Greetings from Newport News! As is usually the case this time of the year, things continue to move at a frenetic pace. The CNU campus is bustling as the holiday season draws near. Amazingly, the fall semester is in its final weeks, spring class registration is fully underway, CNU's fall sports teams have won championships left and right, and then there is this little matter of the college basketball season getting underway.
 
The recent Homecoming weekend festivities, featuring our annual Midnight Madness and Alumni Game events, were a great success – although I am still bitterly disappointed that junior Tra Benefield missed the dunk on a perfect alley oop pass I threw him during the Dunk Contest (as he was jumping over me at the same time – don't ask me how I got roped into that one). I just don't have that many assists left in my aging twenty-five going on fifty-five year-old body. Alas, I anticipate forgiving Tra immediately after the first time he drives down the lane and slams one down during the regular season.
 
Last week gave us our first two tests against outside competition. We scrimmaged Hampden-Sydney College and also took on the Pirates of Hampton University in our annual exhibition game. Facing a much bigger lineup, our guys competed hard and hung in tough with Hampton – cutting the deficit to seven points late in the second half before finally falling by a 72-57score. The exhibition also supported a great cause by raising several thousand dollars for the American Cancer Society.
 
Naturally, the Hampton exhibition and the Hampden-Sydney scrimmage highlighted a number of areas that we need to dig into and improve upon.  These preseason contests are a great teaching tool. Reviewing the game film with the team is an essential task. In these film sessions the players can see themselves executing – and not executing – our key principles, and the negative consequences that result when one or more of the guys on the court doesn't get the job done. It makes us coaches seem slightly (ok, maybe very slightly) less crazy for harping on the same things day in and day out at practice.
 
Armed with the knowledge and lessons we gained from the preseason, we now set out to start things up for real. Our 2012-2013 regular season officially commences this Thursday when we host rival Randolph-Macon College, a squad that is currently ranked as the #24 team in the nation.
 
Randolph-Macon is a very well coached, veteran group that will surely give us all we can handle. There is always a good deal of uncertainty leading up to the first game. Despite all the preparations that have been made, you just never know how the individual players and the group as a whole will respond when the lights come on. This is especially true when you are sending out a lot of freshmen and sophomores like we will be on Thursday.
 
It can certainly be a little nerve-racking for a coach, to finally see the initial results of all the planning, developing, motivating, and teaching that have gone on over the past few months. For better or worse, these results are played out in a very public forum. There is a reason why legendary Michigan St. head coach Jud Heathcote (who my old boss Mike Deane coached under), used to say about coaching, “If it wasn't for those games, this would be a pretty good job.” Still, the games themselves are just a part of the long and winding journey that is the college basketball season. No matter what happens Thursday and the following few weeks, we'll have to keep plugging away and continue to improve everyday.
 
We hope that you can come on out and join the rest of the Freeman Fanatics to create a raucous home court atmosphere. It cannot be stressed enough how important your support is to our continued success. When the Freeman Center gets going there is a distinct and powerful energy to the place that I know has uplifted and spurred on our guys in the past. So come on out and make some noise for the Captains Thursday night.

And…away…we…go…!