Brendan Rios Blogs From Newport News, Virgina

Senior Brendan Rios keeps a running web blog from the men's basketball team trip to Newport News, Virginia

12/28 - Greetings From Newport News | 12/29 - Po'Boy's & The Captains Shootout

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Today was our last day in Newport News and it ended up being an ideal one.

We woke up and met around 9:30 AM to go to the Nautica Naval Museum in Norfolk, Virginia, and also got to walk around on the former U.S. Battleship, the USS Wisconsin. The museum itself was pretty neat; it had a lot of historical things on ships from the past and it also had an area which was focused on marine life. They had a part of the museum where you could pet smaller sharks which were in this tank, which was definitely the main attraction. My personal favorite was the USS Wisconsin ship itself.

The ship itself was huge. We got to walk around pretty much the entire outside of the ship where you could see all the turrets and you could go inside as well as see the living quarters, plus other parts of the ship.

Once we got back from the museum and lunch we didn't have too much down time before our game. We played at 4 PM and we played Otterbein University from Ohio. We started the game slow, and ended up being down at the half. In the second, we locked in and came out with the "W". It was a good team effort win and was a good way to end our trip in Virginia. I don't think I heard a locker room get as loud as when Coach (Lindberg) mentioned we were going to the Golden Corral after the game. At dinner, we must have cleaned out a quarter of all of their food.

Overall, the trip was good to get out of New England, even with the weather not being that great in Virginia. Thank you to those of you who support us and keep doing so, we hope to see more people at these games come second semester!

Go Lancers!

Brendan Rios

Pictured Above: The Lancers Pose In Front Of The Gun Turrets On The USS Wisconsin

Pictured Below: Assistant Coach Dan Koen Inside Of A Submarine At The Nautica Museum

Monday, December 29, 2014 - Po'Boy's & The Captains Shootout

Hello everyone!

We began our day today with a light practice and shoot-around to prepare us for our game tonight against Hood University. We got back to our hotel and left to eat lunch shortly after at a spot near the hotel. It took a bit to accommodate all of our orders of food and luckily they had some pool tables which our team took advantage of.

As far as the food went I ended up getting a Po'Boy (basically a shrimp sub) while others got different kinds of burgers, sandwiches, chicken tenders. One thing I couldn't help but notice and may have been the omen for our game is my Po'Boy only came with a few pieces of shrimp; I had a funky feeling after only getting a couple pieces of shrimp on my sub the day may not go as planned.

We ended up coming on the short end of the stick in our game tonight against Hood in a 70-62 defeat. It was a close game throughout, but little mistakes within the last few minutes really ended up costing us. We didn't necessarily play bad at all, we rebounded well and moved the ball fairly well. But we just didn't get the stops on defense we needed or capitalized on offense late in the game like we wanted to.

There was a solid showing at our game and even during winter break, it seemed that (our host) Christopher Newport really cherishes basketball. The crowd really went above and beyond for teams in the tournament and especially for Christopher Newport too.

We are playing Otterbein from Ohio tomorrow in the Consolation game at 4:00 PM. I will make sure if I get a Po'Boy again to ask for extra shrimp. I will keep Lancer Nation updated.

Hope all is well in New England!

Brendan

Senior Brendan Rios (Left) and classmate Charles Gunter (Right) Enjoy Lunch With Their Teammates On Monday Before The Squads Game Against Hood

Gunter (Left) and sophomore John Basile (Right) Get A Round Of Pool After Lunch

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Greetings from Newport News, Virginia!

On this beautiful Sunday morning we left Worcester around 7 AM for our tournament early this week in Newport News, Virginia, being hosted by Christopher Newport University. After a long 12 hour bus ride filled with snapchats and naps, we finally had arrived in Virginia.

Virginia Beach is seems like it would be extremely nice during the spring and summer, and the weather now is much more tolerable than that in New England right now. We arrived roughly around 6:30 PM and had practice at 8:30 at Christopher Newport.

The facility we are playing in is beautiful. The school has a mini arena style court and the campus itself looks like it'd be nice as well, given that the school is right on the water basically. The practice was much needed since we have had only one practice since the break before we left this morning.

The rest of the squad and I are eager to get on the court tomorrow and prove what we are capable of, despite of what others see as a struggle, we know and we believe we can do some damage to the teams we play. I believe that stems from our off the court relationships and how close we are. It is a good opportunity to be able to play against teams in different parts of the country and to see where certain talents lie. Tomorrow we play Hood College from Maryland at 5:30 and Otterbein University (Ohio) will be playing Christopher Newport University right after our game.

Time to get some rest and get ready for the tournament tomorrow evening! Wish us luck and I will keep you updated!

Your very own Lancer,

Brendan Rios

Junior Manny Cabral Walks Off The Court During A Practice At Christopher Newport On Sunday Evening