Kyle Hines filed his latest blog just a few hours before the Spartans took the floor for a game against Furman. Hines finished the night with 16 points, 10 rebounds and tied his own school record with seven blocked shots. UNCG won the game, 75-63, to even its record at 4-4 on the year.

I first want to apologize for not blogging last week. Last week was very hectic – both on and off the court. These past two weeks - because they’re the final weeks of the semester - have been real busy. Along with finals, I had to write a 13-15 page group paper, two seven-page papers and a 10-page paper all in one week. The past week felt like I have lived at the library. I’ve been there until midnight almost every night. I will be happy once finals week is over, so we can start our winter break from classes. That is the part of the season that Coach Dement calls the NBA part of our season - we will be able to put our full concentration on basketball only. This will be very beneficent, because after last week our team certainly needs it.

Since I last blogged, we had three games versus Kent State, Virginia Tech and Wofford and we lost all three. The first game versus Kent State was a tale of two halves. We played well until the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half allowing them to go on a 16-0 run. For the rest of the game we were playing catch up and ended up losing by seven.

When we played at Virginia Tech – well, we didn’t show up at all. We shot horribly and end up losing by an embarrassing 29 points. Let’s just leave it at that.

We then had our first conference game at Wofford, where we haven’t won in almost five years. The last two years we have lost in either overtime or to a buzzer-beater. Throughout the game we played well enough to have an eight-point lead with 1:55 left and it felt like déjà vu. During the next 1:55, because of missed free throws, turnovers and I guess a lack of focus, we helped put Wofford in a position to win the game with 14 seconds left. Despite our defensive efforts, Drew Gibson end up knocking down a game winning three that sent us home with another loss.

This 0-3 week has buried us in sort of an early hole and has left a real sour taste in our mouths. Everyone now feels a sense of urgency to stop this losing streak before it worsens. It’s been almost two weeks since we last had a win and that make the game versus Furman more important than ever. IT IS A MUST WIN!!! We have no excuses; we must win the game to build back the momentum that we had earlier in the season.

That is all I have for you guys this week. Gotta hit the court and then back to the books for a few more days.

Until next time……Kyle Hines #42