Hartford Men's Basketball

Hawk Nation,

What a day, what a night! We had a wake-up call at 3:30 a.m. and left the hotel at 4:15 a.m. or sometime around there. I really can’t be precise on the time because I felt delirious after only a couple hours of sleep. LOL. Our flight for Melbourne left Sydney at 6 a.m. The flight was only an hour, so the travel was not that bad. After sitting in traffic for a long time because we were in rush hour, we finally got to our hotel, where the rooms were not quite ready at 9 a.m. Many of us went to eat breakfast somewhere in the city, while others just waited in the lobby to be assigned their rooms. 

The rest of the morning/afternoon was free time. Needless to say, most of us in the travel party either slept or just tried to relax. I know a few went to walk around the city to explore it, but the majority of the travel party tried to get their bodies back in sync with the time of the day. For our pregame meal, we went to a great restaurant in the Crowne Center, which is located next to the river. The food was out of this world. Most people had some type of pasta bowl, and there was a lot of discussion about how good the food tasted. There was little time between the pregame meal and the departure time for the game.

We left for the game early to try and beat some of the rush hour traffic as we were facing the Dandenong Rangers. The game was fast paced just like the others. The FIBA rules shot clock of 24 seconds definitely speeds up the game. We ended up winning the game 80-63 for our first win on this Exhibition Tour. The locker room was excited and the Hawk supporters were very proud of the effort the team put forth, knowing our hectic travel schedule.

Every night that I write this blog, I seemed to always be tired, so once again, it is time to shut it down for the night. I don’t know if I will ever get used to this time change. For example, right now it is 1:00 a.m. (early Friday morning) in Melbourne and 11 a.m. (Thursday morning) in Hartford. I hope everyone enjoys their day/night, depending on where you are in the world when you read this. Until the next blog, Go Hawks and congrats to the young men on their win, but even more for their perseverance.

-Anton