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HICKORY, N.C. --- During Tusculum's run in the NCAA
Division II Women's Basketball Tournament, senior guard
Nikki Van Dine will be providing a daily blog from
this year's Southeast Regional in Hickory, N.C. The Columbus, Ohio
native is in her second season with the Pioneers and was named to
the SAC All-Tournament Team this past weekend:
Friday, March 13, 2009
We got up this morning around 7 a.m. so we could head to the gym. We had shoot around at 8 a.m., which just seemed way too early. We went over the game plan and the scouting report once again just to make sure everyone understood what was going on.
We went to breakfast as a team again and then got about two hours to just relax and lay back down. A little before noon we headed back over to the gym and started getting ready for the game. One o'clock was tip off and we led most of the game. We ended up getting the W which was a big deal for Coach Tiber because it was her first NCAA win and important to us, because it meant we made it to the next round.
After the game we stuck around to watch the Carson Newman vs. Clayton State game to see who we would be playing Saturday. After that game we went to Outback for dinner then we had the option of going back to the gym to watch a little bit of the other two games or to just chill at the hotel.
Some people decided to go with their families and the rest of us went to the gym. We got back to the hotel around 9 p.m., took a shower and just hung out. We just got out of our meeting in coach's room where we talked about the game plan for tomorrow and the scouting report. We went over the key players and what we were going to need to do to win.
Now it's time to head back to our rooms and get some rest so we can get another win tomorrow!
Thursday, March 12, 2009
This morning, I got up at 8:30 a.m. so I could get ready for the day. At 9 a.m. we walked over to the continental breakfast and it wasn't bad. It was a buffet with pretty much everything and even some fresh fruit.
After breakfast we headed over to Lenoir-Rhyne for practice. We only got 55 minutes because of NCAA rules, so it was just short and to the point. We focused on the main keys for the game tomorrow and did some shooting to get use to the basketballs and rims. After practice, some of the girls bought NCAA shirts that were on sale at the tournament site and we returned to the hotel.
We had about two hours to shower and relax. Around 1:30 p.m. we left the hotel and headed to the movies. We had the option of seeing three different shows, but about eight of us, including myself, went to see "Taken" while the others and the coaching staff went to see "Madea Goes to Jail."
The movie was a lot better than I thought it was going to be, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone. After the movie we walked over to the mall and shopped for an hour. We went to dinner around 5 p.m. at the Olive Garden, which was amazing as always.
After dinner we came back to the hotel to relax some more. Most of the team hung out and watched the men's basketball games on TV. We didn't really do anything else until 10 p.m. when we had our team meeting in Coach Tiber's room. We took time