Sherman Blanford begins his pregame routine with a morning walk-through at Lantz Arena with the rest of the Eastern men’s basketball team.

The morning walk-through is then followed by a meal provided by the team – one that changes with each game – that he eats with his teammates.

Then Blanford heads home, where his routine takes off.

He showers after practice and then he naps, the best part of his routine, for just long enough to reenergize him for whichever opponent Eastern has that night.

“A decent hour is all I need,” Blanford said.

Eastern’s opponent at 7 p.m. Monday night will be non-conference foe Chicago State in Lantz Arena on Senior Night, where Blanford, the Panthers’ lone senior, will complete his pregame routine one last time.

After a “fresh nap,” the Philadelphian makes his way back to Lantz Arena to change into his uniform, get his ankles tapped by the physical trainers and head onto the court for shoot-around.

“I’ll shoot a couple mid-range shots,” Blanford said. “Then we stretch as a team and do layup lines, before we separate into ‘bigs’ and ‘guard’ groups.”

The Panthers then go back into the locker room, where Blanford’s routine starts to wrap up. He elects to use his last-minute preparation listening to artist Meek Mill, a rapper also from Philadelphia, whose come-from-the-gutter mentality inspires Blanford.

“His songs push me to where I want to be,” Blanford said. “He talks about chasing your dreams no matter what. And despite where he came from and who told he couldn’t make it, he made it.”

For the third and final time, Blanford is back on the court warming up.

His 6-foot-6, 215-pound frame stands at the free throw line as his final tune-up takes place, a part of his repertoire that he emphasizes most. Blanford is 53-of-63 (84 percent) from the free throw line in the last 11 games.

While this will be the last pregame routine for Blanford, it will be the first time his mother, Lynette Blanford, has seen him play in the last four years, as he recollects.

While his father, Sherman Blanford, Sr., and his brother came to Charleston to see Blanford play during winter break, he said this game will be more emotional with his mother present.

“I know she’s going to probably cry,” Blanford said.

Even when Blanford’s mother did watch him play high school, her emotions would go past crying.

“A lot of games she would just walk out of the gym; she gets so scared,” Blanford said.

But such emotions won’t get to Blanford, as he does not want to let the pressure of his last game in Lantz Arena get to him.

However, that does not mean he won’t feel the sentiment deep down, knowing he can just gaze at the season ticket section and see his parents who are, meanwhile, watching him and his collegiate career simultaneously unfold and come to a close in the same moment.

“Just seeing them in the stands is going to mean so much,” Blanford said. “For them to be in the same gym where I’ve had so many accomplishments and how far I’ve come as a player – it’s going to mean a lot.”

As for his father.

“He’s going to be the loudest person in the gym,” Blanford said. “You’ll hear him yourself.”

And perhaps this Senior Night could not come at a better time. Blanford is in the midst of a remarkable stretch run, one of the greatest of any Panther ever.

In the last six games, he has averaged 25 points and 11 rebounds per game while shooting 60 percent from the field, a span in which he set his career high for points in back-to-back-to-back games with 24, 30 and 32.

“I’m just doing what I’m asked to do,” Blanford said. “Me being the only senior and a leader, I can’t make too many mistakes.”

He also decided to throw in

a career-high 18 rebounds to compliment his 32 points while shooting 13-of-20 in a 88-83 loss at Austin Peay on Feb. 13.

“He is a guy who is at the end of his career and he is going to milk every last second of it,” Eastern coach Jay Spoonhour said. “He’s a little undersized, so he has to do it with that much more toughness and guile, and he does it. I’m proud of him.”

Come 7 p.m. Monday night against Chicago State, Blanford will jog through the tunnel leading onto the court, through the fog set off by the machines, with the spotlights from the rafters beaming down on him one last time.

But when the clock reads triple zeroes and Blanford’s career in Lantz Arena comes to a close, one thing will be certain.

“It was a great opportunity to wear a Panther across my chest,” Blanford said.

Anthony Catezone can be reached at 581-2812 or ajcatezone@eiu.edu.