I also found out I was named to the SoCon’s Academic All-Conference team.

I guess you could say this has been a good day.

I called Coach Jackson and he wanted to let me know that I was the first player he and his new staff wanted and offered. I was to get back to him within a few weeks with my decision. I literally jumped for joy for 5 minutes and was probably the happiest human being on the planet.

Fast forward 2.5 years

If you would have told me this was going to happen when I signed my letter of intent, I would have laughed for two days straight. I woke up today and my life flashed before my eyes. I was completely satisfied with my decision but I still couldn’t believe I was getting ready to head over to the basketball offices to ask for my release.

I will be transferring from Furman. Where to? I don’t know yet. I just want to say thank you to all of the Furman fans that were supportive of me over the past two years. So many of you either approached me after games, on campus, or by emailing or commenting on my blog and I really appreciated that.

We are allowed to fill out brackets for our own entertainment as long as we don’t pay money to join a pool and there is no prize.  Here mine is. Not bad I guess. I’ve done much worse. 13 out of the 16 sweet sixteen. Entire elite 8 alive.  I had to go with the homer pick and put Wisconsin in the sweet sixteen and it turned out costly.

I’m watching the NIT tonight. Davidson @ St. Mary’s is an intriguing matchup to me.  Stephen Curry vs. Patty Mills.  If this was a regular season matchup it would have been prime time.  Its too bad they have to play at 11:30 PM eastern on a Monday night.  Watching the game brings back good memories. My first win as a Paladin came on that court. We beat Howard to improve to 1-11 I believe.

I’ll be back soon.

• Friday: We lost to Samford in the first round of the conference tournament on Friday night. I rode home with my parents so I could make it for Milton’s Elite 8 game.
• Saturday: Watched my brother Evan score 15 points to help Milton reach the Final Four for the first time in 50+ years.
• Sunday: Left at around 8am to go to Dog Island.
• Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday: Hung out at the beach with H-Dizzle and J-Money.
• Thursday: Left Florida at 9am and met my family at the Gwinett Arena for the Final Four. Milton won and advanced to the state championship for the first time in school history.
• Friday: Went to the ACC tournament with Greg.  Saw UNC barely scrape by Virginia Tech and Florida State barely scrape by Georgia Tech.  Drove from the ACC tournament to the state championship. Milton lost by 20 to a really really good Wheeler team.
• Saturday: Went out for breakfast with my sister Lauren. In an effort to cheer Evan up, I took him to the final four of the ACC tournament to cheer against the Tar Heels and watch his Dukies beat up on Maryland.
• Sunday: Since I didn’t drive my car home from school, my dad drove me up to Furman en route to Charlotte for a business trip.

Now I’m just trying to get caught up on my schoolwork. We missed 4 or 5 days due to our Charleston road trip and the conference tournament and there was a snow day on the Monday before we left for Chattanooga.  I have a test tomorrow and two on Monday.  THAT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN.  There should be a rule saying that under no circumstances is it permissible for a teacher to schedule an exam on the Monday following the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are fair game.

I’ll be studying and doing laundry for the rest of the night. I’d go to the Furman baseball game downtown if I wasn’t trying to catch up for this Chemistry test tomorrow.

Speaking of high school games, both the girls and boys teams from Milton went to the state tournament this year. My sister and the girls lost in the sweet sixteen and my brother and the boys are playing in the Elite 8 on Saturday night.

Today we had practice on the court at the arena at 10am. We were given per diem for lunch and a few of us took the free Chatanooga shuttle down to the CheeBurger CheeBurger right by the aquarium.  Chris Picardi and Garret (aka Gary aka Gordon) Copeland decided to attempt to eat the Pounder which actually weighs 20.5 ounces.  I am proud to say they completed the task and got their pictures posted on the wall of fame.  They immediately regretted the decision when we sprinted 50 yards to catch the shuttle to take us back to the hotel. 

We went back to the arena to watch the Furman women’s team play App State.  App State caught fire and erased a substantial second half deficit to win the game.   We have a couple of hours in the hotel right now before we get some dinner. Since we play at 9:30 tomorrow night I’ll probably post something during the day tomorrow.

We’re in Charleston right now. We played the Citadel tonight. They destroyed us. We wore our white home jerseys because they were wearing blue for a “blue out”. It was a great environment for a college basketball game. We were down 3 at halftime but in the second half they pulled away.

After the game, I shaved (turns out I only have to be called Pau Gasol once before I shave), showered and headed downtown. Zach, Christ (Chris Toler), Crispy (Chris Picardi), Garrett, and I found a really good Mexican restaurant on King Street. We’re about to practice at Charleston’s new arena. I’ll try to take a few pictures throughout the day and put them up later.

From Charleston

1. I’m a Christian and I’d never be where I am today without the grace of God.
2. I was born in Wisconsin and am a huge Packers, Brewers, Bucks, and Badgers fan. I can’t believe I’ve lived in Alpharetta, GA for over half of my life.
3. I love stand up comedy.  Demetri Martin, Brian Regan, Bill Burr, Mitch Hedberg (RIP), and Kevin James are the best.
4. My family is really important to me. I wish I saw them more. My brother and sister are both getting ready to play in the state tournament for Milton.
5. My blog has led to my teammates giving me the nickname “dot com”.
6. I’m obsessed with O.A.R..
7. I love photography and pictures in general. I used to want to be a sports photographer.
8. I read suspense novels on road trips - John Sandford and James Patterson books are my favorites.
9. I’m majoring in Business Administration but I don’t know what I’m gonna do after school. Maybe Grad school, maybe play basketball in Europe if I’m good enough, maybe coach college or high school basketball?
10. What I really want to do is move to NYC and live there for a year and work some random job to pay rent and hang out.
11. Since I’ve gotten to Furman I’ve lost track of time. I’m so busy with basketball and school that I hardly ever know what day it is. I still write 08 on assignments. I have to think about how old I am when I’m asked.  I feel like I haven’t had a real Christmas in forever (my last 2 Christmas breaks combined = 6 days at home). So if I didn’t wish you a happy birthday, I’m sorry.
12. I’m left handed.  I still can’t believe that only 9% of the people in the world are lefties.
13. I recently got an XBOX 360 and I’m currently borrowing Halo 3 from a teammate and I absolutely suck.
14. I’m extremely competitive - to a fault. My brother and I can’t play video games against each other anymore. I only go home for a day or two at a time and if we play the loser aka my brother is so pissed off it ruins our time together.
15. I have a huge crush on Jennifer Aniston.
16. My favorite movie is The Shawshank Redemption.
17. I’m always telling my friends about a new website I heard/read about and they’re always rolling their eyes.
18. I wish I got to hang out with my friends from high school more. With summer school I’m barely home in the summer.
19. I could be sentenced to life in prison for the amount of sip stealing I do.
20. I might be one of the only people that can stand SNL anymore. I love Andy Samberg.
21. I argue way too much.  This probably goes back to me being so competitive.  I really need to learn to let things go.
22. I’m extremely sarcastic and pessimistic.
23. I love The Office but Danny McBride’s (my new favorite actor) Eastbound and Down is a close second.
24. I love sports talk radio. 680 the fan in Atlanta is awesome. Its too bad there isn’t an ESPN radio affiliate in upstate South Carolina.
25. I can’t wait to be a Dad someday.

My first shout out goes to the a restaurant we ate at outside of Elon.  I won’t tell you the name but I will give you a hint: there is a day involved.  Anyway, we went there around 8 on the night before our game.  The service was kinda slow but I was mainly disappointed in how unbelievably dark it was in there. (Full disclosure: I’ve never gotten into the whole “dim lights set the mood” thing. I don’t know what mood is being referred to but pretty much all the moods I’m familiar with that have to do with me eating food require me to be able to see.)  I ordered a colossal burger (another hint). The place was so dark I don’t know for sure what I had for dinner but it felt and tasted like a burger.  At one point during the meal - I’m not making this up - I a crumb fell onto my forearm and then to the floor. I proceeded to try to brush off my arm 3 times until I realized that my freckle wasn’t going anywhere. As a general rule, if someone thinks a freckle on their arm is a crumb, you probably need to use brighter lights.
Furman

My second shoutout goes to Furman University.  I’m going to have to give Furman AFPAP (As Few Props As Possible) which is a new term I’ve come up with to counter Mark Titus’s AMPAP (fifth paragraph down - As Much Props As Possible).  Due to Furman not having a normal cable provider the UNC-Duke game is nowhere to be found.  We don’t have local cable but ESPN is blacked out and we don’t actually get the local channel that the game is on. I didn’t think it was possible to screw up a Duke-UNC game.  At least I’m able to watch a blurry version on ESPN360.com.

We lost on Monday night to Elon.  We almost came back from being down 18 again but we didn’t make it all the way.  I told a reporter after the game (you like how I slipped that in there?)that its good and bad that we’re becoming known as a team that never gives up and fights back no matter what the score is. Its good because we never give up but its bad (obviously) because we keep getting behind by way too many points.  We play Georgia Southern on Thursday night at home.  We’ve been playing pretty well at home lately and would love to get another win.