BROOKINGS, S.D. - It feels a little strange. This is the first road trip of the year, and
we're about to turn the calendar to December. To put that in perspective, Denver
played just three of nine games at home in November during Joe Scott's first two seasons. The Pioneers have already played
four this year.
The team is currently at
shoot around at Frost Arena on the campus of South Dakota State University. Yesterday
was a nice, uneventful travel day. The team practiced in Hamilton Gymnasium in
the morning before loading on the bus for the airport and an easy flight to
Sioux Falls, S.D. The bus ride to Brookings was only an hour.
Apparently it's hunting
season. Or at least a big, orange sign welcomed hunters as we walked through
the airport, and another sign waited in the lobby of the hotel (pictured with Andrew Hooper). For the record,
the hotel is nice. The last time the team stayed here, we walked into a
beautiful, new lobby that was still sparkling. Then we went through a glass
door that led to our rooms. And 1952. That door was like a portal into an
earlier time, complete with shag carpet and cracking walls. This hotel is
considerably better.
Frost Arena is also a nice
venue, and it might have the nicest scoreboards in college sports. Daktronics,
which makes a good number of the scoreboards around the country, was founded
here in Brookings in 1968 by a South Dakota State alum. The scoreboard has
large video screens on four sides, which are easily visible from every seat.
There are also two wide video screens hanging above each basket and another one
for ads in front of press row.
The Pioneers are playing
here for the third time in the past five years. The first two were
action-packed, but Denver came out on the losing end both times in heartbreaking
fashion. In 2005, the Jacks hit a three-pointer that was determined to be
before the buzzer to tie the game, and South Dakota State won 81-78 in
overtime. DU led by two with 90 seconds remaining two years ago, but Garrett
Callahan (Preseason All-Summit League First Team member this year) nailed a
three-pointer, and the Jackrabbits sealed the game on free throws in the final
minute.
As for South Dakota State,
they have one of the best mascots in sports, at least from a Monty Python and
the Holy Grail-sort of way. Their logo really makes a Jackrabbit look fierce,
especially hanging in the rafters next to Oral Roberts' Foghorn Leghorn
lookalike. The school itself may not have a ton of notable alumni, but it did
produce Tom Daschle, former Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate, and four-time
Super Bowl champion Adam Vinatieri.
Numbers Game:
I have been getting a lot of questions about freshman Chase Hallam and his uniform number. Chase is listed in the media
guide, on the website and almost everywhere else as No. 32. However, he wore
No. 35 for the first four games at home this season. Let's just call it a
wardrobe malfunction. Another jersey has been ordered, and Chase will be
wearing a No. 32 home jersey soon. There are no problems with the road jersey,
so tonight should mark the first game that Chase wears No. 32.
Badlands, You've Gotta Live It Every Day: Radio man Mitch
Hyder has turned into a bit of an ironman in the northern states this week,
as he calls both the men's and women's basketball teams. He called the women on
Tuesday night in Missoula, Mont., returned to Denver to call the men's game on
Wednesday, traveled with us to Brookings, S.D., for tonight's contest, and he
heads to Fargo to call the women against tomorrow before returning back to
Denver. Allegedly, Hyder tried to find a game to call in Idaho but couldn't.
Yearly travel totals:
Total Flights - 1
Total Mileage Flown
- 483
Total Bus Miles -
94
Total Number of Hotels - 1
Total Number of
Different Airports - 2
Total Number of
Airline Delays - 0
Total Number of
Cancelled Flights - 0
Total Number of Bags
Lost This Year - 0
Total Number of "Welcome
Hunters" Signs - 2
DENVER - The
2009-10 basketball season is in full swing, although this weekend brings a slow
workload hoops-wise, as the players concentrate on final exams. Since DU is on
the quarter system, the school's holiday break begins as early as today for
some students and no later than Monday, depending on the schedule of their
finals, and it last through the New Year.
That means the players can
concentrate on basketball without having to worry about class work for the next
six weeks or so, during which the Pioneers will play a dozen games, including
eight at home in Magness Arena.
The season is off to a
good start. After dropping a hard-fought game to heavy Missouri Valley
Conference favorite Northern Iowa, the Pioneers have won two straight heading
into a clash with regional rival Wyoming on Wednesday, which should serve as a
nice appetizer to a Thanksgiving Day full of college basketball, football and
entirely way too much food.
Sports Illustrated put out its annual college basketball preview this week, and their
experts predicted that all three DU opponents so far - Northern Iowa,
Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Montana -will make the NCAA Tournament.
As for Wyoming, there
appears to have been a home-court advantage in the series during recent years. The
Pioneers have won the last three meetings in Denver, while the Cowboys have
taken the past four in Laramie.
Here's hoping that trend
continues for another year.
In the Genes:
The family of sophomore Brian Stafford
was in town this weekend, and to say the Pioneers sharpshooter has athleticism
in his genes is a drastic understatement. Look for a story on
DenverPioneers.com early next week, as well as in the game program on
Wednesday. Here's a preview: Brian's grandfather played basketball, his father
played football and his mother was an All-American track star, all at Cal.
Discussing his grandfather
David's career playing for Hall of Fame coach Pete Newell was fun, although I
felt a little guilty about discussing his team's loss in the 1960 NCAA title
game to Ohio State, which also marked the final game of Newell's career. It's
just not fair to talk about that loss because it was one of the few defeats those
teams suffered. During David's sophomore and junior years, the Golden Bears
went a combined 53-6 and won the 1959 national championship against a West
Virginian who later became the logo of the NBA.
Brian's dad, Pete, gets a
sheepish grin when he's asked about his football career. He was a backup
quarterback for Cal in the early 1980s and, according to him, might have thrown
the ball 40 times in his career. He did, however, have a great vantage point of
one of the great moments in college football history. In the final game of his
career, Pete was on the sideline for what many simply call "The Play." Stanford
had taken a one-point lead with four seconds remaining, but on the ensuing
kickoff Cal used five lateral passes and ran over a few members of the Stanford
band, as the Bears returned it for a touchdown and the win. That was also the
last college game for the Stanford quarterback, after which he wore No. 7 for
the Denver Broncos.
Yearly travel totals:
Total Flights - 0
Total Mileage Flown
- 0
Total Bus Miles -
0
Total Number of Hotels - 0
Total Number of
Different Airports - 0
Total Number of
Airline Delays - 0
Total Number of
Cancelled Flights - 0
Total Number of Bags
Lost This Year - 0
