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Dec. 6, 2006

Gauchos Remain Undefeated On The Road As They Guide The Pilots In Portland.

The trip started like any other, however this time Tom brought the all time greatest weapon against boredom, UNO. Wow, to see a group of 6'8"+ basketball team members huddle around a childish game of UNO, 6'8"+ yelling and stirring up commotion in the quaint and relaxing ambiance of SBA. So we were playing, and give and take a few games to allow some of the team members to become reacquainted with the game, it started to look more like a craps game in some alley way, with intimidating people throwing down the skip the next person card. Just to let you guys know, I gave James Powell the business in UNO. I put down card after card, resulting in him getting skipped, enlarging his puny deck, and reversing the direction right before it reached him. Me and James are friends but I never meant to hurt him like that. Ok, to stop ragging James, Al ended up winning the game. However, after reviewing some of the plays I have reason to believe that he was peaking into just about everyone's hands. His color placing was suspiciously prime in lowering his hand and yelling at the top of his lungs "UNO, WhatŠ What! I'm just too good." This really got to me, I could feel that my next hand would be hot. I wanted a rematch more than anything, but the stewardess announced boarding and it was time to head North to Portland.

Before arriving on our business trip to Portland several guys were amazed by the 11,240 foot mountain that reached upwards towards the plane. I've been to Portland a few times and it is a city that always makes me gaze. This was the same result for many of our players who were in awe of the crisp cold air, majestic Mount Hood, and the jive/hip looks that downtown Portland had to offer (besides the army of the homeless). The Bay areas finest including Alex Harris, Ivan Elliot, Paul Roemer, and Justin Joyner all said they saw resemblance between Portland and San Francisco, except instead that the bay there is the Willamette River. Characteristics included the transit trains that run through the city streets and the idea that the restaurants aren't freestanding and have housing on top of them linked the two cities. Everyone on the team mentioned, at one time or another, how much they enjoyed Portland's unique attributes. If only we would have enjoyed that magical bus driver.

No I am not talking about the Magical School bus children's show. It was probably the most disappointing part of the trip, however we had some good laughs about it. So our bus driver informs Coach Williams that prior to becoming a bus driver his occupation was a Magician. The day before the game, we had a few spare minutes and Coach asked him to perform his magic routine. Being curious, Chris and I ran to the front of the bus to get a closer look and try to crack his magic. There wasn't much cracking to do as he went through his single event routine of turning a twenty-dollar bill into one dollar; I even saw it folded in the palm of his hand, AND THAT WAS IT! I guess I shouldn't be so harsh on the guy but I think I got more laughs out of Coach asking for his twenty back. We asked him if he had any more and he said no. A few of us realized that day perhaps why he is a bus driver.

An amazing performance by Tom Garlepp and Alex Harris sealed the deal for the gauchos, as well as an annoying University of Portland student who thought it was a good idea to bring a whistle to the game. They were blowing it all second half, however when they decided to blow it during a free throw attempt with about a minute to go while we were only up by 7 the referee called a violation on the fans and we got to re-shoot a missed free throw keeping them out of reach for the remainder of the game. Tom and Chris maintained the boards well as Alex totaled in with 24 points as the high scorer for the contest.

After the game we were treated with one more trick from the infamous bus driver. It was a little better, but easily cracked as I realized it was a trick deck. Later on we were given a 12 o'clock curfew, Chris and I met up with my girlfriend's parents while most of the team walked the streets of Portland to see what else they could admire. The next day we were allowed to get a few more hours of sleep then headed home around 1 pm.

Our next game is against the Fresno State Bulldogs on Wednesday the 6th at 7pm.

Also we would like to congratulate the Men's soccer team on the Division 1 NCAA championship. We can promise that none of the Basketball team was involved with "the goal in the ocean" incident that took place while we were on the plane. Although I heard it was righteous.