It was an oreo-like weekend in the friendly confines of Croy Gymnasium. We host two teams this weekend, Grand Valley State and Ferris State. On Thursday we hosted GVSU and had a "white-out" game. On Saturday we played Ferris State and had a "black-out" game. I know it's not March but there was nothing but Madness in Findlay this past weekend. People walking through campus all day Saturday getting there free black t-shirts to wear to the game, lines down the street, it's amazing how much support we have in this city. The fans love us and we adore them.
     Now back to business, we are currently 20-0 this year with a 13-0 mark in the GLIAC, sitting atop the GLIAC and nation. Being on top always has its ups and downs, but the ups definetly out weight the downs in my book. Everyone says that we have a bulls-eye on our backs, which may be true, but coming out of the locker room at game-time, our opponents have the target on there heads and we are locked in. We are #1, and everyone wants to take us down so they can be the best. Every game we get every one's best effort, so they can prove they are a good team, or better than us. We get the special defenses, the hard fouls, the special nights on away games so the oppnent can have that extra advantage with their home crowd to try and get in our heads and distract us mentally. "Where am I going with this?" you might add, but we get everyone's best efforts every night, but the thing people don't realize is that we come out everynight and everygame to prove that we are #1 and that this team is hungry. We want to prove that hard work pays off, we work so hard in practice that our practices seem like games sometimes. It's so competitive and physical, every single player on this team hates losing, even if it's a simple rebounding drill at the end of practice. I believe that is why we are in the situation we are in. Everyone plays bad games throughout the year, individually and as a team. The good teams are the teams that can find a way to "snuff" out a win on the road while playing a bad game. I believe the atmosphere out coaches force in practice is the reason why we close games with a win. We have for sure had our bad games, but we always do what it takes to get the win.
     On a lighter note, we play Northwood and Wayne State this week, both being home games. It should be a great weekend of basketball, Preseason Player of the year in basically every thing a player can be nominated for is really proving that he is an elite player. He amazes me sometimes with the type of focus he has during games. He's locked in and we follow right behind him. Josh can really take over a game at any point, and being surrounded by the arsenal of players that he is, teams can not put as much effort in stopping just one player. He has been playing great, on another level actually the last 5 or 6 games. He's been player of the week for I believe the last 16 months, (ha ha). Well maybe just the 4 or 5 times this year.
      One thing about the end of the year and post season starting up is the practice times. When the regular season's end approaches, our practices are much shorter, definetly appreciated by us "old heads." The time of practice may be cut, but the intensity of practice increases dramatically. Coach believes if the practices is short, we as players should be able to take every play of every possession in every practice at100%. Which they normally are, because if they are not Coach Niekamp has his own way of letting us know.
   I haven't been updated this as often as I want to, so from here on out I will post a little something a couple times a week.
     Well, like the good student I am, I need to study! Coach Ernst is probably checking on my where abouts now!! Talk to you soon.