If you want to make God laugh...

...make plans. So I was planning on having a full-time job with benefits lined up by the summertime, but it hasn't happened yet. I was planning that my wife and dog and I would be living together by now, but it seems like the Big Guy has other plans for me. Hopefully, something will come about soon, as I am getting frustrated by not knowing what is in store for me. I've got a few options, but some look better than the others. Wish me and my family luck.

Oh, and I know that I don't keep this updated, but I will work to get it back to at least two times a week. I know the people want to know what goes on in the life of Tahj Holden, so I will try to give the people what they want!

New Year

Holy crap, it is 2009. How quickly a year goes by. I remember around this time last year I was in La Jolla trying to figure out how to help our team get a win. Some things change, yet some things stay the same. Fast forward to 2009m I am still trying to figure out how to get a win for my team. This time however, I am in New Jersey at Monmouth University instead of La Jolla Country Day, and it is 25 degrees and not 75. All that being said, we got a huge conference win this past Saturday over Sacred Heart. They were the second highest scoring team in our league and we held them to 15 points under their average, with I would say about 10 of their 56 points coming in garbage time. We have another big game against Central Connecticut tonight. A win tonight would bring us to .500 in the league and would make us undefeated in the new year. Wish us luck.

Snow Day

So I wake up today and there are 2-3 inches of snow on my car. My immediate thought was that maybe tonight's game would be canceled. Maybe We would have an extra day to prepare, but we don't. And the game is on for tonight. Hopefully we can figure out a way to get a win. We have a habit of being up double digits, but not being able to maintain the intensity that got us the lead for the entire game. Maybe we can rectify it tonight because the players didn't have class today as the semester is over. Something's got to give.

That being said I would like to give a shout-out to Brother Bilaal as it is his Birthday celebration tonight in downtown Red Bank.

Oh and I do apologize for the hiatus, things get kinda crazy around the holiday season.

It's a Cold, Cold World

So, we lost again this past Saturday. We played at Quinnipiac, which means that I had to drive up to Hamden, CT to watch us play a good first 10-15 minutes, and then play like crap for the rest of the game. If, and I know that it is a big if, we can play with intensity for a full 40 minutes, we will win more games than we lose this year. That being said, we haven't put together a full half yet. We just have to get mentally tougher, however you do that.

We have a game today, at home, on TV, against FDU on the MSG channel for those of you interested and have access to this channel. I will be that tall guy on the Monmouth University bench, if you are looking for me.

Did I mention that it is cold outside? Stay warm people.

League Play

It starts tomorrow. A new Season. Practices have been more more energetic the past couple of days. More so than I have ever seen this year. It is actually good to see. This comes on the heels of getting our asses handed to us on Tuesday by Seton Hall. They hung 101 points on us. 101. When I was at Maryland and we played Monmouth, we didn't even score 100 points. And that was the year we won the Championship! I mean seriously, 100 points to Seton Hall?! Seton Hall?

Now that I have gotten that out of the way, I am really excited for league play to start up. I think we have a really good chance at being really competitive this year. If we make it to the top half of the league and get to the NEC tourney, we all know how tournaments can turn out. So it all begins this Saturday at Quinnipiac. Pray for us. Until next time.

Finally

We Won! Now that I got that off of my chest, we beat the worst team in the nation (NJIT). They have lost 38 of their last 38 games. It was actually a two point game with about a minute and a half to go. We wound up winning by five. The one thing that really disappointed me was that when I went in the locker room some guys weren't excited that we won. There are a few selfish guys on our team it seems, but I will give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they were disappointed in their individual play. On Tuesday we play Seton Hall, who is playing pretty well considering that they have six scholarship players and a few walk-ons. It would be nice to go up there and come away with a win.

On another note, I got to see my family and wife over the holiday. For those of you that don't know by now, I moved to NJ for the job at Monmouth and she stayed in Cali until probably the spring and she will move back east depending on my job next year, as this is a part-time appointment. I will also get to see her this weekend before she goes back to Cali on Tuesday.

On to some Terp talk. The Terps are going to have problems this year, it seems, with any team that has big guys that can play. I am going on the record saying that we will beat Duke this year because their big guys are not very good, and Landon should match up well with Singler. We will struggle with teams like UNC that have a rotation of big guys. Hopefully we can win this game against Georgetown today, as I always want to beat the local schools, and come the end of the year it would be huge if we could come out of this tournament with two wins against ranked teams.

I was going to dedicate this last paragraph to speaking about how I am not a fan of the city of Philadelphia, but I will just say that it sucks and leave it at that.

Go Giants.

My Observations Thus Far

Today is our third game. We play the University of Rhode Island tonight at home. The first game of the season we played with a lot of toughness and grit and lost by three. Second game there was no intensity. Hopefully that will change tonight. As far as my job goes, I now realize that I need to be a little more organized. I have to get on top of things early on so that they do not become an issue later on.

For those of you that do not know, a close friend of mine lost his brother last Friday. Yesterday was the funeral, and afterward I spent the rest of the day hanging out with him and my buddy Toole. I really just wanted to be there for him because you never know how one will take the loss of a family member. We all actually wound up having a good time considering the circumstances. It was nice to see all of the people that came out and showed how loved that his brother was. But it was even more special when I got to hang out with him and his family and realized that it was his family that made him the special person that he was and they made me feel like a part of that family yesterday. Hopefully when I start a family with my wife we are able to foster that type of environment for our family.

Color Commentary

Ah, college basketball. I can't get enough of it. Even though the games are cupcakes versus BCS conference teams, I still watch and try to learn something new. That being said, I have to say that Jason (Jay) Williams has gotten A LOT better with his color commentary skills. I remember watching him previously and thinking that he should never do a game again. I was going to change the channel last night from the Michigan Tech. v. Michigan game as soon as I saw that he was doing the commentary. But I didn't. Partly because there was no other game on, and partly because last year listening to him was like watching a train wreck in progress. Remarkably, he seems more confident and as if he sat at home and just commentated games by himself at home on a tape recorder Joe Buck style over the summer. Whatever he did worked, and I look forward to about 10-15 years down the line when I am a head coach and he is doing one of my games. By then, he will be a polished veteran. Well played Jay Williams.

First Week of the Season

Today starts the first week of the college basketball season. The first game of the season will pit Georgia Southern at Houston, followed by the first televised game pitting Presbyterian at the No. 5 ranked Duke. I am excited for the season to start and to have our games actually count at Monmouth. This weekend we open up on Friday at Florida Atlantic in Boca Raton and Monday at Florida International in Miami. We need to get one if not both of these games. That would be a huge start of the season for us. Just think if we win these two, we will already be a quarter of the way towards having a better record than last year. Hopefully my confidence and experience can rub off on the team. We have to be better than last year, which isn't really saying much.

Things I Have Seen

In this blog, that will be updated as necessary, I will post some of the things that I have read or heard said about President Elect Barack Obama.

- If ten n****rs can't run a KFC how is one gonna run the country?
- What are they gonna call the white house now?
- U know the bad part is that obamas wife hates america and white people! And his dad is a terriost! All these obama lovers can drop on there knees and bow down to these! Obama is a fucking loser and he's a piece of shit!
- xxxxx is moving to Australia...at least they don't have a socialist, jew hating president.

...more to come I'm sure.