Road Woes

Since the last blog I have played in two more games. The First was against Toccoa Falls. If you asked yourself “who is that?”, so did the rest of our team. Either way, I knew that I was going to get to play in the game. This was a record night for my personal stats and the CSU record book. I got my first, first half minutes of my career, and recorded a career high 5 rebounds (which helped set a team record for CSU: 70 rebounds), and scored my first collegiate points. It took me a few shots but my number was called, and I posted up inside. Faked right, went left and scored on a bank shot to break the scoreboard and hit 100 for the team.(Redeeming myself from the previous let down in my previous shot for the 100 score mark) In the other contest against Southeastern I played 3 minutes and hit a floater to go 1-1 for the game and score my second bucket of my career. This was a game that we were supposed to win and I should have received more minutes. Sometimes I think the starters deliberately play bad so they can play all of the minutes.

Now I want to talk about some of our road experiences. We have had 9 away games. Our only win came against the Citadel which really isn’t a road game. It’s just down the road and we had a decent CSU crowd. Either way, we have flown to two games and traveled in style to other games. The bus we travel on is more like a home on wheels. It’s a sleeper bus that has couches and tables that fold into 18 beds and at least a 40 inch TV (satellite tv) that we hook up the PS3 to and play FIFA, college football, and everyone’s favorite, call of duty. We have traveled up to 9 hrs for a game but when we arrive at the hotel, you can usually find 4 of us in the back trying to finish one last game even though we have played 9 hrs straight. We stay at nice hotels and eat great. (something I will address later) The problem is we keep losing on the road. We lost to G Webb in a heartbreaker the other night. We were up 13 with ten minutes and lost, that one really stung. We have this great bus with all the amenities, but we don’t get to enjoy because we are usually bummed about the loss. Before the game there was a girl that was about 6 years old and apparently she could tell that I was not an important player on the team. Every time I was headed back to the layup lines I would look up and she would be standing there giving me a thumbs down. The next time I would come back she would stick her tongue out at me. Then finally to top it off she had her hand in the shape of an L on her forehead.( I bet most of your just busted out singing that song, I know I did while writing this) I must say all of this shook me, I think mostly because of how young she was and that she could point out that I was not good. I was relieved to see that she was sitting behind the G Webb bench and not ours because that would have mentally taken a toll on me.

Now back to eating well while on the road. I admittedly eat fast, no doubt. And maybe even a bit more than most of the guys on the team (ok maybe a lot more). I’m a 22 year old guy. I’ve never seen people comment about the way a guy eats before. I take it as a compliment. Anyway, we went to Fridays and most guys ordered the 3 for 12.99 meals and when I did coach scoffed and made a comment similar to “you’re going to be 300 pounds once the season over and practice ends.” Apparently that meal would only make me gain weight, I’m not really sure. I strongly disagree because; yes I enjoy food, and think it’s one of finer things in life. But that night after dinner I went and worked out because I knew the next day was game day and they are usually equivalent to off days. I know that the way I eat I will have to continue to work out to keep my weight down. I also disagree with coach because I don’t see myself gaining 82 pounds anytime soon to be close to 300 pounds.