Paradise Jam Daily Blog: Playing in Paradise
11/22/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 22, 2011
• Courtney Boylan and Nya Jordan 
U-M will take its 4-0 record to St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, to take part in the Paradise Jam (Thu-Sat., Nov. 24-26). Director of operations Raina Harmon will provide a daily blog to give fans the inside scoop, as the Wolverines play in paradise.
What's up everyone?
For those of you, whom I have not had the pleasure of meeting yet, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Raina Harmon and I am the director of basketball operations for women's basketball at Michigan. One of my roles in this position is to handle team travel. That being said, I'll be giving you daily updates on our whereabouts and adventures here in St. Thomas.
This morning, we departed from Ann Arbor at 4:30 a.m. I expected folks to be a little grumpy given the call time, but we were all smiles as we headed to our destination: PARADISE! After a two-and-a-half-hour flight to Miami, we had a chance to stretch out and grab a bite to eat before boarding our flight to the Virgin Islands. As we approached St. Thomas, the view of the island was amazing.
Off subject, but speaking of amazing, the team received some cool new aqua colored adidas Adi-zero shoes for this tournament. You look good, you play good, right?
Shortly after we landed, we headed to the hotel by safari-style, open-aired buses. That was pretty cool, much different than the charter buses we usually take (let's just hope it doesn't rain...haha). Our hotel is playing host to all of the teams in the tournament, so it was great to see check-in go smoothly.
Just a little bit about the tournament. The Paradise Jam is broken into two different divisions -- Reef Division and Island Division. The Island Division is comprised of Seton Hall, Old Dominion, Louisiana Tech and Alabama. Teams in the Reef Division include Michigan, Prairie View A&M, Washington State and Marquette.
Instead of bracket-style play, each team receives three games with predetermined opponents and Thursday evening (Nov. 24) we will take on Prairie View A&M.
Tonight's agenda includes practice, dinner, and rest! Tomorrow should be plenty fun for us as we begin our day with a catamaran ride and snorkel tour. We also have a welcome dinner tomorrow after practice, including riding a sky lift to get a view of the island. I'll be sure to post pictures.
Tomorrow's Schedule
Breakfast
Catamaran/Snorkel Tour
Lunch
Practice
Welcome Dinner
Be sure to check the site tomorrow (Wednesday, Nov. 25) for an update of our adventures. You can also follow us at @umichwbball on Twitter to see what we're up to on and off the court while in the islands.
Good luck to the men's team against Duke tonight!
GO BLUE!!
Raina
