Follow along as the Concordia women's basketball team hits the road for the 2009 NCAA Tournament. The Cobbers are competing in their 16th NCAA Tournament and will play their regional games at UW-Stevens Point.

THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2009

8:40 a.m.

The day starts with continental breakfast at the hotel. Continental breakfast is the lifeblood of any small college athletic department. Finding a hotel that is nice and has a great breakfast is a key to saving money and keeping the athletes happy. As I enter the dining room several players are seated at tables and groggily starting their day. They have to be on the bus in 20 minutes and most of them waited until the last minute to get up and head to breakfast and the bus. Jenna Freudenberg is sitting at a table with other players and is reading the recap from last night's Gopher win over Wisconsin. She is interested in the lead of the story which tells how head coach Tubby Smith benched starting guard Lawrence Westbrook to get his attention and push him to play better. Jenna was making the point about how that wouldn't work at the DIII level. She then went on to clarify that it was more of a men's/women's issue. She, and the rest of the table agreed, that it wouldn't work with women's teams. They also agreed that they were happy that coach Rahman never tried to play any of those head games on the team.

The breakfast ends with everyone slowly filing out to the bus to start the ride to Stevens Point. Jessica has joined the team. She left Moorhead at 5 a.m. after Braden's win in the section championship. She made great time and is very excited about joining up with the team and starting her journey to the national tournament. Her daughter Casssidy has also come along. Cassidy is a fixture on the Cobber bench and has as much invested in the team as any player. She eats, breathes and sleeps Cobber women's basketball - the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree.

The bus pulls away from the hotel and we are on the road again. The day is overcast but warm.  It is a nice break from the frigid cold of the past two weeks. Hopefully the rise in the temperature will coincide with a rise in the team's play as they start the tournament.

10:05 a.m.

Most of the team is sleeping for this first leg of the trip. We are scheduled to stop at a Subway in Chippewa Falls. It was a tough call on the location to eat because Eau Claire was to soon to eat lunch and the coaching staff wanted to make sure the team could eat well in advance of their 2 p.m. practice time. The plan also called for the team straight to practice and not go to the hotel beforehand. The hotel would only allow the players to check in at 4 p.m. so the staff had to make the proper arrangements so that their schedule would be seemless with no waiting. Another little detail that the assistant coaches take care of that never gets publicized but is hugely important in keeping the team loose and not uptight about having to wait or being late for practice.

Jessica is using the "down" time to watch game film of Concordia (Wis.) on a laptop. She is going over the scouting report that Rachel and Steph stayed up until 1 a.m. to put together. The two were excited that they were able to come up with a couple of great quotes to put into the report. Steph was especially happy that the front desk was able to staple all the scouting reports so they would be nice and neat. Jessica goes over inbounds plays and how their breakdown of half court offense and defense holds up. She is satisfied with the report and then fast forwards the DVD to the end of regulation where Concordia survives a last-second shot that would have given Wisconsin the win and earned them the trip to the national tournament. It's a fine line between sitting at home and realizing your goal of playing in the national playoffs.

The first movie of the day is "Over the Hedge". It is an animated movie that is, at times, more geared to adults than it is to kids. Only one or two players watch the movie as most of the team uses the time to catch up on sleep.

The bus rolls through Wisconsin through a slight drizzle. We are definitely on our way.

11:55 a.m.

The bus pulls into Subway and the team gets off. It is a drill they have done hundreds of times and practically sleep walk through the ordering process. Most players know what they want and order from memory. Assistant coach Rachel Bergeson can't decide on what to get and asks about many different sandwiches. She finally decides on turkey after not wanting to take a chance on the chicken and have it taste rubbery. Jessica goes with as bland a sub as she can. She doesn't want anything to upset her stomach as the team practices or prepares for the upcoming game.

As the bus rolls down the road Jessica is trying to locate a Starbucks or Moxi Java. She has been up since before 5 a.m. and needs that extra shot of caffeine from an espresso. She finally breaks down and calls our tournament host and asks if there are any Starbucks in the area. There is one located in Wausau but due to a tightening schedule, she will have to wait until after practice to get her fix.

12:30 p.m.

The team is about 45 minutes outside of Stevens Point and the coaching staff is about to start the scouting report session. The team will watch game film on the bus and go over the detailed written report that Rachel and Steph have prepared.

Before they get started they have to stop the second movie of the day - "August Rush". I wasn't familiar with the movie before the trip but after watching over half of it I am completely hooked. It is about a boy who grows up without knowing his mother and father and runs away to New York. Turns out he is a musical genius as both of his parents were musicians. As the team starts their scouting report I pop the movie in my laptop so I can finish it off. It turns out to be a tremendous movie that has me tearing up at the end.

Jessica is standing in the aisle going over the keys to being successful against Concordia (Wis.). The team is very attentive and takes in all the information knowing that it will be right on once the game starts. No team that has made it this far doesn't pay attention to detail and have a thorough scouting report process.

Game day is getting closer.

1:15 p.m.

The bus rolls into UW-Stevens Point. It is like most Wisconsin state schools - big, expansive with buildings that were built circa 1970. It is a sharp contrast from that of the smaller Concordia campus which is more compact and has a more traditional small college look and feel.

It is still overcast and as the players get off the bus and t he temperature gauge inside says it is 44-degrees outside. Nice to be able to get off the bus and not have to wear a thick winter coat. The players are excited to finally be at the gym and are all smiles. 

We are met at the gym by our host Patti Tomlinson. She is a great person that is very welcoming and puts everyone at ease with her personality. It is nice to be at a school that has hosted national tournaments before because they know the routine and have everything in place as soon as you get there.

The players head down to the locker room while the coaching staff talks with the tournament officials and other personnel from UW-Stevens Point. They are all very friendly and make everyone feel welcome. One of the players emerges from the locker room and wants to get the training kit. One problem - the kit was left on the bus and the bus has left the campus. The UW-Stevens Point people say it will be fine for the players to get taped and use anything else they need from their training room. Jessica is first upset with the team for leaving the kit and then relieved after finding out they will be taken care of.

In NCAA Tournament play teams get to practice for only an hour-and-a-half and have to leave immediately after the buzzer sounds. They also can't get on the floor any earlier and can't use the time clock for practice purposes. This poses a problem for most basketball coaches because they are used to putting certain time segments on the clock, having the clock run to 00:00 and then resetting it for the next drill. Not the case in the national playoffs and Jessica nominates student manager Alyssa Bray to keep track of the clock and make sure they are following the practice plan down to the last second.

After the team is dressed and ready, they head out for a multi-purpose gym to stretch and warm up for practice. Sara Sorbo teases Jessica by faking an attempt at a cartwheel. Jessica is not impressed and tells Sara that they don't need any injuries from "fun" activities. Sorbo's antics have helped the team to stay loose. That will be an important factor in the tournament because teams usually tense up once they realize the importance of the situation that they are performing in. Sara will definitely have this team ready to play and make sure they are good and loose. She is one of the special people on the team and is really fun to watch when she plays the game. She is the type of player that teammates love and opposing players hate to play against. She gives everything she has on every play and usually has the bruised knees to support that theory. She is fiery, determined and always going at full speed. She is a coach's dream and an opponent's nightmare.

2:00 p.m.

At precisely 2 p.m. the team is allowed to take the court and begin practice. They start with their usual 3-man and 5-man weave drill. You can tell the players are nervous as they throw the ball all over the gym and have a hard time making a layup. It is a typical opening 10 minutes for a team that is making an appearance in the NCAA Tournament. The players are worried about all the hype that has gone into the days leading up to the game. They put more pressure on themselves and need to just go out and play through it and get into the flow of the practice. The coaches are worried about how the team is playing and they hope they will snap out of the funk.

Sure enough, as they start to get more into the meat of the practice the players loosen up and start to perform at the level they are used to. 30 minutes into practice they are hitting shots, making the right reads and playing with the intensity and determination that has brought them to this point.

The gym that the women's team at UW-Stevens Point uses is a little cracker box of a gym. It seats only 900 people and should be packed on Friday. It is a gym that has character and will provide a great atmosphere for the regional games. It will be an experience that the players and coaches will never forget. Instead of playing in a half empty arena where the fans are located way back from the court, the four teams will play in a gym that will make them feel like they are playing in front of thousands and will be extremely loud. It will be fun!

I spend the time talking with Brad Duckworth who is the regional representative for the site. He watches practice to make sure that all the teams use only their allotted time and stick within the guidelines set by the NCAA. He is the head coach at Alverno College (Wis.) and we pass the time by talking about his season and how he thinks the regional will play out.

Barry the bus driver brings Jessica her espresso while the team is practicing. It will have to wait until after practice but it is a great gesture by another key ingredient on a road trip. A good bus driver will make the travel easier, take pressure of the coaching staff by getting to places on time and not getting lost. A bad driver will give the staff headaches and just another thing to worry about.

After talking with Brad I decide to take on Cassidy in a game of P-I-G - bad idea! She rarely misses a shot and beats me three straight times. Good thing she doesn't take after her mother!

With exactly :45 seconds to go on the clock, the team meets at the center circle and breaks the practice. They walk off the court and the coaching staff is pleased with how the second half of practice went. 

The players then head into the hallway to buy souvenir t-shirts. At $30.00 a pop, the NCAA does quite well in concession sales. The players deliberate on what size to purchase. It is decided that all the shirts are for short, squat people. They make their purchases and head to the bus. Time to check into the hotel.

5:50 p.m.

After having their first down time of the day, the players head back to the bus to go to dinner. The team had two hours to relax, shower and just hang out. It was a much needed break after spending all that time on the bus and then at practice.

The team heads to Grazie's, a family run Italian place in town. They have a room in the back set up for the team and it makes for a nice place to eat a meal which will serve as a night-before-the-game dinner and a reward for making it into the national tournament.

Jessica tells the team to keep it reasonable and not order any high end entree. Of course the team lets out groans but they are excited about all the possibilities. Most of the team has some sort of alfredo dish, either alone or with chicken or shrimp. Everyone fills up on salad, bread and their meal. We are joined at dinner by athletic director Larry Papenfuss who has driven down from Concordia. He reports that the weather was fine on the drive down, just some patchy areas of fog.

Things are starting to fall into place as we get closer to Friday.

7:35 p.m.

From dinner we take the bus across the road to Target. Sara Sorbo needs some shoe goo for one of the toes on her basketball shoe. The rubber piece in the front of the shoe has started to peel away and she needs to glue it back together before it starts to get worse. What starts out as a routine, short trip to the store - turns into one of the highlights of the trip. Players head off in all directions and spend the 20 minutes browsing in all different sections. Some head to the swimwear department to check out swimsuits for the hotel pool. Others wander towards the DVD and electronics department. I flag down a store employee and ask about the shoe goo. Unfortunately I am beaten to the punch by Sara and freshman Ashley Beseman who have already found the display of shoe care products. The two are roommates at the hotel for the trip. Seems they spent the down time comparing hair color as they have almost the same shade of red hair. With shoe goo in hand they head off to find the rest of the team.

Another highlight comes when Jenna Freudenberg, Erica Nord and Lindsey Schultz walk around the store having their picture taken. What makes it hilarious is that they are posing for pictures after getting suggestions from teammates as to what faces they should make. They walk down the aisle like elite fashion models getting their picture snapped. The best suggestion comes when someone suggests to look like they are constipated. The faces they make bring everyone to tears. It's just another funny moment with a team that is full of characters.

The trip to the store ends when everyone congregates in the sun glasses department. The coaching staff has their picture taken with goofy glasses and everyone else tries on the wildest pair they can find.

The 20 minutes at the store has served as the entertainment for the night and helps the food settle. Everyone hops back on the bus and it is off to the hotel to have a couple hours of down time before lights out. Jessica stands up and lets the team know of the schedule for the rest of the night and tomorrow morning.

They will eat breakfast at 8:15 a.m. and then head to their shootaround at 9:30 a.m. Their shootaround will be at 10 a.m. and will last for one hour. After that it is back to the hotel, a pregame meal, back to the gym and then game time at 5 p.m.

8:40 p.m.

Jessica, Larry and I meet in the lobby to head for the coaches/administrators meeting. It is a necessary evil where Brad will go over all the little details and exact timing for the tournament.

As we leave for the meeting, the team is gathering by the pool. The players are dangling their legs in the pool and are just relaxing and enjoying the moment. It is one of those spontaneous national playoff moments that is worth every 6 a.m. practice, ever sprint, every trip to the weight room. It is nice to see the team happy and ready to play.

Hopefully they will be feeling the same thing 24 hours from now.