Game #142 of 364 39% complete
On this particular day, I committed the worst gaffe ever in my 10 year travels on the Operation 351 mission. My intention was to base my games around the San Antonio area. The game Friday was at Texas State in San Marcos no more than an hour a way. No problems there! Saturday’s plans included a trip to the San Antonio Zoo in the morning and an afternoon game at the University of Texas at Austin. Before I left for the zoo in the morning, I checked the distance from the zoo to the arena listed on the ticket. I looked in puzzlement when a 4 hour ride was displayed in Google Maps. Oh! I must have clicked on walking by mistake. I did it again with same 4 hour result. I went back to take a closer look at the ticket. I let out an expletive when I saw that I accidently bought a 2PM ticket for a game the University of Texas at Arlington. My first reaction was to bag the game but I knew that I would regret this decision afterwards. So I did a quick calculation and saw that if I left immediately, I would be in Arlington with room to spare. So off I went north through the cities of San Marcos and Waco listening to Sirius, contemplating what an idiot I was.
As I sat there during the first game, I thought that possibly there might be a night game in this area which I obviously did not look at before. My mind thought of the cities I drove through then Waco came to mind. BAYLOR plays in Waco. A quick check saw that they were to play a 7PM game against Oklahoma State at 7PM. Since the game ended around 4:30PM, the one and half hour trip to Waco would get me there in time. A trip to Stub Hub bought me a cheap game ticket and a parking pass. I felt a little better now that this trip would be a four game set instead of a three game set although the 2 1/2 hour trip back to San Antonio after the Baylor game dampened my mood.
I always look for familiar names from the past on the rosters. The name Lance Ware of UTA was a name I heard before. He played for Villanova and against my beloved UConn Huskies. He played for a total of 18 minutes in the 2024 season against UConn scoring 0 points. Not clear on why I would remember that performance but I do remember he was a big recruit coming out of high school. Ware had a great game today scoring 24 points and 11 rebounds but his first half performance was awful. I guess he was pressing because he was part of the senior day ceremony with family looking on.
Both teams are part of the Western Athletic Conference with Utah Canyon and Utah Valley representing the cream of the crop. Teams from this conference over the years have left for more lucrative leagues. The WAC used to have San Diego State, New Mexico State, Boise State and Nevada. Much like players chasing NIL money at more prestigious schools, small leagues like the WAC suffer losing teams to better conferences.
The Wildcats of Abilene Christian held off a furious second half comeback by the UTA Mavericks to hold on for the victory. Clutch shooting by Maverick Bradyn Hubbard in the closing minutes help seal the win.
On to Waco!
journey to 351 