Dec. 2, 2010
What's up everyone?
What a great win that was last night. Clemson is a very good team and anytime you play on the road it is very difficult. Littlejohn Coliseum was very loud, the Clemson fans make a lot of noise but we stuck together and showed the potential we have to be a very good team.
After struggling against UTEP's defensive pressure, we had a feeling Clemson would try to do the same, but after cleaning some things up for a couple days in practice, you could see the big difference.
Moving to the fun stuff, some interesting things took place in South Carolina. For one, it was a very bumpy ride. Bird (Blake McLimans) was really struggling and when we finally landed he got an ovation from Zack (Novak), Stu (Douglass), Matt (Vogrich) and myself. What freaked Bird out even more was the fact a fire truck was waiting for us when we landed.
Now I tried to tell him this was a good thing because if we did crash they would already be waiting for us, but he didn't fall for that and was freaked out of the thought of being saved by a fireman. But this was not the most interesting/weird thing that happened in Clemson.
Clemson's gym has some unique characteristics to it. I'm not talking about how loud it is, or the fact their colors are purple and orange (interesting note we have played three straight teams with the color orange, has to be a record right?) but the fact we had to take an elevator to our locker room -- there was no chance anyone was going to walk up all the stairs.
I have never heard of this or seen this in my life: our locker room was on the third floor of the gym. The only good thing about it was after the game we had a nice celebration riding the elevator back to our dressing room.
I always get questions about what a game day is like on the road. People always say you have so much free time on the road, but that really is far from the truth. So below I'm going to break down a game day for everyone. On a side note, everyone should keep track of the amount of food we eat because it is absurd. This is the work of the great John DoRosario of course.
Game Day at Clemson
(9:00 a.m.) Wake Up.
(9:30 a.m.) Team Breakfast. We usually have an omelet station plus other normal breakfast foods.
(10:00 a.m.) Film Session. This film session usually has us watching practice from the day before and also some clips on Clemson. It could be player personnel or it could be certain plays they like to run. Our coaches have every corner covered. We go into every game extremely prepared.
(10:50 a.m.) Break. Time to take a walk outside or just watch some TV. For me this means watch Modern Family, the best show on TV that Stu Douglass turned me onto. I've literally watched 20 episodes in the last week thanks to all the travel.
(12:30 p.m.) Team Lunch. Sandwiches, soup and chips are typical for a game day lunch. We also have a smoothie bar where there is intense competition to make the best smoothie. Last year, I think I took home the award, but this year both Jordan (Morgan) and Jon (Horford) can make a mean smoothie.
(1:30 p.m.) Depart for Arena. We go to the gym to get acquainted with the shooting background and get any last minute preparations done. This means running through plays, getting their out-of-bounds plays down and anything we can think of to get an advantage.
(3:00 p.m.) Relax. Some time to relax or in my case take a quiz. For those of us who are missing a test or quiz, they let us take it on the road as long as an academic advisor is looking over me while I'm taking it. Thanks Professor Malone for letting me take it!
(5:00 p.m.) Pregame Meal. The third meal of the day some people eat, not including snacks, usually has us eating chicken and pasta with some vegetables and potatoes on the side. Always a very good meal. This is also the last time we watch film and go over our game plan one last time.
(7:30 p.m.) Depart for Arena and load up the bus. We are now ready to go to our game and take on Clemson. The bus is silent because everyone is listening to their iPods with Dr. Dre's beats on.
(9:00 p.m.) Tip off at Clemson
(11:30 p.m.) We are celebrating a great win and singing The Victors song in the locker room. After everyone showers, we say hello to some fans and get on the bus to head to the airport. The last meal of the night is served on the bus and it is the biggest of all them. For example, last night in my bag, I had chicken wings, a salad, salmon with vegetables, ice cream and some sort of cake. No one can possibly eat this much.
(3:30 a.m.) After landing at Willow Run airport, everyone is exhausted, but couldn't be happier after a successful night's work. We are on the bus headed back to Crisler to load into our cars and then head right to sleep because in about five hours, class starts.
So there you have it. The Clemson trip in a nutshell.
Keep sending your questions to askjbart20@gmail.com.
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