Happy Holidays from the Freeman Center! Here on the CNU campus, final exams are wrapping up today and tomorrow. It's tough to imagine, but another semester has passed and most of the CNU community is looking forward to the holiday break. While we here in the men's basketball program are all about Christmas trees, jingle balls, ugly holiday sweaters, and all that fun stuff, conference play is just around the corner and there is still a lot of work to be done.
 
Final exam week can be an exhausting time for any student, much less an in-season athlete. As a result, we have been on a lightened schedule since our tough 85-77 loss to St. Mary's (MD) back on December 1^st.  We mixed in individual workouts with a couple of practices last week, and then gave the guys the weekend off. Finishing the semester strong in the classroom is a huge priority for us, and the guys have been putting in the work. Hopefully their semester grades reflect that!
 
For the coaches, the exam break provides an opportunity to get out on the recruiting trail. The whole staff was hustling on the road last week to watch the top recruits on our board play for their respective high school teams. My schedule involved a good amount of travel as well, including stops in Raleigh, NC, as well as northern and western Virginia. The long days and nights and the endless driving are never easy, but for better or worse recruiting is the lifeblood of this profession. It is essential that we are doing everything we can to identify, attract, and most importantly, get top student-athletes to commit to CNU.
 
There are several benefits to watching a recruit play with his high school team. Attending these games allows you to see a recruit play in an atmosphere that more closely resembles the college level than the AAU tournaments, practices, summer/fall leagues, etc. that you've seen them play in previously. Additionally, a lot of times recruiting decisions come down to where the student-athlete feels the most comfortable and feels the most wanted. Being at a high school game allows a coach to further develop a strong relationship with the recruit, his family, and his coaches. It still may not be enough in the end, but you have to try to outwork your competition and leave no stone unturned when it comes to the area of recruiting.
 
Now with finals in the rearview mirror and classes out of session for four weeks, we can turn our attention back to the hardwood, and making CNU men's basketball a better team. The steps we take – how much we improve – over the next few weeks will go a long way in determining how well we fare once USA South conference play begins in early January.
 
Our overall record stands at 4-3, but there is a lot of optimism to be had due to the close results in our losses, the tough schedule we have played, the injured players who are close to returning, and the performances of many individuals on the squad so far. However, optimism and potential are just that – intangible things yet to be realized. It is good in some ways to have a goal/vision, to see and hope for what is in store down the road, but the irony is that to get to that destination you must focus 100% of your attention on the current moment.
 
That is why all of us here must be intently focused on doing the very best we can every day in any situation – practices, games, off the court, etc. The present day is all that any of us have control over, and so we have to be committed to embracing it and doing all that we can with it. As the all-time great UCLA coach John Wooden once said, “Make each day your masterpiece.” If every one of us on the team can accomplish this, all of those daily masterpieces will result in some significant achievements. It is not an easy task, but nothing that leads to success usually is.
 
We start this next part of the journey today at practice. We face our next challenges this weekend in the great state of Georgia, where we will take on Piedmont College on Friday afternoon and LaGrange College on Sunday afternoon. We obviously want to go into the holidays on a high note, and two strong performances in the Peach State will allow us to do just that.
 
An out-of-state road trip lasting four days, along with two 10-hour bus rides, will surely produce some good stories and entertainment. I will do my best to keep you filled in. Stay tuned into cnusports.com for all the latest. Most importantly, enjoy the holiday season!