Day 1 postseason
On selection Sunday my teammates and I joined a lot of our fan base at Wild Wings in downtown Asheville as ESPN revealed the NIT brackets. We all ate wings and talked about basketball the majority of the time. Our athletic director said some nice things about our team and Coach B followed. It was revealed that we would have to travel to Columbus to play Ohio State who was the number 1 overall seed in the tournament. This was not to our surprise because we knew that the NCAA didn't want to risk the chance of us having a home game (which is played at the higher seeds homecourt) because of our small venue. Everybody was excited and it all happened pretty quick because we had to get on a plane the next day at noon. This was my first flight since I have been on the UNCA basketball team. Crazy right??? It was a good one though. We chartered a flight on the same plane the Boston Celtics and the Charlotte Bobcats just got done using. That pretty much explaiins how nice it was.
As for the game, we came out like we hadn't played in a week and a half. Thats because we hadn't. KJ and I turned the ball over on some miscommunications with teammates and it was very uncharacteristic for the two of us. I also had a backcourt call that was definitely the wrong call and the ref admitted to me that he messed up. Thats not usual!! However, we gave up almost 60% from the field and had 14 turnovers in the first half. Its tough to win a game playing like that. Ohio State is a pretty good team but they are very beatable. Hats off to them for winning the game. On the positive side of things after the initial turnovers we played pretty well. Reid Augst seemed to be in the right spot on the offensive end time and time again- 20pts result. I am looking forward to watching him grow next year. However, I do want to vent a little bit about this game though. I think the Big South tournament is waaayyyy to early and it puts our teams at a huge disadvantage. We hadn't played in nearly 2 weeks and Ohio state just got done with their tourney a couple days before our game. Many times broadcasters and newspaper writers say that this gives a team time to recover and rest before a game. I totally disagree and I think if you have played college basketball you disagree too. It is nearly impossible to have that much time off and not be rusty. I just watched Winthrop play a good part of the first half and then "rustiness" or even tired legs affected them. Not tired from a recent game, but tired from the absence of a game!! Congrats to them though they played hard and have once again represented the Big South well. But, we did lose and as hard as it is, its time to move on.
The flight back from Ohio was not so nice. It was a commercial flight with minimal room and a lot of turbulence. My knees were hurting so I can only imagine what Kenny George was feeling!! He was a good sport about it all though- as usual. When we got back I immediately went to the weight room and lifted. I have to give my feet a rest because the beating they took this season so I decided to focus in the weight room right away. It is also important for me to stick to good nutrition now that it is the off season and I can begin rebuilding my body.
