Hello my name is Brian Fogleman and I am a senior at Buena Vista University. Buena Vista is located in Storm Lake, Iowa. I am from a small town of Manning, Iowa which is located about an hour straight south of Storm Lake. Manning is one of those towns where if you blink while driving through you will miss it. The guys on the team from bigger cities are always on my case about coming from such a small town. They all believe that since I went to such a small high school that I probably had to take my cousin to the prom. I take it all in stride and just try to throw something back at them.
We have one game under our belt so far this season with two home games this upcoming weekend. We escaped with a win against a very athletic Stout team from Wisconsin. We played Stout last year at home and they are a much better basketball team this year. Senior guard Kyle Stribe played a very solid game. He made a long three with two seconds left to put us up three. We were feeling good about ourselves at that point, up three and the Blue Devils needing to go the length of the floor. The best thing about the game of basketball, is that it isn’t over until there are zeros on the clock. Stout threw the ball in at about our free throw line, took one dribble, and chucked up a sixty foot shot, nothing but the bottom of the net. The gym was going crazy and we were going to overtime. We were able to make some free throws throughout overtime and limit them to taking some tough shots. We escaped with a 68-61 victory.
The game was ugly from start to finish. We turned the ball over too many times and it seemed as if we were a little too fast with everything. By being too fast I mean we didn’t take our time to set up the offense, we didn’t recognize who we had on defense every trip, and we just didn’t do a very good job with the little things. It was our first game and we had about six players see their first varsity minutes in their careers. It is easy to sit here and think about all the things we didn’t do right, however it is important to remember that we got out of there with a “W” and it is exciting to see how much better we can get.
Buena Vista has had a very rich tradition in basketball. Our program is ranked amongst one of the highest in the nation as far as attendance for each game. We only have roughly a thousand students enrolled in this university, but we still manage to pack the gym every home game. Our students section is hands down the best student section in the IIAC. Mainly filled with other athletes, they understand the importance of creating a great atmosphere and with that we take full advantage of playing on our home floor.
St. Olaf and Dordt College are coming to town this weekend. There is nothing better than Friday, Saturday home games. It will be very exciting to see how much we have improved with a week of practice under our belts after last week’s game. I appreciate the opportunity to write for D3hoops.com and since I have not done something like this before I hope to improve as the year goes on.
Go Beavers!
Brian Fogleman