Oct 09, 2010
Postcards from Canada

As NYIT's men's basketball team participates in a pre-season tune-up in Quebec, freshman forward Will Udoh (Laurel, Md.) will be checking in regularly to give fans the inside scoop from practice, games and exploring the beautiful Canadian sights. Check back daily for updates!

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On a last note, the NYIT Men's Basketball team left Canada with a lot of great experiences. As a team we learned that defense is our key to winning games. We also learned that playing together as one team and not five individuals will lead us to success. Therefore, we are leaving Canada knowing our positives and negatives as a team so we will know where to start working more at in practice. 

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Saturday, Oct. 9, 2010 - 3:20 p.m.

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Friday, Oct. 8, 2010 - 11:02 p.m.

GREAT NEWS! The team came off with a great win tonight! We won the game by 25 points. It started out a little shaky with the scores going back and forth like a seesaw, but once we turned the intensity of our defense up we began to leave the other team in the dust with a 16 point lead at halftime. Every player contributed whether it was on defense or offense. I am not too sure what everyone's stats were but the key of our team this year is DEFENSE! Now the players are getting ready to take showers, grab some food, and then a little fun out on the town :)

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Friday, Oct. 8, 2010 - 5:45 p.m.

My name is Chinyere William Udoh, but everyone calls me Will; so if you would like to as well feel free to address as that. Now I understand that I'm supposed to be giving you updates on the trip, games, and events that take place on this Canadian journey. Well I hope you have a pen and paper because in less than 24 hours we have many stories to tell you. LOL

First off we packed our things on the bus, bought the snacks necessary to hold us for 8 hours, and rushed for good spots on the bus. Next, we put in one of the funniest movies in America "Next Friday", but most of the players fell asleep during the movie. The bus ride started out a little rough because it was burning up on the bus for the first couple hours, then it began to cool down. At one point and time on the bus every player was asleep; and was enjoying the leather, reclining motion seats.

About four hours after leaving the school we made a stop in the middle of no where to stretch our legs and use the bathroom (even though there was one on the bus). Then we hit the road again, but little did we know there was a live comedy show in store for us. About an hour after we leave the rest stop, Jerell hosts "Dom's Time" which was taken place at the front of the bus; which was accessed with a microphone. As Jerell introduces our comedian speaker, Dom Scurry, players begin to wake up. The basis of the show was basically Dom going through every player and expressing the connection between him and that player. It was quite a funny show, because he has us laughing for the entire 10 minutes.

So 2 more hours after that we get to the border patrol, and coach tells us that we should not make any jokes or do anything suspicious. Unfortunately, that message got through to eveyone except one player, Joseph Cetrulo. So as we walk into the building that allows us to cross into the Canadian side of the border, Joe brings off the bus a McDonald's bag with trash in it. He walks into the building last and sees that there are no trash can in the building. He then decides to go outside, crosses the border line--thick yellow line--to throw trash away on the Canadian side of the border. Immediately when that happened the officers were pointing at Joe as if he was Michael Jackson from the dead and had an expression of "what the hell is that kid doing???" After that, the officer goes to check the trash to make sure that what he threw away was of no harm to the Canadian/American border. After passing the border patrol we end up at the hotel within 45 minutes and check into our hotel rooms. We set our stuff down and go grab some food to eat at a decent restaurant down the street from the hotel. Within two hours we are in bed getting sleep for what tomorrow holds in store for us.

Day 1: We wake up 9 am to get on the bus at 9:30 in order to get some breakfast before our afternoon shoot-around/walk through. As we are leaving our workouts we see a veteran ice hockey player that coach identified as the "Ron Artest" of NHL. After a few hours of rest we get some pizza and pasta to eat together as a team, and then await for the battle later tonight.