On the road with the Colonials: Day two

Good morning from San Jose. The team just got finished eating breakfast. The general consensus among the players is that they have successfully adjusted to Pacific Time. Unfortunately, the same can not be said about the rest of us. Now everyone is packing their stuff and getting ready to depart the hotel.

From here, the team will head to its first practice in California. The two-hour workout will be held at Castilleja High School in Palo Alto; it's about a 30-minute shot straight up the 101. From there, we will check into the hotel in Santa Clara, which is where the entire GW contingent will be staying for the rest of the time here. After that, it's onto San Francisco for an afternoon and evening of sightseeing.

If the high school has wireless internet access, I'll update from there in a couple of hours. If not, I'll update from the hotel in Santa Clara. Please check back later.

Update, 2.08 p.m. - Good afternoon from Santa Clara. After a two-hour practice (pictures to the left), the team arrived at the new hotel a few minutes ago. Most of the employees greeted the squad dressed in buff and blue GW shirts, with some wearing the infamous foam tri-cornered hats (see below and to the left).

The team had a pretty good practice at the huge all-girl high school in the residential portion of Palo Alto. The squad started out loose and focused, but the coaching staff became unhappy with the players' effort about midway through. For the final 45 minutes, the team got back to competing at an extremely high level of intensity on both ends of the floor. After concluding the session by going through some of the scouting report on Auburn, everyone got back on the bus feeling positive about the two-hour practice.

With less than 48 hours to go until tip-off against Auburn, you can feel that the coaches and players are really starting to buckle down.

Now it's off to San Francisco. This is the final non-business event before the game on Saturday. I'll be back with more later.

Update, 10.46 p.m. - After stopping for lunch at In-N-Out Burger, the squad was given a tour of San Francisco from the team bus. We made a stop at the Golden Gate Bridge, where pictures were taken that I'm told will appear in next year's media guide. Then, the team was given approximately an hour of free time to wander around the piers on the waterfront (where we encountered a ton of sea lions, as shown in the bottom picture) before walking a few blocks to dinner at McCormick & Kuleto's. In another ironic twist, we were told that Auburn was scheduled to eat dinner at the same restaurant, but the soon-to-be opponents did not cross paths.

Tomorrow is a long day for the Colonials. After a nine a.m. breakfast at the hotel, everyone will ship over to Maples Pavilion for the first time for practice and the team news conference. From there, the squad will move across the street to Ford Center to continue practicing. Then, it will be time to watch film on Auburn.

I'll be back tomorrow with some material from the press conference. Please check back then.