I apologize for the hiatus; I'll make it my New Year's Resolution to try to get on here more often.
With that aside, let's get to the juicy stuff...
...after a tough performance in a first-round loss to Jacksonville, we bounced back well in the consolation game versus Liberty and won. Overall, the Florida trip was alright - we learned a lot though, and that's very important heading into the conference schedule.
The morning after our game we were awakened promptly at 3am. It wasn't a fire drill, either. No, this was actually what time we needed to wake up in order to make it to our 6am flight home. The lobby of the Radisson looked like a scene straight out of Night of the Living Dead as 25 or so of us (coaches, etc included - yes, they get tired too) shuffled out of the elevators and out onto the bus.
It was still dark outside.
We arrived at the airport ten minutes later. Security had been heightened due to the Christmas terrorist events, and apparently people in Orlando are related to Punxatawny Phil and like to wake up at 4am to get to the airport. The place was jammed.
And it was still dark outside.
We made it through the gate with only slight delay - for some reason, the lady behind the baggage desk thought I was our manager, Matt, and gave me his tickets even though I obviously showed her MY photo ID with MY name on it. It's a good thing they caught the miscue before I went through security or else they probably would've called in the reinforcements and had me deported. Phew! Made it through security.
It was still dark outside.
Finally we made it onto the plane and to Atlanta, then from Atlanta on to Buffalo. We were back by about 10am, which was nice.
And it was finally light outside.
As we were traveling through the airports, however, I saw something that I've taken note of in the past on our journeys across the nation. It's hard to miss a group of 15 oversized guys all wearing identical jumpsuits clambering onto airplanes or through airports. Needless to say, we've gotten more than our share of strange looks and awkward questions through the years.
Some of the more common ones are as follows:
Tilting their head up, looking skywayd, "Oh my god...who are you?"
or
Still tilting their head up, "How tall ARE you??"
or
With a look of absolute confusion, "Do you play for the Bills?"
Because obviously NFL football teams carry only 15 players and the letters 'u' (Bulls) and 'i' (Bills) look strikingly similar.
(note: sarcasm)
A personal favorite of mine, however, came on a trip earlier this season. We had a few hours off and were walking through a mall that was adjacent to our hotel when a few middle school girls spotted us.
"Are you famous?"
Without hesitation at least three of us turned and replied, "Yup."
After looks of amazement, we enlightened the poor girls to the fact that we were a college basketball team from Buffalo and that they had probably never heard of any one of us.
So if you ever see us wandering aimlessly around an airport near you, don't be afraid to say hi. Just keep in mind that our tallest player is 6-10, we are basketball players and no, we do not play for the Bills.
Have a good one, and Happy New Year.
