Farewell Seniors, Hello Post Season

Hi everyone,

The 2012-13 season has finished and our post-season workouts have begun. In the words of Coach Booth, “Today’s another day to get better”.

We headed to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament as the 8th seed. We faced the No. 9 seed Manhattan College Jaspers, a team whom we split the series earlier in the season. The MAAC tournament is the best time of the year in my opinion. There is a high level of competitiveness and intensity. Every single team wants to be cutting down the net after the championship game and head to the NCAA tournament. No game is an easy game to win and on any given night, anyone can beat anyone. The Jaspers are a team whose primary defense is a 1-3-1 zone. In order to be successful, you need to shoot extremely well from the perimeter or be able to get the ball into the post. We did not shoot poorly and we played our tails off, but in the end, we could not walk away with a win. We wound up losing on a heart-breaking buzzer beater. Walking into the locker room after the game was just devastating. To see the look on the seniors’ faces, knowing that their collegiate basketball careers were over, was one of the worst sights I could ever witness. It made me realize that I only have one more year here at Loyola, and that time flies, even when you don’t want it to.

Post season has not been easy. We have had lifting and conditioning nearly every day, as well as an individual practice with the coaches once a week. By 8pm, I am ready for bed because my body is thoroughly exhausted.

One day, we were told to run/slide/ bunny hop up and down the bleachers holding heavy medicine balls. It was difficult, but fun and different at the same time. I’m excited to see the outcome of all of the hard work we are putting in now. The offseason is the time to improve. It’s the time to get in shape, improve your skills, and get stronger. We all want to enter the Patriot League next year with a bang.

Easter Break is about to begin in a few days and I cannot wait to see my family (I’m sure everyone is excited to be going home). This is actually the first full break the team has gotten all year. The coaches were nice enough to let us go home and come back with the other Loyola students, having Thursday through Monday off. It’s going to be so weird being home for so long! Especially since I spend the summer working at school, so I don’t get a lot of time at home.

I was able to capture a lot of footage of the team on away trips, so hopefully I will be able to make a recap video of our season soon. Steph Smith offered to give me a hand because she has done something similar before. I think it will be cool to show everyone what the team experiences on the road.

The spring sports are just beginning their seasons, so make sure you follow and support the Loyola Greyhounds! 

In The Midst Of February

Hi everyone,

A lot has happened since I last wrote! I apologize for the blog delay, as much has been going on academically and in basketball, so there has not been much time to write it all down.  We recently just returned from a long trip to Buffalo, NY and the team has been pretty swamped with schoolwork, trying to catch up in their classes. It is also around this time of the year when professors hold their midterm exams, so I know several teammates have three or four tests this week. Thankfully I only had one to make up. The hectic week is definitely dying down, and the team can’t wait to play Manhattan on Friday.

Over break Coach Logan had Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer, Theresa Grentz, come guest speak to the team. Coach Grentz was a co-captain of Immaculata College’s national championship team from 1972-74. Along with leading her team to three national championships, Grentz also earned three First-Team All American honors. Hearing her speak was truly inspirational and it taught the team a lot about basketball and life. She spoke about how players are losing their love for the game and that they need to find that passion and want to win.

The Alumni game took place a few weeks ago. A number of former Greyhounds came back to play, and stayed to watch our victory over the Siena College Saints. It was really nice to see players return to Loyola for the day and show their support. The Alumni game seemed to be really fun for everyone who came, as spectators got to enjoy my wonderful PA voice. When I say wonderful, I actually mean dull, boring, and lifeless. I should never go into sports announcing.

We were able to keep a good show going after the alumni game, and played very well against Saints, winning 53-37. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned before that we really pride ourselves in our defense. We believe that if we can hold a team to under 40 points, we will be able to win that game. Our win against Siena happened to be a payback game, after losing to the team in January, as it was also the third win of our three game wine streak.

Time is flying by and we unfortunately only have seven games left in the regular season. Hopefully we will be able to play to our potential and finish the season off with a bang. The team will face Manhattan College for Play 4Kay day Friday at 7pm, and will be heading to New Jersey to face Rider University on Sunday.  Please show some support and come to Friday’s game wearing pink for breast cancer awareness!!!

Start of MAAC Play

Hello everyone!

 

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and are enjoying 2013. Thankfully the world did not end on December 21^st like the Mayans predicted, so there is still basketball to be played!

 

Last Friday was the start of our MAAC play against the Fairfield Stags. We wound up losing the game 64-54 in Fairfield’s gym. Coach Logan was pretty upset with the loss and everyone knew we did not play to the best of our abilities. Our defense, something we pride ourselves on, was lacking, and many of Fairfield’s scores were uncontested and not earned. It was a frustrating start to our conference play and it showed us that winning games in the conference is not an easy thing to do.

 

We had to both keep in mind the feeling of loss against the Stags, but we also had to move on and mentally prepare for our game against Saint Peter’s, which was held on Sunday afternoon right after our men’s team defeated the St. Peter’s men’s team 74-58. Saturday’s practice consisted of a lot of defensive work. We went back to preseason drills of closing out and defensive positioning. No one wanted a repeat of the Fairfield loss. We told ourselves that if St. Peter’s were going to beat us, they would have to really earn it and be the better team at the end of the day.

 

Our team played pretty poorly in the first half, shooting terribly from the free throw line. Six free throws were missed and four of the six were the front end of a one and one. That’s a potential 10 points that we could have added to our score in just the first half. With the way we started off the game, being down by only six points at halftime was not terrible and we knew what we needed to do in order to come back. We successfully defeated the Peahens 56-47 and got our first MAAC win.

 

The team is traveling to Poughkeepsie, N.Y., on Friday to face the Marist Red Foxes and will be facing the Rider Broncs Sunday afternoon at 4pm in Reitz Arena. If anyone is in the area please come support us hounds! Hope to see you there!

A Win Before Break

Hello everyone!

I am currently sitting on the bus on the ride home from our Syracuse-Army trip. We just finished up our last game until after the Christmas holiday. Loyola University Maryland has it’s final exams starting Wednesday, so everyone on the team will be able to focus on their schoolwork now that we don’t have a game for a few of weeks.

A few weeks ago, Coach Logan warned us that the next few weeks were going to be extremely busy, and he was right. We would have 6 games within a 13-day period, along with all of the schoolwork professor’s pile on you since it is the end of the semester. He also warned us that we would be missing the last week of classes, which is usually when assignments are due and professors review the material that would be on the final exam. Thankfully everyone was able to manage their off time wisely and get their work done ahead of time, so we would be able to focus on our games when we needed to.

We faced American, Lehigh and Pittsburgh all within a five-day period. We were hoping to get our revenge on all three teams from our last years games, where we had lost to each of them. We were able to defeat both American and Lehigh on our home court, which was awesome, but couldn’t leave Pittsburgh with a win, unfortunately. Because the games were scheduled within a couple days of each other, we did not have much time to reflect on our previous games. We would finish a game, then have to immediately focus on the game to come.

The team came home from the Pittsburgh game around 2 a.m. last Thursday morning. We attended our last day of classes that day, and headed to Syracuse Friday morning. Although this was my first time to Syracuse, I feel like I had been there a million times before because Syracuse is Alyssa’s home town and I’ve heard so many stories. The Carrier Dome was unreal and everyone was so excited to be playing in it against such a great team. Although we lost the game against Syracuse, it was an unreal, once in a lifetime experience that I think everyone enjoyed.

After the game, the team got to go to Alyssa’s Nonna and Nonno’s (Her grandmother and grandfather’s) house for dinner. Being from Italy, her grandma made AMAZING homemade pasta, sauce, meatballs, desserts, etc. Mrs. Sutherland also made her famous brownies and Oreo balls which are to die for. Let me just say that the food was so good that I had to lie down on a couch afterwards from consuming so much. The whole family was so welcoming and the team had an awesome time. Thank you again Sutherlands/Ponzas!!!

Before our game against Army, we were allowed to walk around the beautiful West Point campus. It was awesome to see all of the historical monuments and have Alyssa give us a history lesson about every statue we saw… Smarty pants. She even quizzed us on our walk back to our hotel. To her surprise, we actually got a lot of her questions right.

The Army women’s basketball head coach, Coach Magarity, was nice enough to give us a tour of the athletic building where the gym is located. We got to walk through the Army sports hall of fame. It was so cool and interesting to see all of the history the school has.  We also got to touch a piece of the Berlin wall, which was located in the same building. I wish we could have stayed another day or even another hour because I feel like I only got to see a tenth of the school’s history.

Tonight’s game was an awesome, well deserved, team win. Coach has been saying, “put 40 minutes together” meaning, play all 40 minutes to the best of your ability. Execute the offense, play good defense, out hustle the opposing team, and just play solid Loyola basketball for the full 40 minutes. Coach was pretty impressed with our performance tonight and gave the team credit for putting together about 34 minutes of the 40 (6 minutes were taken away from the 40 because we let Army come back in the second half). 34 minutes might be the most amount of minutes put together all season. We defeated Army 53-47.

Alright, well I better start studying for my first exam that will be on Wednesday at 9am! Accounting…bleh. Hate it. Wish me luck and talk to you all soon! 

First Weeks Of The Season

Happy Thanksgiving!!

From my last blog until now, we played four games. Our season started off with an away game against The University of Hartford in Connecticut. Although we did not play as well as we had hoped, Hartford has a great basketball program and we learned a lot of valuable things from our loss. The first-year players were also able to experience what it was like staying in a hotel and traveling on the road. I was lucky enough to get freshman, Jeneh Perry as a roommate for the first road trip. The game ended with a score of 64-50 Hartford.

We headed home the morning after the game to prepare for our home opening game against fifth-ranked Maryland, which would be the following day. We are fortunate enough to play UMD every year. A team that is always ranked one of the top teams in the country. Going into the game against UMD, we knew both physical and mental strength needed to be present the entire time. If one of those were lacking, Maryland would blow us away within minutes.

After hanging on for most of the first half and giving it all we had, Maryland was still able to leave Reitz with a victory. The final score was 80-45.

The team was given the following day off to rest our bodies and take an academic day to catch up on some work before our next game which was that coming Saturday against UMBC. UMBC is a team we also play every year and since I have been here, each year had been a loss for the greyhounds. UMBC is a local rival that always tests our abilities on the court. I was particularly excited this year because one of my old high school teammates plays basketball for the UMBC Retrievers as a freshman center.

As a whole, we played extremely well. We were able to have 18 assists (Katie with ten alone) and only 10 turnovers (which might be an all-time low for us). Nicole shot unbelievably well during the game, shooting 5 for 8 from three and recorded her first collegiate double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. We executed the offense well, got stops on defense, and came home with our first win of the season with a final score of 68-55.

Our last game before Thanksgiving break was against the Midshipmen of the Naval Academy on Tuesday night. Navy, another team whom we play every year, won the patriot league last spring. Because Loyola is joining the patriot league next year, this game would be a test for us to see how we can hold up against our future opponents. Coach Logan warned us that in previous years, we normally play terribly in the games right before a holiday break and that we would need to really focus and understand that our break begins after the final buzzer goes off. Unfortunately the poor performance curse continued against Navy. We played terribly and did not show the patriot league what we were capable of doing. We dug ourselves a hole in the first half and were unable to climb our way out completely. The final score was 71-60.

I just got back to Baltimore from being home for a couple of days and I know that I, as well as the rest of my team, will be ready to work in practice tonight. Our next game will be held in Reitz Arena this Sunday against Towson at 2pm. If you are in the area, come out and support the hounds. It will be another local rivalry game and will be totally worth the trip. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and I hope to see you Sunday.   

Getting Started 2012-2013!

After spending a little bit of time catching up on some school work, and getting used to my busy schedule, I’m finally back on the blog!

Last week Loyola held its version of “Midnight Madness”. It was called Late Night With The ‘Hounds, since it technically was not at midnight. The event was very fun, and I think everyone enjoyed himself or herself. It was nice to have both the men and women’s team introduced to the hundreds of students, faculty, friends, or family.

The men’s and women’s basketball teams were introduced with smoke and spotlights at Late Night With The Hounds!

There were several different competitions where students had the chance to win great prizes, such as free books for a semester (which would probably save about $600), free Qdoba burritos for a year, or free Chick-Fil-A for a year. I’m actually jealous that I wasn’t allowed to compete in those competitions!

More from Late Night With The Hounds introductions.

After the games, both teams got 10 minutes to play scrimmages. My team (the good guys) had an amazing comeback to end the game tied up with the other team (the bad guys). Overall, I think it was a great night and I look forward to having it next year.

Our team has been practicing for a while now, and things are starting to really look good for us. I’m excited to see how we do this year because we have been working so hard, and I think all of the hard work will definitely pay off. Our first scrimmage was supposed to be last weekend, but it was cancelled unfortunately, so we had our first scrimmage against another team yesterday.

Although we did not play as well as we would have liked, I think it was a good learning opportunity and will really help us see what we need improvement on before we head to Hartford, Conn., for our first game against the University of Hartford on Friday night.

Our first home game will be on Sunday at 7pm in Reitz Arena against The University of Maryland. The team would love to see a big crowd there, so if you are in the area, come support the ‘Hounds!

Where in the World is Coach Gless – Part 5

Well I have finally made it back to the USA! Last night I watched a close game between the USA and Australia followed by an intense game between France and Russia.  I was lucky enough to bump into a girl I knew back from when I played in England who had an extra ticket to the France/Russia game.  The ticket I had purchased was up in the nose bleeds (it’s the Olympics, it doesn’t matter where you sit!) but I was able to sit 5 ROWS BACK AT CENTER COURT.  It was amazing.  I got to see Dumerc from France go against Becky Hammon from Russia… two of the best PGs in the game were battling 30 feet in front of me.  I attached a picture to give you an idea of how close I really was.  France ended up winning that game securing themselves at least a silver medal.  Seeing them celebrate and join hands and run in a circle smiling and laughing you could see the pure joy in their faces.  This is what this team had worked years for.  (It was more exciting than the USA team after their win, because France was making history with this win, whereas the USA was expected to win).  Leaving the arena was quite entertaining surrounded by the French fans.  The French men’s team had already been eliminated so all the focus was on the women’s team.  They were waving their flags and chanting the entire way out of the arena onto the underground.  I had my American flag shirt on and walked proudly, knowing that France was up against the USA in the finals and USA was the favorite to win.

I somehow ended up getting bumped up to first class on my flight home back to Baltimore.  Wow, first class is the way to fly! They give you everything you need up there… from ear plugs, blankets, pillows, even socks! So I was able to reflect on my European trip comfortably J  In between watching movies, I began reading Coach Logan’s summer reading assignment “The Lone Survivor.”  It is written by a NAVY seal that fought in Afghanistan.  The courage and heroism these men show for our country is unbelievable.  It is amazing to see how teamwork plays a huge role in the highest rank in the United States Army, just as it does with a basketball team.  Working as a unit will be far more successful than working as disconnected individuals.  I look forward to discussing this book with the staff and players once the school year starts.

These past two weeks have flown by!!  It was definitely a once in a lifetime trip and I couldn’t be more thankful for Loyola, and Coach Logan, for giving me the opportunity.  At the end of the day, experiencing different cultures makes me realize even more how much I love where I come from.   Meeting people from all over, I learned that it is some peoples’ dreams to come to America. Not just to visit, but to live. So after this trip I can confidently say, that I am proud to be an American!