The Maryland trip was far from Merry for CSU and myself for our first game of the year(First Glenn was not on the road and that’s my boy so thats a bad start). We came out of the gate strong and were down 12 at the half. After that it fell apart fast for us in the 2nd half, but were still a young team that’s maturing. Being on my first road trip was nice but, I happened to break one of my cardinal rules as a walk on. Don’t draw any extra attention to myself and just go about my business. Friday afternoon we were done shoot around at one and had off till pre-game meal at 4. At 2 I decided to take a nap and set my usual 6 alarms for 3 30 so I could get up and shower. When the alarms went off I turned that off and reset them for 4 50 and went back to sleep figuring an extra 20 minutes of sleep would help me cheer a bit harder on the sideline.(forget the shower it doesn’t matter how I look) The alarm that I did reset was great if pre game meal was at 5 unfortunately it was at 4 and in my sleepy haze I showed no mental toughness and entered the wrong time. When I heard the knock at my door and saw coach Powell standing there telling me that it was 4 12 I thought about every excuse possible as I struggled past that sick to my stomach feeling. You may wonder what happened to my roommate’s alarm, I have been so solid on waking him up he decided not to set one. After the meal the coach called us over and told me that I was suspended and my roommate would not be starting the game. That doesn’t meant that I would have gotten in but it works out great as my excuse. If anyone has ever sat in the seats at the Maryland bench they may have thought I was late on purpose. These quite possibly were the nicest seats I have ever sat on. Don’t ask Big Pat Shaunnessey if he liked them somehow he managed to hit the floor twice while trying to sit in them. After the game I was able to see some family, friends, and 2 older guys that I play pickup basketball with at 6 am over the summer. They had seats in first row practically on the end of our bench. It was great to have the support at the game.
My last point is some great news for all walk-ons around the country. I don’t know how many schools put their walk-ons the media guide, but I was lucky enough to be placed on the front of it with the other 2 seniors. This I feel like is a great stride for anyone who has ever sat the bench on any team. I may not play but if you have the media guide you will get to see me at least looking like I play…. There will be another blog coming soon because I have actually got into 2 games now. Its amazing but ill update on next blog that I write.
SWEENEY
Friday, November 27, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
And the season begins...
Sweeney here to inform any of you who saw the Big South Media Day please don’t believe everything that you hear. We were picked to finish 9th out of 10th but this year will be different I promise you that, if we don’t have a winning record I will never write another blog. Some of you may rejoice at this news, but either way it’s my senior year and I’m not going to be writing anymore anyway.
I’ve been thinking about things that I want to do this year with the blog, the first is November I will not be shaving. Glenn is also going to participate with me in the effort to see how thick we can grow our beards during this month. My fear is this may make ourselves a target to the MD student section, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take.( hopefully we will update with pictures but no promises) Another thought I’ve had is that I won’t be seeing many meaningful minutes during the games this year. Some may think that this is negative thinking, but I am just basing that on the minutes I am getting in scrimmages when there are only 7 guys on my team. I’m figuring when we combine the teams to have 15 players that the little bit of time I have been getting is going to dwindle. As a result I am going to have to record different stats, so in any game that I actually get in I will update with a blog that gives you my stats that may not show up in the box score. To help fill my stat line I will keep track of any time I touch the ball. (This does not include the game pass the rock if you don’t know what that is go back to the It’s Over blog on Jan 28th)Also I will be keep tracking of any screen that I set. Finally this year I will be keeping track of hockey assists, which is if I pass the ball to the guy who passes to the guy who scores I will be counting that as a HA in my score book.
Now for a word from Glenn...
Before one of our film sessions last week, coach Radebaugh went around the room and asked a few players on the team what the funniest moment in practice had been. We have been through about 15 practices and there has definitely been plenty of funny moments that make us all fall out of our seats laughing. But there are two moments that stand out the most. We here at Red Shirt Year and Beyond want to get the fans/readers involved by having our first ever poll to decide on which moment was in fact the funniest.
During one of our first practices, we were doing a 5-on-5 drill in the half court and then running in transition back on defense. K-Mart (Kelvin Martin) got a steal and was heading in for the basket when an extremely frantic coach Radebaugh appeared out of nowhere yelling, “Stop K-Mart! There’s a wet spot!” Someone had fallen under the basket the play before and their sweat hadn’t been wiped up yet so coach was trying to keep K-Mart safe. I must admit, coach Radebaugh did a great job of picking a spot on the floor, beating K-Mart to the spot, and building a wall, just like he teaches us. But it was too little too late. K-Mart neglected to listen to coach’s warning and took off right in front of coach and proceeded to dunk directly on top of coach Radebaugh and his outstretched arms, quite a sight if you ask me. In a post practice interview, K-Mart had this to say about the dunk. “Right when I got the steal at half court, I saw coach Radebaugh and decided at that moment I was going to dunk on him. I wasn’t worried about the wet spot at all… I have never seen coach get dunked on before and I wanted to be the first to do that. It relieved a lot of stress and I wouldn’t hesitate do it again if the opportunity came again.”
After a long morning practice, we found ourselves back in the gym for the evening practice during our stint of 3 two-a-days in a row. We were doing a 4-on-4 ball screen drill. Austin Johnson was on offense, wearing blue. The drill was designed for him to come off a ball screen, read his options, and then make the correct pass. After being scolded for dribbling the ball too much on the first attempt, Austin figured he’d make his reads quickly and get rid of the ball as soon as possible. It just so happened that Coach Radebaugh was wearing his all blue coach’s attire (bad decision). Austin proceeded to come off the ball screen, made his reads, and apparently none his teammates were open at the time. He then ball faked to the corner, and fired a pass to the top of the key. Where an unsuspecting recipient stood, wearing his all blue coach’s attire. To get first hand perspective of the play, we asked Mr. Johnson to take us through the scenario. “On the previous play, Coach Richey sternly suggested I get rid of the ball quicker and not dribble as much. As I was coming off the screen, my first 3 options were completely unavailable, my final opportunity to get rid of the ball was to quickly reverse the ball before the defense recovered. While looking at my first 3 options, I saw an all blue blur out of the corner of my right eye… With the thought of Richey’s instruction still in the back of my head, I swung the ball with Randy Johnson-like velocity… As I was following the flight of the ball, I soon realized it was on a path of destruction… In the way, was an unaware Radebaugh, and there was no going back.” Needless to say, Coach had a few words for Austin, and then practice went on.
Please do not be afraid to voice your opinion and be heard throughout the Red Shirt Year and beyond fan base. Yes, I do realize that the poll also has a vote counter visible to the public so everyone can see how much of a success or failure our first poll is. So if you would be so kind and vote to prevent Sweeney and I from running through the computer lab voting on every computer to get our numbers up!
Sweeney and Self
I’ve been thinking about things that I want to do this year with the blog, the first is November I will not be shaving. Glenn is also going to participate with me in the effort to see how thick we can grow our beards during this month. My fear is this may make ourselves a target to the MD student section, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take.( hopefully we will update with pictures but no promises) Another thought I’ve had is that I won’t be seeing many meaningful minutes during the games this year. Some may think that this is negative thinking, but I am just basing that on the minutes I am getting in scrimmages when there are only 7 guys on my team. I’m figuring when we combine the teams to have 15 players that the little bit of time I have been getting is going to dwindle. As a result I am going to have to record different stats, so in any game that I actually get in I will update with a blog that gives you my stats that may not show up in the box score. To help fill my stat line I will keep track of any time I touch the ball. (This does not include the game pass the rock if you don’t know what that is go back to the It’s Over blog on Jan 28th)Also I will be keep tracking of any screen that I set. Finally this year I will be keeping track of hockey assists, which is if I pass the ball to the guy who passes to the guy who scores I will be counting that as a HA in my score book.
Now for a word from Glenn...
Before one of our film sessions last week, coach Radebaugh went around the room and asked a few players on the team what the funniest moment in practice had been. We have been through about 15 practices and there has definitely been plenty of funny moments that make us all fall out of our seats laughing. But there are two moments that stand out the most. We here at Red Shirt Year and Beyond want to get the fans/readers involved by having our first ever poll to decide on which moment was in fact the funniest.
During one of our first practices, we were doing a 5-on-5 drill in the half court and then running in transition back on defense. K-Mart (Kelvin Martin) got a steal and was heading in for the basket when an extremely frantic coach Radebaugh appeared out of nowhere yelling, “Stop K-Mart! There’s a wet spot!” Someone had fallen under the basket the play before and their sweat hadn’t been wiped up yet so coach was trying to keep K-Mart safe. I must admit, coach Radebaugh did a great job of picking a spot on the floor, beating K-Mart to the spot, and building a wall, just like he teaches us. But it was too little too late. K-Mart neglected to listen to coach’s warning and took off right in front of coach and proceeded to dunk directly on top of coach Radebaugh and his outstretched arms, quite a sight if you ask me. In a post practice interview, K-Mart had this to say about the dunk. “Right when I got the steal at half court, I saw coach Radebaugh and decided at that moment I was going to dunk on him. I wasn’t worried about the wet spot at all… I have never seen coach get dunked on before and I wanted to be the first to do that. It relieved a lot of stress and I wouldn’t hesitate do it again if the opportunity came again.”
After a long morning practice, we found ourselves back in the gym for the evening practice during our stint of 3 two-a-days in a row. We were doing a 4-on-4 ball screen drill. Austin Johnson was on offense, wearing blue. The drill was designed for him to come off a ball screen, read his options, and then make the correct pass. After being scolded for dribbling the ball too much on the first attempt, Austin figured he’d make his reads quickly and get rid of the ball as soon as possible. It just so happened that Coach Radebaugh was wearing his all blue coach’s attire (bad decision). Austin proceeded to come off the ball screen, made his reads, and apparently none his teammates were open at the time. He then ball faked to the corner, and fired a pass to the top of the key. Where an unsuspecting recipient stood, wearing his all blue coach’s attire. To get first hand perspective of the play, we asked Mr. Johnson to take us through the scenario. “On the previous play, Coach Richey sternly suggested I get rid of the ball quicker and not dribble as much. As I was coming off the screen, my first 3 options were completely unavailable, my final opportunity to get rid of the ball was to quickly reverse the ball before the defense recovered. While looking at my first 3 options, I saw an all blue blur out of the corner of my right eye… With the thought of Richey’s instruction still in the back of my head, I swung the ball with Randy Johnson-like velocity… As I was following the flight of the ball, I soon realized it was on a path of destruction… In the way, was an unaware Radebaugh, and there was no going back.” Needless to say, Coach had a few words for Austin, and then practice went on.
Please do not be afraid to voice your opinion and be heard throughout the Red Shirt Year and beyond fan base. Yes, I do realize that the poll also has a vote counter visible to the public so everyone can see how much of a success or failure our first poll is. So if you would be so kind and vote to prevent Sweeney and I from running through the computer lab voting on every computer to get our numbers up!
Sweeney and Self
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Finally a New Blog
Well it took us over a month to write a new blog and well April Fool's because were still entirely to drained from the season to write a newblog. Hopefully everyone reading this was fooled, and they have a great April Fools Day.
Sweeney-Self
Sweeney-Self
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Wait Who Me
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
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 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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