Sham Wow Shirt - 12/16/08

DENVER – Superstitions in sports have always fascinated me. In my 10-plus years of working with athletes and coaches in college and professional sports, I have found that 90 percent of them are superstitious and the other 10 percent aren’t admitting it.  I was once told by one professional athlete here in Denver that his prominent teammate was so superstitious that he thought it would mess up his mojo if he admitted his superstitions. Most of the time, it’s something as simple as not shaving during the playoffs or always dribbling twice before a free throw. Or perhaps it’s a coach who does not watch his players shoot free throws. When it comes down to it, though, most people in sports are at least a little superstitious.

I bring this up because of a shirt.

Denver radio voice Mitch Hyder owns a camel-colored shirt that he describes as “about five years old and borderline out of style.” Hyder also has expressed a desire to burn the shirt so that he won’t have to wear it again. The problem? The Pioneers are 11-2 on days when Hyder sports the khaki top. It started Dec. 8 last season when, feeling about as adventurous as he gets, Mitch decided to break out a shirt that he had not worn very often. That night, Denver beat Northern Colorado 69-53, and the shirt was 1-0. You probably know what came next. The Pioneers won the next seven home games, and Mitch could be spotted at each and every one of them donning the camel hair creation. The shirt was 8-0, and we all wondered why Hyder never packed the thing for a road trip. When the home season ended last year with a pair of losses to Middle Tennessee and New Orleans, we thought the shirt might have run out of magic. The shirt was 8-2 heading into the offseason, and Hyder claimed he was going to donate it to Goodwill over the summer.

Hyder claims that he wasn’t the one believing in the shirt, but for some reason after DU lost to Northern Colorado in the first home game this season, Hyder did indeed take the shirt to Montana. You are probably way ahead of me on this one. Yes, he wore it when the Pioneers defeated Texas-Arlington, a very good team that was picked to win the Southland Conference this season after making the NCAA Tournament last year. When Denver returned to Magness Arena to face South Dakota State, Hyder was spotted along press row with the camel shirt, which as I mentioned before stands at 11-2.

In case you’re wondering, Mitch is wearing the shirt right now in preparation for tonight’s game against Florida Atlantic.

Yearly travel totals:                          

Total Flights – 10

Total Mileage Flown – 6,593

Total Bus Miles – 969

Total Number of Hotels – 6

Total Number of Different Airports – 6

Total Number of Airline Delays – 1

Total Number of Cancelled Flights – 1

Total Number of Bags Lost – 1

Cal State Northridge - 12/9/08

NORTHRIDGE, Calif. – The trip to LAX was as exciting as ever. Shortly before heading to the airport, the team’s flight was canceled, forcing John Fitzgerald, DU’s director of basketball operations, to scramble and try to rebook 20 seats on the next scheduled flight. When dealing with road trips, guys like Fitzgerald are often the unsung heroes. Anyone who has been stuck rescheduling a flight for himself knows what a pain it can be. These guys have to deal with 20 people. On top of that, he’s in charge of making sure the bus is at the airport when we arrive and, perhaps most important, how the team is going to eat dinner. After arriving at the hotel, the players dropped off their bags and then went straight to the hotel restaurant, where sandwiches and fruit salad were waiting for them. The thing about Fitzgerald’s job is that his work is generally only recognized when something goes wrong. Fortunately for all of us, Fitzgerald makes sure everything runs so smoothly that we often don’t even know there might have been a problem.

The drive from the airport to the hotel was only about 30 miles, but it took about an hour to get there. That got me thinking about the many comments we get about the places we travel, especially within the Sun Belt Conference. To put it in perspective, Denton, Texas, (North Texas) is less than 45 minutes from the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. Murfreesboro, Tenn., (Middle Tennessee) is about 30 minutes from Nashville, which is also within about an hour of Bowling Green, Ky. (Western Kentucky). In other words, the majority of the places we travel are within a short bus trip of a major airport, although there of course are a few exceptions.

As we were driving around the campus on the way to the gym, it appeared there may be more land devoted to parking lots than campus buildings here at Cal State Northridge. There are 36,208 students enrolled, and I was told that all of them commute. The high enrollment number is not reflected in the size of the Matadome, which holds 1,500 people. Needless to say, it’s a cozy atmosphere. It’s 1:30 p.m., and the team is at shoot around, a little later than usual. Generally teams shoot around in the morning so that there is plenty of time to recover before the game. However, the facilities have to be shared with other sports, like men and women’s volleyball which also play at the Matadome, so the teams take what they can get. Finally, when you’re talking about a school this big in a place like California, it’s hard not to mention the famous alumni of the school. This one has quite a few: Phil Hartman, Paula Abdul, Richard Dreyfuss, Eva Mendez and Bob Eubanks, just to name a few. No report if any of them are heading to the Matadome to watch the game.

Yearly travel totals:                          

Total Flights – 9

Total Mileage Flown – 5,731

Total Bus Miles – 903

Total Number of Hotels – 6

Total Number of Different Airports – 6

Total Number of Airline Delays – 1

Total Number of Bags Lost – 0

Total Number of Ice Cream Drops on Mitch Hyder’s Pants – 1 (Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Therapy)

Montana - 12/5/08

MISSOULA, Mont., Wednesday – I got a good question this morning: how does a basketball team fit its legs under the seats of small planes, like the one we flew this morning from Denver to Missoula? The best answer involves a shoehorn and Crisco oil. The real answer is never comfortably, especially the taller players, who sometimes look like accordions when they’re crammed into the planes. On most flights, the airline representatives are kind enough avoid sticking the players in middle seats, but on the smaller planes, none of the seats really work. To make things even less comfortable, the players generally can’t recline their seats without smashing the knees of teammates sitting behind them.

The Missoula airport is an interesting place. It’s got a hunting lodge feel to it, complete with stuffed bears, elk and mountain lions, including one that’s in the process of hunting down a mountain goat. Overall, the trip was uneventful, which is what we want. We got in about 1 p.m. today, checked into the hotel and then headed straight over to the arena to practice. Surprisingly, it’s actually nine degrees warmer in Missoula right now than it is in Denver. It’s a crisp 34 degrees with clear blue skies. This is the first time most of us have traveled up here for a game, although Denver did play here in 2003, so trainer Pat Hoxsey and radio voice Mitch Hyder are repeat visitors. With the giant grizzly bear logo in the center, Montana’s court is one of the better looking ones we’ve seen.

Thursday – It’s game day against Montana tonight, and we have learned that Andrew Hooper has a problem with his left Achilles that will keep him out of both games here in Missoula. As a result, it looks like Justin Coughlin will get his first action in an NCAA Division I game. According to Coughlin, the moment he walks onto the court, he will become the first D-I basketball player from the town of Yuma, Colo., in 60 years. While most of us made it in yesterday, radio voice Mitch Hyder had to fly in this morning after calling the DU women’s game at Colorado State last night. Congratulations to Erik Johnson, his staff and his team for a great win. Hyder wasn’t alone on the flight. In fact, in addition to the entire Texas-Arlington contingent, the parents of Rob Lewis were on the flight.

Friday – Last night’s loss was tough. The loss of Hooper certainly hurt us in the second half, although Montana played really well after the break. Coughlin ended up starting the game and looked good. The kid is certainly thin, but he had been doing very well in practice, and his good instincts showed up during the game. Fellow freshman Travis Hallam also got 21 minutes of action, four times his previous high, and drilled a pair of three-pointers as time expired on the shot clock. Brian Stafford, who has started every game as a freshman, seems to be growing up fast on the court. He had a pair of steals last night and looked more comfortable shooting. There is no question that these young players are going to continue to make freshmen mistakes, but like the rest of the team they are getting better every day. Obviously, nobody is happy with the record, but the team’s steady improvement shows great signs as Coach Scott and his staff build the program for long-term success.

We’ve got a tough opponent tonight in the Mavericks. They are picked to win the Southland Conference, ahead of Lamar, which beat us earlier in the season. They played four neutral site games last year and won three of them. The one they lost? It was in the NCAA Tournament against Memphis, which fell in overtime to Kansas in the national championship game. UTA is picked to win the SLC title this season. To top it off, the Mavericks have been off since last Saturday and were allowed to watch our game against Montana last night, two big advantages for them. However, as the Pioneers run through this morning’s shoot around, the players look focused and ready for tonight’s game. And, while UTA was 3-1 in neutral site games last season, DU has not lost on a neutral site since the 2005-06 season. Nobody is giving up home. Everybody knows that this is a winnable game.

Yearly travel totals:                          

Total Flights – 7

Total Mileage Flown – 4,190

Total Bus Miles – 798

Total Number of Hotels – 5                                     

Total Number of Different Airports – 5

Total Number of Airline Delays – 0

Total Number of Bags Lost – 0

Total Number of Airports Filled with Taxidermy – 1 (Missoula)

Wyoming - 11/29/08

LARAMIE, Wyo. – It’s 9:30 a.m., just over six hours away from tipoff, and the Pioneers just rolled into Arena Auditorium for an early shoot around. As always, the team began the practice session with dribbling drills, cutting and spinning, while running from baseline to baseline. After that, it’s on to center court, where the guys stand in five lines and pass the ball in a star-like formation.

We loaded the bus yesterday afternoon at 4:30, just after practice. About halfway through the ride, the rain started falling, and by the time we hit the Wyoming border the snow was coming down. The highway was pretty slick, based on the handful of accidents we passed, which added about an hour to a trip that’s normally just over two hours. We woke up today to an inch or two remaining on the ground, not too bad, but the sky is gray. Someone mentioned this morning that after such a nice, long autumn winter may be just a little harder to adapt to this year.

The gray outside is visible through small windows at the top of Arena Auditorium – or the Double A or the Dome of Doom, both of which I have heard references to this morning – and the cloudy skies blend in with the dark brown and Dijon mustard colored seats, separated into seven stripes going up to the top of the arena. The town of Laramie has been built up quite a bit in the two years since the team has played here, including a new hotel overlooking the football stadium and arena.

There have been a few questions about what the team did on Thanksgiving. With just two days between games, the team needed to prepare for the Cowboys, but the players started in the morning and were done with plenty of time to eat turkey and mashed potatoes. On a team with nine players from Colorado, most of the players could spend the afternoon and evening with their families. Likewise, the parents of freshmen Brian Stafford and Tyler Thalken traveled to Denver for a long weekend, so they spent the holiday with his family, as well. The other guys from out-of-state either had relatives in town or found a teammate’s family to adopt them for the day.

One of the best parts of playing regional games is that right after the game, the team will jump back on the bus and head back to Denver. Last week after the Lamar game was pretty typical of most of our trips. We checked out of our hotel in Beaumont before heading to the arena, and after the game we jumped on a bus to Houston, where we checked into another hotel near the airport. The next morning, we woke up, grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed to the airport to fly back home. Needless to say, the players and coaches would rather go home after the games and sleep in their own beds. We are all pleased that we will head home tonight, weather permitting. According to John Fitzgerald, DU’s director of basketball operations, Princeton played a game at Wyoming, when he was working for Joe Scott’s staff there. They flew into Denver and took a bus to Laramie, but I-80 was closed on their way up, and they were forced to spend the night in a budget motel in Cheyenne before continuing to the game the following day.

Hopefully it stays fairly clear today, especially since Denver fans will be hitting the road in a few hours to provide support at the game this afternoon. A group of fans and cheerleaders are loading up a few packed busses around noon today. As I said in the last blog, it’s always nice to see some friendly faces in enemy territory. It should be even nicer to see bus-loads this afternoon.

Finally, if you did not make the trip to Wyoming, you can still watch it on The Mountain. Former DU color analyst Mike Evans, who called action on Pioneer radio broadcasts for six years, will be handling play-by-play (a late change for Tim Neverett, who was originally scheduled). Working as color analyst for the broadcast will be Larry Mangino, who spent seven years as an assistant at Air Force, including four under head coach Joe Scott.

Yearly travel totals:

Total Flights – 6

Total Mileage Flown – 3,511

Total Bus Miles – 602

Total Number of Hotels – 4

Total Number of Different Airports – 4

Total Number of Airline Delays – 0

Total Number of Bags Lost – 0

Total Number of Waffles in the Shape of a State – 1 (Texas)

Lamar - 11/22/08

BEAUMONT, Texas – We are sitting in the Montagne Center on the campus of Lamar University with roughly 83 minutes and 12 seconds before the start of Denver’s second game of the season. The team arrived in Houston yesterday at about 3 p.m. and bussed east through heavy traffic for about two hours before reaching Beaumont, about 10 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. A dinner at a popular chain restaurant concluded a fairly, and thankfully, uneventful day of travel.

Beaumont and the surrounding communities are still recovering from Hurricane Ike last summer. Blue tarps are all too common, and the majority of fast food restaurants around town still are missing their signs. The Montagne Center itself looks pretty good at first glance, but if you looks closely the southeast corner of the building has clear signs of restoration. The ceiling tiles are a bit whiter than the rest of the arena, and the wall above the upper seats is painted an off-white that does not quite blend in with the rest of the walls. The concourse on the east side of the building was just opened to the public again for the first time tonight, following repairs to duct work and pipes. We were told that similar damage was done to the southwest corner of the building occurred three years ago with Hurricane Rita. After seeing the damage last week caused by flooding in Cedar Rapids from over the summer, this team has probably seen enough devastation for the year.

Life on the road for the players is pretty routine. Wake up late, eat breakfast as a team, wait around for a while, go to shoot around at the arena, wait around for a while, eat pregame meal as a team, wait around a while, head back to the arena for the game. It was the usual today. The team was willing to eat in the regular breakfast area of the hotel, but there are only 28 seats, so taking up 21 of them with the team, coaches and travel party did not seem like the best thing to do. Instead, the players ate scrambled eggs, bacon, potatoes, bagels, fruit and juices. The pregame meal, as most teams would recognize, consisted of pasta with red sauce, chicken, steamed vegetables, salad and bread.

One of the nice surprises during road trips is seeing friendly faces who have made the trip. The parents of Brian Stafford, Travis Hallam and Rob Lewis all made the trip to Northern Iowa, as did former DU ticket office/noonball legend Matt Evans. Tonight, the family of assistant coach A.J. Kuhle have already found their seats, while Hallam’s family is reportedly coming in from Mesquite, Texas. Also making the trip tonight were DU financial guru Dan Vanackeren and Darren Duplechin, who some also might call a noonball legend.

Random Question: Why would the Lamar band in Beaumont, Texas, play “Georgia on My Mind” before the game?

European Update: Joe Jackson put up an eye-popping 37 points, five boards and a pair of blocks in a game on Nov. 16. His team is now 3-3, heading into a two-week break.

Yearly travel totals:

Total Flights – 5

Total Mileage Flown – 2,635

Total Bus Miles – 321

Total Number of Hotels – 2

Total Number of Airports – 4

Total Number of Airline Delays – 0

Total Number of Bags Lost – 0

Northern Iowa - 11/14/08

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa - We are officially 24 hours away from the start of the 2008-09 season, and the team has arrived to a gray, rainy day in Northern Iowa. It’s the kind of day that those of us who have spent a lot of time in the Midwest expect from November to March.

Late yesterday afternoon, the Pioneers departed from DIA, flew through Minneapolis and arrived to the airport in Waterloo, Iowa, just outside of Cedar Falls. When you make enough trips to college towns, you grow accustomed to regional airports in towns you might not expect the airlines to fly to. This one had two gates and a single baggage claim carousel. In case there was a question whether we were in farm country, the airport had a display case devoted entirely to John Deere.

This is not just the first trip of the year but the first college basketball road trip for the majority of the players. Already, though, they seem to be falling into the comfortable routine on the road, and the camaraderie after only a month of practice seems especially good. All of the players and coaches assembled for a late breakfast in the hotel. In classic Midwestern fashion, the hotel offered scrambled eggs, biscuits and gravy, and a variety of cereals, most of which were likely produced in nearby Cedar Rapids at the General Mills plant. Former player and soon-to-be radio color analyst David Kummer grew up in Cedar Rapids and said he always knew what day it was because he could smell what kind of cereal they were making.

Speaking of Kummer, for the first time since 2003, he is not listed on Denver’s roster. The first thing he’s doing as a former player? He’s planning to drive from Denver to Iowa to watch the Pioneers play. During home games, Kummer will be helping out Mitch Hyder on radio broadcasts.

Right now, the team is practicing in the McLeod Center, a 6,750-seat arena that still has a sparkling newness to it as it enters its third season. It’s connected to the UNI-Dome, which holds UNI football games and used to host basketball games. McLeod offers a much more intimate college basketball experience, and we expect a good crowd tomorrow, as UNI unveils four banners commemorating the Panthers’ NCAA Division I Tournament appearances prior to the game.

After practice, the team will return to the hotel in downtown Waterloo, overlooking the Cedar River. Sandwiches in the hotel and dinner this evening are pretty much the only things on the schedule, allowing the players to rest up for tomorrow’s early game. As Coach Scott said during media day on Tuesday, the fact that DU has practiced every morning at 7 a.m. for the past month should help the team’s preparation for such an early tip.

European Update: In a previous blog, I mentioned a few former DU players who are playing abroad, but I left out Terrence Gordon, who played for the Pioneers from 2004-06. Judging from video proof, Gordon seems to be dominating in Sweden.

Yearly travel totals:

Total Flights – 2

Total Mileage Flown – 863

Total Hotels – 1

Former Players Overseas - 10/24/08

DENVER – The most frequently asked question I got during the offseason was about former DU guard Joe Jackson and why he is not listed on the roster.  For those still wondering, here is the answer.

Joe was a redshirt junior last season, which means he was a senior in school but had one remaining year of eligibility. However, after receiving his business degree from DU in June, Joe decided to pursue his dream of playing professional basketball. I am happy to report that he seems to have found a great opportunity with BC Jyväsklä in Finland. In the preseason, Jackson scored 29 points against a team in Sweden, and a few days later he had 28 points, seven rebounds, three assists and a block in a game. Pretty good, especially considering that was done in his first four days in Finland. In his first regular season game, Jackson put up 23 points and five rebounds.

Speaking of the pros, Adam Tanner returned home to play. Sort of. The Melbourne native and former DU center is playing in the Australian National Basketball League, but he’s playing across the Tasman Sea for the New Zealand Breakers in Auckland. His playing time has been somewhat limited due to a calf injury, but he reports that he is adjusting to the pro game with help from the veteran players.

After ending last season in the NBA Developmental League with the Austin Aeros, Yemi Nicholson is back in Europe playing for Eisbaeren Bremerhaven in Germany, where he is providing a defensive presence and put up 11 points in a game a few days ago.

First Practice - 10/17/08

DENVER – Tonight at 5 p.m., the 2008-09 basketball season officially started, when the University of Denver Pioneers took the court for their first practice of the season. Second-year head coach Joe Scott opened the session talking to the team, followed by full court layup drills. The players were split into two groups with coaches A.J. Kuhle and Jon Jordan taking one end of the court, and Mike McKee taking the other, while Coach Scott split his time between both ends. Unlike many teams in the country, Coach Scott and his staff rarely have the team do anything without the ball. In other words, the team practices drills by running plays, both offensively and defensively.

With the DU hockey team taking on Wisconsin in Magness Arena and the volleyball team playing in Hamilton Gymnasium, the team had a mini-road trip from the start, even if it was just a few blocks from campus at Denver Christian High School. (Based on the seven state championship banners hanging in the gym, the Crusaders have had a pretty good run over the past few decades.) For a team that is going to find itself on the road for six of the first seven games, perhaps the unusual surroundings could help them prepare for the random gyms in Iowa, Texas, Wyoming and Montana. The gym was not all that unique for one DU player, though. Sophomore Kyle Lewis played high school basketball at Kent Denver, the main rival for Denver Christian, and the two teams split eight games at the venue.

With the youngest team in the nation, I wasn’t sure what to expect with this team early, but it appears that the returning players worked hard with the freshmen over the summer, and the team seems to be better off than last year’s team was a month into the season. And there’s no question that these guys can shoot. Of course, Rob Lewis dunking as I typed that didn’t hurt the team’s shooting percentage tonight. Without the new college three-point line, the players were forced to estimate their shooting range, but a good majority of the shots were pure, straight through the net.

Junior Nate Rohnert, Rob Lewis and Kyle Lewis appear to have taken the initial steps toward leadership, despite their relatively young age. Of course, those three did get quite a bit of experience last year. All three played in every game and were averaging around 30 minutes per game as the season concluded. Sophomore walk-on Nigel Peter-Denman also got time in 17 games and drilled 10-of-16 shots from three-point range. Andrew Hooper got experience practicing with the Pioneers last year as a redshirt, even if he has still not seen his first minute in a college game. After a year with this system, those five look poised to teach the younger players, and those younger players look eager to learn. That may seem like I’m getting ahead of myself – it is the first practice after all – but there is an excitement with this program, because the foundation was set last season and the building process is underway.

Considering the Pioneers could play only seven players at the end of last season after the loss of David Kummer to a broken leg, it is nice seeing four guys standing on the sideline as two groups of five face each other as they go through plays. As usual, practice ended with full court, fast break drills. The players look a little tired after the practice, but it’s the good kind of tired that you only get after a solid workout. They better rebound quickly. Tomorrow’s practice is at 8 a.m.

SBC Media Days - 10/15/08

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Denver men’s basketball head coach Joe Scott and women’s basketball head coach Erik Johnson headed down to the Sun Belt Conference Media Days on Monday and Tuesdays. Consistent with tradition in the SBC, the preseason meeting between coaches and the media was held at the site of this year’s postseason conference tournament, Summit Arena in Hot Springs, which will host the event for the next three years.

The trip started early Monday morning with a 6:05 a.m. flight out of Denver, through Houston and arriving in Little Rock just after noon. After a 60-minute drive through the changing foliage of central Arkansas, we arrived at the hotel. I have had several people ask why the tournament is being held in Hot Springs, a neutral site, instead of a campus site as they have done in years past. We quickly realized that it seems to be the ideal location with a relatively new arena that’s a short walk to a quaint downtown area, and the local residents we encountered were welcoming and friendly.

The coaches jumped right into action on Monday afternoon, filming interviews for the DVD that the conference puts out, a radio interview with Jay Walker that was broadcast live in Lafayette, La.; and a variety of newspaper interviews. The SBC also offered live webcasting on sunbeltsports.org, which was hosted by the Voice of the Pioneers, Mitch Hyder, and filmed by DU video guru Joseph Moreno.

There is a lot of excitement in the Belt this season after sending both South Alabama and Western Kentucky to the NCAA Tournament last year. And the shot by Ty Rogers to win WKU’s First Round game was highly deserving of the Tournament Changing Performance and ESPY awards that it garnered. The conference has added some successful new coaches like Florida Atlantic’s Mike Jarvis, who carried George Washington and St. John’s to the NCAA Tournament, and Arkansas State’s John Brady, who is just three years removed from guiding Louisiana State to the Final Four.

As one of the new coaches in the league, Coach Johnson spoke at a dinner held Monday night, exuding the same excitement that he’s had in the office every day since his arrival at Magness Arena in May. It should also be noted that Johnson is the youngest women’s coach in the Belt. When he gave the talk on Monday night, he was 36. Of course he woke up this morning and was 37. Yes, happy birthday, Coach.

Prior to more interviews and a luncheon on Tuesday, we discovered some nice running trails that run from the downtown area up to an observation tower at the top of a nearby hill. We also found the spring water tap in the middle of town, where people from throughout the area head to fill up water bottles. Apparently the spring water is excellent for making coffee. The town also has what appears to be a fairly large bath house right in the middle of town.

After another couple flights to Houston and finally back home to Denver, Coach Scott and Coach Johnson look forward to the prospect of returning to Hot Springs for the Sun Belt Conference Championships in March. For now, the preseason is winding down. Practice officially can begin on Friday at 5 p.m. for both the men and women, as mandated by the NCAA. And the next time we get on a plane with Coach Scott, we will be heading to Northern Iowa to start the season. It’s only a month away.

Schedule Highlights - 9/5/08

Welcome to the University of Denver men’s basketball as-yet-to-be-named blog. We are hoping the blogs provide DU fans with an inside look as the Denver basketball team grows into the perennial contender that all of us are looking for. If you have suggestions on a name for this blog, or if you ever have any questions about the Pioneers, please direct them my way at michael.kennedy@du.edu. Now for the second installment:

We got the schedule out last week, and I am really looking forward to a great season. Denver’s roster is young. Incredibly young may be a better way to put it. The Pioneers are the youngest team in the Sun Belt Conference and among the youngest in the nation. When the ball is tipped for the first game of the season at Northern Iowa on Nov. 15, the average age of Denver’s 13 players is going to be 18.9 years old. Not a single player on this team was alive when Indiana’s Keith Smart hit his buzzer beater against Syracuse to give Bob Knight his final national championship in 1987. However, this year’s schedule is ideal for a young team that has to grow up quickly. Six of DU’s first seven games are on the road, which should toughen up the players for a stretch of five-straight games at Magness Arena in December, as well as conference play.  Here are some highlights from the first half of the 2008-09 Denver men’s basketball home schedule.

Without a doubt, I’m most excited about the home Sun Belt Conference schedule, and two games in particular. Both Western Kentucky and South Alabama are making their way to Magness Arena this season, so mark your calendars for Jan. 24 (WKU) and Jan. 29 (USA). Western Kentucky was 29-7 and won the SBC title last year, while South Alabama went 26-7 and earned an at-large bid to the Big Dance. During last year’s NCAA Tournament, the Jaguars fell in the first round to a very good Butler team. The Hilltoppers shocked everyone outside of our conference by beating Drake and San Diego before getting edged by Final Four-bound UCLA in the Sweet 16. I say everyone outside our conference, because we got to see just how good Western Kentucky was last season. Of course, that did not stop us from jumping out of our seats when Ty Rogers hit the three-pointer as time expired in the first round game to sneak past Drake. It was the best shot I’ve seen in the Tournament in the past several years, even if it was upstaged by Kansas guard Mario Chalmers in the NCAA title game.

Other games to note on this year’s home schedule include the always popular regional games. The Pioneers host Northern Colorado in the season’s first game at Magness Arena on Nov. 26, a great way to kick off the Thanksgiving weekend. Colorado State makes the trip down I-25 on Dec. 20 for a Saturday night matchup. Like DU, both of those schools hired talented head coaches in the past couple of years, and they could be in great shape to turn their programs into winners. UNC lured Tad Boyle back to his hometown of Greeley in 2006 after he served as an assistant at Oregon, Tennessee, Jacksonville State and Wichita State. He helped turn around the Gamecocks and Shockers, including a Sweet 16 appearance in 2006. Tim Miles went to CSU after stints at Mayville State, Southwest Minnesota State and North Dakota State. Underestimate Miles if you’d like. I suspect Marquette and Wisconsin did when they scheduled the Bison in 2006-07. Miles and his team, an independent program, traveled to Wisconsin and beat the No. 8 Golden Eagles and No. 13 Badgers on their home courts. Those were just two wins during Miles’ 20-8 season. Don’t let last year’s struggles fool you. Those teams are getting better, and I think people around this state are going to start noticing some great college basketball all along the Front Range.

Circle that South Dakota State game (Dec. 13) on your calendar. When the Pioneers went to Brookings last season, DU led by two with 90 seconds remaining. The Jackrabbits hit a three with 1:13 to play, and let’s just say SDSU hit 5-of-6 free throws in the final minute to win by four. I’m pretty sure that game left a pretty bitter taste in the mouths of everyone wearing Crimson and Gold that night.

Three days later (Dec. 16), the Pioneers get a home rematch with Florida Atlantic in the SBC opener. The teams met last year in Boca Raton, but the Republican Presidential debates were on Florida Atlantic’s campus, so the game was pushed a few miles away to Lynn University. The good guys fell 70-68 in overtime of one of the most exciting games of the year. Anyone who heard Mitch Hyder, the radio voice of the Pioneers, that night might have an idea of how much fun that game was to watch. I have not heard whether the maintenance crew at Lynn has fixed the hole in the wall, created when Hyder’s chair flew out from under him at the sight of Denver nailing a game-tying three-pointer at the buzzer. The Owls have only been in the Sun Belt for two years, but in their two games against DU the average winning margin has been 3.5 with the home team taking each game.

News and Notes:

 Fans are going to notice a slightly new look on the court this season. The NCAA has extended the men’s three-point line to 20 feet, 9 inches. The line had been a foot closer at 19 feet, 9 inches for 20 years, since the NCAA introduced the three-pointer in 1986-87. That line will remain on the court for the women’s games.