journey to 351

Game #130 of 362 35% complete

It was very difficult getting a good picture of the arena with this old but gorgeous tree blocking my view.

This is my last game of the year. After 9 years on the road and 130 games later, I would not have guessed that I would have made it this far. I have seen so much of small town America with its museums, zoos and parks. I have met many friendly fans who have taken an interest in my journey. At the age of 66, I am going to keep on going till I can not do it anymore. With NIL money now in the forefront of college basketball and players jumping from one team to another all over the map, my pessimistic nature wonders about the future of college basketball. But I digress.

UNC Wilmington is one of those schools I call “outliers’. There are no close schools by making it difficult to execute my “three school visit” to keep costs down. The drive from Myrtle Beach was one and half hours so I am fortunate to get the UNC Wilmington in with Coastal Carolina. If you look at a map, you can see that the University of East Carolina is the farthest east school in North Carolina and poses the same problem given that I have seen North Carolina and North Carolina State (the two closest schools).

UNC

The Trask Coliseum has to rank as one of the most drab arenas seen by me having mostly empty concourses with the exception of the concessions. Here is one example below. I circled the entire arena but could not find much to look at. I think Mr. Trask needs to hang up some pictures.

I will give a compliment to the parking. It was free and across the street from the arena. One cool happening during the game was having staff throw out boxes of popcorn to the crowd. But once again, I could not grab a tee shirt thrown into the crowd. It has only happened once in my 130 games.

This was a critical game for both teams. UNC Wilmington Seahawks is tied for third in the Colonial Athletic Conference. Towson is in fourth place. I could tell by the crowd reactions that these two teams were rivals. I was sitting in front of a guy who literally complained about each call against his Seahawks. He was probably correct about 10% of the time.

With the win, the Seahawks (21-9, 12-6 CAA) clinched the fourth seed in the Coastal Athletic Association tournament and the double-bye that comes with it. The Tigers head into the tournament as the fifth seed with a record of 18-13 and 11-7.

Shykeim Phillips from the Seahawks led all scorers with 17 points followed by teammate Trazerian White with 16 points. Try saying these names three times fast!

It was odd that there no band or dance team for the home club. A news article said that this was a sold out game but there were many empty seats.

I had to laugh at the rules below. Is it a fact that men get more inebriated than women thus causing an earlier cutoff of alcohol for men?

Once again, the score does not appear. I will figure this out. Perhaps I have a red filter turned on with my iPhone?

I close with picture of the ocean at Myrtle Beach and the mechanical Margarita at Jimmy Buffet’s restaurant.

Fins up till I see you again in November!