HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - Spirits around the team are high following last night's 15-point win
over Middle Tennessee.
This team is running
through shoot around at Lakeside High School, just outside of town. None of the
teams can use Summit Arena, because of all the other games going on.
The players seem to be
comfortable with the late starts this week, even if it means chicken sandwiches
at an 11 p.m. dinner.
The team will get together
around 4 p.m. for its usual pregame meal of chicken, pasta, veggies, salad and
rolls. Other than that, everyone needs to rest up for tonight's game.
Speaking of tonight's
game, it will be available on the Sun Belt Network, which means anyone with the
Full Court package can view it, including most sports bars around Denver (and
the rest of the country). It will also be available on ESPN360.com.
More About Hot Springs: Bridge Street in downtown Hot Springs is
allegedly the shortest street in the world. At least, that's what Ripley's
Believe It or Not declared it in the 1940s. It's a strange connector between two
other diagonal streets that form a small triangle.
It
takes roughly 45 steps to get from one end of Bridge Street to the other, and
every year they host a parade on March 17. This year's edition is called "The
First Ever Seventh Annual World's Smallest St. Patrick's Day Parade," and the
grand marshal will be Bo Derek. Previous grand marshals have included John
Ratzenberger (Cliff C. Clavin on Cheers), Mike Rowe (Dirty Jobs), Mario Lopez
(A.C Slater on Saved By the Bell) and George Wendt (Norm Peterson from Cheers).
The
Irish Order of Elvi is also slated to march.
Food Inc.: Breakfast this
morning was interesting, and actually pretty funny. Generally on the road, the
team eats breakfast at a buffet, so everyone loads his plate with whatever he
wants. This morning, however, there was no buffet opened, so everyone ordered
off the menu.
The
problem was that when they brought the food out, the table numbers apparently
were mixed up, so each of the 12 or so tables ended up with food that one of
the other tables ordered.
Because
almost everyone in the travel party is easy-going, everyone seemed to just
shrug and eat whatever the server put in front of him. It didn't take long
before everyone realized what was happening, but by that point everyone was
digging into their plate. And nobody seemed to mind.
Is that a Sign?:
When
you travel through enough town and along enough highways, you start noticing
some strange street signs, messages on stores and other such attention getters.
Here are the two best so far on this trip:
"T-Shirts
and Concealed Weapons Permits"
"Dodge's
Chicken and Check Cashing"
Yearly travel
totals:
Total Flights
- 21
Total Mileage Flown - 16,609
Total Bus Miles
- 1,752
Total Number of Hotels - 15
Total Number of Different Airports - 14
Total Number of Airline Delays - 2
Total Number of Cancelled Flights - 0
Total Number of Bags Lost This Year - 1
Total Number of Times the Team Bus Has Broken Down - 1
Total Number of People in the 24-Man Travel Party to
Get What They Actually Ordered at Breakfast This Morning - 0
Monday, March 8, 2010
Saturday, March 6, 2010
First Day at the SBC Tournament - 3/6/10
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - The
Pioneers are ready to start the Sun Belt Conference Tournament tonight.
It's a late start with an 8:45 p.m. local tip (7:45 p.m. MT).
The team left Denver on Friday morning and headed straight to Philander Smith College, where the team practiced for a couple hours.
Hot Springs is about an hour west of Little Rock, and the bus ran into some rush hour traffic on the way out of town.
However, the interesting part of the trip involved the bus going up a hill, when everything electric shut down and the bus rolled to a slow stop on the side of the highway. It turned out to be a minor issue, as the driver apologized, got out and went to reboot some sort of computer system. After that, the bus cruised without incident (although the company did switch buses after dropping the team off).
Everyone walked down the street and had a nice meal before the players went back to the hotel to rest up for tonight's game.
With 10 games taking place between Summit Arena and the Convention Center Court, the team did its shoot around at a local high school.
More on Philander Smith College: Hanging from the rafters of Philander Smith is the number of a highly recognizable player, even though he never played in the NBA.
Hubert "Geese" Ausbie graduated from Philander Smith in 1960 and immediately joined the Harlem Globetrotters and played with the team for the next 21 years, eventually becoming the "Clown Prince of Basketball" after Meadowlark Lemon.
Those of a certain age will also remember Geese from his role in The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island. He was also portrayed a few times on The New Scooby-Doo Movies, although he did not perform his own voice.
About Hot Springs: The boyhood home of Bill Clinton is surrounded on three sides by the Hot Springs National Park. The hotels are all within walking distance of the arena, and the downtown section is lined with restaurants and other establishments.
And, of course, there are taps in the middle of town, where people bring bottles to fill up with natural spring water. We were told last night that people come from miles to fill up on the water. Some even use it for bathing, and some have said it has healing powers, whatever that means.
Even though it's only an hour from Arkansas-Little Rock, Hot Springs really has the feel of a neutral site - a place where fans from every team can gather and cheer for their teams. Based on the number of team shirts, there are plenty of fans for every team.
In fact, there appear to be a lot more fans than last year, which could be because all 13 men's teams and 13 women's teams made the trip, meaning that fans knew their team would be here.
Thanks to trainer Pat Hoxsey, we have also learned more history about the area. For example, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates, Brooklyn Nationals, Chicago White Stockings and Boston Red Sox held spring training here, according to the Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce.
Among those people who vacationed in Hot Springs were Babe Ruth, Joe Louis and, of course, notorious gangster Al Capone.
According to the Garland County Historical Society:
Our most famous visitor down through the ages.... must have been Al Capone. During the prohibition era, Capone came from Chicago to strike deals with bootleggers in Hot Springs to stock his clubs in Chicago with alcohol. Not only is Hot Springs a remote town located in the middle of the Ouachita mountains, but the pine trees provide "cover" for the moonshine stills year round. Capone would ship his bootleg liquor in tanker railroad cars, and for protection, he had the words "Mountain Valley Water" painted on the side of the railcars!
In Chicago, Detroit, New York - when the heat was on because of a robbery or murder, the overlords knew where to come to relax in safety. Hot Springs was a sanctuary from prosecution and enemies. Gangsters could enjoy the entertainment of gambling, and be pampered with the hot mineral baths and massages.
At one time, Capone and his entourage occupied the 4th floor of the Arlington Hotel. (Legend has it that Capone always stayed in room 442, and that the Arlington Hotel has locked that room up and will not rent it to anyone to this day) Capone's arch enemy Bugs Moran and his gang were checked in at the Majestic Hotel, just one block away. There was no conflict, and no violence - both gangsters were on vacation!
Without giving away the location of the Pioneers this week, let's just say sightings of Capone's ghost are not out of the question.
Yearly travel totals:
Total Flights - 21
Total Mileage Flown - 16,609
Total Bus Miles - 1,752
Total Number of Hotels - 15
Total Number of Different Airports - 14
Total Number of Airline Delays - 2
Total Number of Cancelled Flights - 0
Total Number of Bags Lost This Year - 1
Total Number of Times the Team Bus Has Broken Down - 1
The team left Denver on Friday morning and headed straight to Philander Smith College, where the team practiced for a couple hours.
Hot Springs is about an hour west of Little Rock, and the bus ran into some rush hour traffic on the way out of town.
However, the interesting part of the trip involved the bus going up a hill, when everything electric shut down and the bus rolled to a slow stop on the side of the highway. It turned out to be a minor issue, as the driver apologized, got out and went to reboot some sort of computer system. After that, the bus cruised without incident (although the company did switch buses after dropping the team off).
Everyone walked down the street and had a nice meal before the players went back to the hotel to rest up for tonight's game.
With 10 games taking place between Summit Arena and the Convention Center Court, the team did its shoot around at a local high school.
More on Philander Smith College: Hanging from the rafters of Philander Smith is the number of a highly recognizable player, even though he never played in the NBA.
Hubert "Geese" Ausbie graduated from Philander Smith in 1960 and immediately joined the Harlem Globetrotters and played with the team for the next 21 years, eventually becoming the "Clown Prince of Basketball" after Meadowlark Lemon.
Those of a certain age will also remember Geese from his role in The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island. He was also portrayed a few times on The New Scooby-Doo Movies, although he did not perform his own voice.
About Hot Springs: The boyhood home of Bill Clinton is surrounded on three sides by the Hot Springs National Park. The hotels are all within walking distance of the arena, and the downtown section is lined with restaurants and other establishments.
And, of course, there are taps in the middle of town, where people bring bottles to fill up with natural spring water. We were told last night that people come from miles to fill up on the water. Some even use it for bathing, and some have said it has healing powers, whatever that means.
Even though it's only an hour from Arkansas-Little Rock, Hot Springs really has the feel of a neutral site - a place where fans from every team can gather and cheer for their teams. Based on the number of team shirts, there are plenty of fans for every team.
In fact, there appear to be a lot more fans than last year, which could be because all 13 men's teams and 13 women's teams made the trip, meaning that fans knew their team would be here.
Thanks to trainer Pat Hoxsey, we have also learned more history about the area. For example, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates, Brooklyn Nationals, Chicago White Stockings and Boston Red Sox held spring training here, according to the Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce.
Among those people who vacationed in Hot Springs were Babe Ruth, Joe Louis and, of course, notorious gangster Al Capone.
According to the Garland County Historical Society:
Our most famous visitor down through the ages.... must have been Al Capone. During the prohibition era, Capone came from Chicago to strike deals with bootleggers in Hot Springs to stock his clubs in Chicago with alcohol. Not only is Hot Springs a remote town located in the middle of the Ouachita mountains, but the pine trees provide "cover" for the moonshine stills year round. Capone would ship his bootleg liquor in tanker railroad cars, and for protection, he had the words "Mountain Valley Water" painted on the side of the railcars!
In Chicago, Detroit, New York - when the heat was on because of a robbery or murder, the overlords knew where to come to relax in safety. Hot Springs was a sanctuary from prosecution and enemies. Gangsters could enjoy the entertainment of gambling, and be pampered with the hot mineral baths and massages.
At one time, Capone and his entourage occupied the 4th floor of the Arlington Hotel. (Legend has it that Capone always stayed in room 442, and that the Arlington Hotel has locked that room up and will not rent it to anyone to this day) Capone's arch enemy Bugs Moran and his gang were checked in at the Majestic Hotel, just one block away. There was no conflict, and no violence - both gangsters were on vacation!
Without giving away the location of the Pioneers this week, let's just say sightings of Capone's ghost are not out of the question.
Yearly travel totals:
Total Flights - 21
Total Mileage Flown - 16,609
Total Bus Miles - 1,752
Total Number of Hotels - 15
Total Number of Different Airports - 14
Total Number of Airline Delays - 2
Total Number of Cancelled Flights - 0
Total Number of Bags Lost This Year - 1
Total Number of Times the Team Bus Has Broken Down - 1
Thursday, February 25, 2010
South Alabama - 2/25/10
MOBILE, Ala. - The
team is shooting around at the Mitchell Center on the campus of the University
of South Alabama.
It seems a little strange, but this is the last true road trip of the season. After tonight, just one regular season game remains: a matchup with Louisiana-Lafayette at Magness Arena on Saturday at 5 p.m. MT.
That, of course, will be the final game for Nate Rohnert, who many have said is Denver's only senior. Nate is the only four-year player suiting up for his final game, but he's not the only senior.
Tom Chott joined the Pioneers before the 2008-09 season after spending a couple of years at Northeastern Junior College in Sterling, Colo., and a redshirt freshman season at Creighton.
It's possible that you have not heard much, if anything, about Chott. He played all of three minutes in his lone game last season, when he fired up his only shot, and he's been in three games this season. Chott scored one point on a free throw, and has a block and a steal to his credit this year.
A local guy from Littleton, Chott is one of those guys who contributes more to the team than most fans could ever imagine.
The Regis Jesuit High School product is part of DU's scout team that simulates Denver's upcoming opponent in order to get the regulars prepared. In other words, in addition to knowing Denver's complex system, Chott and company have to learn what every other team does and simulate it in practice.
Like Alex Pickert, Kyle Chynoweth, Blake Foeman and Trevor Noonan, who also regularly work with the scout team, Chott shows up to practice every day, sprints through every play and rarely gets a minute off.
In fact, as I typed that last line, the players on the court needed an extra player for a drill, and Chott immediately sprinted down the court to join in.
He and the other guys work as hard as any other player in practice, even though they know they're unlikely to play in the games.
The reason it's easy to cheer for a guy like Chott is that he does it all without complaining. He does it because he loves basketball.
So, when both seniors are honored before this Saturday's game, here's hoping the fans recognize a guy who's rarely recognized.
Quick Trip: This is the only time this year that the Pioneers are playing on the road Thursday before turning around and hosting a home game on Saturday.
Because of the quick turnaround time, the team chartered the flight to Mobile, which means yesterday's trip from the Ritchie Center doors to the front door of the hotel took about five hours. Comparitively, the team generally would have headed to DIA about 2.5-3 hours before the scheduled departure, flown 2.5 hours to New Orleans and then bussed another couple of hours to Mobile.
More importantly, we will take off immediately after the game tonight and enjoy two nights in our own beds before the team has to face the Ragin' Cajuns on Saturday.
Yearly travel totals:
Total Flights - 19
Total Mileage Flown - 14,836
Total Bus Miles - 1,621
Total Number of Hotels - 14
Total Number of Different Airports - 15
Total Number of Airline Delays - 2
Total Number of Cancelled Flights - 0
Total Number of Bags Lost This Year - 1
It seems a little strange, but this is the last true road trip of the season. After tonight, just one regular season game remains: a matchup with Louisiana-Lafayette at Magness Arena on Saturday at 5 p.m. MT.
That, of course, will be the final game for Nate Rohnert, who many have said is Denver's only senior. Nate is the only four-year player suiting up for his final game, but he's not the only senior.
Tom Chott joined the Pioneers before the 2008-09 season after spending a couple of years at Northeastern Junior College in Sterling, Colo., and a redshirt freshman season at Creighton.
It's possible that you have not heard much, if anything, about Chott. He played all of three minutes in his lone game last season, when he fired up his only shot, and he's been in three games this season. Chott scored one point on a free throw, and has a block and a steal to his credit this year.
A local guy from Littleton, Chott is one of those guys who contributes more to the team than most fans could ever imagine.
The Regis Jesuit High School product is part of DU's scout team that simulates Denver's upcoming opponent in order to get the regulars prepared. In other words, in addition to knowing Denver's complex system, Chott and company have to learn what every other team does and simulate it in practice.
Like Alex Pickert, Kyle Chynoweth, Blake Foeman and Trevor Noonan, who also regularly work with the scout team, Chott shows up to practice every day, sprints through every play and rarely gets a minute off.
In fact, as I typed that last line, the players on the court needed an extra player for a drill, and Chott immediately sprinted down the court to join in.
He and the other guys work as hard as any other player in practice, even though they know they're unlikely to play in the games.
The reason it's easy to cheer for a guy like Chott is that he does it all without complaining. He does it because he loves basketball.
So, when both seniors are honored before this Saturday's game, here's hoping the fans recognize a guy who's rarely recognized.
Quick Trip: This is the only time this year that the Pioneers are playing on the road Thursday before turning around and hosting a home game on Saturday.
Because of the quick turnaround time, the team chartered the flight to Mobile, which means yesterday's trip from the Ritchie Center doors to the front door of the hotel took about five hours. Comparitively, the team generally would have headed to DIA about 2.5-3 hours before the scheduled departure, flown 2.5 hours to New Orleans and then bussed another couple of hours to Mobile.
More importantly, we will take off immediately after the game tonight and enjoy two nights in our own beds before the team has to face the Ragin' Cajuns on Saturday.
Yearly travel totals:
Total Flights - 19
Total Mileage Flown - 14,836
Total Bus Miles - 1,621
Total Number of Hotels - 14
Total Number of Different Airports - 15
Total Number of Airline Delays - 2
Total Number of Cancelled Flights - 0
Total Number of Bags Lost This Year - 1
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Magness Arena Fans - 2/18/10
DENVER - Great
showing at Magness Arena at the last home game, both by the Pioneers against
the Florida Atlantic Owls and by the fans. The announced attendance of 4,117
was the second largest crowd for a Sun Belt Conference game at DU and the
biggest since a 90-84 win over North Texas at Magness Arena on Feb. 13, 2003.
Only games involving regional rivals Wyoming and Colorado State, and Pac 10 powerhouse Stanford, have brought more fans out to a men's basketball game at Magness Arena.
It seems that more and more people are starting to notice that the Pioneers have gone 34-7 at Magness Arena since head coach Joe Scott took over in March 2007. Denver is currently riding a 13-game home winning streak, which is tied for the 12th longest in the country. Strangely, the team that DU is tied with is Northern Iowa, which was the last visiting team to win in Magness Arena in a close season opening 71-65 game. The Panthers have gone on to clinch the Missouri Valley Conference regular season title and earn a No. 24 ranking in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll with a 22-3 record.
The student section is beginning to earn a reputation around the conference for its boisterousness and creativity, not to mention clean, cheering. That clean aspect cannot be overstated because when commentators talk about the best fans, they tend to talk about the ones that come up with original chants and do not use profanity.
Apparently, it also helps when you wear ridiculously colorful pants in the student section, too.
Light Reading: Denver players Andrew Hooper, Nate Rohnert, Justin Coughlin and Kyle Lewis went to University Park Elementary School last night and read to a group of 15-20 kids.
According to Hooper, they read a book called, "Ping Pong Pig."
"I read something about a duck," Hooper said. "Kyle read what happens when the world sleeps at night, and Nate read something about a dinosaur. Justin got the part about the duck."
A few of the players did something similar last year at Slavens Elementary School.
Yearly travel totals:
Total Flights - 16
Total Mileage Flown - 11,613
Total Bus Miles - 1,453
Total Number of Hotels - 12
Total Number of Different Airports - 12
Total Number of Airline Delays - 1
Total Number of Cancelled Flights - 0
Total Number of Bags Lost This Year - 1
Only games involving regional rivals Wyoming and Colorado State, and Pac 10 powerhouse Stanford, have brought more fans out to a men's basketball game at Magness Arena.
It seems that more and more people are starting to notice that the Pioneers have gone 34-7 at Magness Arena since head coach Joe Scott took over in March 2007. Denver is currently riding a 13-game home winning streak, which is tied for the 12th longest in the country. Strangely, the team that DU is tied with is Northern Iowa, which was the last visiting team to win in Magness Arena in a close season opening 71-65 game. The Panthers have gone on to clinch the Missouri Valley Conference regular season title and earn a No. 24 ranking in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll with a 22-3 record.
The student section is beginning to earn a reputation around the conference for its boisterousness and creativity, not to mention clean, cheering. That clean aspect cannot be overstated because when commentators talk about the best fans, they tend to talk about the ones that come up with original chants and do not use profanity.
Apparently, it also helps when you wear ridiculously colorful pants in the student section, too.
Light Reading: Denver players Andrew Hooper, Nate Rohnert, Justin Coughlin and Kyle Lewis went to University Park Elementary School last night and read to a group of 15-20 kids.
According to Hooper, they read a book called, "Ping Pong Pig."
"I read something about a duck," Hooper said. "Kyle read what happens when the world sleeps at night, and Nate read something about a dinosaur. Justin got the part about the duck."
A few of the players did something similar last year at Slavens Elementary School.
Yearly travel totals:
Total Flights - 16
Total Mileage Flown - 11,613
Total Bus Miles - 1,453
Total Number of Hotels - 12
Total Number of Different Airports - 12
Total Number of Airline Delays - 1
Total Number of Cancelled Flights - 0
Total Number of Bags Lost This Year - 1
Saturday, February 13, 2010
North Texas - 2/13/10
DENTON, Texas - Just a few weeks ago, we were talking about never seeing snow during a
Sun Belt Conference road trip. The number of times doubled today.
The Denton area got nearly a foot of snow in the past few days. Fortunately, it's been warm enough that it's been melting, although that seems to be making a slushy mess on the roads and sidewalks. The city seems to be running as normal, as opposed to a certain town in northeast Arkansas a few weeks ago.
The team stayed at the hotel in Murfreesboro after the game on Thursday night, something that does not often happen often after games. After a quick breakfast in the lobby at around 7:30 a.m. on Friday, the team headed to the Nashville airport for a flight to Dallas/Fort Worth and a short drive north to Denton.
In the last blog, we mentioned that the Murphy Center was only 36.1 miles from the Nashville airport. The Super Pit in Denton is 35.0 miles from DFW, just 0.6 miles farther than the Ritchie Center is from DIA.
Both Denver and North Texas arrived at DFW at roughly the same time, as UNT had played at New Orleans on Thursday night.
After a quick lunch in the hotel lobby, the players had a few hours to relax before practice at the Super Pit at 6 p.m. The team then went to Texas Roadhouse, which of course was founded in Clarksville, Ind., and has become legendary, according to the back of the menu.
Aside from freshman Blake Foeman, who has been suffering from food poisoning during the trip, everyone appears to be in high spirits and ready for tonight's game.
Watch Out for Skeeters: Brothers Travis Hallam and Chase Hallam are making a sort of homecoming at Saturday's game. The Hallams grew up in Mesquite, Texas, home of the Mesquite High School Skeeters, which is just over 50 miles southeast of Denton.
According to Travis and Chase, they have already lined up tickets for several family and friends, and dozens of others have told them that they'll be making the trip. In all, they expect in the neighborhood of 100 people at the Super Pit cheering for them, which is especially nice in enemy territory.
Among those, of course, will be their father, Doug, and mother, Debbie, who have traveled from Mesquite to nearly every game this season. The have said that it's easier for them now that their sons both are playing for Denver, even if "home" games 700 miles from their home, which is why they expect to miss no more than 3-4 games this season (they have or will watch them on television or Pioneer Vision, of course).
When the boys were in high school, Doug said that they went to 233 of their sons games during one year when Travis and Chase were in high school.
Our friend Richard Chapman in the DU Communications Department wrote a great story about the Hallam family. You can find it here.
Worth Repeating (from last year's North Texas blog): North Texas really has a way with names. That includes the Mean Green.
As I've heard it, North Texas has always used a screaming eagle as the school's mascot (if you go to www.meangreensports.com you can hear the scream of the eagle - I don't recommend doing so at work), but at some point after Mean Joe Greene graduated from North Texas in 1969 and headed to the Steel Curtain in Pittsburgh, the school renamed its teams. As a side note, according to Wikipedia (which everyone knows is the foremost reference point when checking accuracy), there was a movement a few years ago to add the albino squirrel as a second mascot. I cannot be the only one in favor of the school adopting the albino squirrel. However, the web gurus might have trouble adding the scream of the albino squirrel to the website.
Here are a few more famous names that graduated from North Texas: Norah Jones, Pat Boone, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Roy Orbison, Dr. Phil and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.
The New Stuff: While browsing the Mean Green Athletic Hall of Fame, one of the plaques jumped out.
College Football Hall of Fame coach Hayden Fry was the coach and athletic director at North Texas (then North Texas State) from 1973-78, when his teams compiled a 40-23-3 record, before he took over at the University of Iowa.
And a few impressive alumni not previously mentioned: singers Don Henley (The Eagles) and Meat Loaf, actors Thomas Haden Church (Wings, Spiderman 3 and Sideways) and Peter Weller (Robocop and 24), and former Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives Dick Armey.
Never Gets Old: When we landed in Nashville on Wednesday, a woman walked up to associate head coach Mike McKee and asked if he was the coach of the team, he told her he was one of them.
Her reply was one that we hear often and probably take for granted: "Your players are the nicest guys. They were all polite throughout the flight, and a few of them in the back entertained a child the entire time."
McKee thanked her. It's always nice to hear, regardless of the fact that we hear similar things often.
Yearly travel totals:
Total Flights - 15
Total Mileage Flown - 10,971
Total Bus Miles - 1,487
Total Number of Hotels - 11
Total Number of Different Airports - 12
Total Number of Airline Delays - 1
Total Number of Cancelled Flights - 0
Total Number of Bags Lost This Year - 1
Total Number of Times DU Has Encountered Snow on Sun Belt Road Trips - 2
The Denton area got nearly a foot of snow in the past few days. Fortunately, it's been warm enough that it's been melting, although that seems to be making a slushy mess on the roads and sidewalks. The city seems to be running as normal, as opposed to a certain town in northeast Arkansas a few weeks ago.
The team stayed at the hotel in Murfreesboro after the game on Thursday night, something that does not often happen often after games. After a quick breakfast in the lobby at around 7:30 a.m. on Friday, the team headed to the Nashville airport for a flight to Dallas/Fort Worth and a short drive north to Denton.
In the last blog, we mentioned that the Murphy Center was only 36.1 miles from the Nashville airport. The Super Pit in Denton is 35.0 miles from DFW, just 0.6 miles farther than the Ritchie Center is from DIA.
Both Denver and North Texas arrived at DFW at roughly the same time, as UNT had played at New Orleans on Thursday night.
After a quick lunch in the hotel lobby, the players had a few hours to relax before practice at the Super Pit at 6 p.m. The team then went to Texas Roadhouse, which of course was founded in Clarksville, Ind., and has become legendary, according to the back of the menu.
Aside from freshman Blake Foeman, who has been suffering from food poisoning during the trip, everyone appears to be in high spirits and ready for tonight's game.
Watch Out for Skeeters: Brothers Travis Hallam and Chase Hallam are making a sort of homecoming at Saturday's game. The Hallams grew up in Mesquite, Texas, home of the Mesquite High School Skeeters, which is just over 50 miles southeast of Denton.
According to Travis and Chase, they have already lined up tickets for several family and friends, and dozens of others have told them that they'll be making the trip. In all, they expect in the neighborhood of 100 people at the Super Pit cheering for them, which is especially nice in enemy territory.
Among those, of course, will be their father, Doug, and mother, Debbie, who have traveled from Mesquite to nearly every game this season. The have said that it's easier for them now that their sons both are playing for Denver, even if "home" games 700 miles from their home, which is why they expect to miss no more than 3-4 games this season (they have or will watch them on television or Pioneer Vision, of course).
When the boys were in high school, Doug said that they went to 233 of their sons games during one year when Travis and Chase were in high school.
Our friend Richard Chapman in the DU Communications Department wrote a great story about the Hallam family. You can find it here.
Worth Repeating (from last year's North Texas blog): North Texas really has a way with names. That includes the Mean Green.
As I've heard it, North Texas has always used a screaming eagle as the school's mascot (if you go to www.meangreensports.com you can hear the scream of the eagle - I don't recommend doing so at work), but at some point after Mean Joe Greene graduated from North Texas in 1969 and headed to the Steel Curtain in Pittsburgh, the school renamed its teams. As a side note, according to Wikipedia (which everyone knows is the foremost reference point when checking accuracy), there was a movement a few years ago to add the albino squirrel as a second mascot. I cannot be the only one in favor of the school adopting the albino squirrel. However, the web gurus might have trouble adding the scream of the albino squirrel to the website.
Here are a few more famous names that graduated from North Texas: Norah Jones, Pat Boone, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Roy Orbison, Dr. Phil and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.
The New Stuff: While browsing the Mean Green Athletic Hall of Fame, one of the plaques jumped out.
College Football Hall of Fame coach Hayden Fry was the coach and athletic director at North Texas (then North Texas State) from 1973-78, when his teams compiled a 40-23-3 record, before he took over at the University of Iowa.
And a few impressive alumni not previously mentioned: singers Don Henley (The Eagles) and Meat Loaf, actors Thomas Haden Church (Wings, Spiderman 3 and Sideways) and Peter Weller (Robocop and 24), and former Majority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives Dick Armey.
Never Gets Old: When we landed in Nashville on Wednesday, a woman walked up to associate head coach Mike McKee and asked if he was the coach of the team, he told her he was one of them.
Her reply was one that we hear often and probably take for granted: "Your players are the nicest guys. They were all polite throughout the flight, and a few of them in the back entertained a child the entire time."
McKee thanked her. It's always nice to hear, regardless of the fact that we hear similar things often.
Yearly travel totals:
Total Flights - 15
Total Mileage Flown - 10,971
Total Bus Miles - 1,487
Total Number of Hotels - 11
Total Number of Different Airports - 12
Total Number of Airline Delays - 1
Total Number of Cancelled Flights - 0
Total Number of Bags Lost This Year - 1
Total Number of Times DU Has Encountered Snow on Sun Belt Road Trips - 2
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Middle Tennessee - 2/11/10
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Another week and the Pioneers are back on the road.
This one is a little different in that the team will play at Middle Tennessee
and North Texas, which means a flight between games, instead of a short bus
ride.
The team arrived in Nashville last night around 7:30 p.m., went straight to the hotel and enjoyed a chicken sandwich in the hotel restaurant before heading to the rooms.
This is the first time most of these players have been to Murfreesboro, since we did not play here last year. The ones that had been here before realized that this hotel is a nice upgrade from the previous one, which was not bad but did seem to be going through some sort of renovations every time we stayed there.
Murfreesboro is one of those towns that tends to prompt people to question how hard it is to get to these places in the Sun Belt Conference. However, the 'Boro is just 36.1 miles down the highway from Nashville. By comparison, the Ritchie Center is 34.4 miles from DIA.
Civil War historians might recognize Murfreesboro as the site of Stones River National Battlefield, which is about a mile from the team hotel.
As for the school, the sign out front says Middle Tennessee State University (or MTSU), but the fine people here prefer if it's referred to as just Middle Tennessee. According to the media guide, "Middle Tennessee is a destination school of undergraduates from the state of Tennessee." It being so close to Music City, MTSU includes a Department of Recording Industry, which is the university's most popular program.
Some of the more notable alumni include former U.S. Senator Al Gore Sr., Evanescence lead singer Amy Lee and Ultimate Fighting Champion Shane Primm. Vice President Al Gore was a visiting professor at MTSU.
Baseball fans in Denver might also recognize MTSU baseball standout Claude "Jayhawk" Owens, who was drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the 1992 MLB Expansion Draft and was a member of the inaugural Rockies team.
The Gateway: As the team bus rolled into DIA yesterday afternoon, it pulled up to the gate for commercial vehicles. The driver's card did not work, so the driver threw the bus in reverse, backed up about 20-30 feet and cut hard to the left to head to the upper level.
The reason this was notable was because it sparked a discussion about whether or not the team had made it through that gate yet this year. For at least four-straight road trips, the bus has had to perform that exact routine each time we arrive at DIA. Most of us could not remember a time this year when it worked, as planned.
Needless to say, it's not a problem for anyone on the team, especially since getting dropped off right outside the ticket counter is actually easier.
It did result in more than a couple smiles on the bus, nonetheless.
Update: In the last blog, we discussed a bus that caught fire on the way from Jonesboro, Ark., to Memphis, Tenn. As helpful reader (and assistant coach riding the bus at the time) Todd Rinehart pointed out, that memorable ride occurred in 2001, not 2004 as reported. It followed a 90-75 Denver victory.
According to Rinehart, everything else in the story was completely accurate, including Hyder grabbing the slab of ribs, while everyone else reached for their personal effects.
Yearly travel totals:
Total Flights - 14
Total Mileage Flown - 10,340
Total Bus Miles - 1,403
Total Number of Hotels - 10
Total Number of Different Airports - 12
Total Number of Airline Delays - 1
Total Number of Cancelled Flights - 0
Total Number of Bags Lost This Year - 1
Total Number of Times the Team Bus Made It Through the DIA Gate This Season (estimated) - 0
The team arrived in Nashville last night around 7:30 p.m., went straight to the hotel and enjoyed a chicken sandwich in the hotel restaurant before heading to the rooms.
This is the first time most of these players have been to Murfreesboro, since we did not play here last year. The ones that had been here before realized that this hotel is a nice upgrade from the previous one, which was not bad but did seem to be going through some sort of renovations every time we stayed there.
Murfreesboro is one of those towns that tends to prompt people to question how hard it is to get to these places in the Sun Belt Conference. However, the 'Boro is just 36.1 miles down the highway from Nashville. By comparison, the Ritchie Center is 34.4 miles from DIA.
Civil War historians might recognize Murfreesboro as the site of Stones River National Battlefield, which is about a mile from the team hotel.
As for the school, the sign out front says Middle Tennessee State University (or MTSU), but the fine people here prefer if it's referred to as just Middle Tennessee. According to the media guide, "Middle Tennessee is a destination school of undergraduates from the state of Tennessee." It being so close to Music City, MTSU includes a Department of Recording Industry, which is the university's most popular program.
Some of the more notable alumni include former U.S. Senator Al Gore Sr., Evanescence lead singer Amy Lee and Ultimate Fighting Champion Shane Primm. Vice President Al Gore was a visiting professor at MTSU.
Baseball fans in Denver might also recognize MTSU baseball standout Claude "Jayhawk" Owens, who was drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the 1992 MLB Expansion Draft and was a member of the inaugural Rockies team.
The Gateway: As the team bus rolled into DIA yesterday afternoon, it pulled up to the gate for commercial vehicles. The driver's card did not work, so the driver threw the bus in reverse, backed up about 20-30 feet and cut hard to the left to head to the upper level.
The reason this was notable was because it sparked a discussion about whether or not the team had made it through that gate yet this year. For at least four-straight road trips, the bus has had to perform that exact routine each time we arrive at DIA. Most of us could not remember a time this year when it worked, as planned.
Needless to say, it's not a problem for anyone on the team, especially since getting dropped off right outside the ticket counter is actually easier.
It did result in more than a couple smiles on the bus, nonetheless.
Update: In the last blog, we discussed a bus that caught fire on the way from Jonesboro, Ark., to Memphis, Tenn. As helpful reader (and assistant coach riding the bus at the time) Todd Rinehart pointed out, that memorable ride occurred in 2001, not 2004 as reported. It followed a 90-75 Denver victory.
According to Rinehart, everything else in the story was completely accurate, including Hyder grabbing the slab of ribs, while everyone else reached for their personal effects.
Yearly travel totals:
Total Flights - 14
Total Mileage Flown - 10,340
Total Bus Miles - 1,403
Total Number of Hotels - 10
Total Number of Different Airports - 12
Total Number of Airline Delays - 1
Total Number of Cancelled Flights - 0
Total Number of Bags Lost This Year - 1
Total Number of Times the Team Bus Made It Through the DIA Gate This Season (estimated) - 0
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Arkansas State - 1/30/10
JONESBORO, Ark. - Most of us feel like we've been through everything on the road. Ask
trainer Pat Hoxsey or radio voice Mitch Hyder, who both have been with the Pioneers for over a decade, and they'll tell you some
pretty strange stories from the road, including a memorable ride from Jonesboro
to Memphis in 2004, when the team bus caught fire (and Hyder saved a slab of
ribs as he evacuated). This blizzard that hit Arkansas during the past few days was a new one for us, though. This was the first time that the Denver team had seen snow fall during a Sun Belt Conference road trip.
Needless to say, the fine people of Arkansas were not sure exactly how to react. Just about everything in Jonesboro closed yesterday. The woman at the hotel front desk told someone, "I think there's a gas station open." Last night, there was only one restaurant in town that remained open, although the hotel cooked dinner for the team.
The lead news report yesterday evening was about a woman whose car went completely out of control. In the mayhem that followed, her car slid, grazed a tree and broke the passenger side window.
This morning on the way to shoot around, the coaching staff had to run to the parking lot and literally push the bus, which was stuck on some ice. To be clear, it only snowed about four inches, but they really are not accustomed to this. The hotel doesn't have a shovel to clear the walkways.
Everyone is still hoping that the game goes off without a hitch, and the team will spend the night in Memphis before catching a flight back home tomorrow morning.
Yearly travel totals:
Total Flights - 12
Total Mileage Flown - 8,455
Total Bus Miles - 1,294
Total Number of Hotels - 8
Total Number of Different
Airports - 10Total Number of Airline Delays - 1
Total Number of Cancelled Flights - 0
Total Number of Bags Lost This Year - 1
Total Number of Jonesboro Restaurants Open Last Night - 1
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