Bahamas Blog Day Six
8/16/2011 5:00:00 PM | Men's Basketball
The Creighton men's basketball team departed for the Bahamas on the morning of Aug. 11, where they will play four games before returning on Aug. 17. While away from Omaha, sports information director Rob Anderson, video coordinator Nathan Wieseler and graduate manager Brian Kooienga plan to keep those who couldn't make the trip informed on the various activities with a daily diary, video and photos.
August 16, 2011 (Day Six)
Another 7 pm game means another day to sleep in, which no one seems to mind (especially after most of them hung around to hear Matthew Dorwart and Brian Kooienga try to sing at midnight in the hotel lobby). After a 10 am breakfast, nearly all of the guys gathered to head downtown to a part of town named the "Straw Market". It's about a 10-minute shuttle ride away.
The Straw Market is a street full of shops and stores. It seemed like more than half of the stores were for jewelry or watches of some sort, along with a couple of American food chains such as Burger King, Starbucks, Hard Rock Café (home of a Grammy won by the Baha Men...which leads me to ask "Who Let The Dogs Out?") and Subway among others. We also walked past the Señor Frogs that is right on the ocean and supposed to be the hot party spot in town (especially during Spring Break), but that place is off limits for the student-athletes at night when it gets a tad crazier than 11 am on a Tuesday morning.
Our guys strolled up and down those streets for the better part of 75 minutes. Some of them bought a couple T-shirts, pins or other trinkets and collectibles. With our time in the Bahamas ending tomorrow, it was a good last chance for many of them to do some shopping for souvenirs and gifts.
After that we got back to the hotel about 12:15 pm and didn't have much else planned until 5:30 pm. Some of the guys, such as Will Artino, Derek Sebastian, Matthew Dorwart and Avery Dingman tried their hand at waterskiing, with mixed results.
Others, including a few coaches, hung out by the pool, while still other guys spent part of the afternoon napping. The constant sun and water, in addition to three games in four days, have left this group a little tired, but in a good way.
Our final game of the trip is tonight against a team called the Real Deal Shockers. We saw part of their game our first night when they were beaten by Louisville in a game that just wouldn't end due to an endless supply of fouls. Coach Mac has talked to the guys about ending the game portion of this tour on a high note and he's hoping to see our best game yet.
Remember, we'll be posting score updates during our 6 pm Central game via our Twitter site at http://www.twitter.com/gocreighton. If you've never used Twitter, that page is a must-follow for any fan of the Jays.
Tomorrow will be our final day of the trip. Our flight isn't until after 4 pm, but since we'll have to go through customs and the sense of urgency isn't as great down here, we've been warned to arrive three hours early. The team will then fly through Dallas before returning to Omaha at 11:30 pm, assuming everything runs on schedule.
It's been a great trip, and we hope to have one more blog entry upon landing in Omaha as well.
In the meantime, don't forget to check out our day six photo album.
Go Jays!
