The hoops season is upon us and for the Chico State men, that means another tough exhibition opener against one of the PAC-10's big boy's.
Two seasons ago, the Cats traveled to Pauley Pavilion and played UCLA. Tomorrow they'll head to Berkeley!
For the Chico State Wildcats, basketball season is finally here.
Head Coach Greg Clink says, "we're extremely excited, we're twenty practices into this now and the guys have been working extremely hard."
Chico State Guard Zach Graves says, "I don't think I've ever been more excited for a season than this season coming up."
Thursday marks the first game for Chico State and it's a tough one, a match-up on the road against Cal in an exhibition game. The Cats certainly don't expect to ride out of Berkeley with a victory but the chance to play a top Division One opponent provides a great opportunity.
Greg Clink says, "they're the 13th best Division One team in the country right now pre-season so it's a great challenge for us."
Chico State Guard Jon Baird adds, "we know there's going to be mistakes we're not going to do everything right it's the first game of the year, we just want to go out there and just play as hard as we can."
However, there is an example that might give the Cats a ray of hope in tomorrow's game. Last night Le Monye college, a Division Two school in the city of Syracuse drove three and a half miles to the Carrier Dome and beat the Division One Orangeman, a team ranked 25th in the country! So the Cats know anything is possible if luck is on their side and a couple bounces go their way.
Head Coach Greg Clink says, "I think that's exciting for college basketball in general but for the Division Two level for something like that to happen it just lets people know, because not a lot of people get to see Division Two basketball, and it just lets country know that it's legit and there's a lot of good teams and a lot of good players and on any given night, that's the great thing about this game, on any given night anybody can beat anybody."
Chico State Guard Jon Baird says, "we're not looking to be Le Monye or whatever tomorrow night, we're just trying to play as well as we can, execute as well as we can and gain some experience from it."
If something crazy happens, that experience could make national headlines and if the cats lose like their supposed too, at least they'll still be able to take a lot home with them in the form of experience.
