Marc's December Blog Entries
Marc's Blog - December 14, 2007
Last Wednesday we pulled out a close game against Mount Saint Joe in Cincinnati. We were down a point with just under four minutes left in the second half, but we put a little run together to take the lead for good. The Mount is always tough to play at their place, so to come out of there with a win was a big positive.
The win Wednesday put us into a tie for first place in the conference with Defiance, the team we faced Saturday. I'm not going to give a lot of details, but we ended up getting beat by Defiance pretty handily. They came out with much more intensity than us and had the lead for the entire game. Each time we would be in position to make a dent in their lead, we would miss easy shots or turn the ball over. Overall, it was a disappointing loss, even more so because it was a home game for us.
Despite the loss, Coach Beitzel had the entire team and families over to his house after the game for dinner. Coach and his wife Luann are huge collectors of Christmas décor, and they love having everyone to their house during the holiday season to enjoy the display. Coach prepared his famous meatballs for dinner, while the rest of the parents brought a dish of their own. It was fun to visit with all of the families, and I have to say that I felt stuffed with food by the time I left. (It seems to me like I always mention food in my blog. Anyone else notice that?).
Well while I'm on the topic of food, I have to talk about one of the best traditions going at Hanover College: the end of semester "midnight breakfast." On the last Sunday night before finals week of each semester, the professors and other staff serve breakfast to all of the students. This always provides a much needed study break, and better yet, they always have chocolate chip pancakes, one of my favorites. It is not every day that we get to have our professors serve us food, so when the chance comes almost every student on campus comes out.
Other than a voluntary shooting practice on Tuesday, we got a few days off from basketball to prepare for finals. I had two papers due on Monday, so I spent a lot of the weekend finishing those up, and took my only final on Tuesday. The last few days have been a nice break for me; I have been able to sleep in and not have to worry about completing any homework.
Well this is the last blog that I will write for a few weeks now, so I'll give you a quick rundown of my schedule for the rest of the month. Playing against a Division I school has been one of my dreams, and I will finally get that chance when we play at the University of Evansville on Saturday. The following Tuesday we play at Illinois Wesleyan, one of our biggest rivals from the past few seasons. After the Wesleyan game, I get to head home for a week to celebrate Christmas with my family, and then return to Hanover to prepare for the Otterbein Holiday Tournament on December 28 and 29.
Hope everyone has safe travels and a great holiday season!
Marc's Blog - December 5, 2007
Well I'm glad to say that we are 1-0 in the conference after a big win at Rose-Hulman this past weekend.
A team goal of ours is to win another conference championship and that requires our best effort each conference game. As Coach Beitzel told us in practice prior to the Rose-Hulman game, "Getting that first win in the conference is always hard, especially to a well-coached team on the road." We took the coach's words to heart and came out ready to play Saturday. We were down about five points early in the game, but we hit a couple threes and made a run to take an eight-point lead into halftime. While we enjoyed having the halftime lead, we knew that Rose would not quit and would come out and make a run in the second half. Coach also reminded us of this during his halftime talk, telling us that "their nickname is the Fighting Engineers; they're not going to go down without a fight. Be ready for it the second half."
Ready for it we were. We made two straight three-pointers to start the second half. This quick 6-0 start prompted Rose to call timeout, and we controlled the game from there on out, eventually winning 58-47.
Not only was this game important for our conference title chase, it was personally important to me because it was the final game I will play competitively in my hometown of Terre Haute, Ind. Last year, I came out and had a horrible game at Rose, going two for 11 from the field and we ended up losing the game. This is something that Coach Neuman has not let me forget; there is no doubt that I got caught up in the whole "homecoming" aspect of the game last year, so I tried to come in much more focused this year and treat it as a normal game. While I only scored five points and had some foul trouble, I think I played a much more solid game this year. My brother and I were blessed to have a large contingent of family and friends at the game and it was nice to talk with them for a while after the game. We all play the game of basketball because we love it, and most of us would play even if there were no fans in the stands, but it is always sweeter to be able to win in front of your close friends and relatives and have their support.
In other news, this week is Dead Week at Hanover College. For some of my friends at other schools, Dead Week is a time when classes are winding down and they can have time to concentrate on studying for finals. At Hanover, however, I think that Dead Week is aptly named, because by the end of the week all students are practically dead from a lack of sleep. It seems that every course at Hanover has final projects, papers, and presentations due this week. My schedule has been no exception, with one project, two presentations and three papers due by Friday. Therefore, I have had to remember my little lesson in time management that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago.
Secondly, I found out that my blog has moved into the 100 most viewed pages on the Hanover website. Thanks to all of you who have been reading, and please continue to do so each week.
Lastly, we have two big games this week. We play at Mount St. Joe Wednesday night, and then return to Hanover to play Defiance on Saturday afternoon. Defiance was picked to finish ahead of us in the preseason poll, so it is sure to be a tough game. We need all the support we can get there Saturday, so if you are reading this make sure you come out ready to support your Panthers.