Making it a Day with the Privateers (Jason Plotkin, Nov. 5)
Over the next few weeks, we have several chances for our fans to plans their whole day based around UNO athletics. For those who share in the mutual obsession over the blue and white, it all begins this coming weekend.
On Saturday, you can start your day at the Reilly Center at 11 a.m for the men and women's swimming and diving dual against Alabama. The Crimson Tide have a ranked women's team and according to our diving coach, Richard Marschner, have an athlete who finished top six at the US Olympic Diving Trials. You don't have to go far to see some world-class competition. Continue your day back towards the Lakefront where the volleyball team continues a critical stretch of matches as they face North Texas at the Human Performance Center at 4 p.m and hopefully, our team will get back in their "win in three" mode, giving you a window to tailgate prior to the UNO Club Football game against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville at Tad Gormley Stadium at 7 p.m. While not a UNO athletic program, I do know many of you are looking forward to the contest.
For those planning out further in advance, circle Nov. 15, Dec. 6 and Dec. 22. Saturday, Nov. 15 will feature volleyball senior day at 12 p.m and the men's basketball opener against North Carolina State at 7 p.m. With tailgating out at the Lakefront Arena that day, it will be pretty easy to make a day of it. There's also a homecoming event following the NC State game in the auxilary gym. Fireworks and a bonfire the night before by the way. More regarding those special events is at the UNO at 50 site.
Dec. 6 features the UNO men's basketball team against Ole Miss at 2 p.m followed by a game at Fogelman Arena oN Tulane's campus with the women's basketball team taking on Jackson State at 6 p.m. Do not worry about rushing, I would not expect the game to begin until at least 30 minutes after the scheduled time, if not later. TU's men play Western Kentucky at 2 p.m followed by the TU women at 4 p.m against Indiana State. They do not account for the 30 minutes in between games like we do, which is why the game will be aired internet-only. That frame of thinking does nothing to help members of the media trying to cover a team, especially when you are trying to plan radio.
Dec. 22 rounds it out for the next few months until we hit the 2009 year. The women will be in Thibodaux, about an hour away to face Nicholls State on Dec. 22 at 2 p.m with the men hosting North Texas at 7 p.m that night. The early start time at Nicholls is so Coach Champion can let her players get out of town for the short holiday break while for the men, the NT game represents their home conference opener after playing Louisiana-Monroe a few days prior.
There's no better way than to spend your day with your hometown team!
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We announced a Select-a-Seat event for next Monday, Nov. 10 at 5 p.m at the Lakefront Arena.
I have gotten a few e-mails from Today in UNO members who asked about how to pick up their season tickets. You can get your tickets, in addition to PAF membership card and parking passes at this event. If you can not make it, contact Kevin Breen at kbreen@uno.edu or (504) 280-6100 and arrange another method of getting your ticket(s). He is hand-delivering some and mailing out others. You can come pick them up at Bienville Hall here on the campus if you inform him of such and make sure to visit my office which is along the way back to his. The best way to avoid any problems on Nov. 14 and Nov. 15 is to either show up to the event or contact Kevin.
There have been a few meetings in the last few weeks to prepare for the opening and having not been to anything more than the Blue-White scrimmage as far as a live game, I am excited. We are really trying to do what we can to make the game day experience the best it can be. Temporary scoreboard goes up Friday, if I am not mistaken.
A more formal release will be available soon, but for those wondering about parking, here is the information as put together by Adam Stowe for an e-mail to his PAF e-mail list. Remember, those individuals in the reserved parking will need to have their parking passes (so, don't leave home without it or you could very well end up parking amongst the general patrons and walk a little further).
Chancellor's Club - Reserved VIP Lot in front of Arena (access via south entrance on Franklin)
Press Box Club - Reserved North Black-top Lot (access via north entrance on Franklin)
Courtside Club - Reserved North Black-top Lot (access via north entrance on Franklin)
General Patrons - South Shell Lot, South Black-top Lot, South Grass Lot, North Shell Lost, North Grass Lot
Since I am sure a few of you may want to eventually make your way in the Lakefront Arena for games, the entrances are as follows:
Ground 1 - Chancellor's Club, Press Box Club, Courtside Club, PAF members, Player Guest Will Call, Athletic Will Call
Ground 4 - Chancellor's Club, Press Box Club, Courtside Club, PAF members
Ramps 1 & 4 - General ticket patrons, UNO students, anyone from the Ground 1 & 4 groups
And of course, we also have the Privateer Room open 60 minutes pre-game and post-game for PAF members and their guests only.
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Cristina Lay was named Swimmer of the Week from the Sun Belt Conference for the second straight week. Only one other swimmer in school history has won the award twice. Lay had a great weekend swimming against two very strong programs in Southern Illinois and defending conference champion Western Kentucky. Among her feats was breaking the 400 IM record by nearly 11 full seconds.
Wags was telling me the other day that swimming and diving does not seem to take too much time. Let me tell you, with all these records falling left and right every week, it is taking plenty of time to stay on top of! Coach Horner promises me the times will continue to go even lower.
Keep in mind, many of our freshmen this past weekend were swimming five or six events back-to-back days in such a highly competitive environment for the first time. They were tired on Saturday after competing against WKU. Good news is that they do not have anything like that again the rest of the season.
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Wanted to remind you that we have a nice relationship with NOLA.com and that we post non-game related stories on their web site in addition to posting on our UNOPrivateers.com site. This is just another method that our sports information office is trying to reach out to the greater New Orleans community. Pierce Huff, our new men's basketball beat writer is also doing a great job of helping us get things up on NOLA.com as our UNO Basketball Hour was featured right on the NOLA.com page.
Make sure to keep tabs on UNOPrivateers.com, but also give a few clicks over to http://www.nola.com/uno/ to see what is going on at our "quasi-mirror site". Fans can comment on those stories, for the most case and it's encouraged. It really shows that people are interested and care about UNO athletics to the people that give us coverage.
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The women's basketball team has several things going on.
We announced earlier today that returning letterwinners Talishia Young and Kathy Kassabian will both sit out the 2008-09 season due to injury. Talishia started 21 of 30 games last year. A very unique post player as she has really developed her shot further from the basket, causing opponents some difficulty in defending her. Kathy, you may recall, hit the game-winning shot in the Blue-White game in 2007 and also led the women to a shooting contest victory over the men. Coach Champion thought she had a great summer and looked like she may really make a difference for our team this year.
Adam Stowe passed along information earlier today that we turned into a release regarding the Lady Privateers efforts to raise funds for equipment and furnishings that they need for their 'return home' to the Lakefront Arena. You can find out more information our web site about ways to help them out or as always, Adam is the point person if you are interested in doing your part for the athletic department.
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That's all from me for this week. We got a very busy few weeks ahead and we'll keep our fingers crossed that I can maintain my weekly blog once basketball rolls around. Keep the e-mails coming my way at jplotkin@uno.edu if there's anything you need answered or some direction in talking to with the right people.
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