Aug. 17, 2006
Greetings from Australia!
Sydney is the most beautiful city I have ever seen. With the Harbour and the Opera House, and its amazing beaches, this is a place I could see myself visiting again. Plus it has a huge downtown, very similar to New York, but more like Chicago, with large skyscrapers sitting just off the Harbour. I was surprised to see that the company I interned at this summer, Aon, had one of the largest buildings in Sydney. I was bragging to my teammates about how big time I was by working for Aon. Up into this point all I have talked about is the city and my sightseeing, but there was plenty of basketball to be played.
Our first game was against the West Sydney Razorbacks. Maybe it was the flight, or it was our first game playing together or the gym was too cold or the floor too slippery, but long story short, we got destroyed. The Razorbacks have been playing together for a long time and their experience played a huge role as they took control early and never looked back. One thing we learned as a team is that since we are representing the United States, teams are going to be gunning for us. The great thing about sports is the next night we had a game against the Sydney Kings and a chance to redeem ourselves from the night before, and we did just that. I can look back now and say this was my best game of the trip. I threw some no-look passes for dunks and made a few old-school lay-ups and funky shots that excited the crowd and got our team going, as we prevailed in a hard fought win.
The next day we boarded a flight to our second destination, Brisbane, Australia. The part of Brisbane where we were staying was called Surfer's Paradise and it is very similar to Miami. It sits directly on the ocean and it is an absolutely gorgeous city with many gift shops and storefronts to pick up souvenirs to bring back home. The first day we spent most of the day lying on the beach and headed to bed early--for we had an 11 a.m. game the next morning against the Brisbane Bullets. Once again we prevailed in a hard-fought, come from behind win. With the game over, the team headed out into town to grab food or hit the beach.
With Australia being 14 hours ahead of New York, I have been going to bed early and waking up even earlier. I never realized how long a day is when you start it at 5:30 a.m. I'm usually rolling over at that time. So this particular morning I challenged my teammate Mike Walker of Penn State to a friendly tennis match. It turned out to be not so friendly for me as I was beaten 6-3, 6-1. That night was our last and final game and we were clicking on all cylinders as we scored over 140 points and cruised to an easy victory. Getting a chance to play with all these guys has been a great experience. To meet guys from different walks of life, and with me being the oldest on the team, pointing out different things to young guys to help them improve their game. All in all, this is going to be an experience that I will never forget.
Our last day in Brisbane we visited the Australia Zoo, home of the Crocodile Hunter. I got a chance to take some great pictures with kangaroos and koala bears and got a chance to see a crocodile show. It was something else.
Well, it's getting to that time where I'm getting ready to board my flight back to the States and get prepared for this upcoming school year and season. Hope to see you at the games. Go Cats!!!
Aug. 11, 2006
Greetings from Down Under,
So far the trip has been a wonderful experience. Our training camp at the University of Michigan was deemed a success, for it takes some time get used to playing with different players and adjusting to our new coach, Coach Amaker, but after a few days of practice, things began to click. And right as we began to gel as a team on the floor, we boarded for our journey to the land down under. Overall, the flight from Ann Arbor to Australia was over 20 hours! Now that we've arrived in Sydney, it has truly become an experience that I will never forget. Thursday we awoke to mid-50 degree temperatures and took off to our practice facility, which apparently the janitor left the windows open all throughout the night. The gym was freezing! Coach did a great job and getting the team ready and focused for practice and I thought it was one of our best practices yet.
Friday we walked the streets of Sydney, across the Harbour Bridge, which overlooks downtown Sydney, to the Sydney Opera House. We had a guided tour through the Opera House and was surprised to find out the Opera House took nearly three times longer to build and nearly $100 million more than expected. Once inside, it was beautiful. I know my mother would have thought that, but as for a bunch of college boys, it might have dragged on a bit.
Next we ate at the most famous seafood restaurant in Sydney, Doyles! Of all the places! I ordered fresh oysters and calamari and even sought the family discount at the end, but was politely handed the full bill. I guess my New York charm doesn't carry any weight down here.
We arrived back home from our tour of downtown Sydney and hit my bed at 3:30 p.m. and forgot to set an alarm. Next thing I knew it was 6 a.m. Oh well, I have to make up for some lost time today.