More Oklahoma photos

Just a few more last photos from our Oklahoma trip!

 The Lloyd Noble Center as we were pulling up for the game

 Ryan Minor - manager of the Delmarva Shorebirds

 Coach Nick Robinson goes over the scouting report before the game

 Dishawn Bradshaw, JoJo Swift, Freddy Obame Obame,  RJ Tucker, Tim Burns, Hillary Haley

 Coach Allen talks before the guys head out to the court

 Boomer (or Sooner?) Oklahoma had two identical mascots... Boomer and Sooner.  If you want to know the reason behind this, shoot me an email, it's quite interesting.

 National Anthem

 Captain's meeting

 Found this shirt at the airport.  Usually I feel like airports have all the same stuff (you know those yellow and green cowtipping shirts that can be found in Milwaukee, Oklahoma, Iowa, Nebraska, everywhere!) but this shirt was quite unique and fun to read.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RJ!

Happy Birthday to senior center RJ Tucker! Have a great day!

2009-10 Athletic Banquet

Last night was the annual Athletics Banquet and Awards Ceremony. It was a great event and major props go to Mr. Davidson, Stan Bradley, Sharon Brummell, Neema Connor and everyone else that was involved in making the night go smoothly.

Prior to the event, Coach Blaine was convinced that the team was going to win the Quantum Leap Award (goes to the team that made the biggest improvement from the previous season). Luckily, he wasn't a disappointed man leaving the banquet as the team did win that award. Great job to the coaching staff for all the hard work they put into making the guys better players, students and people.

There were also plenty of individual awards on the evening. Kevin White was presented with a personalized ball for breaking the school single-season assists record while Hillary Haley was named the Josten's UMES Male Sportsman of the Year.

Each coaching staff honored their team's Most Improved Player (Tyler Hines), Coach's Award (Josh Bright), Rookie of the Year (Freddy Obame Obame) and Player of the Year (Kevin White).

Many of the guys also received SAAC (Student Athlete Advisory Committee) and academic honors. Mark Robertson and Tyler received certificates for being members of SAAC. Mark, Tyler, Freddy, Tim Burns and RJ Tucker were awarded Scholar Athlete Umbrellas for their work receiving a 3.0-3.6 GPA.

Congratulations to all on your accomplishments! You all did a great job this season and I know you've been working hard improving for next year.

(We haven't gotten photos back yet and I was too busy to take any, so I will post some once I get them.)

COACHES' CORNER RADIO SHOW

Coach Allen is currently out of town recruiting, so Coach Brown filled in for him once again. He is always a treat to have on the show. :-)

Today's player-guest is junior walk-on RJ Tucker.

Coaches' Corner Details

Who: head coach Frankie Allen, players and other guests

What: Radio show, hosted on WGOP 540 a.m., live audio at www.umeshawks.com and live video streaming on www.umeshawks.com

Where: Hawks Nest (inside the Student Services Center on Campus)

When: Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to noon

She got a strike...

The bowling team was competing in the Bowie State Lady Bulldog Classic this weekend and since that was only about a half hour from our hotel, we decided to go support them! I had never been to a collegiate bowling event before, so this was really interesting to see. The guys learned very quickly that bowling is a 'friendly' sport and there is no trash-talking! It was very interesting/different to see coaches and players approaching each other and hugging and talking about things. One of the bowlers pointed out to me that the bowling 'sorority' is small and you see a lot of the same people at all the different events. And some of them knew each other from high school or whatnot. It made sense, but was still different for me, since the opponent always seems to be the 'enemy'!

The girls also had a lot of different cheers for strikes, spares, etc. The guys loved this and started making up some of their own. Maybe we'll be hearing these sometime in the future at the Hytche? Ask them sometime... maybe they'll teach them to you. :-)

Josh Bright cheers for the Lady Hawks. For those of us who aren't over 6-0, it was hard to see since all the bowlers crowd around right behind the lane. Lots of people were standing on chairs to see the action.

Assistant coaches Megan Raymond and Vince Brummell show/teach Mark Robertson about the different oil markings and how basketball plays differ to bowling strategy.

Tina Frahm gets ready to take her turn in a Baker set.

Mark Robertson, Roland Dunston and RJ Tucker give high fives to Paula Vilas.

RJ Tucker, Tyler Hines and Sean Berry cheer after a strike.

Gil Brown, Katherine Brown, Tina Frahm and Sean Berry pose for pictures between games.

Neal Pitt, Kaitlyn Young and Katie Shumaker pose for a picture between games.

GAME DAY! UMES @ Coppin State

Coppin St.'s beautiful new arena, the Physical Education Center. Love all the windows everywhere.

Tyler Hines and RJ Tucker stretch prior to the game.

Athletic Trainer Taryn Arvold tapes ankles for about half the team prior to every game. Here she is shown with Neal Pitt.

Bret talks with Coach Allen during halftime of the women's game.

Autographs

The guys signed a bunch of their schedule posters this afternoon before practice to give to local schools and a few organizations in preparation for "Take A Kid to the Game" day on February 13.

Sorry Josh, I accidentally cut you out of the picture. :-/

GAME DAY! UMES @ Bethune-Cookman

The guys are currently at the Moore Gymnasium in Daytona Beach at shootaround. A little over four hours until tip-off.

Early Mornings

Travel day is here once again. 4:20 a.m. wakeup calls are not fun. We left at 4:40 for a one hour bus-ride to Omaha, where we are now sitting in the airport waiting for our flight to St. Louis and then a transfer to Oklahoma.

Tim Burns and RJ Tucker are not the only players that look like this this morning...