On the road with the team to Texas

Courtesy of Don Weast

Here I am at the fantastic canyon just outside of Canyon, Texas.

The following is a day-to-day diary of sorts that was written while on the road with the Emporia State women’s basketball team to Canyon, Texas for the NCAA tournament.

Wed. March 12- We gassed up the car and hopped on the interstate. I know it’s going to be a rather long drive since we’re leaving at 2 p.m. and don’t expect to get in until after 10 p.m. Well I guess we’ll see what happens. The traveling crew for the road is Don (Weast), Jesse (Newell), and me in the back. Although the bus was nice…it had a plethora of televisions, leather seats, and apparently a kitchen, I’ll take a Ford Taurus over that any day.

So we made it to Oklahoma City and decided to break for some food. We found a Buffalo Wild Wings which was delicious. There were at least 50 televisions in the restaurant, but as Jesse said, there was nothing on. I felt like I had severe A.D.D. the entire time because I couldn’t concentrate because of the sheer volume of moving pictures heading my way. Incredible.

So there happens to be a lot of red dirt around here. Jesse seems to think this is some sort of phenomenon, but I told him it’s just how the Earth is made. I have seen two enormous, and I mean enormous, crosses just randomly beside the interstate. I feel I have entered “The Bible Belt”.

So we’ve made it to Amarillo and to the hotel. The team was about 20 minutes behind us. After finding a room and then trading it, I have since found a place to relax.

Thursday March 13- Apparently breakfast stops at 10 a.m., which I obviously missed as I chose to sleep in because I didn’t know what else to do with five pillows on a single bed. And by single, I mean queen sized. Luckily there are countless restaurants and shops within walking distance. The team had practice this afternoon so we all went to THE First United Bank Center in Canyon. It’s a nice arena, recently built and extremely bright. After figuring out how use the camera in a way that I get actual usable pictures, I got some work done. The team practiced for about an hour before SBU was scheduled to come in so practice was short. Don gave me game notes and a media guide. Each is about 80 pages long, so that should keep me busy for a while. I decided to try and watch “Walker, Texas Ranger” to see if it was any better since I was in fact watching it in Texas. To be honest, it wasn’t.

First round game for ESU is to tip off at 6 p.m. tomorrow. I’d imagine we’ll get there a lot earlier than that so we can watch some of the earlier action.

Friday March 14- Game Day.

10:57 a.m. We all got up for a nice breakfast this morning. The team was scheduled for a shoot-around in Canyon at 10ish, but Coach Schneider found a place in Amarillo for the team to have a practice which can last longer. After the shoot-around there will be some down time before ESU has to go to Canyon for the game, but we might head out early to watch some of the other MIAA teams play its games. So for the time being, I’ll check out the game notes one more time to scout out this matchup with SBU.

1:53 p.m. We’re getting all settled in at the arena for the day. The first game of the day it at halftime and it’s a rather close game between St. Mary’s and University of Central Oklahoma. Washburn plays in the second game of the day against San Angelo, so I’ll probably watch most of that to see how another MIAA team is represented in the tourney.

3:09 p.m. Well, St. Mary’s and UCO stayed tied and scoreless for about three minutes and then each team exploded in the last 45 seconds to hit big three after big three. Despite the efforts, game one went to O.T. After a five minute overtime period that was as close as the last few minutes of regulation, UCO came out on top. The last game of session one of day one is getting ready to tip off in about 20 minutes and then ESU is the game after that.

6:47 p.m. It’s half time of the ESU vs. SBU game. ESU is up by only four.

8:06 p.m. ESU started the second half with a 13-0 run with the first eight points of the half coming from Ida. ESU wins 82-66 and will advance to play either West Texas A&M or Northwest MO.

12:29 a.m. I just got done going through my pictures and eating Taco Bell. We didn’t get back from the arena until almost midnight. The WTAMU and NWMSU game went to overtime. WT hit a short jumper to take a two point lead with 2 seconds left in overtime. NWMSU then promptly threw the ball to about half court as Brue bobbled it then turned around and sank the half court short right before the buzzer went off. It was crazy. The officials reviewed the play and determined that she got it off in time and NWMSU won the game by one point. The crowd, which was huge and made it a total March Madness atmosphere, was completely deflated. There will be two games tomorrow with three MIAA teams playing in them. Not bad.

Saturday March 15, 2008-

10:40 a.m. The team will have a shoot-around at the First United Bank Center today around noon. I won’t be going since all practices are closed now and media is not allowed in. The announcer for the games at the First United Bank Center said the name of the arena probably 350 times last night over the course of four games. I may keep a tally tonight have how many times he says it during the WU game. We’ll be leaving for the arena around 5:30 to watch the WU and UCO game which starts at 6. ESU has the second game of the night.

4:39 p.m. After taking a brief nap and finally finding the KU game on ESPN360, I’m getting ready to head out to the First United Bank Center for the night. I discovered that the KU game was blacked out here since they were playing Texas A&M. I would have been okay with that, but the local channel that it’s on is not one of mine in my hotel room. Well, the games should be pretty exciting tonight, and I do expect there to be a good crowd. Probably not as big as last night, but I think ESU and NWMSU should each have a sizeable section.

6:45 p.m. The official tally states that the announcer said “The First United Bank Center” 17 times in the first half. Perhaps he has a quota he needs to meet about the sponsor or maybe he just really wants to give everyone a friendly reminder of where they are. That would be The First United Bank Center in Canyon, Texas in case anyone forgot.

7:54 p.m. I counted eight more in the second half so that brings us to an unofficial grand total of 25 “The First United Bank Centers” in the first game. We’ll see if we can improve that mark and break 50 tonight. It should be interesting. WU won against UCO which puts them in the championship game which will be played on Monday night. With WU in the Regional Championship and NWMSU and ESU playing in the other semifinal game, an MIAA team is guaranteed to make it into the Elite Eight.

9:10 p.m. ESU is down by five at the half to NWMSU. There’s actually a fair amount of West Texas fans that came to the game. I think I’m a little off in my first half tally, but I counted about eight “The First United Bank Centers”. We’ll see how many we can get in the second half.

10:07 p.m. The game stayed back and forth for most of the second half, but then ESU took over and was able to put together a run. Final score was 83-71, so ESU will play WU in the Regional Championship game on Monday night. I tried to keep track of how many times the announcer said his “The First United Bank Center”, but I lost track, I’m sure it was somewhere around 20 or so.

Sunday March 16, 2008

9:50 a.m. We have today off so we get to utilize the time and see as much of Amarillo, Texas we can. The problem is that we don’t know where anything is at. There’s a quarter horse museum, but I don’t think that we’ll check that out. Rumor has it that there’s a huge canyon in Canyon. That sounds very promising. I heard a guy at the arena last night say that the canyon in Canyon is “the second biggest hole in the ground in North America”. I am there.

4:33 p.m. Well the weather seems to have taken a bit of a turn toward nastiness. It was pretty foggy earlier and it’s quite chilly. I’m not sure if the trip to the canyon in Canyon will be happening today, but I’m still keeping my fingers crossed. The team just got back from practice today as we all have started to prepare for tomorrow’s game.

8:29 p.m. So the weather didn’t really clear up, but we did just get back from some awesome dinner at “The Big Texan” which is the home of the 72 ounce steak. The 72 ounce steak is free if you can eat it in an hour. The thing is that it is about the size of an entire roast. If you’re brave enough to take up the challenge they put you at this big table that everyone can see while a huge clock is counting down the hour. If you don’t finish the steak, you’ve just picked up a $72 dinner. I felt that I was finally in true Texas once I stepped foot into the restaurant. There were spurs, cowboy hats, bolo ties, and “y’alls” as far as the eye could see.

Monday March 17, 2008

2:12 p.m. Man, what a day we just had. We totally utilized the time and scenic parts that are west Texas. Don and I drove out to the Palo Duro Canyon State Park. It is the “Grand Canyon of Texas”. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice it was. We took the scenic road around the canyon which actually went down into it. When we were down at the bottom it really looked like the landscape of Arizona and all the mountains. To top it all off we went back to the hotel, picked up Greg and Jesse and got some lunch at Whataburger. It was my first Whataburger experience.

5:53 p.m. We just arrived at the arena for the game tonight. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. tonight so we’ve got about an hour before things really get rolling. For now I’m just settling into the work room, getting my notes ready, hanging out, and getting mentally prepared for game time.

7:46 p.m. It’s halftime of the ESU WU game and WU is up by eight.

8:57 p.m. Game just finished up. WU pulled away and won 73-58. ESU finishes 23-8 on the year. Stueve broke ESU’s all-time scoring record with her first points tonight and finished up her career with 2,403 points and 1,040 rebounds. Not bad.