Coast to Coast

We had the BEST time going Coast to Coast w/the basketball Bulldogs! We boarded a charter flight in Starkville on Wednesday and flew to Tampa for a game the next night at the Tampa-St. Pete Times Forum. We were to play DePaul as part of the SEC-Big East Basketball Tournament. We had no idea we would "coast" to victory over DePaul. As soon as the game was over, we flew out to Los Angeles and got to Anaheim in the middle of the night! The next day we spent a wonderful cloudy day at Disneyworld and had no crowds to stand in our way. Disneyworld was decorated for Christmas and it was quite a sight to behold.

Friday night was the highlight of the trip as Greg took us to his favorite LA restaurant, Papadakis Taverna. We were treated to a short version of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" w/the owner explaining Greek words, etc. and dancing and singing and breaking glasses. There was a belly dancer and a tap dancer who was frozen in the 40's! Food was Greek great but there was another caverat: John Papadakis, the owner, was a linebacker for Southern Cal when they played Alabama in the 70's. This game was an eye opener for Bear Bryant and he started recruiting black athletes to Alabama and got a jump on the rest of the SEC. John helped write the book, Turning the Tide, and we got one of our books and had a picture made w/him. The real highlight of the night was when he sang the USC Fight song and challenged us to sing ours. Scott Stricklin proudly led us in a rousing version of "Hail, State!: Too much fun.

Saturday we packed up and got ready to leave on our charter as soon as the game was over and who knew we would beat UCLA in a laugher in front of the tournament's namesake, John Wooden. Ravern had a career day and made 29 points. This earned him SEC Player of the Week honors and that is sooooo well deserved. He seems like such a nice person--as all the dogs are. This trip was well worth the time and trouble to be around fellow Bulldogs and our team.