CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas
- We're on the road again, and it's nice to be back out here because it
means basketball season is underway.
The Pioneers flew through Dallas yesterday before catching a
connection to Corpus Christi. One of the great things about traveling together
as a group of about 20-25 people is that, aside from director of basketball
operations John Fitzgerald who
expertly arranges just about everything, we rarely have to worry about the
challenges of travel.
Yesterday, however, there was a slight concern when both
senior Alex Pickert and freshman Jake Logan were standing by the ticket
counter without a seat assignment, and the airline representative was adamant that
someone on the flight was not going to make it to Corpus Christi last night.
Pickert remained calm and looked almost like he wouldn't
mind a night to himself in Dallas (not to mention getting his hands on the
travel vouchers being offered).
Logan, however, was in his first collegiate road trip and
seemed more than a little uncomfortable with the thought of breaking away from
his teammates.
Fortunately, everyone from the team ended up on the plane,
and it was smooth sailing toward the Gulf Coast.
We arrived at the hotel around 8 p.m. and headed straight to
dinner before the team turned in early for a good night's sleep.
About Texas
A&M-Corpus Christi - The Pioneers are shooting around in American Bank Center
this morning. It's a nice facility that opened in 2004 and holds a little more
than 8,100, but seems quite a bit more intimate.
The arena is right on the edge of the water. In fact, the
U.S.S. Lexington aircraft carrier is docked just outside one of the arena
entrances.
TAMUCC's actual campus is down the road a few miles, while
the arena sits at the edge of downtown Corpus Christi. About 10,200 students go
to the school.
While we are sure many of their past students have gone on
to great things, their list of notable alumni is limited.
In fact, during the 2008 NCAA Tournament in 2008, the
Louisville Courier-Journal had a mock bracket of the participating schools'
most famous alumni. In the first round, Wisconsin (Tom Wopat) beat Texas
A&M-Corpus Christi (Nobody).
That's a bit of a stretch. According to sources, former
TAMUCC golfer Liza Mucheru-Wisner finished third on the Apprentice last year,
and Eva Longoria briefly went to the school before graduating elsewhere.
While it has little to nothing to do with TAMUCC, Corpus
Christi is where Whataburger was founded in 1950. Although that fact may not
excite many people in Denver, which does not have any franchises, there was a
sparkle in Chase Hallam's eyes when
he referred to it yesterday. There's probably a decent chance that Chase ends
up with a Whataburger at some point while the team is here.
The Stars at Night are Big and Bright: It's
appropriate that the Pioneers' first road trip of the year is to the Lone Star
State. Five players - Cam Griffin, Chase Hallam, Travis Hallam, Royce O'Neale and Chris Udofia - all came from Texas.
Yearly travel totals:
Total Flights - 2
Total Mileage by Air - 998
Total Mileage by Bus - 49
Total Number of
Hotels - 1
Total Number of
Different Airports - 3
Total Number of
Airline Delays - 1
Total Number of
Cancelled Flights - 0
Total Number of
Bags Lost - 0
Total Number of Bumped
Passengers - 0, but barely
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