8:45am- Arrive Thiel Gym- pack the cars.
- Rainee, Allison, Casey, Marisa, Becca, Dani super excited, they get to be in my van!!!
- Jennifer Lieber takes "Secret Santa" presents and coolers to save us room.
9:00am- We pull out with Coach Rux the lead car, not sure that is good judgement on my part.
9:02am- My van vetoes listening to the WSCR sports radio, I thought I was in charge.
9:22am- My van is sound asleep.
10:19am- I notice a warning light on. Casey Williams, the only one without a drivers license checks the owner manual. She reports my tire pressure is low.
11:00am- Pull into Fazoli's in Champaign- is it wise to stop in Champaign? I dump my van off and go get more air pressure.
11:15am- Seems like we have a lot of salad eaters on the team. Not sure but think best teams have big eaters. Second check, we have a lot of pasta being eaten- feel more confident.
12:45pm- Check into Baymont Inn. Coach Rux and my room smells bad of smoke. We choose to relocate.
2:30pm- Arrive at Baker Gym in Charleston. They have someone assigned to show us lockeroom, first class treatment.
2:45pm- Buffalo Wild Wings supplying hospitality room. Game plan will have to wait. Boneless wings and wraps. Good stuff. Coach Allison takes care of the team, Coach Rux and I get calories.
4:00pm- Coach Allison brings players back from shooting in second gym- great set up. In lockeroom we have lockeroom with dry erase board with 6 courts pre-drawn. Beats most places we have to meet on the road where I have to stand in front of toilets and draw plays.
4:20pm- We take the floor. First priority is finding a scorekeeper. Bill Allison is too lazy to drive down to do it. We get Jennifer Lieber to "volunteer." Coach Allison gets managers and bench organized. She has foul charts and shift schedules set out. Coach Rux and I are involved in important work, doing Galesburg attendance. I count 18, but Rux spots Mr.Teel on the other side. We have 19. Our non-parent fans are Dr.Chiles and family.
4:30pm- Tip off. We are off to decent start, showing great energy on defense.
4:42pm- We are attacking basket and getting to foul line. We jump to 25-10 first quarter lead. Where is the reporter who asked earlier, "Why do you always get off to slow leads?"
4:50pm- In mid-second quarter, Coach Rux hands me a sheet with all our set plays on it. That usually is a message that he thinks I need to start calling more plays. We are up 15 but he obviously wants more.
4:54pm- He is right. Lieber and Junk hit threes and we go in at half up 48-26. At half, the usual coach talk, got to win the first 3 minutes, they are going to come out with energy, treat it like it is 0-0. I wonder how many times these kids have heard this same stuff.
5:06pm- Start second half with Sharron shooting 2 technicals. Coach Rux keeps the foul chart so says Sharron is already 8 for 10 in the game. We have her shoot nothing but ft's in warm ups and she hits both. Rux is now 2 for 2 on ideas.
5:24pm- Start of fourth quarter and we have the running clock. Tourney director will be happy with us.
5:35pm- Win 80-50. Sharron finishes going 12 for 14 from the line. Go into lockeroom and know the girls question my pregame saying Eisenhower is decent team. I probably lost credibility on this one. But later in the tourney when Eisenhower makes strong showing, the girls realize they were good team but we really got after it defensively.
6:00pm- We watch the first half of Taylorville game. They beat us badly in the summer but Paige, Jess, and Emma could not play at that point.
8:30pm- Monical's for pizza. Thin crust, sausage, mushroom, and onion. Great stuff. Watching the girls eat, I am getting more confident in the team- they are eating a lot. Good teams eat alot. Coach Rux points out quote from Jenna Bicego,"The great thing about playing basketball is that you can go out to eat and eat as much as you want and people don't make fun of you." Rux is the money man and works things out with the waitress.
9:55pm- Back to the hotel. The girls do their Christmas exchange. Coach Allison takes care of lights out. It is so nice having her do that.
Thursday, Dec. 29
9:15am- Leave for Charleston. Rainee Sibley gets into the van, she is not a morning person.
9:30am- Watch Effingham. They are well coached- they do things both offensively and defensively that presents concerns.
9:37am- Have Coach Allison do interview with Jim Wyman. I hope she does not use profanity.
9:45am- Coach Allison takes the players to the other gym. Coach Rux and I check the hospitality room- not a good breakfast menu.
10:17am- Take the floor. Coach Allison and I looking at the sub charts. Hoping it is easy game vs. Urbana, we go with the same sub chart as the day before to start. Then hope in second quarter to go with chart where everyone plays one shift and sits two shifts. Attendance check- it looks like attendance up to 20 for the game. Non-family members in attendance were Grandpa and Grandma Peachey.
10:22am- Talk with Urbana coach. She played with Bonny Apsey at U of Illinois so have known her for sometime. We talk about issues of player movement that occurs in large cities.
10:46am- End of fourth quarter, up 25-4. Yes, going with shift chart where everyone gets more rest.
11:03am- Second half able to sit Sadee and Jess extra minutes. It helps later on. None of our point guards- Paige, Jess, or Hannah have to go without two shift rest.
11:34am- With running clock we win 59-21.
11:42am- Do interviews with the radio. I ask Jim Wyman if he changes voices and pretends he has a second person with him. I think that would have been great if he had started broadcasts by saying it was Jim and Bob Wyman here to do the Streaks. An English person, a drama person, I think he missed his opportunity.
12:30pm- Players back in hotel. Coach Rux and Coach Allison go to pick up McDonald's food for players. Choice is McDouble/Fries, McChicken/Fries, or Chicken Salad. Players evenly divided in orders.
1:02pm- Players get their food and can then nap.
4:15pm- Leave for gym.
4:40pm- In second gym we go over Effingham's under ob's, side ob's, and full court ob's. We talk about possible adjustments with our presses. We also go over their presses, and what we want to do.
5:22pm- Pregame started. Coach Allison has things under control. Attendance has swelled up to 23- the Bryants have joined us.
5:30pm- Tip off.
6:07pm- Half-time. Decent start. We got up by almost 10, let them come back and take the lead, but finished up 40-37 at half. A score we like.
6:27pm- Great third quarter, now up 13, 64-51. Lieber had 9 points.
6:44pm- Finish with 77-59 win. Eisenhower and Effingham games were good really good games for us. Like how we are playing right now.
7:02pm- I stay to watch Charleston. We had figured Taylorville was team we would play if we made it to championship but Charleston upset them. Coach Rux and Coach Allison take the players over to EIU to watch the women play NIU. I envison Coach Rux leading NIU cheers.
7:42pm- Coach Rux texts that Dick Bennett (former UW coach and father of NIU coach) is at the game. I think about missing the Charleston game which starts at 8:30pm to go to see Dick Bennett.
8:02pm- I ask Coach Rux to get Dick Bennett autograph.
8:06pm- Still waiting for Charleston game. Check other tourney scores on twitter.
8:23pm- Coach Rux texts that he got Coach Bennett's autograph. I am thinking whether to go with wood or metal frame.
9:03pm- Appears Charleston will win and we will play them. Typical scouting experience- start out wanting Charleston to win so we would play them instead of Taylorville, but the more Charleston wins, the more I think we want Taylorville. In scouting you always want to play the losing team in a game.
10:01pm- I leave Charleston, the team is eating at Cody's Steak House. Coach Rux places an order for me.
10:20pm- I arrive and Rainee Sibley says that Coach Bennett was really neat. So I tell a couple Coach Bennett stories. The players giggle- I assume my stories are funny. Paige reports the autograph is going to be neat, Allison laughs.
10:43pm- We leave. Coach Rux gives me autograph, it is on a napkin. I look and it is in a females handwriting. Paige signed his name. They all think it is very funny. My only thought is that Becca Ladner is starting for Paige tomorrow.
Friday, Dec. 30
11:45am- Check out and head to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch. I don't think anyone made breakfast.
1:00pm- Head to movie theater. Choice is Mission Impossible or Sherlock Holmes.Better choices than a year ago. Last year our only choice was a "chick flick" and I fell asleep.
1:10pm- Players choose to go to Mission Impossible, coaches go to Sherlock. Good deal, don't feel like I have to keep going "shhh."
4:05pm- Stop at Jimmy John's for a sandwich. It is the original Jimmy John's. Who says this trip is not educational.
4:40pm- Do a walk thru in the second gym. We again go over our staples- how do the inbounds vs. pressure, how do they inbounds on the sideline, and how do they inbounds underneath? Life is much simpler with the system than when we were a half court mm team.
5:45pm- End of first quarter of third place game. Coach Allison gets them started with their regular routine.
6:53pm- Pregame ritual- take attendance- Attendance settled in at 24 as Mr.Henning joins.
7:00pm- Tip off.
7:19pm- Sluggish start. We are up 13-11. Always tough on road, get paranoid. Feel like Sadee and Sharron are not getting calls when go to basket. The same ref calls three straight offensive violations on our team- not happy about that.
7:46pm- Jess hits a two at the buzzer to put us up 5 at half. Seems like we are on verge of cracking it open but can't get it done. Unfortunate half came when it did, they looked tired.
8:16pm- Good third quarter, up 11, feel like opening things up. We hit 6 threes in the period, our best shooting quarter of the year.
8:24pm- Still not over pleased with some of the interpretations of the officials. Game under enough control that exchange thoughts with Steve Bryant. Unfortunately someone connected with the ref did not appreciate our humor.
8:29pm- Mid-fourth quarter we are up 20 points. Seeing good pattern in tourney, wearing people out in the second half.
8:43pm- We are the champions. Good win for the girls in hostile situation. Proud of their effort over the four games. Fun to watch. It was a real team effort.
8:51pm- All tourney team is presented. Three players from Charleston make the team. Sharron Diggins makes the team and Jessica Lieber is MVP of tourney. Both of our kids deserve the recognition but feel badly that Sadee is not selected. We don't have all tourney at our tourneys. I just feel the climax should be the team award not the individual awards.
9:20pm- Stop at McDonalds for food.
9:31pm- On the road.
12:25pm- Arrive at GHS.
12:46pm- Drop off vans at rental place. Drop off Coach Allison and Coach Rux.
12:56am- Family dog is at the door, and Allen and Amy stay up to talk. Great to be home. A good three days. Hope the girls enjoyed the tourney and are proud of their accomplishment.
1:53am- Finish talking Streaks basketball, Allen and I begin getting ready for the Rose Bowl!!
2:46am- Upload pictures and work on the blog.
3:47am- End of the tourney. Do stats tomorrow.
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