Cal Poly Men’s Basketball Travelogue No. 2, David Hanson (Las Vegas)

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – On the eve of the Cal Poly men's basketball program's 2 p.m. Friday matchup versus Morgan State at the Orleans Arena, senior forward David Hanson checks in to provide Mustang fans a review of Cal Poly's trip to the Las Vegas Invitational and thoughts about Thanksgiving Day.

Cal Poly (2-2), which dropped a Tuesday decision at UNLV, completes Las Vegas Invitational action on Saturday against either Tennessee State or Mississippi Valley State. 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Hello there from exciting Las Vegas. It is our team's third day here on The Strip and so far it has been a great experience. We had a tough loss versus a very strong and athletic UNLV team on Tuesday night. We played the Rebels tough for most of the game, but were unable to pull off the victory. We're 2-2 at this point in the season and we'll look to improve that record when we play a strong Morgan State team at the Orleans Arena on Friday. We have had very good growth from all our guys so far this year and have earned good wins against San Jose State and USC. Everyone has been committed as a team to having a successful season. 

Thanksgiving Day consisted of our team having dinner together and a productive practice at the Orleans Arena. This Thanksgiving Day has given us a great opportunity to take a step back and realize how blessed we all are. We're all very fortunate to be able to spend time together, be in good health and be able to play basketball for a great university like Cal Poly. Although today is the official Thanksgiving Day, we all know that every day is a day to be grateful for all our blessings. 

At dinner this evening, all of the players discussed how thankful we were for the people that make our season possible. For the typical fan, it is very easy to overlook all those that make it possible for us to play. I am going to mention a few individuals that are along on this trip, but there are still many others not listed. Our sincere thanks go out to our entire coaching staff who put in countless hours to prepare us for games and practices; our athletics trainer, Kristal Solver, who takes care of all our physical injuries and taping; ESPN 1280 play-by-play announcer Tom Barket, who is one of the best in the business; our Director of Athletics, Don Oberhelman, who has invested much of his time into making the basketball program excel and our media relations man, Giovo, who takes care of all of our publicity and promotions. 

David Hanson