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 Negus McKenna posts his latest blog. |
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Nov. 27, 2007
Hey everyone, this is your senior forward Negus McKenna reporting for the Catamount Men's basketball team. I hope this message finds all of you Catamount supporters in good health and on the heels of a great Thanksgiving holiday.
Here at WCU, the men's basketball team has a lot to be thankful for. First of all, we are thankful to all of the supporters that come out and show us their love every game. You have no idea how much we appreciate your help. We promise to bring you a season full of excitement.
With that said, allow me to catch everyone back up to speed in terms of what we have been doing since our last blog way back in September. We have been in the gym working hard, and we are expecting big contributions from everyone on our team if we are to be Southern Conference champions at the end of this season.
With this being my final season it makes the work we put in as a team, much more important. I am sure that I speak for the other two seniors as well. As a whole we are improving everyday and we hope to peak at the right time.
We began our season with a non-conference scrimmage against USC upstate. It was a great experience for the newcomers as well as the returning players; it gave the new players a sense of what it would be like to play in a college based environment, and it gave the returning players a feel for things to come. As a whole, it was a terrific learning experience on and off the court. For players that are far from home, like me, it gave us a chance to see more of what the neighboring states looked like. When we got back to campus, we immediately focused on the little things we knew we needed to improve on, as the season was right around the corner.
The next opponent we had to face was a very well disciplined and coached Milligan team. They gave us their best shot but we established an identity early that we would not flinch and fought to get the victory. We got great contributions from everyone on the team whether they played a minimal amount or significant minutes. It was very important for us to get a win going into our first tournament in Cincinnati.
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The first game we played was versus Bowling Green, ironically, the team Coach [Larry] Hunter got his first victory from, as our coach. We knew he wanted this one badly and we also knew that this game was instrumental in our success so we did not take them lightly; we grinded it out and got the win thanks to some key plays by our sophomore Nick Aldridge, as well as other big shots by our sharpshooter, Jake Robinson.
We were glad to have gotten the win but we knew we had to prepare thoroughly for our next opponent, the host team of the tournament, the Cincinnati Bearcats. We fought hard for forty minutes and overcame severe adversity throughout the game but despite all of our hard works, the opposing team managed to score on a buzzer beating play to edge us out at the last second. It was our first loss and it was hard for the hometown guys like Nick, Brigham, Camden and Mike because they had a lot of fans supporting them throughout. Although we let that game slip away, we knew that if we began to feel sorry for ourselves, we would never be able to rebound in time to play the Atlantic Sun's Conference champion, Belmont Bruins.
We came focused to play the next morning and gave Belmont our best shot despite coming out a little flat, but we didn't get the victory. This was the first time that we, as a team had to face good adversity; our backs were against the walls and we were on a losing streak. Even though it always hurts to lose games like these, we knew that the season was early, and that it was better to get these games out of our system before conference play came around.
As a whole I enjoyed myself tremendously. I got the chance to see where most of the guys and coaches are from and it's always good to go into a harsh environment full of fans and silence the crowd. Even though we wish we had that one back, we knew we weren't going to lose three in a row. Also, even though we did not come back with as many wins as we wanted to, it was a great experience for our Ohio guys.
As we prepared for our next game against Methodist, we were entirely focused on us; we did not want to think too much about what other people were saying about us, rather, we were focused on our improvement as a team. We take pride in playing at home and we were glad to get a win in front of our home crowd, and end our losing streak.
We felt the support from the students as well as other fans tremendously. Off the court, we could feel everyone beginning to grow closer and closer as a team and we used that togetherness to face our next opponent, our cross town rivals, the UNC Asheville Bulldogs.
Before we took on our rival, we had the opportunity to help out in the Jackson County Special Olympics. It is always a pleasure and an honor to give back to the community and to the people that support us, though we may not always see their faces. The experience was great for each of us and I hope that we had as much of a lasting effect on the lives of those who came, as they did to us.
We knew that we had a great feat to overcome, with UNC Asheville's back up center standing seven feet eight inches tall but as I said before, we back down to no one. We came out flat and the Bulldogs went off to a 14-2 run but we didn't let a little adversity get to us. Our identity is no matter what the circumstances, if you play this team, you're in for a forty minute war, no matter what the outcome may be or what the score looks like. We wanted to go on to have a great Thanksgiving break on the heels of a terrific win but we weren't able to close out the victory in the closing minutes.
As a whole, these games have helped us gel together as a team on the court, and it has helped us grow as individuals. I like to be the guy that helps bring a smile to everyone's faces when things are a bit grim. Other guys like Eric Wilson like to remind the guys what they are doing wrong when they don't realize it, and others like Arnold Gore like to enforce what needs to be done, all in a positive manner of course.
As a whole, I think that the guys are starting to fill in their respective roles on the team and we are anxious to go out and get our first conference victory versus the Elon Phoenix.
Before I sign off I would once again like to send a special thank you to all of our supporters and I would also like to thank God for allowing me to be associated with everyone involved with this team. Now all the turkey and stuffing are gone its time to go back to work. This is your senior forward signing off so, until next time, God Bless and GO CATS!
