Were Back At It Again....

Hello redshirt year and beyond fans. It seems that we have dusted off our keyboards and decided to keep the blog going for another season. I am deeply sorry for the enormous delay and lack of dedication on our part. It was a hectic summer and already a busy fall. But I realize we haven’t updated since Sweeney’s cruel April fools prank. So I’ll try to catch you all up to date.
Spring workouts consisted of waking up at 5am for 530 lifting and conditioning four days a week for 8 weeks. I feel like we could have gotten up around 8 or so and still gotten just as strong and in shape, but then again it’s not my call. Anyways, we were rewarded for this rigorous schedule by going paintballing against the coaching staff for an afternoon. Coach Powell took home the heart and hustle award when he decided to jump into a nearby pond to avoid being shot. Only to get pummeled with paintballs the second he got out.

The freshmen came in for the June session of summer school. We have added six new players this year, four of which joined the team in June. After dealing with strength and conditioning coach for a month, we were finally let go and allowed to go home until August 24th.Upon our return, Coach Radebaugh declared he would beat one of us in the mile run when we got back. That statement motivated many members of the team to stay in shape while we were home. The guards had to run a 5:35 mile, the wings a 5:45 mile, and the posts a 5:55 mile.
Sure enough, when we lined up to run our mile, Coach Radebaugh himself lined up beside me with the look of the eye of the tiger. He then gave the cadence, “ready, set, GO!” Unfortunately, that was the last time I saw Coach during the whole run. But that wasn’t the last time he saw us. K-Mart and I had the opportunity of lapping him on the final turn of the final lap, but we had more class than that. I won’t mention coach’s mile time because I’m sure he’s an avid follower of the blog and we don’t take shots at our own fans. Coach failed to beat a player that day, with hard work and a hope. (one of coach’s building blocks of the fall season)

Now a word from Sweeney…

To all the new fans I would like to say WELCOME! To the loyal fans who have stuck with us through our 6 month hiatus from blogging, I would like to sincerely apologize and say THANKS.

For a quick recap, this summer was amazing, to say the least. I lived in a 2 bedroom apartment with Austin, while Jo’el rolled a double bed in the corner of the kitchen, and Glenn occupied the living room with an air mattress. Needless to say, the electric bill way through the roof, and that’s not OK with me considering that money comes out of my pocket. Lots of video games were played and seasons of lost were watched. Probably too many, but many memories were made, far too many to recount.

Since being back to school in August, I have been traveling on the weekends. The first week I went to Gainesville to see the Bucs play in the swamp, for a recap we got our $450,000 check and went home. The next weekend I went to Wofford University and unfortunately the mighty Bucs fell again. I’ve been to Columbia twice with Jo’el and Austin, some great weekends of football.

Now back to the subject at hand, basketball. As promised last year, I told everyone that I would be back as a walk on, and I AM. The scholarship was great if you like free tuition, books, and room and board. Let’s get this straight, all that is nice but that’s just not for me. I feel like I connected with the average redshirt year and beyond fan last year as a walk on before I earned a scholarship. If you’re thinking I get to run less or go to weights whenever I feel like it, that is completely false. I still do everything I did last year as a scholarship player, and everything everyone does this year. So in conclusion with this blog, I hope to chronicle the up and downs of life, basketball and academics of a Division 1 walk on in the Big South.