Injured Bradley men's basketball players Mason Alwan (foot) and Ka'Darryl Bell (shoulder) were unable to play during the team's trip to the Bahamas Aug. 11-16, but the two guards both contributed to Bradley's blog coverage of the trip.  Below is Alwan's third entry. 

It is our final day here on the island, it has truly been an amazing trip so far and we all will remember it for the rest of our lives.  We have played well all four games down here, even with the loss on Monday.  It is a completely different game down here and I feel that it took our guys a game to get used to the refs, the physicalness and the all-around different play at the FIBA level.  Each game we have gotten progressively better and it all came together tonight.  The new guys have all really impressed me: they have all grown up and played better each game down here.  Everyone plays hard every possession and there will be competition for minutes all throughout the year.

Even bigger than how well we played during the games is the team-bonding aspect that we all experienced while at Atlantis.  Each day I was hanging out with a different group of people.  We all hung out with whoever we could find.  Not having cell phone service and not being able to get ahold of each other allowed for us all to hang out with many different people throughout the trip.

The resort was gigantic and most of our rooms were not by each other.  The long lines at the slides gave us all a chance to talk, get to know guys that we may not have known as well.  The relaxing lazy river and more up-tempo rapid river allowed for us to have a different type of fun that we do not get to experience on the Hilltop.  It was truly a great trip and an important trip on many different aspects that will help us tremendously this upcoming season.

One final thing that I want to talk about is how thankful we all are to be able to play for Bradley and get to experience all that we do.  Driving to the gym, we got to see the Bahamas for what they truly are and how the people here have to live.  It is not this glorious Atlantis resort that often gets associated with the Bahamas.  It is run down houses, people carrying groceries miles to their homes or stray dogs running around everywhere.  Seeing the run down houses and the people that are fighting everyday to stay alive is something that most of us have never seen with our own eyes.  Yes, there is poverty in the United States, but this was on a whole different level.  You see these things in pictures and it all seems surreal; seeing it in person gives you a different perspective.

Seeing the players that you just beat want to take pictures with you and put you on a pedestal is a feeling that I can not really describe (Nate Wells was the most popular player throughout the trip because of his height).  All the workers here gave us a level of respect that we could not even begin to ask for, like we were professional players.  They let us skip lines to rides and always asked us about the games or basketball in general.  Basically all I am trying to say is that we all are thankful for the opportunity to play college basketball, get a great education and get to go on trips like this.

Thank you for all the support and get ready for a big season!

Blogging with the Braves
Aug. 19, 2013:  Ka'Darryl Bell makes his second post
Aug. 12, 2013:  Mason Alwan makes his second post
Aug. 10, 2013:  Ka'Darryl Bell makes his first post
Aug. 7, 2013:  Mason Alwan makes his first post

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