STEVENS POINT, Wis. - East Texas Baptist University has invaded Wisconsin and play-by-play annoucner and public relations director Mike Midkiff blogs about the trip from Texas to Wisconsin. Read below about the trip.

Flying with the Tigers Over Wisconsin

The travel day was a long one for the East Texas Baptist University Tiger basketball team.  The Tigers, who have made the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division III Men’s Basketball Championship Tournament, left campus Wednesday morning at 9:00 a.m. by charter bus to the D/FW Airport. 

The Tigers boarded an American Airlines flight to fly to Milwaukee, Wisconsin landing at 5:30 p.m. From the airport another bus ride to Stevens Point, Wisconsin. All and all the Tigers spent six hours on a bus and 2.5 hours on a plane to reach their destination.

Two players had never been on an airplane before. For senior Erby Thompson and sophomore Dylan Augustine it was the first experience of ears popping and seeing the earth from 24,000 feet.   I could not see Augustine as the plane took off but I could see Thompson. He had a big smile on his face. (Thompson First Flight Video - Facebook)

The flight was not full so many players got to move from middle assigned seats to aisle seats which was a big plus for the long legs of  6-5 senior Kerry McClahan.

The time waiting at D/FW to board the mid-afternoon flight to Milwaukee was put to good time management by assistant coach Michael Prather. He pulled out the laptop and studied game video with some of the players as they sat in the terminal.  

During the flight the captain turned on the buckle seatbelt sign because of turbulent skies. The flight attendant instructed everyone to fasten their seatbelts for the duration of the flight to Detroit. Wait, Detroit is not the destination.  The miscue brought comments from the Tiger traveling squad. “May be the pilot forgot to ask Siri for directions.”  The flight attendant came back quickly and corrected herself, “We are not going to Detroit; we are going to Milwaukee.”

As the plane was flying into Milwaukee, Lake Michigan is hard to miss. Another view that was different than flying over East Texas was that many ponds, rivers and small lakes are still frozen.  Hard to believe that the high temperature predicted for Friday in Stevens Point is 63 degrees.   

Coach Bert West’s Tigers have a 1:30 p.m. scheduled practice in the gym at Wis.-Stevens Point on Thursday. The day will also be a day of rest to get fresh legs before Friday night’s game vs. University of Northwestern-Saint Paul at 5:00 p.m. After the ETBU game, the host school, Wisconsin-Stevens Point, will play Emory (Ga.) at 7:30 p.m. The winners play Saturday at 4:00 p.m.

If the Tigers can win Friday and Saturday they will be punching their ticket to the NCAA Division III Final Four on March 20-21 in Salem, Virginia.

Coach West said to me after the long day of travel, "Tiger use a 16 hour day to prepare for the Sweet 16."

Upon arrival at the team hotel, the Tigers had a short team meeting then lights out.​