Men's Basketball postcard: Lahaina, Hawaii [Nov. 23, 2008]
Nov. 23, 2008 Aloha Longhorn fans, Saturday was our first full day in Hawai’i and it sure was a full day. It was also a wet day. We’ve been told that it only rains about 13 or 14 inches a year here in Lahaina on the island of Maui… Today we got about two of those inches. After starting the day with a team breakfast we headed over to the gym where we will be playing our games for a full practice. For nobody who has ever seen the Maui Invitational, it’s played in a small gym. I’m told it holds about 2,500 and everybody is right up on the court. It should be a fun atmosphere to play in. We practiced for two hours and it was an intense practice. With practice over we headed back to the hotel for lunch… And then Randa Ryan, our director of student and academic services got ahold of us for a few hours of studying. After all, we’re not here for a vacation. This is the most we will be away from class until February, so it’s important we continue to hit the books so we won’t have to catch up much when we get back. In the evening, the organizers of the tournament had a meet n’ greet planned with all the teams. I think they might be pulling for our opponent in the first round, Saint Joseph’s out of Philadelphia. They had Philly cheesesteaks in the buffet line, but no barbecue or Tex-Mex. At the party there, was a video game tournament with each team picking out two of their players to play guys from the other teams. Harrison (Smith) and I didn’t represent our team very well as we both lost in the opening round. The guys didn’t seem upset as it let us get back to the hotel sooner to get some rest. You would think getting back to the hotel at 8 p.m. would end the night. But it didn’t. We had big plans when we returned. We had an hour and a half to chill out before the real fun started. A 9:30 film study where the coaches showed us just about everything we could possibly see from Hawks on Monday.
Needless to say, after the day was over we were all ready for bed. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll get to see the Sun that Maui is famous for. Hook ‘em and Aloha, |
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