Hello Cougar Nation,

Well, this past week was definitely a roller coaster ride. Last Saturday, the Cougars made the long ride over to Indiana Tech. What felt like a two-day drive was really only three hours. We arrived and let me tell you the team was pumped. I think the excitement was coming from all directions. 1) This was Coach Moore’s first game as a college coach. 2) It was our first game of the season. 3) This was basically a home game for Coach Moore, Austin Kaiser and Assistant Coach Scott Moore. The game was packed and anyone there had no doubt who was representing the Cougars. And 4) Everyone on the team was ready to rock and roll! We had a battle on our hands from start to finish and fortunately we came out victorious. Our scoring was spread out with five guys in double figures and AK with 8 points. It was a great feeling walking into the locker room after the game. As the team walked in, we all went crazy! We were all jumping up and down like we had just won the national title. The instant Coach walked in we all surrounded him and continued to go crazy. He was loving every second of the celebration.

Tuesday was an eye-opener for us as a team. We came into the game with a little too much confidence and Ohio Christian slapped it right off our face. We struggled from the free throw line and we really had trouble getting into our offense. Fortunately, Bryce Sanborn decided to take over the game for us to help us get the win. He showed everyone watching the game in the stands and listening on the radio his ability to dominate a basketball game. That is why he is our Inside the Huddle Player of the Week. Congratulations, Bryce!

After the game Tuesday, we all came back to school for Midnight Madness. Midnight Madness is a Cougar Crazies (our student section) sponsored event. This year, the Crazies went CRAZY! Let me tell you it was awesome! The best way to describe it - Midnight Madness is a pep-rally on steroids. About 250 students, who all had their curfew extended until 2 A.M., showed up excited and ready to have a good time! The team put on a choreographed dance. While we have skill on the basketball floor, you should see what we can on the dance floor. It is quite impressive. To try and describe the dance would only belittle it. Let me just say watching Coach Moore dance like Justin Timberlake, Adam Grimm sing like Miley Cyrus, and Bryce Sanborn throw J.T. Holliday 10 feet into the air should put a smile on your face. We had a dunk contest, a three-point contest and a performance by Dr. Dan Martin also. It was Madness!

Then came the Homecoming game. We all wanted this one bad. We worked out tails off in practice all week. We went through scouting reports and we knew it was going to be a fight. We just came out on the wrong end of that fight. The team put on a heck of a game. We knew we needed to stop Phillip Morrison from having a great game, but he is a good player. Coach told us all week he is one of the best players we would see all year and he was right. Unfortunately for us, Morrison had the ability to drain a contested three-pointer in overtime with 5.3 seconds on the clock for a one-point win. It was a tough one for us. We all really wanted that game to go our way.

Let go Inside the Huddle:

Name: Bryce Sanborn

Number: 42

Year: Big Bad Senior

Major: Business Management and Sports Management

Nickname: Big Bryce, The Man, Herman (like Herman Munster)

Hometown: Dover, OH

Favorite Place to Eat: Anything that has food, but he really likes Hog Heaven (Pulled pork sandwich and wings from back home)

Favorite College Activity: Laundry on Sunday’s in the gym, SIFE, Golfing and Dancing in the Hoosier’s Gym (picture above).

Relationship Status: For information regarding Bryce’s relationship status, please contact him via: person to person.

One Quick Fact: Bryce once ate five Chipotle burritos to become only the third man alive to complete the Chipotle Challenge.

Bryce Sanborn, the only member of our team who I can honestly say I fight with like he was my brother. Somewhere in our family history I do believe we are related.

Peace,

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