Tournament Second Day

December 23, 2017

Davidson's second game was at 7:30 pm on Saturday. So again I had a late start and just wandered around in that part of Waikiki. The main thing that I had not seen up close that wanted to was the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. I had seen the front from the ocean on the way back from the submarine. It is now dwarfed by high rise hotels, but the 90-year-old building is still distinctive for its pink color and Moorish architecture. Beaches in Hawaii are all public, but hotels along the beach have their facilities that are supposed to be used only by their guests. The beach at my hotel was adjacent to the Royal Hawaiian's beach area, as you might have noticed on the previous page.

So after lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, I wandered down to the Royal Hawaiian Center, a shopping area and garden off the major street on the next block behind the hotel. So the first hotel views below are from the back via the gardens.

I think the blue umbrellas are from my hotel. That is Diamondhead you see in the distance.

After my wandering around the area, I was still full from the big lunch plus cheesecake, so I put supper off until after the game. Davidson was heavily favored, but we were playing the hometown team, and the officials must all have been alumni. Nobody even pretending to be impartial would have called the game the way they did. The final score was 71-79. On the ride back to the hotel we didn't really speak to each other, and I especially thought it was considerate to avoid the family members as well as players and coaches. That didn't work out back at the hotel.

At that time, Davidson's prospects for the season didn't seem as hopeful as they do now as I write this, just after the victory at VCU and being in second place in the A10. As late as the end of the first half of the St. Louis, a knowledgeable fan suggested that Davidson might not win a single conference game. (He was delighted to be proved wrong in the second half.) The one-point loss to New Mexico State was a heartbreaker. The Hawaii loss was the second loss of the season to a significantly weaker team out of conference.

So back at the hotel, I just wanted to stop by the room and then see if I could get a late supper. To get to the elevators, I passed near the room where the team was eating supper. Coach Ryan Mee was outside the room and came over to talk. When I got on the elevator, KiShawn Pritchett got on carrying a big plate of food. I think we nodded. He doesn't know me, but I did have Davidson gear on.

Back downstairs I went to Duke's, and they said I could order food at that hour from one of the round tables the other side of the bar. I found a small round table in an inconspicuous location. When I looked up from the menu, I saw that the Aldridge family and their Ohio friends had occupied the large round table nearby. Peyton's dad came over to talk. When he turned back around, he saw that the rest of the group had moved, and he went off to find them. So I ordered, and soon the big round table was occupied by the McKillop family. I think I waved and Cathy and then ignored them. Soon Bob joined them, and he was pouring through things on his laptop, pretty much ignoring everybody. Then he comes over to my table and pulls up a chair and starts showing me on his laptop some of the incredibly bad calls, frame ... by frame ... by frame. He said it was the worst hosing any of his teams had ever got, and then he told me that the team really is getting better. I'm sure he believed it. I couldn't get anybody else to believe me later (though I didn't cite my source, just said it was very reliable). And of course he was right. And then just as abruptly as he had sad down, Bob left to get back with the family.

 

December 24 and 25->

<-Tournament first day

Hawaii index

Steve Lee's Home Page