Post by elp525 on Jul 1, 2011 4:38:40 GMT -5
06/30/2011
Chip Fontanazza
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
When many people come to Morgantown or anywhere in the state of West Virginia in general they realize that the people in this state treat people differently than many other areas in the nation. It’s something many people realize when they come to the mountain state and for new freshman forward Tommie McCune it’s no different. It took him less than four days to realize that.
McCune is originally from Saginaw, Michigan and arrived in the University City to begin his college career on June 25th. During the short amount of time he’s been in West Virginia the 6-foot-8 forward has already realized how welcoming everyone really is.
“It’s way different from home,” said McCune. “[The] main thing is the people. The people here are just so friendly. It actually feels good just to be here.”
“They’re just so supportive,” continued McCune. “I’ve never encountered anything like this before with how supportive people are because back home people aren’t like this. It feels good to know you have people that are really going to follow you and are really going to support you.”
Just like every other freshman basketball player in the nation, McCune is still getting adjusted to college and a more competitive level of basketball. Playing in the Pittsburgh Basketball Club summer league is helping him get used to playing against Division-I players and it’s also helping him get used to playing with his new teammates.
“That’s the whole purpose of summer league basketball,” explained McCune. “Just to get to know each other. Like I told the last reporter it’s ten freshmen and it’s ten new guys. We just know each other from playing against each other in AAU and stuff like that, but this is just for us to get the kinks out and get to know each other.”
McCune and the rest of the incoming freshman seem to be taking a very mature approach to adjusting to the Division I level. All of the players understand Division I basketball is completely different than high school and playing in the summer league is helping them adjust to it, but McCune understood that well before he played in the summer league.
“Back home everyone was ranked in the country and they were the main star and this and that and they’ve won championships,” said the Michigan native. “Then when you get here everybody did the same thing you did in high school. So it’s pretty much like starting over.”
It may not be exactly like starting over, but McCune has definitely been off to a great start in his first few days on campus. So far it’s been a very ‘country roads’ like welcome for the Michigan native and he is soaking in every minute of it.
“It’s fun,” said McCune. “It’s new experiences and I’m enjoying college right now.”
Chip Fontanazza
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
When many people come to Morgantown or anywhere in the state of West Virginia in general they realize that the people in this state treat people differently than many other areas in the nation. It’s something many people realize when they come to the mountain state and for new freshman forward Tommie McCune it’s no different. It took him less than four days to realize that.
McCune is originally from Saginaw, Michigan and arrived in the University City to begin his college career on June 25th. During the short amount of time he’s been in West Virginia the 6-foot-8 forward has already realized how welcoming everyone really is.
“It’s way different from home,” said McCune. “[The] main thing is the people. The people here are just so friendly. It actually feels good just to be here.”
“They’re just so supportive,” continued McCune. “I’ve never encountered anything like this before with how supportive people are because back home people aren’t like this. It feels good to know you have people that are really going to follow you and are really going to support you.”
Just like every other freshman basketball player in the nation, McCune is still getting adjusted to college and a more competitive level of basketball. Playing in the Pittsburgh Basketball Club summer league is helping him get used to playing against Division-I players and it’s also helping him get used to playing with his new teammates.
“That’s the whole purpose of summer league basketball,” explained McCune. “Just to get to know each other. Like I told the last reporter it’s ten freshmen and it’s ten new guys. We just know each other from playing against each other in AAU and stuff like that, but this is just for us to get the kinks out and get to know each other.”
McCune and the rest of the incoming freshman seem to be taking a very mature approach to adjusting to the Division I level. All of the players understand Division I basketball is completely different than high school and playing in the summer league is helping them adjust to it, but McCune understood that well before he played in the summer league.
“Back home everyone was ranked in the country and they were the main star and this and that and they’ve won championships,” said the Michigan native. “Then when you get here everybody did the same thing you did in high school. So it’s pretty much like starting over.”
It may not be exactly like starting over, but McCune has definitely been off to a great start in his first few days on campus. So far it’s been a very ‘country roads’ like welcome for the Michigan native and he is soaking in every minute of it.
“It’s fun,” said McCune. “It’s new experiences and I’m enjoying college right now.”
