Hey Shark FINATICS! Here is the 1st edition of RazorSharks Inside Scoop, from Guard, John Halas!

This past weekend, we finally got back to playing “Shark Ball”.  We held Chicago to under 100 points (1st time this season) and stole the ball a season high 23 times while forcing 33 turnovers.  It was a much better effort on the defensive end and it in turn, we were able to get a bunch of easy buckets on the other end.  Winning on the road is never easy, but we were focused and put together some very good runs to overwhelm Chicago.
 

Of course, anyone can read a box score and figure that out.  What you may not know is what goes on during these trips off the court.  Chicago is one of my favorite cities in the US.  It has something for everyone; sports, shopping, music and great food.  It also happens to be where my dad's family settled when coming over from the Czech Republic in the late 1800's.
 

We flew into O'Hare early Friday morning, luckily we weren't on any small planes on this leg of the trip.  Flying in a plane when you're 6'4" is tough, but imagine our big guys like Ron (6’11”) and Mook (6’8”) squeezing into those seats.....not pretty.  We practiced for a little bit on Friday to make sure we were all on the same page with our offensive sets and to get some shots up on the court we'd be playing on the next day.
 

After practice we settled into the Downtown Marriott on Michigan Ave.  If you're ever staying in Chicago and have the chance to stay there, do it.  The beds are extremely comfortable (very important detail in our road trips) and the lobby bar seemed to be alive at all times (at least it looked it as we walked in and out of the elevators).

I also like going to Chicago because it gives me a chance to catch up with some old friends.  Friday night I went out to dinner with my buddy from high school and his girlfriend.  He's in his last year at University of Chicago Law School and lives two blocks from where we stayed.  He's been out there for a couple years and knows where to get a good meal.  Hub 51 is a new style of sports bar (I guess....it was pretty upscale, but didn't yell out sports to me).  Either way the food was amazing.  I spent $10 on a cheeseburger, but it was well worth it.  It was a nice relaxing evening and good to catch up with an old friend.

Saturday went pretty well.  We played a solid defensive game for almost all 48 minutes and our offense looked better.  We didn't shoot great percentages, but made enough shots to keep the Throwbacks at bat.  Step 1 of the road trip was complete, but waiting for us was the daunting task of Wilmington the next day.  We weren't scheduled to leave until 5:45am (Chicago time) Sunday morning and tip-off was set for 5pm (Eastern Time).  Not the ideal itinerary, but we need to learn to overcome these types of situations and perform at a championship level.

Since we weren't leaving that night, I had a chance to catch up with another good friend who works in Chicago.  We met up at this pretty cool place Pizano's on State and Chestnut and watched some hoops (there was a lot of hockey on too, he's from Minnesota originally and played college hockey so we were not watching the same TVs for the most part) and had some pretty good pizza.  I say pretty good because I like New York pizza much better than Chicago's deep dish, but it was really, very good.  Another spot worth checking out not only for the food, but for the atmosphere as well.
 

After dinner we hopped across the street to his co-worker's apartment to watch some mixed martial arts action.  The main fight was highly anticipated and over very quickly.  Fedor Emelianenko is an unbelievable fighter.  From the looks of him he's more suited for mall security, but throws a devastating right hook that knocked his opponent out cold.  While snacking on some unbelievable chocolate and peanut butter cracker goodness made by the hostess, we debated whether or not Fedor could beat up Mike Tyson (in his prime) in a street fight.  Both sides made good arguments, mostly at the same time with escalating levels of volume towards each other, so I'd have to call it a draw.  Needless to say I don't want to find myself in a street fight with either man.

Leaving a hotel at 3:45 am is always interesting.  Most of the patrons were making there way back into the hotel for the night and we were packed up, ready to move on to the next city to complete our road sweep.  The first plane ride was not too bad.  It was a normal sized jet as we flew to Charlotte and it wasn't too long.  Our next flight was only 25 minutes long to Wilmington.  Not too bad, and we were all able to stretch out as there were only a handful of other people on the flight.  By the time we got to the hotel in Wilmington we had about 4 hours till it was time to head to the gym.
 

Every guy has a different pre-game routine; some like to sleep, some like to workout others do a little bit of both.  I like to eat about 4 hours before game time and stay off my feet as much as possible.  After a sandwich from Quizno's I watched a few episodes of Entourage season 4.  Before I knew it we were back on the vans to get to the game. 

We hadn't won in Wilmington, EVER.  We lost a heartbreaker last year and took a tough loss earlier this year.  Clearly we needed to change that trend.  The game was close the entire way, we were down 2 at the half and up 3 at the end of the 3rd.  We've always been a 4th quarter team, but this game really showed that.  Keith and Derik hit some big, big shots down the stretch and our defense held them without a field goal for about 8 minutes.  It was a great win for us.  We took good shots, made most of them, out-rebounded them when there was a miss and closed out the game with very good free throw shooting.
 

Our trip wouldn't end till Monday, but the mood of the team was much better than previous trips to Wilmington and that made the last night away from home more bearable.  The planes the next day were small and crowded.  Two of the smallest I've been on in my life.  The rides went quickly and we were back in Rochester before the sun went down.  Finally some rest.  All in all it was a good trip. 2 wins, some good food, good friends and a happy team makes the tough traveling worth it.

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