B-RadHoops - October 2007
October 28, 2007
Special guests visited the New River Valley this week. Marilyn Fleming, my Mom and her sister. This former captain of the cheerleading squad at famed Thomas Jefferson HS in Brooklyn and Aunt Sandy Heine, Mom's younger sis, made the trip from NYC to celebrate Mom's special "no number allowed" birthday. She celebrated with her youngest son Seth, the basketball coach at VT, me, five grandkids and some special family friends.
This was an equal opportunity visit as Mom and Aunt enjoyed visiting both VT and RU. Both campus bookstores were hit pretty hard and are now minus a variety of tees and hoodies. Cousins from coast to coast will soon be sporting Highlander and Hokie gear. Highlights of the visit included an impromptu Friday morning meeting with Radford President Kyle and VP Donna Van Cleave and a soggy Thursday nite at Lane Stadium. Though, as luxury suite guests, we dodged the rain and ran across a lot of Highlander support. Richmond's Suzie '69 and Michael Bogese, Presidents Advisory Council (PAC) member Jeff Price (Price Williams Real Estate), Garrett Weddle (Garret's on Main Street Menswear), BT's owner, Tom Whitehead, RU Foundation official, Georgina Falkingham Snyder and her husband, and Board of Visitor Vice Rector Tom Fraim and his Dad, the other Tom. Dinner Friday evening at The Summit in Christiansburg was outstanding. My Chicken Vindaloo was world class! What..did you expect a B-RadHoops with no mention of food? My mother and my aunt left early Saturday morning for the Roanoke airport, assuring us it was two lefts and three rights and no problem. I passed my brother Seth on 460 about 8 am and immediately phoned him. Turns out the ladies had a bit of a problem finding I-81.
Sunday afternoon, we had the first of two scrimmages against D-I opponents. NCAA rules prohibit mentioning specifics but we traveled to Hampton, VA for a match-up against a school located close by. Our guys played hard, defended pretty well, and showed some true grit. Considering this was our first effort against outside competition with a team that is considered by some as a pre-season favorite to win their conference, we were able to confirm some areas of strength, recognize some areas with promise, and identify some aspects that need immediate attention.
The Tip-Off banquet is this Thursday November 1 and it appears we will have a standing room only crowd. Many people have stepped up to support this event and it should be a fun evening with attendees from the Radford Board of Visitors, President Kyle, former players and their families, current players and some of their parents, and lots of generous sponsors and their guests.
9 practices and 1 closed scrimmage left to prepare for the opener at Michigan on November 9. Please make note of our first two home games at Dedmon vs. future Big South members.
The dates are November 14 vs. Presbyterian, and November 17 vs. Gardner Webb.
Season ticket brochures are hot off the presses and available. Call 540-831-5125 to request one via mail.
October 21, 2007
This past Thursday, Radford coaches Mike Anderson - Men's Tennis, Joe Raccuia - Baseball, Jeri Porter - Women's Basketball and I joined President Kyle, VP of Finance and Administration, Donna Van Cleave, VP of University Advancement, Sherri Mylott and others in Richmond at a Highlander Alumni and Friends reception at the home of Stuart and Dawn Siegel, '89. I was very excited to meet former Highlander star, Ryan Charles '00 and his wife, Bethany. Ryan is now an Owner/Mortgage Advisor with Virginia Mortgage Bankers, LLC.
I also met Michael and Susie Bogese, '69. Susie gets up at 4 am each morning to drive her high school sophomore son to swim practice. If I can get our players to come to practice with the enthusiasm for life Susie has, we are going to exceed the modest expectations most media guys have for us.
I did notice Mike Anderson repeatedly slipping out the front door of the Siegels. When I finally got up enough nerve to ask him what was going on, he informed me he was bringing cocktail food out to a South American tennis player he had in the RU van. He'd told his coach he could take him from the UVA tournament in which he was playing to the Richmond airport. Those RU coaches do go the extra mile!
I recently connected with Radford's #3 all time scorer Anthony Walker ’97. He is a physical education teacher and basketball coach in Austin, Texas. David Smith ‘85 and I have traded phone messages and I am going to connect with him in real time this week in hopes of getting him to come to our Tip-Off Banquet, November 1 and join Stephen Barber ‘92 and Ron Shelburne ‘91. I’m waiting to hear back from Doug Day ’93 in hope of getting him to RU West that night.
Saturday night, my daughter Ali and I were guests of world-class musician and basketball fanatic, Bruce Hornsby at the Salem Civic Center. It was a great show with country and bluegrass legend Ricky Skaggs and his Kentucky Thunder band. I didn't know anything about bluegrass before Saturday and was amazed at the fast pace of the guitar, mandolin, fiddle, and banjo. We're talking Magic Johnson, vintage LA Lakers "showtime" fastbreak pace. For those of you from a newer era, think Phoenix Suns pace and square it! Bruce told me he practices with a metronome cranked up to a hyper beat and attacks the keyboard for 45 straight minutes to train for this tour. Bruce also mentioned while wearing a red Radford Basketball polo shirt when touring on the west coast, he ran into former Radford and California Angels pitcher Phil Leftwich. Highlanders are everywhere.
13 practices and 2 closed scrimmages to go before the first moment of truth, a live tip-off, and I am not talking banquet. FYI, the Big Ten Network will broadcast our game at Michigan on November 9. I will provide details of how to view it via satellite as soon as we get them.
RU multi-media producer, Steven May, and university photographer, Lora Gordon recently teamed up with our players to create some dramatic team pictures for our media guide. Our hope is that an inspiring poster can also be produced from their creative efforts. Steve and Lora are two people with a strong spirit of cooperation and a lot of talent as well. Thanks Steve and Lora!
We still have a limited number of corporate sponsored tables and individual tickets available for the Tip Off Banquet. Please contact Assistant Coach Rick Hall at
fnhall@radford.edu, or by phone at 540-605-6483. Call to find out how you can be a part of it. Remember, even if you can't attend the banquet, you can sponsor the seat for one of our players or coaches. Just call Rick to learn how to do that.
October 14 , 2007
Our November 1st Tip-Off Banquet and fund raiser is shaping up to be an exciting event. The evening will begin with a social hour and silent auction that will include some outstanding golf packages and destinations from The Greenbrier, The Virginian, The River Course, Roanoke Country Club, Blacksburg Country Club, Draper Valley Golf Course and Mountain Lake Resort. The program will also introduce this year's team in a video produced by the RU Multi Media Producer Steven May.
In addition to meeting the players, attendees are also supporting Radford's basketball program. All proceeds from the event will go directly to the basketball coffers, enabling our program to travel a little nicer, eat a little better and train a little smarter. This is a great group of student athletes who very much deserve your support. Please call Rick Hall to reserve your seat at 540-605-6483, or email him at fnhall@radford.edu.
Your attendance will support such outstanding student athletes like Joey Lynch-Flohr and Duane Ricks who will join me as guest readers to McHarg elementary school students in a before school program in their cafegymatorium. Cafegymatorium..great word! We have the option of reading from a pre-selected age appropriate book chosen by a teacher at McHarg. But I preferred to dip into my early parenting day’s memory bank and hit McConnell Library to borrow two of my favorites from author / illustrator William Joyce: A Day With Wilbur Robinson, & Dinosaur Bob And His Adventures With The Family Lazardo.
Attendees of the banquet will also learn about two current players, Cole Wilder and Jamar Jenkins, who participate on Radford's Student Athlete Advisory Committee and recently attended the Big South SAAC fall leadership conference with representatives from the other schools. They met to discuss topics like new NCAA proposals, areas of concern in athletics at our schools, and the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the new service project in the Big South. Big South Associate Commissioner Dawn Turner made special mention of how positive their contributions were when we crossed paths at the Big South Media Day in Charlotte last week.
You know, even if you can't attend the banquet, if you want to sponsor the seat for one of our players, you'll be able to do that. Again, just call Rick Hall at 540-605-6483.
In addition to their community service and school efforts, our players are digging into practice. This past week marked the official start of NCAA sanctioned practices. We've held three two hour and thirty minute practices and are getting into a rhythm now. And in case you are wondering…..we have just 19 practices and 2 closed scrimmages before we play at Michigan on November 9.
There's a lot going on and we want you to be a part of it. Season ticket information is coming out soon and as always, please pass on this newsletter.
October 8 , 2007
It’s official!! Assistant coach Ali Ton and his wife Elizabeth, the newlyweds, are here. They’ve moved into their swank two bedroom apartment with the great view of downtown Radford, blending both their furnishing for the very first time. The décor is part chic Manhattan, part Istanbul and part Southern California. Elizabeth will travel between Radford and NYC where she is a producer for the FOX nationally syndicated, The Morning Show, with Mike and Juliet. The smooth move into their Main Street, Radford address above The Coffee Mill and Meg’s could not have been accomplished without the help of Elizabeth’s mom, Ann Burge, who flew in from Los Alamitos, California. When last seen, Ann was proudly wearing a Radford baseball hat, declaring herself the head of the newly formed Southern California Highlander Club. Elizabeth’s sister, Kristen Korian, of Montclair, NJ also flew in to help. As soon as Ali’s new 50” HDTV is delivered, we can hold film sessions over there and Ali has promised Turkish coffee as our beverage refreshment.
This week we completed pre season physical testing and we saw dramatic progress during the six week program. Some noteworthy accomplishments include Duane Ricks running 3,225 meters and Joey Lynch-Flohr covering 3,200 meters in 12 minutes on our last Cooper Run test. That’s six minute mile pace for two frontcourt players. We had three players’ record very impressive bench press lifts. Amir Johnson – 300 lbs, Joey Lynch-Flohr – 315 lbs and Nick McFarlin – 315 lbs. Three players had 400+ squat lifts. Amir Johnson – 405 lbs, Martell McDuffy – 405 lbs and Nick McFarlin – 425 lbs.
Another aspect of conditioning is nutrition. We are in the early stages of planning our team travel and team meals and will pay special attention to nutrition planning. It’s an area that can help a team gain a competitive advantage on the road or at home. How a player fuels his body affects his stamina in competition and recovery time afterwards. So you won’t see a lot of fried food or soda on any of our pre-game meal menus. One food item definitely not on my eat to win menu is red licorice twizzlers. They were once a staple of my mid afternoon snacking and individually packaged twizzlers are still available to office guests in a ceramic basketball container on a coffee table in my office. However, upon devouring one a few weeks back tooth #10 decided it wanted nothing to do with completing its mission. Weeks later after Dr. Chuck Howard’s successful oral surgery, I am healing, although for the time being minus a permanent chicklet. I do have some cosmetic help to get me through alumni meetings, photos for the media guide, and other occasions when a full set of teeth is appropriate.
Official practice starts this Friday at 7pm. For any former college ballers out there who have October 15 forever ingrained (for many years the official start date of college basketball practice), the second Friday of October is now the start date.
Radford Highlander Tip-Off Banquet space is still available. If you are interested in becoming a table sponsor there is still time and some room. Please call or email Rick Hall at fnhall@radford.edu or by phone at 540-605-6483 to find out how you can be a part of it. |
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