Finally, our Saturday nights have purpose.

Go to dinner, go to Borders, go to bed before the first skit of SNL, rinse and repeat. That has pretty much been our Saturday night routine for the past eight months or so, but just when the very real threat of having to venture into the unchartered territory of the self-help section was staring us squarely in the eye, we were granted a five-month reprieve thanks to the hallowed ground that is Charles Koch Arena.

That's right, it's time for some Shocker basketball.

Last night was opening night of the highly anticipated 2007-2008 season which saw the hometown heroes go up against the always-dangerous Wonder Boys (seriously, that's their name) of Arkansas Tech. While sadly any game, even an exhibition game against the Wonder Boys, would normally have me plenty excited, last night had the added caveat of being the first game under our new coach Gregg Marshall a guy who took Winthrop to the NCAA tournament seven out of nine years and has been named national coach of the year. On top of that we only return five guys who played last year, so this was the first time we were going to get to see a lot of the guys who, in a sense, are going to be our Friday, Saturday and occassionally Thursday-night dates.

The game itself was a little sloppy and provided little insight to how the year is going to go—we could have a team that's anywhere from average to pretty good, but I'm almost positive that the future is bright, what Mark Turgeon started (a conference title and a trip to the Sweet 16) was just the beginning. In fact, I personally think the program's in better hands this year than last.

All of that aside, it was great to once again spend a fall evening with my head filled with Jock Jams and my knees lodged firmly into the back of row 26, section 119.

And yes, Dad, I too can't believe that anyone would leave a Shockers/Wonder Boys match up with 1:24 left in the game.

They should be shot.