The 6th Man

Welcome back to Overseas With A Carry On for all of my returning readers and 'Welcome' to my first timers. A lot has happened in the sports world since our last visit; namely the NCAA 2014 men's basketball champion was crowned.  The Final Four included Wisconsin, Florida, Kentucky and the University of Connecticut. UCONN defeated Florida and Kentucky was victorious over Wisconsin; both were great games. In the finale, the 'veteran' UCONN squad proved to be superior  and knocked off the young and talented Kentucky Wildcats.  I actually didn't get to watch the championship game because, well, I simply fell asleep trying to stay up into the wee hours of the morning for the game to be streamed online. Another quirky fact about the game: when I woke up the next morning, to find out who won the game I did not go to ESPN.com, Facebook, or Twitter; I simply checked my Instagram timeline. How about that - sports update via your photo sharing app.  The 'perks' of life in 2014.

Getting into the main theme of todays' entry, I'd like to discuss a huge part of basketball that we sometimes overlook. It's not a secret that teams are more victorious playing at home than they are while playing on the road. I'm sure there are a plethora of reasons for that: gym/rim familiarity, sweet spots on the court, maybe a spouse/significant other in attendance, etc.  Whatever the personal reason, I truly believe the collective reason is what many refer to as "The 6th Man."

No, not the J.R. Smith or Jamal Crawford award but the psychological idea that the next important player is none other than the fans.  The crowd. The spectators.  The ones who mindlessly shout chants of "D-Fence", roar at the sight of a string of good plays and shout "Boooooooo" to the opposing teams' best players. The group of people who make the arena so loud that opposing coaches cannot communicate tactics to players during timeouts and huddles.  These are the die hard fans that that give you the energy to feed off of when the game is deadlocked and you need a big defensive stop to seal the game. They undeniably play a large role in the psyche of players and coaches.

In college basketball, due to their success on the hardwood, many would argue that Duke Basketball has the most influential student section and crowd.

 Grant Halverson/Getty Images

These group of "crazies" are known as the Cameron Crazies.  The name is taken from the name of the gym where Duke plays their home games, Cameron Indoor Stadium.  These fanatics are active the entire game, dressed or painted in blue and make it a nightmare for opposing players inbounding the ball as they pack tightly into the tiny arena.

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

I have never played at Cameron Indoor Stadium so I cannot comment on the effect of the Crazies personally; I can only go by what I've seen while watching countless games over the years and peers of mine who have played there.

One gym that I can personally comment on and in my opinion, is the craziest collegiate atmosphere to play in is The Spectrum of the Utah State Aggies in Logan, Utah.  These fans are such a well organized group of spectators.  From their chants, to their taunts to the fake media press release they have waiting for each person in attendance, these guys are clever as ever. They have been known to befriend you on Facebook only to steal an embarrassing picture of you, blow it up as a life size poster and have it plastered all throughout the stadium on gameday! Please watch the following videos because, well, pictures just don't do The Spectrum justice...

I Believe 

Winning Team; Loosing Team

Well . . . As you can clearly see, this is not one student section to play around with. Under head coach Stew Morrill, the Aggies are 194-13 at home. Until a surprising early season loss in 2009, Utah State boasted the second longest home win streak in the nation behind Kansas.  During my tenure at Louisiana Tech, we came close but were never able to scratch out a win there. The Spectrum is a tough environment to play in, especially when you have this guy distracting you while shooting free throws.

Boyd Ivey

As far as crazy home court advantages overseas? One word, Partizan!

I hope you enjoyed that snippet. Though I have yet to play at Partizan, I do have a teammate who has. He sent me this photograph that left me in awe. Most stadiums prohibit the normal threats fans may carry such as bottles, beer bottle caps and things of that nature. At Partizan in Belgrade, these are what the signs outside the stadium advise you not to bring:

                                                       

I guess bringing guns and knives is not so unthinkable out there. Needless to say if I ever play in Belgrade, let's say a prayer now that I make it out alive! I think it's clear to see why it can be so difficult to win on the road and why big road wins count for so much more than just a win in the standings. A group of individuals went into enemy territory and overtook them on their own turf. Takes a lot of focus, discipline and resiliency throughout an entire game to pull off those kind of wins against top level teams. 

With that said, appreciate the fans and never never sleep on The 6th Man!

Olu

#OWACO

It's Only Entertainment

*Royal Wave*

Thank you for visiting my blog Overseas With A Carry On! I am happy to deliver another detailed look into the life of an athlete living in kilometers - or miles 'por mi americanos' - away from home.  Before we dive into things I would like to congratulate every team, player, and university that has continued on to play in the post season.  Not only March Madness but on every level, not limited to the NIT, CBI, NCAA Division II, III, and all the others.  A special shout-out to the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs who advanced past UGA in the 2nd round of the NIT tournament and big pat on the back to the Oregon Ducks who unfortunately fell to Wisconsin last night. 'Twas a great run!

In 2014, our generation is fascinated with technology, speed and selfies. We've become so impatient as a society that we even have a notification through iMessage (solely for iPhone users of course) that tells you that your recipient in is the middle of typing a response. Postal mail? Fax machines? Yeah right! You're better off scanning and E-mailing that document.  We've become fiends for instantaneous communication on all levels.  Let's take a look at what a typical player had to go through playing overseas before the WIFI era.

The pioneers who came to chase their dreams across the waters didn't have the luxuries of video chats and mobile devices like we do today.  They most likely had to deal with home telephones, calling cards and airmail. When's the last time you used a home phone? Better yet, how often do you see your home phone ring and you neglect to pick it up because, "That's not for me. If it was urgent, they would just call my cell phone."  I can remember my mother using calling cards to make long distance calls over the speakerphone when I was younger.  She would have to dial the access number, followed by the PIN code then an automated voice would tell her how much credit remained on the card.  Then she'd have to enter the phone number of the person she was calling and again the automated voice would tell her approximately how many minutes she had to make the call. All that for ONE phone call! Like Jay-Z said, "Aint nobody got time for that."

Writing letters has become a thing of the past. Ancient. Prehistoric even!  For my generation Y folks, the only time we wrote letters was back in grade school! Those paper notes passed through class were the first footsteps of todays' Facebook inbox messages or Twitter DMs. The majority of the ones I passed out were to girls in my class that read: Do you like me? Check: Yes. No. Maybe.  Needless to say, I had a 86.9% clearance rate of boxes checked "Yes".

On the side of entertainment, in the foreign countries I have visited, there were always a few channels in english. Usually something along the lines of international news coverage or the Disney Channel or something to that extent. Technology today allows some of the more mainstream channels to add sub titles to certain programs or even switch the voice-overs to english.  This is not available with every channel but progress is being made.  But to be honest with you, I never turn on my television, whether at home or in a hotel.  Thanks to wifi capabilities, all you need is your handy dandy laptop, tablet or even just your smartphone.  We can download the latest episode of Scandal or play levels upon levels of Candy Crush during road trips; our forefathers were stuck reading paperback books, listening to Walkmans or better yet, Discmans on their treks.

Last but not least, the pioneers didn't have live streaming March Madness games to watch. We're lucky to be able to view these games as if we were back home. I just watched fellow AAU teammate of mine, Dwight Powell at Stanford advance to the Sweet 16 and I'm currently watching another AAU teammate Kadeem Coleby at Wichita St. attempt to knock off Kentucky.  There have been a lot of upsets but that's no surprise if you're an avid college hoops fan. For all of those who filled out a bracket, better luck next year!  I'm terrible at brackets so I avoid the disappointment and just enjoy each game and usually cheer for teams based on their jersey/shoe colour combinations. . . Seriously.

Who will come out atop the 2014 NCAA Division I champion? Who knows, it'll be a team who's resilient, mentally tough and gets a little lucky in the end. Whenever it happens, with the right smartphone app, you'll get a bunch of notifications giving you every detailed stat of the game. Welcome to the fast life. Is it the life we chose, or rather the life that chose us?

Olu

#OWACO

Health is Wealth

Welcome back to Overseas With A Carry On!

I hope everyone has had a blessed week.  Things have been a bit up and down as far as hoops goes this side of the pond. Our starting shooting guard was sidelined for the rest of the season with what is believed to be a separated shoulder; he will be undergoing surgery later this week.  Our reserve stretch power forward has been out just over 2 weeks with a calf injury.  Luckily, we were able to pick up a replacement  veteran wing to help us for the remainder of the season.  He has provided a spark for us, not only on the court but with his leadership and experience as well.

On the brighter side of things,we are currently tied for 5th in the 18 team division.  We are pretty much a lock for the playoffs but that is not where our mindset is.  The higher seeded teams receive home court advantage throughout the playoffs so as a group, we have to keep fighting to rise in the standings and not only be happy with a post season birth.  The number 1 overall seed gets an automatic birth to move up out of the division which means they get a by for the entire playoff series.  In other words, they head home early and that leaves the playoff picture to be decided between the 2-9 seeds.

As the NCAA basketball regular season comes to an end, it is exciting to watch the conference tournaments begin and seniors play their last home games in front of family, friends and faculty. I can remember my senior night game at the University of Oregon. We took on the Utah Utes who were not one of the strongest teams in the Pac-12 that year.  We got off to a scorching 34-4 lead in the first half - it was unreal!  Fast forward to the second half, head coach Dana Altman called my play and well, I remember like it was yesterday, this happened...

Perhaps one of my best personal memories as an Oregon Duck.  Speaking of those Ducks, they defeated #3 ranked Arizona last night on their senior night. Not to be outdone, my alma mater, the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs won the Conference-USA title last week! Their ticket to the 'Big Dance' has been punched. I'm quite proud of what they have built down there in Ruston, LA.

On the subject of post season, we stand at 19-14 with 11 regular season games.  The 44 game schedule is an increase from last years' 35 game schedule in the league.  Personally, it's a huge increase from the 26 game schedule from my days in Spain. Our final match will be on the road on May 2nd.  There will be approximately a week before the best-of-3 playoffs series' begin.  Our preseason training began way back on August 1st and for a successful team, you can find yourself playing well into the months of May or June depending on which country/league you play in.  That's a 10 long months of training, travel, practice and games; taking care of your body means so much more now than it ever did before!

My 5 Personal Injury Precautionary Actions

1. STRETCH - We all probably stretch before practice which is obviously important but many of us skip stretching AFTER activity.  Muscles have just been exercised and as important as it is for you to "warm up", it is just equally important for you to stretch and "cool down." Stay limber!

2. LIFT - Lifting weights keeps your body toned, under some sort of strain and continually has your muscles repairing themselves.  Without lifting, your muscles become softened or weakened. Your ability to take hits or minor injuries become reduced due the inactivity of your muscles working.

3. DRINK WATER - This goes without saying, flushing your body of toxins, waste and staying hydrated all have their benefits.  Drinking water will not directly avoid injuries, it will only improve your body in functioning properly which in turn may reduce the chances of you getting hurt.

4. REST - We all know the body repairs itself during sleep.  Enough said!

5. PREHAB - Rather than rehab after you've sustained an injury, develop strength and mobility in key areas in your body that are weak.  You know your body better than anyone else. Determine what little tweaks your body needs and start building durability today.

As we near the end of the regular season, remaining focused mentally will prove to be more useful than any physical attribute.  This is where good teams separate themselves from the mediocre group.  To all my fellow athletes going through the grind of the season, push through and stay healthy!

Until next time my fellow readers, thank you for reading! Please subscribe, share, tweet, etc.  The goal is reach as many readers nationally and globally.  Thank you for all of your support thus far.

Olu
#OWACO