A Win and Periphery

We gave everyone the morning off and headed for the arena around 11:30 central time. Everything was pretty much normal. We sat and watched UT dismantle Or@l Roberts (insert crass basketball band cheer here). The UT and TX Tech fans were there in force. We were pretty much expecting this. We are also expecting to have a crowd that is overwhelmingly against us on Monday night.


The band for the team we were playing against arrived about 10 minutes before the game. This is a little unusual. They are a portion of a "scatter" band, like the old UV@ prototype: student-run without very much attention to the traditional components of musicality: not my thing, but to each his/her own. It made the fact that we didn’t have any natural first trumpets not such a big deal.

I had to pull rank on the other band (we were the higher seed) at one point because they were trying to dictate who played at what time in such a way that would be to our disadvantage. I hate doing that and wish people would just play.

The highlight of the game was when we were up 2-1 and the band began chanting "twice your score!"

The guard (JH) that got hurt says she will play Monday.

Went back to the hotel and watched some men’s hoops. The local CBS affiliate was carrying the Nevada game, so we couldn’t watch Corley and company until well into the second half of that game.

We were preparing to take the band to another mall tonight, and were giving them per diem in the lobby of the hotel in view of a tv where we could watch the conclusion of the UWM game. Though it was already time to be on the bus, Schmateman and I just didn’t think it would be right to not see the game to the end to make sure the good guys won. We were 17 minutes late leaving as a result, and we were glad we did it.

I ate with a few of the band members, a real pleasure that I am glad I am recognizing while I still can. I managed to find another book that I had to have. Some members of our party were 27 minutes late from dinner. This is becoming chronic.

We will learn our game time tomorrow and will be home Tuesday morning while it’s still dark.

Two other points:

1. Yay Corley!
2. I have earned two new nicknames on this trip. The first is "Coach" since the cheerleading coach isn’t here. The second is "Le Pus" because I refused to ride the bull before we got to Billy Bob’s. For the record, no one rode the damn bull.