Stocki's Blog on Men's Hoops Trip to LA

Starting guard Jim Stocki took some time out of his busy schedule giving us an inside look to what the University of Wisconsin-Platteville men's basketball team has been doing during its trip to Los Angeles.

Wednesday December 26

We started our trip off at Chicago O'Hare Airport. Our flight was delayed for about 30 minutes so, we hung out in the airport for a while. The flight was awful, most of us don't really fit airplane seats so, it was pretty uncomfortable flight. We hopped off the plane at LAX around 10 p.m. After we found our luggage we boarded the bus to the Embassy Suites hotel in Arcadia, California. We all pretty much went straight to bed since we were pretty exhausted from the long day of traveling.

Thursday December 27

We began our day with a nice breakfast and then went over the scouting report for the University of La Verne, who we play tomorrow afternoon. After we finished the scouting report, we departed for practice at La Verne. We had a solid practice and it felt good to get some of the soreness out of our legs from the flight last night. After practice we stopped at a local strip mall for lunch most of us ate at In-N-Out Burger. After lunch we headed out to UCLA to tour their hall fame. When we arrived at Pauley Pavilion we were able to see John Wooden Court it was pretty surprising how big the place was. After that we visited the UCLA Hall of Fame, it was pretty amazing to see all of the NCAA championship trophies as well as all of the artifacts they had from the great players who have played there. Once we were finished at UCLA we headed to dinner at Dave & Busters. We walked around the mall for a while and then headed back to the hotel to go to bed.

Thursday December 28

We woke up for breakfast the next morning and began to prepare for our game that day against La Verne. We had our walkthrough at 10 a.m. We did a final review of everything we would need to know and prepare for, for the game that afternoon. After the walkthrough, we went back to the hotel to relax for a while and then departed for the game. It was a tough game but, we ended up with a nine-point win. It was a good start to the trip but, we knew we needed to play better. After the game, we headed over to Matt Denny's for a pasta dinner. They served us spaghetti and pasta primavera, it was a really good meal. We headed back to the hotel and started to prepare for Colorado College who we play tomorrow. After film we went back to our rooms and went to bed.

Check back later to read about the final couple days of Stocki and the rest of the Pioneers trip to Southern California.