You know how crazy folks get about Cat Griz basketball around here, right? Especially planning which home games they absolutely gotta catch live. Well, figured I should get my act together early this year and actually map out the whole 2025 schedule properly. Last season was a mess trying to remember dates last minute.
Tracking Down the Raw Info
Started simple enough – fired up my laptop and headed straight to the official athletic department website. Should be easy, thought I. Wrong. Of course their “Schedules” section was still showing the old 2024 dates. Typical, right? Hit refresh like ten times, hoping maybe it was just caching. No luck.
Alright, Plan B. Took me down a rabbit hole:
- Scrolled through their official social media feeds – Instagram, the blue bird app (you know the one). Found some hype posts about next season but zilch on actual dates.
- Dug out last season’s email newsletter archive. Figured they might tease something. Found a January email mentioning “watch for the 2025 schedule announcement soon!” Yeah, real helpful.
- Ended up hunting through a couple of local sports blogs that usually have inside info. That finally cracked it. One had a leaked PDF preview listing all the key conference home dates.
Building My Master List
Okay, score! Had the dates. But it was just a messy PDF. Needed something I could actually use. Pulled up my trusty spreadsheet app – honestly, it’s my go-to for anything list-based.
Here’s what I did:
- Opened a fresh sheet and titled it “2025 Griz Hoops – KEY HOME GAMES”. Simple.
- Made columns: Date, Opponent, Day of Week, Special Notes.
- Carefully typed in each date from the PDF leak. Double-checked the month/day. You do not wanna accidentally skip Senior Night because you typed ’12’ instead of ’21’.
- Highlighted the biggest rivalry home games bright yellow. Those dates are like national holidays here.
- Added notes like “Homecoming Weekend” or “Potential TV Spot” where I saw clues.
Plugging it Into My Real Life
Having the list was step one. Step two was making sure these dates didn’t sneak up on me. I’m forgetful!
- Grabbed my personal calendar app. Started slotting in every single home game, blocking off the whole evening for each.
- Set reminders for each game one week out. “Hey dummy! Griz game Saturday! Buy pizza!”
- Checked my work calendar too. Smacked my forehead seeing a potential conflict with a late-February game against Idaho State. Flagged that one immediately for maybe swapping shifts.
- Printed out a neat little one-pager from my spreadsheet and stuck it on the fridge. Old school works.
Why Bother? Lessons Learned
Seems like overkill maybe? Nah. Trying to figure out game times last season three hours before tip-off was like trying to catch smoke. Took maybe 45 minutes total to hunt it down and get it organized. Worth every second.
Biggest takeaways:
- Official sources ain’t always your friend. Gotta be resourceful.
- Don’t trust your brain to hold dates. Get ’em down somewhere permanent!
- Planning ahead means less chaos later. Griz night is supposed to be fun, not stressful.
Now I’m prepped. Bring on the season opener!