Guest Blogger

I was talking to Tyler Hines yesterday and he was asking me about this blog and our YouTube videos. He said he loves watching the videos and it's great for the families back home to see their kids. He wants us to tape some more...which Bret and I will gladly do. Hopefully the next roadtrip or two we will get some more 'fun' videos taped and you all can see some more behind the scenes of a roadtrip. He also mentioned that he really wants to 'guest blog!' This was music to my ears! So within the next few days we'll have a post by Tyler and we'll try to make it a weekly occurance.

Travel Day

Traveling with these guys will never get old - they are a constant source of entertainment. During one of the bus rides I was in front of one of the guys who was constantly singing with his iPod. Normally this would be annoying, but it was quite funny to hear some of those lyrics.

Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA" seemed to be a favorite this trip...it was heard at Ball State's arena and apparently a bunch of the guys in the tunnel/locker room were dancing to it. I love this song and can't believe I missed it! I've asked them to recreate it...to no avail. A certain player, who will remain nameless, then had it on his iPod on the bus this morning...and then again in the airport and proceeded to dance to it. Granted, it was only ONE player and not a bunch, but I loved it.


One of these times I'm gonna bust out the camera and catch them on it. Although, I'm pretty sure they would hate me after that. :-)

Ball State 56, UMES 47

The guys looked a lot better tonight. Wish we coulda pulled this one out, we led many times and were very close in the last five minutes. This just gives me that much more confidence that we will win again very soon.

UMES @ Ball State - Starters

UMES - Maroon Uniforms

00 Obame Obame

3 White

11 Burns

24 Haley

32 Hines

Ball State - White Uniforms

2 Watson

3 Davis

4 Scaife

34 Sneed

45 Jones

GAME DAY! UMES @ Ball State

And we're back! After a few days off for the holiday break, we're back to the grind with a 7 p.m. game at Ball State's James E. Worthen Arena. Hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or whatever holiday you celebrate. Here are a few pictures from Ball State...

Radio Highlights vs. NIU

I just edited some first half highlights (radio) from the Northern Illinois game. Expect more things like this in the future. Happy Holidays to all!

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

UMES @ NIU

We had a whole cheering section in DeKalb! Here are bowlers Kristina Frahm (Oswego, Ill.), Martha Perez and Kaitlyn Young (Sycamore, Ill.) and just a few of their friends that they brought out to support their "sibling team!" Thanks for your support ladies!

Head Coach Frankie Allen reunites with a former Assistant Coach and current NIU Head Coach Ricardo Patton, before the game. Both were at Tennessee State from 1991-93.

Pre-game ritual - team pancakes

National Anthem

UMES @ NIU - STARTERS

UMES - Maroon uniforms

3 White

5 Berry

24 Haley

31 Robertson

32 Hines

Northern Illinois - White uniforms

0 Fakuade

11 DiNunno

13 Silas

30 Fisher

32 Anderson

GAME DAY! UMES @ Northern Illinois

It's a rare early tipoff (2 p.m. EST) here in DeKalb, Illinois as the Hawks visit the Northern Illinois Huskies. A few photos follow from the morning so far. (Some of them are out of order, sorry about that)

Here's Bret setting up his radio equipment for his broadcast.

A view outside the Convocation Center. It's been snowing all night/morning - may not be what's back East, but it's something - and it's gorgeous (I may be biased and no one else probably agrees with me :-) )

The media room

A view inside one of the entrances to the "Convo."

Court

Tim Burns Interview

I sat down with redshirt junior Tim Burns this evening after practice when we returned to the hotel. Tim and I talked about the early season, his younger brother, the decision to transfer to UMES and his days as a karate dynamo.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW

Day before game-day

Today is a low-key day, with film, scouting, practice and then rest for the team as they prepare for Northern Illinois on Tuesday. I've attached a few photos and look to have one of the assistant coaches blog soon about what goes into scouting the opponent and then passing this information on to the players.

Assistant Coach Mike Blaine goes over his scouting report and film with the guys. Throughout the season, each opponent is assigned to one of the three assistant coaches. This coach is then responsible for breaking down film on the opponent and making sure the team knows everything they can about the other team.

Assistant Coaches Nick Robinson and Mike Blaine work with the guards (Tim Burns and Hillary Haley shown here) on drills.

Graduate Assistant Coach Curtis Peery and Associate Head Coach Jamal Brown (not shown) work with James Cotton and the 'big men' on post moves.

The practice gym (Victor E. Court) at the Convocation Center on Northern Illinois' campus. The women's volleyball team and men's wrestling team also hold their home contests on this court. We practice there on Sunday evening, but have moved to the main court for today's practice.

Frankie Allen Interview

I caught up with head coach Frankie Allen before the Wright State game.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW

Travel Day

Today was a travel day for us, which meant an early wake-up call, breakfast and on the bus before 7:45 a.m. Everyone was pretty tired and slept the hour/hour and a half to Columbus where we caught our flight to Chicago Midway. When we got to the airport, the Delaware State men's basketball team arrived at the same time. They were on our flight out of Baltimore on Friday (they played Ohio State on Sat.), so it was funny to meet up with them again.

After an uneventful flight to Chicago, we bussed another hour/hour and a half to DeKalb, Ill., home of Northern Illinois University. We arrived around 2:30 CT and everyone rested until practice at 6:30. After that and back to the hotel to eat dinner and now everyone's resting once again. Tomorrow should be pretty uneventful, just another practice later in the day.

Should have posted this earlier, but everyone's favorite senior, Neal Pitt, is celebrating his birthday today. So...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NEAL!

Wright State 87, UMES 46

Well that was rough. There's nothing you can even say about this one.

As Kevin White said to me about an hour ago, "I'm speechless. I don't know."

I'm right with ya, Kev. Let's put it behind us and get onto Northern Illinois.

UMES @ Wright State - 7:00 EST Tip

Starters:

UMES
3 Kevin White
5 Sean Berry
24 Hillary Haley
31 Mark Robertson
32 Tyler Hines

Wright State

3 Troy Tabler

5 Cory Cooperwood

32 Todd Brown

40 Ronnie Thomas

44 Vaughn Duggins

Shootaround

It's gameday! Here are a few pics from shoot-around at the Nutter Center in Dayton, Ohio...

Redshirt junior Tim Burns works with Coaches Nick Robinson and Mike Blaine

Coach Frankie Allen talks to broadcaster Bret Lasky

Coaches Jamal Brown and Curtis Peery work with Freddy Obame Obame

Coach Allen talks to the guys about his expectations for shoot-around and the game later tonight against Wright State

Snow!

Look what we woke up to in Ohio! As someone from Wisconsin, I love this stuff! We don't get it on the Eastern Shore, so I haven't seen any in what feels like FOREVER. Not sure how the rest of the travel party feels about it, but I'm more than excited. It's the small things :-)

Sean Berry Interview

Our very own Bret Lasky sat down with freshman Sean Berry after this afternoon's practice to talk about his football, the Hawks' potential and growth, rebounding and much more!

Click here to listen now!

Friday Practice

The guys are currently practicing in prep for their matchup against Wright State on Saturday.

Welcome!

Welcome to the new men's basketball blog! In the future, we will have posts from players, coaches, support staff and more! Audio, pictures, film and a whole lot more as we take you behind the scenes with the University of Maryland Eastern Shore men's basketball team.