Photo Gallery: Photos of Practice at the USNA and dinner at the Staines.
I’m back at the hotel now after a busy day. We left the hotel at 4pm to head to Navy Marine-Corps Memorial Stadium for our 4:30 practice. Duke was practicing before us and we arrived just as they were leaving. Always an awkward moment.
The NCAA allowed only 1 hour of practice and we could not have gone much past that as it began to rain at the tail-end of practice.
Before it rained though, the team presented eight-year-old Christian Golczynski of Crofton, MD who lost his father, Marc, in the Iraq War on March 27, 2007, with a jersey signed by the team. The jersey will be raffled off to support an educational fund for Christian. The Duke team also presented Christian with a jersey, but it is obviously not expected to raise as much money as the UNC jersey.
After practice we headed to the home of Ron and Lauren Staines, parents of Ben Staines. There players enjoyed crab cakes. The limit was 2 per players, but there definitely were some player grabbing extras. The Staines have a house with limitless entertainment activities from a pool table, ping-pong table and a volleyball court just to name a few.
It’s off to bed now. We meet at 11:00 in the lobby then have a team meeting at 11:30. Big game against Duke is at 3pm.
(updated 5/20/07 10:40am to add information about Christian)