A weekly blog from women's basketball coach Karen Aston.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

It's Sunday, and I finally have a moment to write after a furiously busy start to the season! Today we had an off-day (no practice), and we've all been able to take a short breath and regroup after four games in seven days! I am really proud of our players and staff, going 3-1 in this stretch of play. No one ever wants to lose, but we learned a lot about ourselves in these four games.

As I've said in my postgame comments, our focus, composure and team play have been big pluses so far. That's what puts us at 3-1 to start the season.

We started last weekend by going up against two really strong teams from great conferences - Southern California (Pac-10) and N.C. State (ACC) at The Wolfpack Invitational in Raleigh. Talk about challenging ourselves right away ... ! The season started on a great note with our big 62-60 win over USC. That was a statement game for our program and a terrific way to begin 2008-09! Although we lost to N.C. State in the tourney's championship game, we showed great resolve and battled hard down the stretch against the Wolfpack, on their home court.

Then, we took about a 48-hour break before meeting Hampton Tuesday (November 18) in another road game before finally playing at home - in friendly Halton Arena Friday night - against UAB. Those two wins closed out a good stretch of 49er basketball.

This Thanksgiving week, we'll go up against another ACC team in Wake Forest. We host the Demon Deacons on Wednesday (Nov. 26) in a special Noon tipoff. We scheduled the game early in order to have our fans come out before they start Thanksgiving travel and celebrations. We are hoping that the local junior high and high school students, as well as our own campus students, will be able to come to Halton to watch what should be a really competitive game!

After Wednesday, we'll be taking off to the Lone Star State (Texas), where many of us have ties. We play at the SMU Hoops for the Cure Tournament in Dallas. Again, the competition will be fierce. Both Fresno State, our first-round opponent, and host SMU are NCAA tournament-tested from a year ago.

It will be fun for senior Traci (Ray) and freshman Katie (Meador) to get a chance to play in their home state of Texas. Although she's from the Houston area, Traci has a lot of family around Dallas, and she is eagerly waiting for an opportunity to play in front of them as a senior. We are expecting a lot of fans wearing 49ers green and gold to be supporting us!

Remember, home or away, everyone can access our games via live audio through the 49ers Niner Network All-Access at this website! And, for our home games, we have live video and live stats as well as audio. Check us out at the GameTracker link on the website to watch us in home action!

Have a great week and until next time...THINK GREEN

P.S. - I told you in the last blog that I would explain about our team theme of "INVEST". You'll see those words on the gray bracelets we are all wearing. It's a rallying point for 49er Basketball this season. We talk about "investing" in the intangibles every day to make us the best team we can be. We want to show commitment, have passion and a desire to succeed in all we do. It's what's written on our board in the locker room as a reminder of what it will take to get Charlotte Basketball to the next level.

Coach Aston