Unfortunately I was unable to make the UAA trip this past weekend. The good news is my roommate Tyler Nading did and is making a guest entry for my blog this week. Congrats to Ty who became the 17th member of the 1,000 point club at Wash U in yesterday’s game at Emory.

Greetings from the Atlanta airport!

On the back end of a long four-day road trip, the Washington University men’s and women’s teams just want to get home! But the weather has another plan and our delay here should keep us out of St. Louis until well after midnight, which will make it really tough to wake up for 11:00 class tomorrow morning.

Sure, traveling is great, and it’s fun (and sometimes a relief) to get away from campus life for a weekend, but road weekends in the UAA can take a toll on a team. My weekend started out Thursday night taking a test in coach’s room in Cleveland (Case Western Reserve) with two other guys after trying to study all day on the plane and bus. We missed a full two days of class to travel, and at WU it isn’t easy to be MIA so often and still make the grades. Our guys usually spend a considerable amount of time studying on the road and can be seen weighed down with class books walking through the airport. It really isn’t just all basketball in the UAA, although the success of the conference may lead you to believe otherwise.

But don’t get me wrong, we still do have our fair share of fun running through the streets of New York (NYU), Boston (Brandeis), and Chicago (U of C). When we travel to these schools, we stay right in the heart of the cities and are able to walk around downtown, find a place to eat, and putz around for a while before curfew. For a lot of our guys it is their first time visiting these cities so flying over the skyline of New York can get pretty exciting.

This weekend was a good weekend for WU as we stole three out of four games between our two teams (two for the men and a tough loss for our girls today at Emory keeping us away from a clean sweep). I say “stole” because it really is tough to go onto another team’s court and walk away with a victory. On Friday night, we faced a fired up Case Western Reserve team in the first game of their annual “throwback weekend,” where they donned their old maroon Western jerseys and we played in the retired field house gym.

Case was in control for most all of the game, including a nine-point halftime lead behind strong guard play and outside shooting from Steve Young and Colin Mullholland. We stayed within striking distance though and got some miraculous play down the stretch from Troy Ruths (if you didn’t already know his last name you should spend more time on D3hoops), including 4-4 FT and a crucial steal with the game on the line, in order to escape with the win.

7:30 a.m. wake-up call to join our girls on the bus to Akron and 10:00 flight to Atlanta was tough on Saturday morning as most of us were still sore from the previous night. Coach Tim Whittle and freshman Spencer Gay didn’t mind though as it gave them a chance to show us around their hometown and spend time with family after 4:00 practice. Later, a bunch of us gathered in the hotel lobby to watch the slam dunk contest and other all-star weekend festivities. There is always some down time for us, so it’s no wonder how close our team gets by the end of the season. Lights were out by 11:30 to try to get some rest before our Sunday morning showdown with Emory. (I feel like I need to mention here how amazing the beds at the Marriott are. In all seriousness, sleeping becomes something to look forward to, especially after so much travel and basketball.)

Sunday morning proved to be just as tough as we thought it would be as the lead seemed to change several times in the first half. It’s always difficult to wake up and get energized for these Sunday games as they are so early and there are usually few, if any, fans in the crowd. This was the case today until a bunch of rowdy, shirtless Emory students stormed in midway through the first half with WASHUSUCKS! scribbled across their chests, which proved to be pretty entertaining. They proceeded to heckle us with information that they had found out about us from Facebook; “Ser-en-dip-ity” while I was shooting FTs, “Ross likes Fergie” while our PG Ross Kelley was bringing the ball up, and “Han-nah In-gram”, Cam Smith’s girlfriend’s name, while he had the ball. Both teams fed off this intensity and fought hard through regulation and into overtime. When all was said and done, we had pulled away after a key three-pointer by Aaron Thompson and some FTs down the stretch. After the game, I think we all just wanted to collapse in the locker room. Two games in 40 hours with a lot of travel in the middle had taken just about everything out of us. After a quick 15-minute dip in the cold ice bath, we hustled out to root our girls on in the second game of the double-header.

One thing that I wanted to make sure and talk about is the relationship that we develop with our women’s team. On all of these trips we share planes and buses, stay in the same hotels, eat at the same places, and are the other team’s only form of support in some gyms. It’s a nice opportunity to get to know these girls and share our experiences on the road in the UAA.

So next time you’re wondering how or why something wacky happens in the UAA, especially on Sunday afternoons, just remember that it is a long weekend for both teams and games can often come down to a simple test of mental toughness. Congrats to all of the teams in the UAA thus far and good luck. We’re rooting for you!

Take care,
Tyler

Thanks, Tyler. And I can’t tell you all how pumped I am to have first-row seats for Friday night’s heavy-weight fight for the D3 Championship BeltTM. –Sean Wallis