then I guess that’s my role. Basically I am just happy to have a seat on the bench of a Division 1 game.
Finally after all of the hate mail and death threats I would like to formally apologize in my role of dropping the ball in the game of Pass the Rock. I would also like to point out that later that night after the drop, I redeemed myself passed the ball down the bench like Steve Nash dropping dimes (Glenn failed to mention this in his blog). Also I don’t know if the fans really realize how rare it is for the ball to actually roll over to the bench. Sometimes we will go through a 4 game drought without ever sniffing the ball. This past game at home against High Point not only did the ball come to us once but twice. The first time the ball came I snagged the ball and we passed it back and forth down the bench and it was a game of pass the rock for the ages. The 2nd time the ball bounced right in to my lap. I passed the ball to Glenn who passed it to Billy who fumbled it and as I watched in slow motion the ball fall to the ground (I knew the pain of dropping the ball) and hit his size 16 shoe. It then rolled right to the referee, GAME OVER... Then faithful fans of the blog (all 2 of them) in the crowd even started booing. This then gave me the idea to play a joke on Billy. I will provide a direct link to his facebook (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile.php?id=1104690022&ref=ts ALSO DONT TELL HIM THAT THIS IS ON HERE) and everyone can send him a message to let him know that he disappointed all bench warmers and fans of Pass the Rock across the country. In the next blog I will talk about the day in the Life of a CSU basketball player and I have G-R-E-A-T news to inform everyone of. (No it’s not that I will be writing my last blog, it’s even better then that). Lastly there is another guess blog scheduled to be up sometime soon, so keep checking back to see if it's up.
Sweeney
P.S. Just to update my horse game, i havent played anyone new yet. The game will still be called H-O-R-S-E we will not sell out as the NBA has in changing HORSE to GEICO probably because GEICO gave them a fat check.NOT COOL AT ALL NBA
Next I wanted to clear up for all of my loyal fans that I’m a walk on NOT a manager. I can see how some people would get confused during media timeouts (the point in the game where the players sit on the stools while there is a break in the action for T.V. or radio, mostly radio for games at CSU). This brings me to my second point of that I hate media timeouts, all 8 of them. For everyone who doesn’t know what they are after the 16, 12, 8, 4 minute mark in the first and second half there is a media timeout. This is where there is a stoppage in play and the managers bring out stools. But the managers sometimes quit or are sometime M I A (they forget to do laundry, late to practice, but if there is free food they are all there nice and early) this puts myself into action carrying stools. A reasonable person would say but isn’t there 3or 4 guys that can’t play who can take turns with the stools. Yes that would be the reasonable response but those 3or 4 guys who can’t play, all feel as if there to important to carry a stool. Kenny will tell you that “Ken is too good to carry a stool”(Yes Kenny will talk in 3rd person very often)….Billy feels since that he has already played but know has a broken hand that he doesn’t need to carry a stool….Glenn feels that he is on scholarship and sits on the bench in warm up’s so that entitles him not to carry a stool. That leaves Tracy and me, the other walk-on on the bench. This is where I actually practice and he doesn’t (because of ncaa clearing house issues) so I feel like I can pull a little rank on him. But a lot of times there is only 1 manager, that leaves Tracy and I both carrying stools. So I swallow my pride and carry the stool because if that’s what it takes for me to help the team, then I guess that’s my role. Basically I am just happy to have a seat on the bench of a Division 1 game.
Finally after all of the hate mail and death threats I would like to formally apologize in my role of dropping the ball in the game of Pass the Rock. I would also like to point out that later that night after the drop, I redeemed myself passed the ball down the bench like Steve Nash dropping dimes (Glenn failed to mention this in his blog). Also I don’t know if the fans really realize how rare it is for the ball to actually roll over to the bench. Sometimes we will go through a 4 game drought without ever sniffing the ball. This past game at home against High Point not only did the ball come to us once but twice. The first time the ball came I snagged the ball and we passed it back and forth down the bench and it was a game of pass the rock for the ages. The 2nd time the ball bounced right in to my lap. I passed the ball to Glenn who passed it to Billy who fumbled it and as I watched in slow motion the ball fall to the ground (I knew the pain of dropping the ball) and hit his size 16 shoe. It then rolled right to the referee, GAME OVER... Then faithful fans of the blog (all 2 of them) in the crowd even started booing. This then gave me the idea to play a joke on Billy. I will provide a direct link to his facebook (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile.php?id=1104690022&ref=ts ALSO DONT TELL HIM THAT THIS IS ON HERE) and everyone can send him a message to let him know that he disappointed all bench warmers and fans of Pass the Rock across the country. In the next blog I will talk about the day in the Life of a CSU basketball player and I have G-R-E-A-T news to inform everyone of. (No it’s not that I will be writing my last blog, it’s even better then that). Lastly there is another guess blog scheduled to be up sometime soon, so keep checking back to see if it's up.
Sweeney
P.S. Just to update my horse game, i havent played anyone new yet. The game will still be called H-O-R-S-E we will not sell out as the NBA has in changing HORSE to GEICO probably because GEICO gave them a fat check.NOT COOL AT ALL NBA
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