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After a big win tonight, spirits are high within the locker room. Tomorrow, however, lays another day, another game, and another obstacle standing in the way of us accomplishing our goal. Tonight is all about rest and recovery. We have a late breakfast tomorrow and then we are back in the saddle with a good film session and a practice. It will be another mental day while we try to preserve our bodies for the games. Games on back-to-back nights are difficult on the body.
Cal presents a great challenge for us. They have great leadership in senior guards as well as some great freshman who are extremely talented. We are going to need to stop them in transition as well as keep their long and strong big men off the glass. At the end of the day, it's going to come down to guarding some great players, and making plays at the other end. It's going to be a difficult task but it's March and this is what we live for.
Today is all about preparation. After USC took down UCLA last night our focus is now fully on the Trojans. With less than one full day to game plan, everyone must be locked in. Practice will be directed to learning their sets, players, and our matchups. There will be very little physical contact; rather it will be mostly a walk through. Then it becomes mental preparation where we must lock into the film session the coaches have prepared for us.
Our coaches are some of the best at scouting other teams so film is critical for us to be prepared for the game. The team is focused on the objective and now we must rest and get ready for a tough game against a solid opponent tonight.
We arrived in Vegas yesterday afternoon after a morning of practice and a short flight. We are staying at the Mandalay Bay, which is slightly away from a lot of the action but allows us to stay focused on the mission. As coach has said numerous times, "this isn't a vacation, it's a business trip." With that being said, the coaches treated us to a Cirque du Soleil show called KA. We were then given the rest of the night to visit with our families and friends who made the trip to see us play.
Today we woke up bright and early for a quick shoot around at the MGM before heading to practice at the local gym. Having two teams to prepare for is a tough situation because you cannot game plan and cover specific plays. Therefore, practice was to get better at what we do. That includes our offense as well as defensive sets we have prepared. UCLA and USC are both dangerous offensive teams and stopping transition will be a key to advancing.
