Journal Entry 5 | Photos From The Trip
When I began writing this I was sitting on a bus, heading to Fordham University in New York.
Tuesday February 9th
We are just starting a two-game road trip where we will face Fordham University and the University of Massachusetts. Due to the unwavering snow we woke up to this morning, our flight has been cancelled. We were supposed to get on a bus at 1:30 to go to the airport but instead we boarded a bus at 1:30 to drive the distance. Most of us were not pleased when we had heard we were going to be driving 11 hours into the night instead of flying but secretly I was kind of happy that the snow decided to dump on us today. Considering my days as a senior at Dayton are dwindling a long road trip is kind of a great way to sneak in some extra time with the team before the season comes to an end. I think those, “worst road trips ever” and crazy experiences with the team are one of those things you think are awful when picturing it but end up being the times you remember and miss the most when you leave. The adverse times you made fun, the deviations from the too familiar itinerary are what make the greatest moments with a team. I remember one time last year when we were coming back from the Columbus airport, an unfortunate mishap happened. I don’t remember who we had played but we were all ready to get home and then the bus started acting up about 20-30 minutes from campus. At first it seemed like engine problems but then after seeing one of the bus tires across the street we knew we were definitely going to be stranded for some time. Luckily, there was a lot of space on the side of the road and the snow had been coming down earlier that week. Our team ended up getting into a huge snow fight on the side of the road and despite the fact that Casey will never let me live down that she dominated me in a snow wrestle match it was one of the best times with the team in my four years. The ability to make a bad situation into something fun is one of my favorite parts of our team and I have a feeling that we will have to put those skills to work in the upcoming days.
Wednesday February 10th
Our game was moved to Thursday afternoon because we did not end up getting to the hotel until 3:30 am. So after a bit of a sleep, we had some breakfast and headed off to practice at Fordham. After referencing David, the Fordham director of basketball operations, Jabir validated his statement that Fordham was the oldest gym in NCAA history. It’s pretty cool to play in a historical gym like that. After practice we went outside into a continuing snowstorm to wait for the bus, the bus that would not come. Somehow our bus managed to get stuck in the snow in a parking lot on the other side of campus. Making the best of another bad situation, we were inspired by the fort building and snow-ball throwing events that were happening in a courtyard across the street from the gym. We began by challenging each other like we had the previous year and then somewhere along the lines the Fordham students began throwing snow at us. I don’t know whose idea it was but we plotted an attack on a group of around 20 Fordham students. This plot was not executed well because I don’t think we landed one snowball and ended up being chased by half the students in the courtyard. Olivia thought it would be a good idea to hide in the abandoned fort, but just ended up getting pelted by snowballs when she was discovered. The plan was not all bad though because we did end up meeting one of Fordham’s practice players that had played Casey against the Fordham team in practice. Arnoldo Uhli later tried to throw us off by feeding us false Fordham game-plan but we were not fooled. We sat outside throwing snowballs at Olivia for a little while longer until it got too cold to be outdoors. We sat on the stairs inside the building that had their gym and student union for a couple hours. We got to know Arnoldo a little better and guessed that he was using reverse psychology when telling us that we were a “slow-it-down” kind of team. After a little more waiting and missing dinner we decided to eat in the Fordham student union. This was another hilarious experience just because we couldn’t imagine seeing another team in our KU (student union). We had a good dinner though and discovered some delicious hot chocolate before a tow-truck brought our bus around. When finally piling on the bus, Elle commented that we should give the bus a nickname so we named it Glo-rider after our bus driver Gloria, who somehow was always in a great mood. To end the day, Glo-rider took us back to our hotel to hit our beds and get rested up to play Fordham the next day.
Thursday February 11th
For the first time this year we didn’t take a shoot-around in order to get some much needed extra sleep. We played Fordham at noon and other then briefly getting locked in the locker room before the game we ended up getting a W without too much drama. Immediately following the game we got on the bus to travel to Massachusetts. We started that trip with a tour around Manhattan. We saw the Museum Mile and Central Park before convincing Jabir to let us out at the Rockefeller Center to shop for an hour. Casey, Elle and I made extremely good use of our time. We managed to completely inspect J. Crew and Anthropology as well as try on a couple outfits while still leaving time for Ben and Jerry’s before making it to the bus on time. The traffic to Amherst was not the best but nevertheless we made it.
Friday February 12th
We had practice today and afterwards had the chance to go to the Basketball Hall of Fame. A lot of us were pretty excited because the coaches gave us time to put on “normal clothes”. Hey, you would be excited too if you spent most of your life on the road in a blueberry sweat suit. We ate a quick lunch at Uno and then spent the next couple of hours at the Hall of Fame. Elle and I spent a lot of time on each floor just taking in the history. It is pretty incredible to think about the evolution of the game. The funniest part was wondering why it took so long to cut the bottom out of the peach basket. It had to be annoying to pop the ball out of the basket with a stick after every score. After virtually beating Dawn Staley in one on one, completing a mock sport’s telecast and successfully dunking on a nine-foot rim in flats and jeans I was very happy with my visit to the Hall of Fame. To end the day with a bang, Gloria showed us some serious get-low dance moves that would make re-appearances throughout the trip. I don’t think the trip would be complete without having Gloria at the wheel of Glo-rider.
Saturday February 13th
We took our shoot around this morning and after finally figuring out how to defend their dribble drive offense we felt confident going into the game. I think we were probably tired at this point in the trip but after all the events that had occurred there was no way we were going to go through the road trip we did and not come out with two W’s. UMass is tough to play because they have so many three-point threats but by the time Kristin scored her 1000th point in the second half we felt we had secured the win. Kristin scoring her 1000th point was so exciting for me. Besides being one of my roommates and one of my best friends, she is an extremely dedicated ball player and it was so well deserved. Not to mention that is was nice for her to get it then since her mom had driven all the way to UMass to see it happen. Hopefully I can do the same for my parents in the upcoming games, only 21 points to go! After the game we made the long bus trip back to Dayton and arrived at about 6:30 in the morning on Sunday.
After thoughts
As happy as I was to finally get back to my own bed in Dayton, I was also happy that I could add the past trip events to my memories at UD. For us, the best times are sometimes created when things don’t go as planned because if everyday just follows the previously laid out itinerary it can turn into just another day.
It’s a great day to be a Flyer!
Kendel Ross
