Monday, February 22, 2010

Plenty of Fun

A lot has happened since the last post. On a recent road trip we had some down time and were able to go and see the Book of Eli, which was a great movie. I was skeptical going in but really enjoyed the story and the purpose of Eli throughout the movie.

Before the movie we ate at the World famous Beacon in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Most of the guys ordered the double cheeseburger plenty. Plenty means onion rings and fries piled higher then you can imagine. A lot of the guys were saying that they could eat all of the food. Needless to say I took it as a challenged to eat all of my food, including the onion rings that I do not really like. Lucky for me when I set my mind to something I usually find a way to get it done. (Lucky for me that I have that mentality because in the next blog you will see why I will really need this)

The most important thing we have done all season and in my time at CSU was what we did on an off day while on a road trip at High Point. We visited the children’s hospital where we wanted to go see Spencer. Spencer is a kid that came to our camp this summer and was a great basketball player, but an even better kid.

Shortly after camp he was diagnosed with cancer. He has been battling that since September and going through Chemo. When he doesn’t have Chemo treatments, he has to stick himself with a needle everyday in his thigh. Spencer is such an inspiration with his faith and toughness to me. I think of him everyday now and consider myself soft for ever complaining. Spencer and his family’s Faith to know that God has a plan and a hand on this all, is truly an inspiration. I hope to stay in touch with Spencer as he continues to battle this and on his road to recovery.

On another note, at the game at High Point, the game of Pass the Rock was resurrected. It started with the ball landing on Jo’el’s lap. We haven’t played in so long he forgot, but then passed me the ball. I flipped it to Austin at the end of the bench. I knew that he had to get a touch. (He had been in earlier and failed to get an offensive touch of the ball) Austin had it and decided to take a dribble. He then flipped it to me and I sent it to Jo’el who passed it all the way up the line and made it to the coaches. At this point the ten players on the court lined up for free throws and so did the refs. The only thing missing was the ball at this point. Then after 11 passes of the rock, the ball was thrown back into play marking the greatest game of pass the Rock EVER….

SWEENEY

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Standing Room Only

To get right into the action, we were on the road at UNC Asheville in the 2nd half and were down 8 with minutes to go. To describe the situation, it was cold, we were on the road and Coach Richey wasn’t at the game. The old CSU would have crumbled in this situation, but this is the new CSU. In this game we battled back and took the lead and then eventually won in overtime.
This was the closest I have come to my time at CSU to getting a technical foul. If you’re thinking, “did he get in the game?” No, not at all. But we had a player dive on a loose ball in front of our bench and call a timeout. I rushed out to the court and bumped into an Asheville player. At that time the ref blew his whistle and made the international sign for a T. At this point my heart sank. But then I realized he was giving the Asheville player a technical, because he had been complaining about a no call.

The good news in that we had a ten game home winning streak stretching back to last year. The Bad news is that we lost to Coastal Carolina at home. But it’s still not all that bad considering we are still in the hunt for a home playoff game. Two other positives were 1. If you were at the game you would have seen the Buc Dome was out of control and was standing room only. 2. You would know that we didn’t play our best game and we still had a chance to win at the end of the game.

Finally, I take pride in our bench and being loud during the games and standing up to cheer. The past few games I have been meaning to keep a count of how many times I get up and down during a game. Unfortunately I get caught up in the game and forget to count once the game gets going. For the Coastal game I employed the help of Stan to help me count. We still forgot but he kept me on track from halftime and on. I got up and down 49 times in the 2nd half. Considering I don’t have stats on anyone else getting up and down during a game. I am proclaiming myself number one in the country in cheering chair squats.I will recap our latest road trip against Winthrop and Presbyterian in the next blog.

Sweeney