Keeping Score

Thanksgiving Break

by Gene | November 29, 2009

Well, my final Thanksgiving break as a student is coming to an end. It went ok. We had 3 basketball games.  But it was more than basketball this trip.

First, we flew from West Palm to Atlanta to play North Georgia in Dahlonega, about an hour outside of Atlanta. We had some amazing meals here, a nice steak one night, then a country breakfast the next morning. In the game, we ended up losing, but we made improvements and saw how good we can be. Pascal came off the bench and scored a career high 5 points. Vidal had 15 rebounds, continuing his rebounding dominance last year.

Then we flew from Atlanta to Pensacola on Wednesday. Later that day, my family came to town and picked me up from the hotel to spend some time with them, which was great.

On Thursday, we had practice then, I went with my family to Thanksgiving dinner, while the team had a catered meal from a local country club. This was the first family Thanksgiving I’ve had in four years. Yes, I’ve had Thanksgiving dinner with my basketball family the past three years, but nothing can fully fully replace your blood family.

On Friday, we played West Florida. We had guys step up big who have shown flashes, but this time they sustained it all game. Jovan and Rodney provided scoring while West Florida was containing Chris the first half. The second half, Chris showed why he is an All-American by scoring when we needed it. Bo had 12 rebounds. I’m pretty sure this is a career high for him. When he came to campus when he was in high school, I saw him rebound the ball at will during pick-up, and this was the first time he really showed it in college. Kendall provided a spark off the bench, which was great. All this combined resulted in a big win.

Today, while we lost, we again saw how great we can be. Kendall showed the athleticism that makes him so dangerous. He jumped over one or two guys for a tip dunk that electrified the team, then later we had a turnover and he hustled back and blocked an easy lay-up. Bo again had 10 rebounds.

If we continue to show improvement like we did this week, we will be a tough team to play very soon.

I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving break.

Enjoy having your time with your family, because once you are away from them, you come to love them so much.

Gene