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
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