Trent Meacham's diary

INSIDE SCOOP

Once a month during his senior year, Illinois basketball player and Centennial product Trent Meacham will write a diary for his hometown newspaper. His second entry, as told to The News-Gazette’s Paul Klee:

First things first, I got engaged a couple weeks ago! I met my fiancee, Theresa Lisch, through her brother, Kevin, whom I played with two summers ago on a basketball tour in France. For the next year I had various people telling me I had to meet some girl. Well, it took me about a year to finally meet her, but it did not take long for me to figure out that she is the one! I mentioned in my last diary that she plays basketball at St. Louis University and that she often beats me in h-o-r-s-e. In fact, on our first date, the two of us went to the gym and played some H-O-R-S-E and one-on-one. All I can say is that basketball has been a huge part of my life since I was young and has brought me many things, but Theresa easily tops them all. ... I guess I owe a lot to the game of basketball!

And it's great to have that connection with basketball with her, but it's not what made us connect. What attracted me to Theresa is her faith and beliefs that she lives by and her genuine care for others ... and, of course, her looks! I feel so blessed to have met a woman like her, and I couldn't be happier to be in this situation!

As a lifelong Illinois fan, it was cool to see all of those guys back on the court together at the Night of Legends alumni game. These were the guys that I grew up cheering for as a young kid. I feel like I've been going to games at the Assembly Hall since I can remember. I would usually go to the games with my dad, Stu, or my good friend and former teammate, Steve Holdren. Our tickets were often in C Section, but we had our ways of maneuvering closer to the court.

Growing up, my favorite players at Illinois were always the guards. Whoever we had running the show that year is who I wanted to be. It started with Kiwane Garris and went through Matt Heldman and Kevin Turner, Frank Williams and Cory Bradford, and onto Dee Brown and Deron Williams. It was a treat to see most of these guys all on the court together at the alumni game, and they put on a show for everyone who was there. I got goosebumps when they showed some of the past highlights of Illinois basketball on the jumbo screen. The fans were cheering as if Nick Anderson's halfcourt shot against Indiana was live.

Sometimes it can be easy to get caught up in the everyday routine of things and forget about all of the blessings and opportunities that we have. The Legends game helped me realize once again how prestigious of a basketball program and university this is. For a hometown kid like me, it's always been an honor to wear the orange and blue, and watching the Legends gave a little extra motivation toward the upcoming season. Those guys had a lot of success in their years at the U of I, and we want to make them proud, as well as our entire fan base. The Assembly Hall was rockin' once again, and we plan on keeping it like that!

Comments

Add a Comment