Clayton Fuller

November 24, 2003

In his book, "Values of the Game," former NBA star and Senator Bill Bradley writes that "Basketball was a clear example of virtue rewarded." I cite this because after last season this team put in many hours of hard work, an extremely tough virtue to learn that will no doubt be rewarded.

Preparing for this weekend began in April, and I could see in the eyes of the entire team that it possessed a passion to improve. So when we came back to school in the fall we implemented a pre-season workout that would rival any of the top programs in the nation.

For almost four months now, we have fought, clawed, argued, celebrated, laughed, forgiven, and then fought and clawed some more against one another. All the while throughout these hardships that often challenged our very notions of the team concept, we slowly grew together in pursuit of one goal. Finally, with our hearts and minds fashioning dreams of a championship season, the weekend we had been waiting for came.

Half the fun of a college basketball game is getting there. Throughout my two years of collegiate competition I have never had an uninteresting trip. The trip to Maryville on Thursday was no different.

It started with perhaps the longest bus ride ever. As we practically crawled to Tennessee many of us noted that cars beside us seemed to be in warp speed as they disappeared into the November night. But we did manage to get to the hotel although it was probably later than Coach Zuver had hoped.

Being a veteran I quickly came to one realization. The coaches were going to order one pizza per room, and that by no means is enough food! So I talked my roommate Matt Smith into going out in the chilly night on a food-finding odyssey.

We found a Wendy's nearby and proceed to try to walk through the drive-thru without a car. The night manager came out and told us she could not serve us because without a car we could be robbers, a statement that endlessly confused Matt and me.

So we walked to Applebee's where we ordered some food. Upon our return to the hotel we tried to trick some of the freshmen into believing that seniors get steaks on the road while the rest of the team gets Domino's.

One of my favorite pastimes on road trips is to walk around to different rooms to see how my teammates live. Most of the guys prop open their doors so you can just walk in. Just walking around you get immersed into several interesting conversations such as debating whether one would ask a dream girl to marry him even if he had never talked to her. Or discussing Asian immigration to Tennessee and the possibilities of finding authentic Chinese food in the South. This is the life of a road trip: varying conversations, practically everyone watching the same movie, and the inevitable roommate who snores.

The road trip as a whole should be considered a success. Although we didn't play as well as expected, our virtues that were formed during the preseason were rewarded. I still see that passion to improve, and more success will come with experience.

But road trips like these are more important because this is where lifetime friendships are made. Although they are business trips for us, they also serve as a means to learn about the original personalities that form our team.

Clayton Fuller is a junior from Sautee-Nacoochee, Ga. He would love to answer e-mail questions from Emory recruits and fans.