June 1
"Mall and Ball"
Today we decided to take the group to the mall in Jo-burg. There were two adjacent malls that were very nice. We bought some books and I found a cigar shop where I purchased a few Cubans! There was also a local merchant market where Kelly bought gifts for some people at home. I also got her a birthday gift, a beautiful carving of "The Last Supper" that was made from Ebony. The fun part was the negotiation process. The offering price was 1,500 Rand and I ended up buying it for 900 Rand (Approximately 117.00 US $'s). The back and forth dealing is fun! Kelly's birthday is Tuesday. She will be .......29.....again!
After the mall we drove to the sight of our game. We played the South African National Team. The game will be televised across all of Africa on tape delay! I really wanted to show off SMU to the continent. We started off great, building an early lead, but the SA's were an experienced bunch and they game back strongly. Early leads can be "fool's gold" as there may be a sense the game was going to be easy. Well, it wasn't. SA took a lead of 20 points behind some very aggressive play. They shot the ball well and got us in foul trouble. We game back strong by closing the gap to 9 points at the half. The second half we came out sloppy and SA built a 15 point lead to end the 3rd period. Our defense picked up in the 4th and Bamba was terrific in the post as he had 24 points, scoring on an array of jump hooks and turnaround jump shots. Mike Walker finished with 20 points.
We ended up losing by 7 points. Our defense wasn't very good, we turned the ball over 14 times and we shot it poorly, from the field and the foul line. I was very disappointed. We need to play smarter.
Tomorrow we have a big day planned:
- Breakfast
- Class at 9:30am
- Tour of Soweto – the heart of the struggle against apartheid:
- See the homes of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu
- See the memorials of the struggle
- Lunch
- Lesidi Cultural Village – experience the tribal lifestyles.
- Dinner in Lesidi
Pony Up!
Coach Doh
