University of Minnesota Athletics
NCAA Tournament Travel Blog
5/13/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Day 2
Thursday in sunny California began with a nice continental breakfast at the hotel before practice. The hotel is about a 15-minute drive to Cal's campus, but we have quickly learned (coming back from practice on Wednesday) that those 15 minutes can increase significantly if you leave at the wrong time. California traffic can be tricky.
Traffic was not an issue in the morning and by the time the team arrived at the courts for an 11 a.m. tune-up, Marist and Fresno State were just finishing their early-morning workout. The Gophers used courts 4-6 this time, as they were one 1-3 on Wednesday. A few players from California trickled out onto the courts at the same time for some hitting.
The weather was perfect for practice. The temperature was in the 60s and the wind that this part of the country is famous for was minimal. A few players remarked how 60 degrees in California and 60 degrees in Minnesota feel very different. The forecast calls for a high of 64 and sun on Friday, so the players should be happy with that.
The two-hour practice seemed to go by remarkably quick and by the time we were leaving the courts, the Cal women's team was beginning practice. In addition to hosting the men's regional Friday and Saturday, the university is also hosting a women's regional on Saturday and Sunday with Cal, USC, St. Mary's College and Boston University. Those six courts are going to get quite a workout in the next three days. The university was also setting up for graduation on Saturday at the track complex, which is less than 50 yards from the courts. Fans and players on Saturday morning at the women's regional may be able to hear a commencement address and graduate roll call during competition.
After practice the team headed to ToGo's for a quick lunch. You have to feel sorry for the person who walks into a semi-fast food restaurant after a traveling party of 13, as their wait for a sandwich just got a lot longer. Lunch was downed and then we headed to the hotel for 15 minutes and some quick showers.
Since we arrived at in the San Francisco area much of the off-the-court talk has been about Alcatraz. There was a spirited debate about which building was more famous: Alcatraz or Madison Square Garden. The international players all thought Alcatraz (guess we have Sean Connery to thank for that), while the American-born players were going with the edifice in New York City.
The last available Alcatraz tour of the day was at 3:20 p.m. and nine Gophers were on the boat to the former island prison. The only player who did not go was Rok Bonin, as he had to stay at the hotel and study for a 5:30 p.m. final. The guys took a flipcam with them as they toured The Rock (we are sifting through the video and will have footage posted soon) and all thoroughly enjoyed the self-guided audio walking tour. If there is one thing about our tennis team, it is that they appreciate learning and history and they took advantage of both while at Alcatraz.
The weather is San Francisco can be fickle sometimes, and the boat ride back to the island was choppy and the wind was blowing. So after spending the morning playing tennis in near-perfect conditions the majority of the players who went to Alcatraz had to buy hot chocolate on the boat ride back to the mainland to warm up.
One of the guys who was most excited about going to Alcatraz was Dino Bilankov, who played last year and is an undergraduate student assistant coach this year. Bilankov took in as much information as possible, but eerily conceded later that he felt like he had been to the high-security fortress before. Turns out he is a big fan of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 - Alcatraz and the video game makers nailed the design on the head.
The coaching staff met the players once they returned from San Francisco and the team then headed to dinner at a road staple, P.F. Chang's. Any meal with this team is filled with information and laughs. In addition to getting debriefed about their recent tour, Julian Dehn explained that Michael Sicora is nicknamed Doogie because he looks like Doogie Howser (you be the judge) from the 1990s sitcom. Dehn, who grew up in Germany, then said he has never seen the show and doesn't know if Sicora looks like Howser or not. That is the beautiful thing about a nickname right there folks.
At dinner the team also learned that Geoff Young was named the ITA Central Region Coach of the Year. GopherSports.com has a new reporter in the fold, as senior Tobias Wernet interviewed coach about how he felt receiving the honor. After a few hilarious takes and some video editing here is Wernet's reporting debut.
The few minutes after dinner and before dessert were filled with some spilled water and impersonations from Phillip Arndt and Brendan Ruddock. Arndt can do a spot-on coach Young, while Ruddock showed off his repertoire with impressive impersonations of Arndt, Bonin, Dehn and Derek Peterson. They were savage.
After dinner the team headed back to the hotel for a quick meeting before calling it a night. The alarms will go off early tomorrow, as the guys will get in an early breakfast before taking on Fresno State at 11 a.m. in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Day 1
The alarms went off at 4:45 a.m., the cabs showed up on campus around 5:15 a.m. and by 7 a.m. the Gophers were headed to California - by way of Salt Lake City - for this weekend's NCAA tournament.
The airport in Salt Lake City is right next to some beautiful snow-capped mountains that the players enjoyed for a few minutes upon landing. The two-hour layover in Utah was filled with breakfast, some naps (some longer than others), perusing of magazines and a lot of taking advantage of the free airport Internet (we are an overwhelmingly Apple team) when it decided to work.
The 90-minute flight to Oakland was unadventurous and once the rental vans were picked up it was a short 20-minute drive to the team hotel. Minnesota arrived at the hotel at 1:45 p.m. local time (3:45 p.m. back in the Twin Cities) but after nearly eight hours of travel the team had one hour at the hotel before heading to the University of California, host of this week's regional, for practice.
The courts at Cal are nice and are tucked into a small piece of land between a road and the outdoor track facility. Graduation is being held on Saturday at the track, so it could be pretty congested for whatever teams are playing in the regional final. The baseball stadium and basketball arena are nearby as well. Marist was already on the courts when the Gophers arrived, as they too flew in during the early morning hours for their match against California on Friday.
Minnesota practiced for about two hours playing a variety of games that turned competitive and the venture was a good way for the guys to work out the stiffness from the flight.
After practice the jam-packed day continued with dinner. The team stopped by the hotel for 15 minutes to take some quick showers before heading to California Pizza Kitchen to replenish. Most of the players had a thin crust pie, but there were also a few guys who opted for spaghetti. Juan Pablo Ramirez was coaxed into trying hummus for the first time by undergraduate student assistant coach Dino Bilankov and the reviews were positive.
A big topic of conversation and laughter at dinner was this YouTube video.
There was an unconfirmed rumor that one player on the team may have thought the dog was actually talking.
After dinner a few players took in a movie but the majority of the team headed back to the hotel to get an early jump on sleep because they practice again at 11 a.m. on Thursday.
It was a busy day, but a good one according to coach Young.
Players Mentioned
