The team woke up yesterday in Little Rock, ate some breakfast and then checked out of the hotel. They practiced at Arkansas-Little Rock because the only practice time available at Arkansas State would have been pretty late. Since both UALR teams left right after the men's game on Thursday, and campus closed due to the quarter inch of snow outside, the Pioneers had the entire arena to themselves.
There was a lot of disappointment after losing the heartbreaker the night before, but the team focused that energy into regrouping and making sure they were ready for tonight's game against the Red Wolves.
Some fans might think that since the Pioneers beat ASU handily a few weeks ago, this game could be easy. However, these Denver players know better. This is a very good Red Wolves team, which is in second place in the division and has not lost in 10 home games this season. On top of that, there is always a revenge factor that makes a team want to forget about the previous bad loss by beating that same team.
The Pioneers are all too aware of the challenge tonight, and they're running a focused shoot around right now at the Convocation Center with that in mind.
About Jonesboro - Arkansas State is about two hours northeast of Little Rock. The bus drives through bigger sounding towns like Jacksonville, Austin and Newport, but it's not exactly like Florida, Texas or Oregon.
The town of Weiner won a state bowling championship, according to a few signs scattered around the town of 719.
Jonesboro is located in Craighead County and was founded on Feb. 19, 1859, when a farmer named Fergus Snoddy donated 15 acres of his land for what became downtown Jonesboro.
According to the town's website, "Jonesboro was named after William A. Jones for his support of the legislative act creating the county. The county, itself, received its name through a practical joke. Senator Thomas B. Craighead, who represented Crittenden and Mississippi counties, was against the formation of the county and campaigned actively against it. Senator Jones waited until a day when Craighead was absent to call for a vote on the act. Senator Craighead didn't know anything about it until he got back and found that the county had been named for him."
The first two courthouses in town burned to the ground, the second of which started during a barroom brawl in 1878, but the third is still used.
Arkansas State University was founded in 1909 as a regional agricultural school. Among the people who have walked the campus are 1984 Olympic gold medalist Al Joyner and Rodger Bumpass, whose voice can be heard in countless cartoons and movies, most notably SpongeBob SquarePants.
Finally, since it's been a few years since we mentioned it, and it was a favorite blog reference, here is an excerpt from the 2009 trip to Jonesboro:
Thanks
to loyal reader Steve Honda, we learned this week that Jonesboro was
once the home to Bartleby Clown College. Apparently from 1952-59, the
clown college operated in Jonesboro, which was convenient due to its
many railroad connections. According to Wikipedia, which of course is
the leading resource for clown college information, “The loss of
Arkansas [sic] only clown college disappointed many in the industry.”
There was no clarification about whether that was the clown industry or
the clown teaching industry.
Happy Birthday: It's a little early, but just so we don't forget, we'd like to send a happy birthday out to redshirt freshman Blake Foeman, who turns 20 on Wednesday.Yearly travel totals:
Total Flights, regular season only - 12
Total Mileage by Air, regular season only - 10,417
Total Mileage by Air, including Spain - 20,695
Total Mileage by Bus, regular season only - 1,236
Total Mileage by Bus, including Spain - 2,801
Total Number of Hotels - 9
Total Number of Different Airports - 8
Total Number of Airline Delays - 1
Total Number of Cancelled Flights - 0
Total Number of Bags Lost This Year - 2
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