Jess Wynn, to do the impossible

[Wayne23]

At #24 Auburn, 5-2. A definite challenge! They have an excellent C.

12/5: Once again we controlled the 1st half. Went in up 29-23.

It all fell apart in the 2nd. We scored 17 points on 25% shooting. It ended 46-51. When you give up 51 you should win. 17 for Chang, 11, 2, 4 for Will and almost nothing from anyone else except for Raher’s 8, 3, 2.

-6 RB, 16 TOs (but they had 20), 33-37% shooting. Just awful. We need to do something about the 2nd half fade.

Giving more time to Raher and Rein and taking some from Carth. Burke is out for another month with the broken finger.

At 5-2 Fresno State next. We’ve been working hard. Hope to see some results. Their strength is outside but they aren’t good with the ball.

12/12: Thought we were in trouble. Down as much as 12 early. We raised the D level to 8 and fought back. Down 21-24 at the half. No O again.

We spent halftime talking about moving without the ball, making good, crisp passes, back door cuts, driving to the hoop…

It worked. 21 in the 1st half, 42 in the 2nd. We built the lead to 9 at 5:14, and won 63-58. We NEEDED a win and we got one. 20, 7, 1, 3 for Alex, 14, 4, 2, 2 for Chang. Bean, Will and Raher played well but Raher got hurt late.

-5 RB but only 10 TOs (they had 23!). 41-47% shooting, which wasn’t good.

Fouls were 10-15 and we made 6 more free throws so I guess that was the difference.

Raher hurt a knee and he’s out for about a week and a half. We’ll need to give Rein more minutes, and Carth will get more as well.

Last preconf. game is with 3-5 Butler, here. One good win but losses to some very good teams. They’ve played a tough schedule. They have some injuries.

12/19: Not a good first half. We played little to no D, and we picked up lots of fouls doing it. 35-43 at the break.

We talked about D and how to play it without fouling, which we’ve worked on at every single practice since I got here.

We played a little better in the 2nd but we could never quite catch up, 70-75 at the end. Rex Alex was outplayed by a C who was not at his level, Pete Will fouled out. He did get 20, 3, 5, and 3 but he wasn’t there for the last 3 minutes, when he might have made a difference.

-2, +6, 38-48% (the lack of D again), 18 fouls to 11. A very frustrating game.

Dad and I stayed and talked until very late. Nothing to do but focus on winning the conference. At least that’s the conclusion we reach.

[Wayne23]

At 3-7 South Dakota to start conf. play. They did poorly against a weak schedule. We’ve lost 3 of 4 so the turnaround needs to start NOW!

12/26: Pretty good 1st half. We led by as much as 14 and went in up 39-33.

And the wheels fell off again. We stopped playing D and they scored 45. Final score 72-78.

22, 8, 2 for Alex, 16, 2, 7 for Will, but the lack of 2nd half D was mystifying and frustrating. Not sure what to do at this point.

+9, -2, 44-49%, fouls 11-20. D was terrible, as shown by their shooting pct.
We’re going to start Raher for Rein, moving Bean to SF. Giving Henry more time, too.

UMKC, 3-7, 0-1 is in. They’re having an awful season but they just beat DePaul 2 games ago. Lost their starting SF to grades. This is a team we should beat. We certainly need to.

12/29: Good first half again. We spread the ball around on O and play decent, not great, D. Up 40-33.

At the half we talk about playing better D, getting out on shooters, working through picks and switching when we can’t.

The D is outstanding in the 2nd, we hold them to 12. Final score 68-45, a much needed win.

Offensive numbers were unimpressive but 9 guys scored between 4 and 12 points. Raher got 9, 4, 2, 1, 2 in his first start, which is more than we ever got out of Rein, and Rein played better from the bench. It’s a start.

-1, +2, 29-48% which we loved!

At 7-4, 2-0 North Dakota State. Lots of wins but no quality wins. Their 1 and 5 can be dangerous and they do some things well. We’ll need to play the way we did in our last.

1/2: 51-35 at the half. Playing really well but the refs are killing us, 12 fouls to 9 and Chang, Henry and Rein all have 2. On the other hand Bean has 19 points and Alex has 12. We’re rebounding well and taking care of the ball.

Hung tough in the 2nd, 89-72. Bean was absolutely on top of his game, 31, 5, 3, 4. 16, 6, 3, 0, 4 for Alex. Six players had 6 each and Will had only 4 but 8 assists.

+5, +9, 55-48%, fouls went the other way this half, total was 15-17. Great win!

4-8, 1-2 Western Illinois is in. Their 2 can play. They’re not good with the ball.

1/5: Great D in the 1st, 31-20. Their 2 is getting points but no one else is.

Banging it inside for the entire half, 69-47. Alex had 23 and 8, Bean had 16, 4, 2, 3, Raher had 10 and 10.

+14, +6, 42-35%.

Have we turned a corner? 9-4, 3-1, in a 4 way tie for first.

[Wayne23]

At 6-7, 3-1 IUPU-Fort Wayne, one of the 4 tied for 1st. Not deep and they don’t play great D. It’s a road game though.

1/8: Maybe we have turned a corner! 49-38 in the 1st. D wasn’t great but the O sure was.

We talk about D at the half.

Much better D, held them to 26. Final is 85-64. 28, 2, 8 for Will. Chang, Alex and Bean all had good games. The bench did well for us.

+6, +9, 52-48% but they shot 41% in the 2nd.

6-8, 2-3 IUPU Indianapolis is in. We want to keep it going. They are NOT a good road team. They don’t play D and they aren’t good with the ball.

1/12: 42-17 at the half. We continue to do lots of things well.

2nd half was pretty even, 66-43 at the end. 12 and 15 with 5 blocks for Alex, 20, 7, 2 for Bean, 11, 8, 7 for Chang.

+15, +2, 43-27%.

We’re alone in 1st, 2 teams 1 back.

9-6, 4-2 ORU is in. They’ve won 4 of 5 but they give up lots of points. Sloppy.

1/16: 41-28 at the half. Dad thought really putting pressure on the ball handler would work with this team and it did. Turned them over 12 times.

Kept the pressure on in the 2nd, 11 more TOs. 76-51 at the end. 17 each for Bean and Chang and 16 for Alex but the D gave us this win.

+3, +11 (23 TOs for them), 46-36%.

At 5-11, 2-5 Oakland. 2-6 in their last 8. Not a very good team but it’s a road game.

1/19: They led for most of the 1st half. At the break it was 32-31.

We talked about not letting them get the ball inside and not letting them take shots they wanted to take. We need to keep them just a little off balance.

It worked. They shot 55% in the 1st and 43% in the 2nd. We controlled the boards, got our own inside shots, and simply never let them get comfortable on O. Final score was 76-59 and we’re up by 2 games. 20, 13, 2 for Alex, but all 5 starters plus Henry and rein played well.

+18, +3.

13-4, 7-1.

[Wayne23]

6-11, 4-4 Southern Utah is in. Last conference team we haven’t played. They’re awful on the road. Starting SF lost to grades. Their PF can play. This is a team we should beat.

1/23: Total control in the 1st,36-20. Everything clicked.

At least as good in the 2nd, 80-49 for our biggest margin of the season. 28 for Bean, 16 RBs for Alex but all 5 plus Henry played really well.

+9, +3, 49-35%.

Only team to beat us in conference, South Dakota, 9-10, 6-3, two back, is in. They struggle on the road, 2-7. Starting PG broke his arm after our game with them. Backup SG is also hurt so they’re thin at guard. Despite all of that they’re a good team. My guys want this one.

1/26: Wow! My guys REALLY wanted it I guess. 49-19 at the half. We pounded it inside and all but scored at will in there.

SD fought back but they never got closer than 12. 82-64 at the end. 25 and 8 for Alex, but a real team effort. Will got into some foul trouble and Henry was excellent filling in.

+7, +4, 57-42%.

Two games up with 6 to play. 15-4, 9-1.

1/29: SAT scores out today. One of the guys we were after did not qualify. He wasn’t that interested anyway. Time to reassess. A few guys hit the scores that will get them into their first choices, a few didn’t and we’ll go after them hard.

At 7-12, 4-6 UKMC. Beat them by 23 at home. They’re losing lots of games lately but they win at home. Lost their starting SF to grades. Sloppy and they don’t RB.

1/30: Big 1st half, 48-38. Not happy with the D though. We talk about it at halftime.

We fall apart in the 2nd. Can’t make a shot (27%), can’t stop their shots (10 threes, 8 of them in the 2nd). We forgot all that stuff about getting in their faces, not letting them have the shot they want to take… 71-81. We’ll need to focus on it at practice. We’ve been working it but not enough, I guess. Alex, Chang and Rein had good offensive games but we didn’t play enough D. I don’t want us giving up 81- ever.

+12, -1, 36-54%- and I sure don’t want anyone shooting 54% against us.
9 game win streak ends. Time to start a new one.

We work hard in practice, trying to regain our defensive focus. I’m not trying to punish the guys or wear them out, that’s stupid. We go in short intense bursts, working on very specific things, and then we slow it down to practice shooting, do chalk talks, things like that. The staff is positive, showing that we believe in our guys.

11-9, 6-5 North Dakota State is in. We won by 17 at their place. They’re thin in the backcourt.

2/2: The D is back! We give up 17 in the 1st, 38-17. Working it inside and owning the boards.

2nd half is even so we win 69-47. 47 is WAY better than 81! Double doubles for Alex and Bean, 10, 8, 4 for Chang, good games for Raher, Will and Henry.

+11, +4, 43-30%.

Starting Raher really changed things for the better for us. We’ve lost only once since the change. We’ve decided to give Carth’s minutes to Burke, he’s playing way better.

16-5, 10-2, 3 game lead.

[Wayne23]

At 6-15, 3-9, bottom of the conf. Western Illinois. We won by 22 at home. Losing way more than they’re winning but they’re better at home. I want my guys awake and alert. Assuming they can’t lose this one will not be good.

2/6: We’re awful in the 1st half. 20-34. Can’t make a shot, standing around on D.

I don’t yell at my guys often but I do at halftime today. When I’m finished with that I explain what they need to do to fix things. We’re -11 in rebounding, as well as everything else. I go step by step and when we’re called to go out for the 2nd half I tell them I expect a win, and by at least 10 points. As we’re walking out dad says I did great at halftime, managing to be both analytical and motivating. We’ll see.

And we do. We take over from the 1st possession and take the lead at 13:38. It’s 10 at 8:02, and keeps growing.

At the end it’s 74-57. 16, 8, 2, 2 for Bean, 10 each for Rather and Chang, 9 each for Alex, Will and Rein- Alex had 9 RBs and 3 assists.

-6 RBs but only 4 TOs (+11). Great 2nd half but we’ll work on not coming out cold.

At home with IUPU-Fort Wayne, 11-11, 8-5, tied for 2nd. Won by 21 there. They’ve won 4 of 5. They don’t play a lot of D and they aren’t good with the ball.

2/9: Another 1st half battle. We’re ahead for most of it but we can’t grow the lead. 33-27 at the half. We’re not getting out on the three point shot.

We work on D at halftime and talk, again, about moving without the ball on O.

The 2nd is a better half, 70-53 at the end. 5 guys in doubles. Chang led us with 12, 9, 3, 3, 1.

+3, +9, 44-37%.

4 game lead, 4 to play.

On 12/26 we’d just lost 4 of 5 and we were wondering how the season would play out. 12-1 since then and clinched the conf.

At 12-11, 8-6 IUPU-Indianapolis. They’re in a 4 way tie for 2nd. Beat them by 23 at our place. They’ve won their last 4. Their D is pretty bad.

2/13: First half was a war. They led most of the way but never by much. We took a 39-38 lead at the buzzer. Same old story, not getting out on the shooter. O was fine.

Worked yet again at the continuing problem with 1st half D.

2nd half completely different from the 1st. We only scored 25 but we gave up 15. Seemed like we never gave them a clear look at the basket. 64-53. Huge game for Alex, 20, 19, 3, 3, 1. Will, Raher and Chang played well, too.

+20, -5 (not happy with 18 TOs), 42-32%.

At 13-11, 8-7 ORU. Beat them by 25 at home. They are very good at home, 11-2. Sloppy and the D isn’t great. Still, they are tough on their own court.

2/16: Finally a good 1st half, 41-28. I guess my guys are sick of hearing the same halftime speech.

This one was about keeping up the good work.

And they did, 85-60 at the end. It was never a game. 25, 18, 7, another monster game for Alex. 18, 4, 1, 3 for Chang, 14, 3, 2, 1 for Henry.

I was happy with the way we played tonight, +11 RBs, +8 TOs (We had 3- for the entire game!), 47-36%.

2/19: 8-17, 5-11 Oakland is in. Beat them by 17 there. Won their last 2 but they haven’t won many. More holes than a Swiss cheese.

2/20: Here we go again! Ugly 1st half. We were awful, 21-32. 28% shooting, not much D.

I refuse to go over it again. I simply say, “I’ve told you what to do when the shots aren’t dropping. Go out and do it in the 2nd half. I’ve told you what to do instead of standing around on D. Go out and do it in the second half. I then motioned for my staff to follow me and we spent the rest of halftime in my office. When the knock on the door came we walked out to the court and the players followed.

They did what they need to do and then some, outscoring the other guys 46-19. The final was 67-51. Seven guys had between 6 and 12 points.
+6, +8, 38-32% (It was 46-22% in the 2nd half).

Last game of the regular season is at 12-14, 10-7, 3rd place Southern Utah. We won by 31 at home, our largest margin of the season. They’ve won their last 5. They’re not good with the ball and the D is only fair. The game means nothing but I want to go into the postseason with a win.

2/23: Good 1st half O. D wasn’t so great. 41-34. Will got into early foul trouble but Henry covered the position very well.

We talk about D.

74-61 at the end. 25, 5, 2 for Bean, 15, 0, 4 for Henry who played the Point for most of the game.

-7, +10, 48-45%. Not great but a win.

We win the conf. by 4 over South Dakota, at least 6 over everyone else.

2/26: Ranked! #24, RPI #24. 22-5, 16-2.

[Wayne23]

3/1: The tourney is at our place. Play in day- there are two rounds of play ins before we start. Two upsets out of three games.

3/2: Play in day #2. The favorites all won. We’ll play 15-13, 9-9 ORU. They finished 4th. We won by 25 at home. 2-3 in their last 5. They have 2 starters with injuries. Both will play, but how well and how long? They are not good with the ball and the D is fair at best.

3/3: As was true in our last game, great O, poor D in the 1st half. 45-35.
We talk about the D at the half.

D wasn’t much better in the 2nd but the O was no worse. 93-70 at the end and we’ll play for the title. 31, 9, 2, 2, 3 for Alex, 17, 5, 7 for Chang, 14, 1, 7 for Will, 6 and 10 for Raher.

+8, +7, 52-40%.

Worried about the D but we only have a walk through, not a full practice.

Again, dad has been a huge help. Having him here full time has given me a mentor, an advisor, and just someone to speak with. I’m kind of a loner and this has been terrific for me. He’s taught me so much, too.

14-15, 10-8, Southern Utah finished 3rd in the conf. They upset South Dakota by 2 yesterday to get to this game. We beat them by 31 and then by 13 at their place. They’ve won 7 of 8, all except the 2nd game with us. They are sloppy so we’ll put pressure on the ball.

3/4: A good first half, 35-26. The D was solid and we scored. Alex, Bean and Will played especially well.

At halftime we focused on keeping the D tight.

Southern Utah had a lot of fight. They kept coming at us. But we never let them in, building the lead to 18. At the end it was 71-57 and the title was ours.

23, 2, 3 for Bean, 12, 12, 1, 1 for Alex, 14, 2, 9, 1 for Will who fouled out but played 32 minutes. Raher, Chang and the bench all did what they needed to do.

3/5: #19 in the next to last poll, RPI #23. I don’t think a #6 seed is out of the question. Now we wait.

3/12: #19, RPI #20 in the final poll. 24-5, 16-2.

[Wayne23]

Selection day. #7 East. We’ll play #10 Hartford, 23-7, 10-6, second in the conf., won the tourney. Interestingly enough they offered us the head coaching job in April and we said no. They lost 4 of 5 before winning the tourney. They have talent. A little sloppy and D is only fair.

3/16: Back and forth throughout the 1st half. They go in up 30-26.

We aren’t playing badly but we’re missing opportunities on O, either not seeing the open man or throwing it away. We talk about that and diagram a few things.

On D I think we’re doing fine, we’re making them work hard for everything they get. I think if we can improve our passing we’ll be fine.

We do and we are. The lead goes back and forth for 5-6 minutes but then we take over, building the lead to 18, which is where it ends up, 65-47.

Great D in the 2nd and few TOs. 13 and 13 for Alex, 11, 6, 6 for Chang. All 9 guys played solid D.

We get to play #2 seed, #9 ranked Georgia Tech in the second round. They’re 26-5, 12-4. Finished 3rd, lost to MD in the title game.3-2 in their last five and gave up points but they were playing teams way above our rank. Very strong inside and not bad outside. They aren’t deep though. It’s our backcourt vs. their frontcourt and we’ll need to play our very best to have a shot.

3/18: Their C is a monster but we hang in through the 1st half. Can’t really stop him but our depth is keeping us in it, fresh bodies against their tired one slate and qwe go in leading 31-26.

I tell my guys that we can play with this team. All we need to do is keep our heads and play solid D, and hang onto the ball on O. Sloppiness is our biggest problem. We’re in no foul trouble so we’re coming out at level 7 on D. We’re playing 2-3 to clog up the middle since both their 4 and 5 are so big and so good.

Ga. Tech takes a 2 point lead at 11:42. The media time out comes almost immediately and I tell my guys it’s gut check time. I want level 9 on D, double the ball inside, hand in the shooter’s face outside. We have 19 TOs and I tell them no more of that. I keep rotating players and keeping fresh legs in.

We go out after the media time out and go on a 12-2 run. They score 4 and then we go on a 15-4 run.

Then we catch fire and build the lead to 14 at 3:39. We’ll play level 10 on D and take the air out on O.

We’ll go O/D whenever we can. I tell the guys to expect a big charge and I tell them we can handle it. The charge either doesn’t come or we handle it so well it isn’t noticeable. 63-53 at the end and we’re in the Sweet Sixteen! Amazing!!!

14, 6, 1 for Bean but 9, 10, 1 for Alex against a monster Center. All of our starters plus Henry, Rein and Burke played excellent basketball.

+7, -3 (22 TOs but they had 19), 47-30%. D won this one, my biggest win as a coach.

26-5, 16-2.

[Wayne23]

Naturally all the favs in our bracket won so it’s #3 seed, #6 ranked Syracuse next. Can lightning strike twice? Syracuse is 28-6, 14-2. They finished 2nd in conf. and lost in the title game. 9-1 in their last 10 and great D in all but the loss. They only really have 4 players but those four are great. It will take all we have to compete with this team. Hopefully our depth will do what it did last game.

3/23: They exploded out of the gate and before we knew it we were down 10. The media time out and one I called didn’t change a thing and at 9:56 it was down 20.

I called another TO. We went to level 9 on D. Both Will and Henry had 2 fouls but I was alternating them, hoping to not pick up #3 with either. I played them at 2 at times and let Chang take the Point.

Then we started to come back. Will and Bean hit a few threes each and at the half we had the lead down to 31-39. Neither Will nor Henry picked up #3.

All five of their starters were scoring so we stayed 2-3, level 9 for the 2nd. On O we needed to make better passes. We were getting killed on the boards. It seemed like too much but I wanted my guys leaving it all out on the floor.

And they did. We came out and took charge. We worked up to a 7 point lead at 3:03.

With :09 we were up 3 and they had the ball. We hadn’t pressed all game so we decided to press now. It worked, by the time they got into their offense there were only 2 ticks left.

Their 2 threw up a 21 footer with a hand in his face and it went in as time expired. OT.

Will and Henry had 4 fouls each, as did their SF. Will got #5 on the first play of the OT. Henry came in for him.

We stayed with them until 1:33.

Then they hit a 3, stole a pass, laid it in, blocked a shot, and hit a 2, all in 40 seconds. We were down 7 with :53 to go when I called my last TO.

Bean hit a 3 at :37 but that was the last gasp. Henry fouled out at :27 and we lost 68-76 in OT.

I couldn’t be prouder of my guys. 21, 4, 7, 1, 3 for Will, 23, 5 for Bean, 6, 8, 4, 3, 2 for Alex. The four spot was overmatched and that one position was the difference but we never quit and we couldn’t have played harder or better. Except for a lucky shot at the end of regulation we’d still be playing.

-15, -1. 34-39%, 21-14 fouls and we still almost won the game.

26-6 and Bean is the only guy graduating.

[Wayne23]

#1 Indiana vs. #2 Maryland, and #3 UConn vs. #5 Arizona in the final four.


I’m going with dad. He’s paying. Thanks dad. He says we need to listen to offers but if we don’t get a good one our team could be really special next year so there’s no need to jump unless it’s to a good place.

4/1: #1 Indiana will play #5 Arizona. We were rooting for UConn but no luck.

4/3: Indiana by 19.

Lots of A. D.s talked with me. We’ll see if it means anything.

4/4: Back home for awards. Rex Alex is POY and Defensive POY. Carl Chang joins him on 1st team. Dave Bean makes 2nd team. I get Coach of the Year.

4/9: Still hunting recruits.

Job offers: Hartford again. Tempting but no. Their best are graduating. Iona? No. San Jose ST? Howard? No, staying for another year. The offers simply aren’t that good.

4/16: Got #53 C Damon Sullivan. Hired two assistants. Sadly, dad won’t be here next year. He’ll be missed but he taught me so much and that will stay with me.

4/23: Asking for $ again. Got $7,000.

My numbers are: Off. 16, Def. 24, Recruit 20, Scout 4, Player Dev. 20,
Reputation 20. 97-31, .758. I’m guessing one more good year will get me a better job.

[Wayne23]

5/1: Mom and dad left yesterday and the new season starts today. Buying Great Plains Gold, national basic.

6/5: Going for some.

6/12: Got a great PG and a pretty good C.

6/26: 7 to fill.

7/11: Our kid camps start and I meet my new players. I like my team. I think we’ll do very well this year and I hope we can put together a challenging schedule. Lots of potential recruits too.

8/7: Rex Alex is #44 on the Norton List, our first ever.

8/21: 7 guys showing interest so we offer to all 7.

9/11: I can only visit 4 of the 7. Hope I pick the right 4.

9/18: Not a lot of luck so far. We have a schedule. I wanted a tougher schedule and I got one. All except one ranked team on the road.

10/2: First day of practice.

We’re picked to win the conference.