Nov. 25, 2010
Sophomore guard Josh Bartelstein will give an inside look all season at the 2010-11 version of the Wolverines.
Hello everyone, you will not believe this, but I'm writing to you from my seat on our charter flight -- USA Jet Airlines -- as we are just about to take off for Atlantic City and the Legends Classic. I have been told Atlantic City is a much smaller version of Las Vegas. We will see, it has a lot to live up too if that is the case.
What makes this great is I get to document everything I see, especially as I watch Blake McLimans have a complete paranoia attack, as he is really scared of flying. He grabs on to whatever or whoever is around him and holds on for dear life - take off, landing, bumps, really anything. What I've tried to explain to Bird -- ironic his nickname is Bird and he hates flying -- is if we are going down, we are going down. There is nothing to worry about; it is completely out of his hands. It doesn't comfort him.
Today also happens to be Thanksgiving so I want to wish everyone a very happy Turkey day.
We celebrated Thanksgiving as a team before we left for the airport. Since our families are all over the country, we had an amazing meal at the Sheraton Hotel as a team. For this meal we had a very strict dress code called a No. 2. This means khakis, a button down shirt and nice shoes. For those who were wondering: No. 1 means you must wear a tie, No. 3 means you can wear jeans and finally No. 4 means Michigan sweats. Sounds simple enough right?
Well our team had not been fully equipped to carry out a Nos. 1 and 3, so we went No. 2. We have had issues in the past making sure everyone had black shoes and black socks. We had guys wearing adidas with white socks to nice functions. I can proudly let everyone know that we managed to completely fulfill the requirements of a No. 2 today and everyone looked great ...
Whoa, we just hit a rough patch of turbulence and Bird is holding on so tight to the arm rest his hands are being to turn white ...
Okay, I am back ... during the meal, we all went around the table and said what we were thankful for. There was many shared thoughts, but we realize truly realize how lucky we all are to play for such a great University and coaching staff.
Another reason to be so thankful is the team gear we receive. Since we are one of adidas biggest school's we get some top-notch gear. So far this year we have received several sweat suits, too many shoes to count, hats, shirts and pretty much anything you could possibly want. We are so, so fortunate.
Unlike most teams, we have a ritual when we receive our gear. Bob Bland, hands the gear out and we all sit in a circle and show our true appreciation for receiving the new clothes. It goes with today's blog theme of being thankful.
By far the highlight of receiving the new gear is seeing Tim Hardaway Jr's face when he gets his bag full of gear. It is like a little boy getting his first Christmas present His face just lights up and he really couldn't be happier. Another classic moment I will always remember.
As a team, we are all very excited for our game against Syracuse. It will be a great test, but we are ready. A lot of people say we are too young to compete with the big boys from the Big East, but we are going to Atlantic City for one reason, to win a championship.
I'm getting yelled at now to turn off my computer, as we are about to land in John DoRosario home state of New Jersey. I will write on our way back hopefully after a great weekend for Michigan basketball.
Wish us luck and again... Happy Thanksgiving!
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