Tournament Time
December 22–25, 2017
Davidson's men's basketball team played in the Diamondhead Classic, one of the ESPN holiday tournaments. It was played in the Stan Sheriff Center on the University of Hawaii campus. Our tournament package included rides on a shuttle bus between the hotel and the arena. There were eight teams, and every team played each of the three days, with opponents after the first day determined by the outcome of the prior game. Davidson's first game was against a strong New Mexico State team at 6pm on Friday, December 22. I slept in a little later than I had managed before, or really had had time to do, given tour schedules. After I surfed the web and read email and got cleaned up and dressed, I went to the shopping center across the street for lunch. I went to a place that had seemed interesting the night we decided to go to the pizza place. It turned out to be OK in terms of décor, part inside, part outside, but the food was not very interesting. Edible, a bit overpriced, but not that good. I really was not that much impressed by the food on the trip overall. The luau was pretty good. The food on the ship was generally not up to what I have had on other cruses, but there were meals I enjoyed well enough. After lunch I explored some of the shopping center and the area around that side of the hotel, starting with the Tesla dealer. I had never seen a Tesla dealer before.
A little farther down the beach is the statue of Duke Kahanamoku, "the Father of Modern Surfing."
I walked back to the hotel on the beach side. This shows the beach there and the Royal Hawaiian just beyond.
I came back to my room to get ready to head for the game. While staying at my previous hotel I had found a shop nearby that sold Hawaiian shirts for two for $25.99 and bought a couple. I wore the red and black one to the game, and as I got ready, I took a selfie in the mirror:
The shuttle bus picked us up at the hotel in plenty of time for the game.
Our assigned seats were fine, but we moved down to empty seats near the bench, and had this view:
Sherman's cousin in Chicago saw us on TV and took the picture below. Someone suggested that Bob was yelling at Rusty for not using conditioner on his hair. The children in front of us are from Ohio, children of friends of Peyton Aldridge's parents.
Someone suggested that Bob was yelling at Rusty for not using conditioner on his hair. The children in front of us are from Ohio, children of friends of Peyton Aldridge's parents. New Mexico State dominated the first half as Davidson did not shoot as well as usual, but Davidson was behind by just 8 points at the half. New Mexico State extended that lead to 12 during the first minute of the second half. Threes were not falling for Davidson, so in the second half they shot more twos and made 56% of field goals and 91.67% from the line. With 8 minutes to go in the game, Davidson led by 7. But in the end, New Mexico State won by one point, 68-69.