Plenty of Happenings This Week on the Lakefront (Jason Plotkin, Nov. 12)
Were you as excited as I was when the basketball games this coming weekend started creeping up the schedule on UNOPrivateers.com? If you have been hiding under a rock, we have a big weekend ahead of us with two home volleyball matches and the openers for both of our basketball teams. A quick synopsis for those trying to plan their weekend a few days early:
Thursday - Pep rally/yell practice at 12 p.m in the Library Quad with free food for those wearing blue; Volleyball takes on Louisiana-Lafayette at 7 p.m at the HPC
Friday - Lady Privateer tailgate at 5 p.m outside the Lakefront Arena with free hot dogs and sodas for students. During the tailgate, students organizations will compete in various relay activities to earn points towards homecoming totals. The day continues with the Lady Privateers opener against McNeese State at 7 p.m with a bonfire, yell practice and fireworks to follow on the Lakefront Arena's north side following the contest.
Saturday - The Privateers Lakeshore Classic 5K Run/Walk starts the day with registration beginning at 7:30 a.m at the Homer Hitt Alumni and Vistors Center. Volleyball wraps up their season with 'Senior Day' at 12 p.m against Louisiana-Monroe. Tailgating kicks off at 4:30 p.m for the basketball contest with a Privateer costume contest at 6 p.m. The main event, the men's hoops game against North Carolina State is at 7 p.m. with a post-game homecoming dance starting post-game. UNO students are free with a $20 ticket price for others. Food, drinks and dancing.
A full schedule of events associated with this Homecoming week is available on the UNO at 50 web site, http://50.uno.edu/ plus any other information you could possibly want on this year's events.
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Earlier this week, a release came out regarding UNO Vision. To clarify some information, yes, we will be having live video of home men's and women's basketball (plus the remaining two volleyball contests) via UNO Vision. Before the e-mail box goes ding, we will also have baseball games via the same means once the basketball season is over and we can properly devote staff to the operation.
Within a few days of the contest having taken place, the video will appear. Please remember, you must be a premium subscriber to access this content. There's several ways to find this video. 
1) Go to the game recap story and the video link will appear there when available
2) Under the multimedia tab above, the drop-down menu contains "Launch UNO Media Player"
3) Log-in to your UNO Vision account on the main UNOPrivateers.com page and "Launch the UNO Media Player" as you typically would upon logging in.
4) Better yet, bookmark this link: http://www.unoprivateers.com/newMediaPlayer/console.htm?type=vod&oemid=16700
Wags informs me that the UNO Basketball Show will also be available through UNO Vision after it airs on CST. Look for releases regarding air times prior to the first airing of each show.
We may be able to get select road games for archives, but at the very least, we should be able to secure most of the Sun Belt Conference road games, that are not televised on CST, CSS or Fox College Sports - Atlantic, for live access on UNO Vision.
For those who are not premium subscribers of the service, we will continue to put up some free content from time to time including interviews and anything else we can get our hands on that we feel our fan base would like to see. I must admit, I am really excited about all we have in store. Archiving video content for our fan base adds more to our program without question.
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While I have the chance and your interests in UNO athletics is coming to a peak with basketball around the corner, I would encourage you to read game notes for our Privateer sports. We do game notes for volleyball, swimming & diving, both basketball teams and baseball. This is a great chance to get to learn a little more about the programs and read what is provided to the media who cover our games.
You can find the game notes at the top (or sometimes bottom) of the game advance or preview for a particular contest. Rob and I are always digging up little nuggets about the teams. There's some good information and stories that do not necessarily make it into the advance that may find you keeping tabs on something you would not have otherwise.
And one thing you may not realize is that coaches also read the game notes, both theirs and the opponents. It is an important part of their scout as they enjoy as much reading material as they can possibly have when preparing for an opponent as well as reviewing trends and information about their own teams that they may not realize while walking courtside.
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This one may have sneaked by you, but the women's basketball team's contest against Western Kentucky on Jan. 17 in Bowling Green, Ky. will be aired on Fox College Sports - Atlantic. This is another great chance for our team to get some television publicity, one of four games for the women's team that will make its way to the television screen.
Other women's games on TV include the Nov. 30 contest at Kansas (on Sunflower for our Jayhawk State UNO fans), Jan. 4 at Arkansas State (CST/CSS) and Feb. 22 at Louisiana-Lafayette (CST/CSS). Our men presently have two televised contests at this point, a Jan. 10 home date against UALR) and a Jan. 31 date at South Alabama, both on the CST/CSS Sun Belt package.
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We will announce women's basketball signees Thursday. As the coaching staff informs me, we are continuing to recruit better players to our program, which in turn rises the level of play for our Lady Privateers.
I met each of the signees when they came for their visit during the course of the last few months. When these recruits come in, several people around the department meet with them in addition to the activities with the coaching staff. During my visit, I help pitch all we have to offer as far as the sports information area goes. During the last year or so, this area has expanded, not just for women's basketball, but for all sports. We do interviews on UNO Vision frequently, Coach Champion has a 30-minute weekly radio show, most of the games are available in one form or another. Many schools that we compete with can not offer all we do as far as media exposure, both in-house and outside the department. Of course, having the Lakefront Arena and the practice gym that is attached also helps.
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Head volleyball coach Jozsef Forman joked with me this past week that he must be a good coach since none of his players have gotten conference player of the week honors while having one of the best years a UNO volleyball program has ever had.
Apparently the fact that the Privateer second year head coach brought it up helped the process out as Lindsey Loyd was named the first UNO Player of the Week in the sport since 2006. Loyd also was honored as one of Collegiate Volleyball Update (CVU.com) Top Performers for this past week. This honor goes to the top 10 players each week.
If you ask me, the 2008 Privateers are the best squad this program has seen since Javonne Brooks (now Butler) was on the court in the early 1990s, at least on paper. Can not personally vouch for the teams prior to my arrival. They reached 18 wins on Tuesday and with two wins this weekend against teams they have already beat, would be at 20. Sure, the team won 23 games in 2006, but they played a weaker out of conference schedule and the conference was still improving, which the RPI of that year attests to.
A 20 win regular season would mean 13 conference wins, which would be a school record (besting the 12 of 2006). All of this, happening with just 10 active players on the squad after one left the team early in the season plus a few reinforcements that never saw the court. The team wraps up play Thursday against ULL and Saturday against ULM. Make it a day with UNO on Saturday and come cheer on Dobrilla Kovacevic and Jaci Bayley, one more time!
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We will see you Thursday night at the HPC, Friday night at the Lakefront Arena and Saturday, we will cover both bases for volleyball in the early afternoon and basketball at night. See you then!
Inside the Athletic Department
