DENTON, Texas - Friday
was a fairly easy travel day for the Pioneers. Everyone woke up and had
breakfast around 8 a.m. before loading on the bus for a 90-minute ride
to the Shreveport Regional Airport.
After a short (delay
and) flight to Dallas-Fort Worth, there was a slight delay after
landing. The plane missed the mark at the gate, and the worker on the
ground directed him to try it again, so the plane made a 360 and pulled
in again. Unfortunately, the same thing happened again, and the worker
gave the disappointed look of a teacher after a student answers the same
incorrect answer twice. To the amusement of most aboard, the pilot
circled one more time before stopping and turning off the "fasten seat
belts" sign.
The team loaded back on a bus for the 25-minute drive north to Denton, which is actually shorter than the drive from DIA to DU.
There was a spread of
roast beef and turkey at the hotel for a light lunch, followed by a
90-minute practice in the North Texas volleyball facility.
Later, the team headed
to dinner at a restaurant just across the parking lot from the hotel and
then the players headed to their rooms to rest up for today's game.
While this blog does not delve much into what the players do during their free time, Blake Foeman has
been carrying a camera with him to document this road trip, and the
highlights should appear on an upcoming segment during a DU basketball
game on ROOT SPORTS.
About North Texas - The
University of North Texas may conjure up images of a former player that
shares a nickname with the teams (Mean Joe Greene) or perhaps albino squirrels, but there is a connection between this campus and Denver basketball.
Actors swarmed to the
campus here in Denton in 1991 to film the movie "Necessary Roughness."
Among those actors was former DU basketball player David Atkins, known
more commonly these days as Sinbad.
According to the always
reliable Wikipedia, which thankfully is back online after a day-long
hiatus, Necessary Roughness was about a fictitious football team at
Texas State University, which did not exist at the time.
Twelve years after the
movie was made, however, Southwest Texas State changed its name to Texas
State, and Denver fans can look forward to welcoming that team as part
of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) next season. Strangely,
Southwest Texas State was also the first team that Sinbad and company
faced in the movie.
Denver South - With Travis Hallam, Chase Hallam, Royce O'Neale,Chris Udofia and Cam Griffin all
hailing from the Lone Star State (or Whataburger State, according to
Chase), the Pioneers are expecting quite a bit of support this evening.
The team's ticket list
has long been maxed out, and rumor has it that buses and caravans are
heading this way from Killeen, Mesquite and Irving. And the Pioneers are
looking forward to having the support of those cheering sections.
Tonight also likely marks Travis Hallam's final basketball game in the state of Texas. Travis will be playing in his 111th career game tonight and is on pace to finish just behind Brian Stafford for the most and second most games anyone has played during his Denver career.
Yearly travel totals:
Total Flights - 16
Total Mileage by Air - 8,395
Total Mileage by Bus - 1, 161
Total Number of Hotels - 9
Total Number of Different Airports - 12
Total Number of Airline Delays - 6
Total Number of Cancelled Flights - 0
Total Number of Bags Lost - 4
Total Number of Attempts at Parking the Plane at the Gate - 3
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