Temple Team Camp Day 1

We got a late start this morning and headed out to fill the van (with the finest Shell gasoline we could find) and head over to our new hotel which is in downtown Philadelphia. We checked in, and saw the lay of the land - which is very impressive. We were able to visit a local hot-spot for lunch, taking in a meal at Rex's Pizza. Rex's was terrific - they were nice to us and we ate a lot of carbs before our game tonight. We had fun at lunch today - we had a mini NBA draft with non-superstar players, and Ryan, Sami, Jake Silver, Jake Wheeler and I each drafted teams. The other players and coaches then voted on the best teams. I'm convinced that my team was the best, but that lead to a huge debate with tons of spirit.
Speaking of spirit, we then got ready and went out to play against a team named Archbishop Carroll. To their credit, they came out with tons of energy, and our team played very, very flat basketball. I think the cumulative effect of our 2 weeks of the road caught up with us tonight, and our senior leaders were not able to lead us out of the funk. It was a close game early (29-23 with 13 minutes to go), but we ended up losing to them (they are very good - a defending state champion here in Pennsylvania). It wasn't so much the loss that concerned me, it was the lack of urgency with which we played tonight - the first time I had seen that out of this group. The good news is we have 3 games tomorrow (all against teams with 20+ victories last year, and at least 1 more state champion), so we will have time to redeem ourselves.
We headed out after the game to Pat's and Geno's, where we tasted the Philly Cheesesteak that the world has come to know. We tasted the cheesesteak from both places, and we took a team vote as to which was the best. Our 9 people voted in a close one - but Geno's ended up besting Pat's by the closest vote possible - 5 to 4.
We ended the night on a good note with lots of laughs and smiles, even though we played a poor game tonight. The weariness of 2 weeks on the road showed up tonight in the 2nd half, but I know we will bounce back strong tomorrow.
I am looking forward to the games tomorrow.