Each and every week, the BasketBlog will be catching up with Oswego native and Wisconsin senior guard Teah Gant. Teah offers up her unique perspective on the Badgers' season and life off-the-court:

CATCHING UP

Hello fans! There hasn't really been much going on this week. After the Big Ten Tournament we got a few days off to recuperate. We traveled back to Madison on Sunday morning and also got Monday and Tuesday off. These definitely didn't feel like off days to me though. I had loads of work to finish and make up since we missed two days of school for the tournament. There wasn't really much time to rest on Sunday because I had three group projects to prepare for the week. This included finding time to work with each group and get every part of the presentation ready. Luckily, everyone was willing to work around my schedule and everything turned out well.

FAMOUS FACE

I'm also working on a project at American Girl. If you don't know, American Girl is the big doll company. On Wednesday my team and I had to go out to their site in order to get information for our project. In the middle of interviewing one of the workers, another worker came by to say that there was someone famous in the building. Of course I was very interested to find out who this famous person was. I mean who wouldn't want to meet a star? Soon after, I found out that they were talking about me. I definitely wasn't expecting that at all. It was kind of funny because we stopped in the middle of an interview to talk about sports. I felt bad for my other team members, but she was really excited that I was there. I wasn't really surprised that she hadn't recognized me herself because many people say we look a lot different all dressed up than we do on the court.

WAITING'S THE HARDEST PART

Now back to basketball business. We returned to practicing on Wednesday to prepare for the tournament. It's really hard having practiced without knowing what team you will be playing or when the game will be. The men's selection show was on Sunday, and ours was Monday night. I think that's kind of unfair because most of the women's tournaments are done the week before. We have to wait a whole week to find out as opposed to the men who only have to wait a couple hours. Nevertheless, practice remained really intense. We didn't go for long, but the competition level was at its peak. It's good to see that everyone is still willing to put their best effort into practice during this time of the year.

TOURNEY TIME

I've had the luxury of being able to play in post season every year I've been here. This year is much different though. It's the BIG DANCE! The WNIT was a great experience, but everyone strives to get into the NCAA Tournament. This year we've finally done it...hopefully. I don't like to say things until they're official, but my coach is pretty sure we are in. We're having a small party Monday night to watch the show as a team and celebrate the occasion. I'm so proud of my team and everything we have accomplished so far, but we're not done yet. Our goal from the beginning of the season was to not only make it to the NCAA tournament, but also go far into the tournament. The first round of play starts on Saturday. Wish us luck!

-Teah Gant #13

UPDATE: Teah and the Badgers were selected as a 7th seed in the NCAA East Region. They will face Vermont Sunday in South Bend, IN. Tip off is at 11:00 AM CDT and the game will be televised on ESPN2.

Each and every week, the BasketBlog will be catching up with Batavia native and Northwestern guard Nick Fruendt. Nick offers up his unique perspective on the Wildcats season and life off-the-court:

SENIOR NIGHT

Senior night was a pretty emotional game. It was the final home game for two of our senior players, Matt Steger and Jeremy Nash, and also one of our managers, Daniel Blumenthal. Two of our other seniors, Jeff Ryan and Kevin Coble, will be coming back next year after suffering from season ending injuries this year. I am definitely going to miss playing with Jeremy and Matt next year. They have been very good leaders for our team, and I enjoy being around both of them. Jeremy and I were roommates on the road last year, so we definitely bonded during those times. He always brought Denzel movies on the trips, particularly one called the "Great Debaters", so this year I have asked him almost every time we go on the road if he brought it, but he hasn't this year. I also enjoyed his musical tastes. For some reason I remember he played Blink-182's "Feeling This" before a game in the hotel room once, and so I started listening to that song before games sometimes. We also were loving the new Eminem CD last spring, but that had kind of faded off. In the summer, Jeremy and I coached the same team at the Bill Carmody basketball camp, so that was fun. I usually did the refereeing while he did the coaching, but I always got the team to say that I was the better coach to try to get Jeremy mad. Our team lost in the finals due to some questionable referee calls, sadly made by me. I couldn't favor my team because I had to keep the integrity of the game. Also last summer we played on the same summer league team, which was a bunch of fun because it is pretty laid back, especially compared to the intensity of our practices or games.

SALUTE TO THE TROOPS

We played pretty well against Chicago State. I didn't get in the game until the very end, and when I took a three it barely grazed the rim, which made me sick to my stomach. I was happy to get back in the gym the next day and get some shots up. My roommate Davide banked a free throw in during the CSU game, so I was sure to make fun of him for that. I still haven't missed a free throw in college, but I've only taken like 2 so it's not that big of a deal. Another thing that was really cool about the CSU game was that the American flag was presented by four members of our military. I felt really inspired seeing them walk on and off the court, doing their march. This reminds me that I watched the movie The Hurt Locker on the bus ride to Indiana. I have started renting movies on iTunes and then watching them either on my computer, but even better I can watch them on my iPod so they are portable. The other movie I watched this week was "More Than a Game", which is the story of LeBron's high school team. Both movies were excellent.

MORE ROAD WOES

Once again, due to the noon start time of our game at Indiana, we had practice at 7 AM on Friday morning. Then we went to class, and then we got on the bus. The ride wasn't too bad, especially because I had my movie on my iPod and also I passed out for a good hour because I was pretty tired. Our team has fifth grade pen pals, so we wrote letters back to them during the bus ride to Indiana. I think in the spring we are going to visit them and go to recess with them or something. Once again, the game at Indiana still is hurting. We were right there and had many chances to win. It's pretty frustrating to keep losing on the road. I got in at the very end when Luka fouled out. It's hard to sit the whole game and then come in to a very important situation, but I have to be ready to do it. I think I played alright besides missing two trey balls; I just have to stay confident and knock those shots down. I think I might practice sitting down for a couple of minutes and then shoot like 50 threes in 10 minutes. Something like this could help me with situations like the one I was in at Indiana.

This upcoming week is the Big Ten Tournament, so we are getting pumped for that. We have to get a win and just take it one game at a time. It's reading week at school, so there is no class, but I also know that I have to study some in order to get ready for finals week next week. Shout out to my dude Matt Witt and his dad, Kyle. See you later.

-Nick Fruendt #15

Each and every week, the BasketBlog will be catching up with Oswego native and Wisconsin senior guard Teah Gant. Teah offers up her unique perspective on the Badgers' season and life off-the-court:

NIGHT ON THE TOWN

Good morning Beacon News fans and hopefully Wisconsin Women's Basketball fans as well! It has been a very crazy week. As you might know, the Big Ten Tournament was this past weekend. I could write a whole book about everything that happened, but I'll just give you a brief recap of my weekend. We left for Indianapolis on Thursday after practice. As I mentioned last week, this was the first time in my career at Wisconsin that we didn't have to play the first day of competition. This was definitely beneficial because it gave us more time to prepare for Purdue. When we arrived at our hotel, which was probably the nicest hotel around, we immediately changed to go to dinner at McCormick and Schmick's. This was one of the awards from our coaches for having such a great season so far. Dinner was more than amazing. We even got to get dessert even though our strength trainer probably didn't agree with that. I would recommend the upside down apple pie, but I heard the Oreo cheesecake was really good as well.

FRIENDS AND ENEMIES

Some of my teammates had to leave dinner early because we were hosting bible study at our hotel that night. All the other teams were invited to come, but I believe only players from Ohio State, Illinois, and Michigan State were able to make it. I think Ashley and Anya did an amazing job of organizing the entire event. I was kind of skeptical of having to be in the same room as all of my enemies on the court, but everyone was surprisingly very nice. I missed the beginning because some of us were still at dinner, but I heard it turned out very well. It's nice to see that people were able to put their differences aside and come together for one night to learn more about each other.

BOILING POINT

Now it's time for the good stuff. Our first game was against Purdue, and we definitely came out swinging. We were able to take control of the game from the very beginning. Part of this was because we were eager to get revenge from the last time we played them, but we were also very locked in on our game plan. Even though we made several mistakes throughout the game as any team does, I think that was the most complete game we had played so far. This gave us great confidence going into our next competition which was undeniably a battle from beginning to end.

BUCKEYED AGAIN

The semifinal game was against Ohio State. Words can't even describe all the events of that game. I hope all of you got a chance to watch on TV. We led for most of the game but wasn't able to pull it out in the end. Ohio State shot about 45 free throws to our 18. I'll let you form your own opinion about that, but if you were wondering, that was a new tournament record. Even with all the adversity we faced, I'm so proud of my team because we left everything on the court. This was our third time playing them, and I'm positive they really dread playing against us now.

Finally, I just wanted to thank everyone who called and texted me after my games. Sorry I wasn't able to respond to everyone, but I really do appreciate you guys for watching and supporting me this year. I want to give a special shout out to Meshia and Shelley for coming all the way to Indianapolis to watch me. You both are great friends, and I'm happy to have you guys in my life.

-Teah Gant #13

Each and every week, the BasketBlog will be catching up with Oswego native and Wisconsin senior guard Teah Gant. Teah offers up her unique perspective on the Badgers' season and life off-the-court:

LATE NIGHT GAME SHOW

What's up fans? I have so much to fill you in on from this very busy week. I'll start off with our game at Penn State. Everyone was more than excited to be able to play them again and redeem ourselves from our previous home loss. We had late practice on Wednesday, so we didn't arrive at the hotel until after 10pm. This didn't stop us from getting together as a team and playing a game. I'm not sure if the game has an official name, but it involves three different rounds of play: describing the phrase, acting out the phrase, and describing the phrase with just one word. Each person only gets one minute to get as many phrases as possible. The funny part is that we all get to make up the phrases that we play with, and some people come up with the most random ideas which don't make any sense half the time. As you can probably imagine, it gets pretty wild because everyone is so competitive. We actually got in trouble for being too loud in the hotel room. To add to that, the game didn't end until about 12:30 at night, which was way past our bed time. We all agreed to play extremely hard so we wouldn't get in even more trouble for staying up so late.

LION TAMING

I think we definitely lived up to our promise. We dominated the game from the jump ball. That was the largest point difference we've had all year. What I like most about that win is that even though we were up by a lot, we still managed to focus on the little things that make our team so special. We held Penn State to only 39 points. I think that says a lot about our defensive toughness and ability to focus for 40 minutes. I felt kind of bad for them because it was their senior night, but I still enjoyed beating them on their home court.

SENIOR DAY

So, now it's time for the main event. Sunday was me and Rae's senior day. I'm really not sure where to begin. We all knew Iowa was going to be a very tough opponent, and we really needed to stick to our principles in order to win. There was a lot of emotion built up before the game. This was my LAST time playing at the Kohl Center, and I wanted to go out on a good note. Before the game, Rae and I were introduced with our families. I told my mom she wasn't allowed to cry before the game because that would have definitely made me cry too. I guess Rae Lin didn't give her mom the same message because she was balling before they even walked out. Luckily, Rae was able to hold back the tears because we did have a game to focus on. Unfortunately, we didn't get the win, but our team played very well the second half to force the game into overtime. I didn't have much time to be mad after the game because we went right into the senior day celebration. Rae and I both made a video last week to thank all the people who have supported us throughout our lives. My mom and three brothers (yes I have three brothers) were all there to support me. All my teammates were betting that I would cry at this point, but I sucked it up. Surprisingly, I wasn't as emotional as I thought I would be after the game. Maybe it just hasn't hit me yet. That's probably because our season is still far from over. We're already focused on our next opponent. The Big Ten tournament starts on Friday for us, and we're looking forward to playing Purdue again. We definitely owe them a little revenge from the last game. Wish us luck!

-Teah Gant #13

p.s. Sorry Brandon (my third brother) that I didn't have a picture of you to add to the video, but here's a personal shout out. I love you and thanks for coming to the game.

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All season long we've been bringing you weekly dairies from Nick Fruendt, former Batavia star and now Northwestern sophomore guard. With this video series, we thought we'd bring Nick to you--live and in real life.

Here's the intro:

And here's Nick in class. Yes, the man does have a studious side (the rumor is true):

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Each and every week, the BasketBlog will be catching up with Batavia native and Northwestern guard Nick Fruendt. Nick offers up his unique perspective on the Wildcats season and life off-the-court:

LION TAMED

The toughest weeks in Big Ten season are the ones in which we lose both games. This past week was one where we could have won both games, but they just did not go our way. The first one was at home against Penn State. I'm sure you know that they were 0-11 in Big Ten play before coming to Evanston. But before they played us, they played Michigan State tough, which led to Coach Izzo of MSU to say that was the best winless team he had seen in a while. So we knew that we were in for a fight just like every other Big Ten game. Going into the game we really wanted to get off to a good start, and much of our focus in practice was on stopping their leading scorer, Taylor Battle. We only accomplished one of these keys. They scored on each of their first couple of possessions, and we didn't get off to the start that we wanted. However, we did manage to hold Battle in check, but the rest of their team picked up the slack. A key part of the game came later in the second half. Down 56-54, Jeremy had a 3 to put us ahead, but unfortunately it just didn't go down. Missed free throws and lack of activity in our zone held us down, and we lost the game. After a game like that, it's hard to accept it, but we just said that we have to move on and not give up. There was one play of the game that I liked a lot. We had the ball out of bounds underneath the hoop, and Coach Carmody was talking to Juice like he was coaching him; all of a sudden Juice ran for the open spot and he got a wide open look, but that one didn't go down either. It would have been perfect if it went in.

OFF DAY

We had an off day on Thursday, during which I spent about an hour filming "NU Cribs" with Jon Kerr, the reporter extraordinaire. Keep an eye out for that in the near future. Off days are really nice, but sometimes I get a little bored. I had a midterm on Friday, and I should have started studying earlier but I kept putting it off. The feeling that I should be studying instead of doing what I am annoys me, so I usually get it done sooner rather than later. But sometimes I still do procrastinate and I hate it when I do. Nevertheless, when we have an off day I realize how bored I would be if I didn't play hoops. I am sure that I would find other things to do and be a part of, but I feel so fortunate to be on a team at the highest level of college basketball. Every single day I get to do one of the most fun things there is, and that is play basketball. I remind myself of that a lot, especially when I am feeling a little tired or frustrated.

MADISON MADNESS

We knew that our game at Wisconsin on Sunday was huge, and so practice heading up to the game was pretty good. We did a lot of shooting stuff besides the normal scout and scrimmage parts of practice, which was fun. I always enjoy getting more shots up during practice. The only time that we could get a shoot around at Wisconsin was 6 AM on Sunday morning, but that is way too early so we didn't do that. Instead, we got more shots up at practice on Friday and Saturday, and then we also left for the arena a little earlier than normal so that we could shoot a little longer about two hours before the game. The game against Wisconsin was a tale of two halves. They are a team that always tries to be very physical and be the tougher team, but I think that we handled that well. The problem was that they barely missed any shots in the first half, and as a result we were down by 14 at half (43-29). We could have folded, but our guys fought back, and we almost came all the way back and won. We were so pumped on the bench that the referees came and told us that we had to stay down and not stand up as much. We barely fell short, but we gave a great effort. Wisconsin has to be one of the toughest places to play in the country. They have beaten Duke, Michigan State, and other superb teams there this year...I wish we could have pulled it out. I think that we are going to bounce back this week.

PAPER AND A MOVIE

One of the nights this week, I had to stay up pretty late writing a paper, but not as late as my roommate John Shurna. He pulled almost two all-nighters in one week. These usually happen due to papers, which is the reason I am more of a test guy than a paper guy. The whole week was full of schoolwork and basketball, so it was nice to go out to the movies on Friday night with Ariel. We went to see Shutter Island, the newest Scorcese-DiCaprio production, and it was excellent. I've heard that the book is even better, but I don't really have time for leisure reading these days. Maybe I would, but I choose leisure writing (this) instead. Ha-ha.

That's all I have for this week. Shout out to Mr. J...thanks for reading! Ha-ha. I saw your comment on one of my past entries. And also shout out to Keith (Hansel) for giving me interview advice. I had an interview for a summer internship on Wednesday. Hopefully I was able to land it. I'll be back in a week! Thanks.

-Nick Fruendt #15

Each and every week, the BasketBlog will be catching up with Oswego native and Wisconsin senior guard Teah Gant. Teah offers up her unique perspective on the Badgers' season and life off-the-court:

SENIOR NIGHT COUNTDOWN

What's up fans? It's getting closer to the end for me, and my teammate Lin D'Alie sure doesn't hesitate to remind me of that. She's basically my personal count down calendar. There's only two games left in the conference season with the last being my senior night. It hasn't really hit me yet that Sunday will be my last game at the Kohl Center. I'm sure it will be a very special night me, my family, and everyone else who has followed my throughout the years. I've already been working on getting tickets from my teammates because I have lots of people who want to come and support me. When I started off as a freshman, I never actually thought this day would come. I've watched three years of my teammates going through the same process as I will be on Sunday. Although my senior night in high school was special, this day will bring a much different feeling. I will be inching closer to the last game of my career, a game that has consumed my life for longer than I can remember. I'm sure I'll touch more on this in my last blog for you guys, but hopefully we'll get the win on Sunday and finish the conference season off on a good note.

BUCKED AGAIN

For other basketball news, we unfortunately lost to Ohio State for the second time. The game was much closer this time around (we only lost by 5), but we still didn't play to our full potential. Although we did play extremely hard the entire game, our mental mistakes are what killed us. If you're playing against a top ten team like Ohio State, you have to have a perfect game. They were able to capitalize on our mistakes which eventually led to them winning the game. They've been at the top of the conference for as long as I've been at Wisconsin, and it would be nice to knock them off before I leave. We still have another chance to do this in the Big Ten tournament.

CREEPY MOVIE

Our second game of the week was against Michigan, and this time it was at their place. The trip to Michigan last year was definitely not a game that any one of us wanted to re-live. Let's just say we got beat by a little more than a lot, so this was our chance to redeem ourselves. The coaches decided that we would practice the day before in their arena and bypass an early morning shoot around on game day. Our practice time was cut a little short because the Michigan men's team had a game that night. We checked into the hotel around five and immediately went to dinner. The rest of the night was left as free time. Many people were glued to their books because the first round of exams are coming up. All of my exams aren't until March, so my room became the movie room. We decided to watch "The Fourth Kind", which probably wasn't a good idea to do right before bed. The movie wasn't scary, but it was very creepy.

WOLVERINE WIN

Now back to the game. I can really tell that we're a different team this year because we have not buckled under pressure. Michigan made a run at us late in the game to cut our double digit lead down to just four points, but we still managed to put them away in the end. I was a little under the weather for this game, but all my teammates stepped their game up to help me out. I want to give a special recognition to Anya Covington for playing an amazing game. She was a beast on both the offensive and defensive ends of the floor. I think she managed to bulldoze through their entire team including the big 6'6" girl they had. Good job Anya! Until next time...

-Teah Gant #13

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Each and every week, the BasketBlog will be catching up with Batavia native and Northwestern guard Nick Fruendt. Nick offers up his unique perspective on the Wildcats season and life off-the-court:

Hey everyone! I'm performing one of the most common acts of students across the globe with this entry: procrastination. I've been so busy that I totally forgot about writing this until...right now, Sunday night! But it's fine because we got a huge win today, and I'm looking forward to an exciting week.

AT THE MOVIES

This past week started off pretty well. We were riding a two game winning streak heading into our game on Tuesday against Iowa. Practice on Monday went pretty well, besides John dunking on me once, but we weren't really prepared for what was going to happen next. The huge snowstorm that hit our area moved practice from 3 PM to 7 AM on Tuesday so that we could leave for Iowa earlier. With practice in the morning, our guys could still go to class and then leave at 3 instead of practicing at 3 and leaving at 6. This wasn't the best news sleep-wise, but you have to expect at least one snowstorm like that here in the Chicago area per year. I wanted to go to sleep a little bit earlier because of the early practice, but John convinced me to watch Shawshank Redemption with him, so I ended up staying awake until past 1 AM. I decided to do it because both John and I had never seen the movie, which is rated #1 on IMDB. It didn't disappoint; I give it two thumbs up. Needless to say, I was very sleepy when I woke up at 6 after my 5 hour nap, but I snapped out of it in order to practice well. It reminded me of the spring and summer, when we have to get up early every weekday in order to lift or run. One thing that makes everyone get a little riled up in practice is when the defense cheats the plays. What happens is we will work on our offensive scheme and put a couple of wrinkles in, but the defense still knows the plays. When a defender "cheats the play," he anticipates where the ball is going or runs to the spot where the offensive player will be going, which makes it harder to run the play. I especially don't like this, so when I am on defense I try my best to play it honest.

BURN THE TAPES

I don't really want to talk about the Iowa game because it was pretty much just miserable. I don't know if we were thrown off because of the early practice the day before or some sniffles that were going around the team, we just did not compete like we know we can. The bus ride took almost 5 hours the day before. I will give props to Carver Arena; it is pretty cool and I like it. But the court-level loading area was under construction, and we had to enter the building at normal ground level, which at their arena is much higher up than the court. Last year I described it as the dungeon court, but it really is much nicer than a dungeon. What I am trying to say here is that for game day shootaround, we had to go down and up the stairs, which was a workout in itself. For the game, we got to take an elevator, but after the game I just climbed the stairs in order to blow off some steam. Everyone was very disappointed and upset after the game.

STICKY FINGER

Friday's practice for the Minnesota game on Sunday was a different tone. Our trainer, Lanny, told me that I played close to 50 minutes, because that is the amount of time that we scrimmaged. It was great because we just got to play. Sometimes after losses like that it is best to get right back on the court and play. Before practice, we got after it in the weight room. I have been limited in lifting because I have an injury called mallet finger on my left ring finger. During the Liberty game in November, I looked down at my finger and the end was just hanging there. What happened was the tendon attaching the last part of my finger to the rest of the finger became unattached from the bone, so my finger was just dangling and I couldn't really feel it. I wore a splint full time for 9 weeks, and now I only wear the splint while I play and sleep. My finger is getting some flexibility back, but it is still pretty stiff and I can't really grip the weights, or make a fist for that matter. The good news is that I can still do bench press, which is my favorite lift.

VALENTINE'S DAY COMEBACK

As for the Minnesota game, I am extremely happy that we won. The first 32 minutes of the game were still bad, but we managed to pull it together. I hope you got to see the game; it was sweet to be a part of! This week we play Penn State at home and Wisconsin on the road. I have a stats midterm and a history paper to write, so hopefully this gives me some good practice. I want to wish a Happy Valentine's Day to everyone, and this week's shout out goes to my Valentine, Ariel. Until next time...

- Nick Fruendt #15

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Each and every week, the BasketBlog will be catching up with Oswego native and Wisconsin senior guard Teah Gant. Teah offers up her unique perspective on the Badgers' season and life off-the-court:

BOILING POINT

Hey fans! I'm writing you on the bus home from Purdue. I would have been nice to report that we won the game, but unfortunately we didn't pull it out. In my opinion, there were lots of questionable calls throughout the game, especially the last possession, but that's how life is sometimes. Our team played very hard the entire game, but we still have lots of things we can improve on. Purdue played a very aggressive zone defense, and our offense sputtered a little towards the end. This season I've really tried to step up my game on the offensive end. With me becoming more of an offensive threat, my teammates also have a better chance of scoring. For those who followed me in high school, you might find it weird that I have been struggling with my offensive production. Although I was the leading scorer for my high school team, the college game is much different because everyone came in just like me. For my first two years in college, I had teammates who took control of the scoring end of the game, but now being a senior I know I have to step my game up. It's actually not even about scoring points either. I've mainly been focusing on being a threat and making my defender guard me. This opens up several opportunities for both me and my teammates.

ICE BATH

We also had another game this week. The results of this game are more exciting so I decided to tell this story second. We beat Minnesota on Thursday night in a double overtime game. Yes, you read it right DOUBLE OVERTIME. I'm not sure how many of you have actually played in a collegiate game, but playing 40 minutes is tiring enough. I was still trying to recover two days after the game. My legs were so sore that I convinced myself to actually take an ice bath, and I never do that. That was only my second of the year. I can take a lot of things, but I'm just not a fan of being cold. This was a special occasion though because I knew I needed to be ready for the big game against Purdue. Hopefully we won't have to go into overtime in any more games this season.

HOME AWAY FROM HOME

The Minnesota game was also very exciting because we have several players on the team who are from the area. We definitely had a solid fan section for this game. Each player gets four free tickets for each game to give to their family and friends. As you could imagine, everyone was fighting over tickets weeks before we were actually scheduled to play. The day before the game we were able to go to Alyssa Karel's house for a team dinner. This was a lot different than having dinner at the hotel. Everyone's family was able to attend, and the dinner was great. There were also lots of cookies, brownies, and other desserts which I'm sure our strength coach was not too excited to see. We even started a small game of charades with both the adults and players, although the adults just stuck to the guessing end of it. Overall, it was a fun trip and a great bonding experience for everyone.

Now we're 17-7 for the season and 7-6 in conference play. We're currently ranked third with five more games to go. I hope you continue to follow the rest of our season. Finally, I wanted to give a shout out to my high school teammate Andrea Grams. Thanks for coming to the game!

-Teah Gant #13

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Each and every week, the BasketBlog will be catching up with Batavia native and Northwestern guard Nick Fruendt. Nick offers up his unique perspective on the Wildcats season and life off-the-court:

DOUBLE DIP

Winning weeks are much more fun than losing weeks! This week we played Michigan and Indiana, both at home, and we came away with two victories. Wins just make everything more fun. Heading into the Michigan game on Tuesday, we were a little down after seeing our conference record dip to 3-6, but we had a renewed focus. Our attitude was that if we are going to do something, we needed to make a move in the second half of the conference schedule, and now we are on our way to doing that. Our game against Michigan was called Hope for Haiti, so we wore some red armbands in pre game warm-ups for the cause. The fans also had some red, but the colors were still mostly purple. The thing I remember most from the Michigan game was the attitude that our team was playing with. We were winning in the single digits for most of the game, and then our lead just took off in the middle of the second half. Practice leading up to the Indiana game was very crisp. We spent a day working on making ourselves better, and then had the usual two days for Indiana preparation (a game which Northwestern won 78-61). I can't really tell you much interesting about these practices except that they were intense, which I think is a good thing at this point in the season. It's important to keep the competitive juices flowing, and we will only continue to improve if we do so.

TRAINING TABLE

After practice, we get to eat a meal, which is called training table. This is usually my dinner nowadays. There was a nice new addition to the buffet spread this week: chicken burgers. I had multiple of these on a couple of days. One night, the workers forgot to show up, so we didn't get to eat the meal, and I had to go back to the apartment and make a frozen pizza. Frozen pizzas are the bomb, but they can get old if you eat them all the time. Some of my other favorites in the apartment include toasted cinnamon raison bread, trail mix, and Oreos. Anyways, training table is nice because I don't have to make a meal for myself and it is ready right after practice.

CAMPUS DIVERSITY

I want to talk a little bit about the atmosphere at Northwestern. This University is the most diverse place that I have ever been in my life. In class, it's possible that there is at least one person from each continent in the class, no joke. There are different languages being spoken all the time. It's neat to be able to meet people from all over the globe, but sometimes I am just amazed at how diverse campus is. Sometimes I feel like the minority, so it's really just another amazing part of my experience here at Northwestern.

YOUTUBE FAVORITES

Here's an interesting stat that I read about today: A professor at Northwestern estimated that it's possible that the average student spends eight hours on the Internet per day! EIGHT! I think that is pretty crazy, and a little high, but it's also eye-opening about how much the computer is a part of college life these days. I would estimate that I spend an hour or two per day online, but definitely not eight. John and I have a couple of favorite YouTube videos that I want to share. Be sure to check out Benny the Bull on Jerry Springer, the Jenga world record disaster, or Prank Wars 7: the half court shot. These are all pretty funny, and I hope you can get a laugh out of watching them; I certainly did.

STUDENT FIRST

The schoolwork load is picking up as of late, so I have to spend more time studying than writing this super fun work. I am officially declared now as an economics major with a minor in business institutions, in case you were wondering. These classes are pretty challenging, but I think I am up for it.

I hope you enjoyed this read and the Super Bowl. You know, some people think that I look like Peyton Manning. What do you think? We play away at Iowa on Wednesday and home against Minnesota on Sunday, so be sure to check us out. Shout out to the Batavia boy's basketball team, I wish you luck the rest of the season. Until next time.

- Nick Fruendt #15

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