On the Road: Danville, KY

Well, every March, many of us at D3hoops.com hit the road (and sometimes the air) to bring you as many games from as many places during the NCAA Tournaments as possible.

Tonight, I am sitting in a hotel on the outskirts of Morgantown, WV, having already traveled a little over three hours from Baltimore. Tomorrow, I will spend another six or so hours on the road as I make my way to Danville, KY and Centre College.

I am truly looking forward to seeing this “pod” of games at Centre. I haven’t seen any of these teams/schools during a basketball season and I will admit I kind of “volunteered” to Pat that I would make the trip (not realizing at the time it would take more than 9 hours to drive).

I am certainly familiar with most of the teams. Ohio Wesleyan was actually a school I was very seriously considering for my collegiate education (along with Wooster and Roanoke; how I got to Goucher is another, very different story). I still remember the passion many students had for the Battling Bishops, and I am sure they will be well represented this weekend. Though, in my preperation for these games, I noticed the Bishops don’t seem to do as well away from the home gym. I will interested to see if they are ready for the game Friday night against Heidelberg.

Heidelberg may have won their first OAC title, this season, but we have been talking about the team for most of the season on Hoopsville. The team has quietly been playing what seems to be very good basketball in the Great Lakes. I am looking forward to seeing if this team is for real!

Franklin ruined Defiance’s hopes of playing post-season basketball with an 11-point come-from-behind victory in the HCAC title game. Outside of that, Franklin hasn’t been a team many have been talking about. Most of the talk in the HCAC has been about Defiance – who ended up stumbling to finish the season losing two or their final three.

And Centre has certainly had the most interesting trip of the season. Losing the opener to Rust (which finding a score for normally is very difficult) and then not losing again until the SCAC title game against Millsaps. Along the way, Centre has struggled to not get down in games and has had to use late runs to win games. Millsaps should know, they had a huge lead earlier this season at Centre, only to see it disappear and lose the game in OT. Then, Millsaps has another huge lead in the SCAC title game, only to see Centre make another late run – luckily for Millsaps, the clock ran out before the lead did!

So… what in the world should I expect? I’m not going to expect anything. I can’t wait to just sit down and see what will probably be three great games of basketball. If you are in Danville this weekend, make sure you say hi! If not, enjoy the broadcasts and the blog!

7 thoughts on “On the Road: Danville, KY

  1. Drive safe. I have a much shorter trip, to Gettysburg, but I get to take my 10-year-old daughter with me so I’m pretty excited. She actually even wanted to go.

    One of the few things I can do to make life easier on my wife in March!

  2. Yeah, I have seen your daughter!

    And when she is 14, she will want to go with Dad to all of those neat colleges to receive the fawning attention of those college guys!

    LOL! Been there! Done that! LOL!

    Signed,
    Grandpa

  3. Sorry about that…that attempt at humor did not come off as I had hoped.

    Not implying something would happen at 14, but at least in our family, it all got started in college.

    (I just don’t like the inflexibility of the blog over the message boards for the sake of editing!)

  4. That’s OK, I’ll survive. 🙂

    Poor kid looks just like me, especially now that I weigh in at 180 instead of 234.

  5. Sorry for the delay today… but I am here!

    The weather is something to be desired. 4-10 inches of snow are expected by tonight and I drove through a driving rain storm and then snow from Morgantown to Danville today.

    However, the teams and fans are here. I am even seeing fans from Centre and Franklin here to watch the first game between Heidelberg and Ohio Wesleyan.

    Will post more through out… but enjoy the broadcast!

  6. I hope you enjoy Centre and Danville! I graduated from there in 2003 and loved my time there. What do you think of the athletic center? It left something to be desired while I was there, but the college has made some amazing upgrades to the athletic facilities in the past few years. It should be a fun atmosphere. We hosted a 1st round NCAA women’s tournament game against Thomas More in 2001 and the atmosphere was awesome (especially when Centre won on a last secone tip-in). I am sure Coach Mason will have his guys ready to go tonight…

    Have fun!

  7. I love the facility. Very impressed indeed. The students don’t know how good that place is! The gym is great and the workout facilities for everyone else are very impressive.

    Coach Mason did have his guys ready to go tonight… but it’s tomorrow night’s game against OWU that they need to worry about. The Battling Bishops had a heck of a game against Heidelberg and will match up very well.

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