It felt good to be back in Sicklerville and take a break from being in Greensboro. The first night I was home, I got the chance to chill with my two best friends Ron and Sid. We went out to the Old City section of Philadelphia (about 15 miles from my hometown) and got caught up. It felt good to chill with them and kick it like the old times. The next day, my girlfriend came to see me. I got a chance to spend the day with her after not seeing her for almost three months.

The following day was Christmas, so I got to spend some time with my family. I went over to see both of my grandparents and see all my little cousins and my aunts and uncles. The highlight of my trip was watching my aunt do the Souja Boy dance at my grandmother’s house. It had to be one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in my life.

My time at home was fun and relaxing. Even though it felt like I just got there, I had to come back to Greensboro to start preparing for our next game at UNC Wilmington. This game was definitely a big one for us. It was an opportunity for us to get a big road win in a place where not many teams come in and win. It was also a chance for us to visit our old assistant coach, Brooks Lee, who left to go there prior to this season.

We went in and played really well. At one point during the game, we were up as many as 28 points. The whole team stepped up and played a great team game. We knew coming in that they were a really good offensive team that was averaging close to 80 points a game. We challenged ourselves defensively to make it difficult for them to score and it proved to be successful by only allowing them to get 52 points for the entire game. People don’t win at Wilmington very often. It was their worst loss at home in more than 10 years and they’ve only lost something like 20 games at Trask in the last 10 years. The win gave us great confidence going into the three-game home stretch we are about to start.

During the game I experienced a very weird injury. While going for a rebound. I got elbowed in the mouth and bit through a portion of my upper lip. (Ironically, I was called for a foul on the play.) I had to leave the game and get stitches. The next day when I woke up, my upper lip had swollen up. To give a description of what it looked liked, Dwayne said it looked like I had gotten a really bad implant in my upper lip. The doctor had made the stitches longer than usual, so I also had long blue strings hanging out of my lip. What made the situation even worse was that my girlfriend was coming to town the next day!!! As to be expected, she wasn’t very happy when she saw my lip.

Our next game was against Central Arkansas, who was a very athletic team with a proven record. We went into the game looking to increase our winning streak to four games and finish strong in the non-conference portion of schedule. We were playing without Mikko, who hurt his ankle down in Wilmington. (Actually, I think he stepped on my foot and that was how he hurt it.) So we knew we needed someone to step up and bring what he brings to the floor and more. Kevin Oleksiak really stepped up to the plate and had a season high 28 points. We ended up winning the game by 18 points. We finished the non-conference season 6-3 and on a four-game winning streak going into conference play.

So now we go back into the conference portion of our season against Georgia Southern today, followed by The Citadel on Monday. These two games are vital for us to win for many different reasons. The No. 1 reason is that both of them are home and it is important for us to “hold serve” in the conference and continue the dominance we have had on our home court. The second reason is that we can establish early momentum and confidence headed into conference play; this is very important in a conference that from the bottom to the top is fairly evenly matched this year. The way things have started out in the SoCon thus far, there aren’t going to be many easy games. Appalachian State has already gone to Charleston and won; The Citadel was tied at Davidson with 12 minutes to go; right now, no team can be taken lightly. Lastly, we could push our winning streak to six games if we win these two – something UNCG hasn’t done in a little while. I’m really confident that if we play as a team that we could win both of these games.

Well, that’s all I have for you this week. Wish us luck and thank you to everyone that has continued to support us throughout this year.

One more thing…before I go, I have to send a couple of belated B-Day shout outs – to my mom (Jan 2nd), my sister Tati (Dec. 31st) and my girlfriend (Jan 2nd).Until next time……….

No. 42 Kyle Hines