LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Looking out on the court during shoot around here at the Jack Stephens
Center, it's nice to see director of basketball operations John Fitzgerald wearing his own clothing.
Fitzgerald, who does a
great job of making sure that everything runs as smoothly as possible at home
and on the road, was the first victim of lost luggage this season. During
practice yesterday, he was wearing a collection of clothing from the other
coaches, including shoes that were clearly bigger than his normal size.
All of us who have waited
hours and/or days for an airline to finally deliver a clean change of clothing
and a toothbrush know just how miserable it can be.
The team arrived at the
Little Rock Airport yesterday afternoon, and it felt like home away from home.
Loyal readers of this blog may remember that the team flew through this airport
four of the last five weeks of last season.
The Jack Stephens Center
is one of the nicer venues in the Sun Belt Conference with 5,600 seats, but the
place has not been nice to the Pioneers. Denver is looking for its first win in
Little Rock after falling in the first even trips to UALR. There is always a
little added incentive to get revenge on the team that ended your season, which
the Trojans did last year, and the Pioneers are hoping to do so tonight.
Rohnert Number Update: Chaparral High School did a nice job when they
retired the No. 24 jersey of alum and current Pioneer Nate Rohnert last week. Nate's high school coach Jason Jacob, who has
since left Chaparral, joined current Wolverines coach Robert Johnson during the
ceremony.
In a nice move, Johnson's
players all emerged from the lockerroom to watch the ceremony and show some
appreciation for Rohnert.
Fortunately for everyone
involved, the ceremony was nearly over when a fire alarm began blaring. It seems
that someone burned popcorn in the concessions area, so everyone was ushered
from the gym until safety was ensured.
The Red Light: When
the team travels to a night game, like tonight, the Pioneers stay in a hotel
until about 5 p.m., when they check out and head to the arena. In order to do
this, special arrangements are made with the hotel to allow an extra late check
out.
While it's a very
convenient process for the most part, sometimes technology is not quite
flawless. Most hotels are set to have the key cards expire no later than 2 p.m.
So at about 2:15 p.m., the
lobby starts to fill with members of the travel party asking the front desk to
reactivate their room keys. It's really not a problem or a big deal, but it is
a fairly common occurrence, although it seems to happen most often when the
block of rooms is in the farthest point in the hotel from the lobby. In fact,
it's happened each of the last three trips to Little Rock, including today.
Fortunately, like usual,
the woman at the front desk smiled each time and quickly fixed everyone's key.
Yearly travel
totals:
Total Flights
- 12
Total Mileage
Flown - 8,455
Total Bus Miles
- 1,138
Total Number of Hotels
- 7
Total Number of
Different Airports - 10
Total Number of
Airline Delays - 1
Total Number of
Cancelled Flights - 0
Total Number of
Bags Lost This Year - 1
Total Consecutive
Years the Hotel Key Cards Have Been Deactivated in Little Rock - 1
Total Number of Fire
Alarms Going off During Nate Rohnert's High School Jersey Retirement - 1
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