ON THE ROAD (SECOND INSTALLMENT)
11/26/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 26, 2004
LAMARIE, Wyo. - Day 3 Wow!
With the exception of church services, I have never heard so many people as quiet as last night's game against New Mexico State. Your Mavs played crisp, smart basketball for the entire game. NMSU was never in the game and their fans knew it. If we could bottle that game, we would be at the NCAA Tournament in March. As far as execution, it was one of the best games by a team I have ever seen. Post play, guard play, a truly great night for the Mavs.
It was fun to see Coach afterwards. He came to our (trainer Terry Lehman and myself) room after the game and said it ranked among his best wins and it was sweet to win. His cell phone was ringing off the hook from coaches around the country who saw the score crawl across the screen. He was all smiles last night.
Thanksgiving Day and we are headed to Wyoming. Coach played the Cowboys in his first season and won 79-70 in their tournament. It was an interim season for Coach after Mark Nixon resigned before the start of the season.
Throughout the day you can hear conversations that are all similar ... "save me some food and I miss you."
I believe long road trips tell a lot about a team's inner strength. So far I see a team with good chemistry that enjoys each others company. We were able to catch the last quarter of Dallas' win over Chicago.
Laramie is out in the wide-open prairie of southeastern Wyoming. Winds cut through you and snow has dusted the landscape. As we drive into Laramie, it is almost like a ghost town thanks to the cold and students out on break. The University of Wyoming has nice facilities and they should being the only four-year college in the state. The entire state has less than 500,000 people live here compared to the city of Arlington with more than 300,000. A cozy arena that I wish we could take a page from and build on our campus.
Coach made sure the guys were not content on the NMSU win with a hard practice last Thursday. Practice was sluggish due to the thin air and day of travel and coach made the point clear - there is still work to be done.
To my girls, Happy Thanksgiving and I love ya.
(UTA Assistant A.D. for Marketing/Sports Information, Bill Petitt, writes a report in a periodic series on the road with the UTA men's basketball team.)
