Mack Jones- The Hard Way

[Wayne23]

#22 Arkansas is here to start the season. Let’s see what we have. The three guys who will play PF and C are all freshmen. I think they’re all terrific but they are untested.

Nov. 14: 79-58. No challenge but some “growing pains.” Greg Bray was not impressive at C but Kev Grow was excellent backing him up. Our other 4 starters all played really well. Too many TOs- 16. +9 RB. Sometimes it takes a few games to jell. No panic here.

At the Hawaiian Shootout. We brought the family. Interestingly enough Mandy wanted to stay home so she wouldn’t miss her time with Prof. Vinson. She lost that battle.

We start with 1-0 DeLaSalle. Not much to go on but their C and SG look good.

Nov. 18: 70-41. Never a challenge but I’m not getting what I want from my inside game. Grow is playing better than Brya. Not ready to make a change yet but it’s a consideration. Great play from PG L. B. Witt, 12, 9, 3, and SG Duke Kann, 16, 5. 8, 10 for Mike Chad at PF, and Grow had 12, 4, 2 from the bench.

We decide to switch Chad to C and Bray to PF.

Oregon State, 1-1, is next. They have a good outside game and a decent C.

Nov. 19: 85-54. The right guy in the right spot? Mike Chad had 16 and 10 in his debut at C. Bray had 11, 5, 2 at PF. Great switch! The other starters, Bibb and Grow all had really good games. 4 TOs, 45 RBs.

Western Michigan, 2-1, upset #7 ranked Duke so we’ll play them for the title. Not the game we wanted but what can you do. We play Duke next week anyway.

Nov. 20: 67-43. 16, 8 for Chad, 13, 5 for Grow, good games from the rest.
Now we play mostly top 10 teams.

Mandy is thrilled that we’re headed back home. She had fun here though.

We had some time during the day to do the “Hawaii thing.” Beautiful place, and she definitely did some playing. Ray, too, but in his usual quiet way.
Lucy was on the phone at least twice every day with “Someplace Special.” Everything seemed to run smoothly in her absence. She has some very good people in management.

[Wayne23]

Oklahoma State, 4-0, jumped ahead of us to #1 on strength of schedule by winning the Coaches Classic. They’re here. Tough at all 5 spots and a decent bench. Definitely very strong inside so that will test us. We think we can turn them over.

Nov. 21: 72-48. Didn’t expect a blowout but that’s what it was. 26, 4, 3 for Flyn, 13, 15 for Chad, 10, 7, 4 for Kann. Witt was flawless in running the offense, 1 TO. +6 TOs, +10 RBs. We looked really good.

A little rest will be good after 4 games in 4 days with a flight from Hawaii to Michigan after the third game.

#7 Duke, 3-1, is here. Strong at C and SG.

Nov. 24: 74-61. We led pretty much all the way but they hung in. Foul trouble for both Witt and Kann didn’t help us. 21, 18 for Chad in his best game yet. 8 TOs, 39 RBs.

Back at #1. RPI #5 and rising quickly.

At my old team, Auburn, #4, 4-1. First time back there. They could give us a battle inside but I think we have a solid edge outside.

Nov. 28: 70-79. I was wrong. They won this one outside, but we didn’t really beat them inside either, it was about even there. The refs killed us, calling 24 on us, 14 on them, and fouling out both Kann and Witt, but frankly, tonight Auburn was the better team. Only very good bench play kept it as close as it was, and we never led, never tied it after 0-0. -11 TOs, -6 RBs.

Win streak stopped at 61. Things to work on. That’s what we do best, work. Not discouraged.

Grow will start at PF for Bray. He’s been playing better all year.

#12 UConn, 4-0, is here. Tough inside.

Dec. 1: 77-43. 19, 14, 3 for Chad, 15, 7, 6 for Kann, 18, 3, 3 for Witt. 2 TOs- for the team!

Our little math wiz has far surpassed Lucy’s and my ability to even understand what she’s talking about. She still tries to teach us, but it’s rough going.

Ray is getting more and more into building things from blueprints and other instructions, doing some pretty complex things, actually. Again, Montessori provides the challenges and stays out of the way until and unless he either asks for help or shows signs of frustration.

[Wayne23]

Dec. 4: Back at #1, RPI #1 also.

#7 Stanford, 5-1, is in. Their SG is All America level, and their PG can dish.

Dec. 5: 88-49. 26, 4, 4 for Flyn, 18, 9 for Grow, 16, 5, 2 for Chad. Held their SG to 11. +12, +12.

2-4 Kentucky is here. They’re having a shockingly bad season.

Dec. 8: 79-62. 21, 3 for Flyn, 12, 13, 5 for Chad, 12, 7, 5 for Kann, 17, 3 for Bibb from the bench.

We’re 9-1.

#10 Arizona, 6-2 is here. Very good SG, he gets 32.8 per game.

Dec. 12: 76-65. They led by 5 at the half. SG got 33 in the first half. We doubled him in the second and he wound up with 40 and we took over the game. 18, 10, 3 for Flyn, 18, 8, 2 for Chad, 12, 6, 2 for Grow. +7, +5.
#12 Georgetown is here. Very good inside game.

Dec. 15: 75-54. Pretty even inside but our guards took over, 23, 1, 5 for Kann, 16, 1, 7 for Witt. Good bench play.

One more pre-conf. game, at #7, 9-1 UCLA. Very good outside, esp. at PG. We should dominate inside but it’s a road game.

Dec. 19: 81-66. Interestingly enough our guards went crazy, 27, 7, 7 for Witt, 18, 5 for Kann. We were good inside, too. +12 RB.

We finish the pre-conf. season at 12-1 and we have 10 days off.

Dec. 25: A nice holiday, the way we like it, quiet and not overdone.

Everyone on Dean’s list except for transfer Tad Yard. We’ll get him there.

[Wayne23]

#18, 9-4 Michigan is in to start conference play. They’re strong inside.

Dec.29: 88-63. Easy win. 25, 6, 3 for Flyn, 20, 5, 4 for Kann. 7, 35.

Jan. 1, 1984: Happy 1984. Orwell was right on target. Luckily my family is insulated from most of it.

At 6-6 Minnesota. It’s a road game and that’s always a concern, but we are easily the better team.

Jan. 2: 65-55. We led most of the way but it wasn’t easy. 16, 12 for Chad, 17, 6 for Kann, but we weren’t at our best.

8-5, 2-0 Iowa is in town. They have a decent outside game but they’re weak inside.

Jan. 5: 79-40. 22, 5, 3 for Flyn, good performances for the rest. 13, 41.
7-7, 1-2 Nebraska is here. Pf is their player but he doesn’t get much help.

Jan. 9: 71-58. Whistle happy three blind mice kept this closer than it should have been, 51 fouls called. Ridiculous. 26, 11 for Chad.

Employees at “Someplace Special” did even better with this year’s profit sharing than they did last year, VERY well indeed. The business is at or near capacity almost all the time. Profit sharing payments go out every three months but calculations for the year, for income tax purposes, are done in January.

[Wayne23]

At #5 Indiana. Solid team. They look good at 1, 2, 3, and 5, and they have a decent bench. We’d better come to play!

Jan. 12: We led all the way, by as many as 20. They closed the gap at the end but it wasn’t as close as the final score. 19, 5, 4 for Kann, 14, 10, 2 for Chad, 13, 10, 2 for Flyn. 20 TOs, which is completely unacceptable.

#19 Illinois, 13-5, 3-2 is here. Good outside, weak inside.

Jan.16: 82-62. 7 guys all played well and put up good numbers. 5 TOs. Yeah, we worked on that! 41 RBs.

Indiana lost so our lead is 2 games.

11-7, 3-3 Wisconsin is here. We think we’re a much better team. They don’t have a go to guy.

Jan. 19: 66-53. We couldn’t make shots- all night. That made it closer than it should have been (30.5%). 8 TOs, 43 RBs helped.

At 12-6, 4-3 West Lafayette. Good team. Balance, good bench, no stand out player but lots of good ones.

Jan. 23: 57-68. Horrible shooting again tonight. You can’t win if you don’t make shots (29.8%, 4-32 for three point range). We could have played better D but it was the shooting. Don’t know how to coach that. All I can do is work on taking good shots but we had open looks all night. They just didn’t drop.

We’ve been working on encouraging Mandy to find her “kid side” and Montessori is doing the same. We’ve found some games that hold a bit of interest, but they need to be complex games, ones that you’d think would be way beyond her- they aren’t.

Prof. Maltby also recommended a pet so we got a kitten. Mandy has fallen in love with it. I stopped talking about Tail a long time ago because he got old and eventually died. We didn’t replace him. Mandy called the new guy “Archimedes,” no surprise. We all call him “Archie.” Mandy is more a kid with Archie than we’ve ever seen her being at any other time, in any other circumstance. Good call, doc!

Prof. Vinson continues to express amazement at Mandy’s rapid progress, her understanding of incredibly complex concepts, and her intuitive leaps.

Ray doesn’t have a lot of interest in Archie and he REALLY doesn’t like it when Archie tries to play with Ray’s building materials.

[Wayne23]

We need to bounce back. We’re at 8-11, 3-5 Penn ST. If we can make some shots we should be fine. Hopefully the cold streak is over. We’ve been making them in practice.

Jan. 26: 73-53. Well, we shot 38.3%, not great but much better. 22, 4, 5 for Witt, 16, 7 for Kann, 13, 13, 4 for Chad, 11, 7, 4 for Flyn. 8, 38.

Lead back to 2 games.

Jan. 29: Our recruits all hit the SAT score, as expected.

Mike Chad is #7 on the Norton List, Duke Kann #12, Cam Flyn #15, L. B. Witt #26.

We’re ranked #2, RPI #1.

#19, 14-7, 5-4 Ohio State is here. They have a very good C and an almost as good SG. PG does a nice job. Deep bench. We’ll need to bring it tonight.

Jan. 30: 73-38. D was incredible. We simply gave them almost no open looks and we shut out their C. Mike Chad was terrific on D and had 16, 10, 3. Best move I made all year was shifting him from PF to C early on. 20, 6, 2 for Kann. 3 TOs, 39 RBs. Great game, best in a while.

At 9-12, 4-6 Evanstown. We’re the better team, easily, but it’s a road game.

Feb. 2: 77-70. As good as the D was in our last game, it was that bad tonight. We were lucky to escape. Their bench really gave us fits, 33, 11, 9 to 4, 4, 1. L. B. Witt’s 40 points saved us. Flyn had 20, 6, 3. Not a great night.

Lead is now 3 games.

At 13-11, 4-7 Michigan. Beat ‘em by 25 at our place. Good inside game. We’ll need to turn them over.

Feb. 6: 70-71. Poor D for the second game in a row. We just gave up too many open shots and too many bunnies inside. LOTS of work to do, all of a sudden. We trailed most of the way. No details, they don’t matter. We just need to work.

Lead is 2 over 2 teams.

Nice to be back home. It was not a fun road trip. Speaking of not fun, that would define our practices. We’re working the guys hard. Not exhausting them though, that would be counterproductive. We’re just working in short bursts, focusing almost entirely on D. Demanding total focus, on being in position, reacting to what’s happening, getting on shooters, not falling for fakes, working through picks and switching off when that doesn’t happen. Very intense.

Archie is king of the house and the little rascal knows it. He’s been great for Mandy. She laughs and giggles when she’s with him, which is lots of the time. As do all cats and kittens, he sleeps quite a bit but when he’s awake Mandy is playing with him. It’s a delight to see Mandy being a kid. She still spends plenty of time on math, and pursues her interest in all things academic, but now we see some balance.

Ray really does NOT want Archie around. He wants to be in his room with the door closed to keep him out. We’ve never allowed that. He’s too young for that kind of isolation, particularly given how internally focused he is. We don’t force sociability upon him but we want him to at least have people around. Lucy, the not nanny, and I all try to keep Archie away but kittens and cats love to be where they are not supposed to be. Oh well, some life lessons, I suppose. Still, we do all we can to minimize Ray’s frustration with Archie.

[Wayne23]

FYI: I'm thinking this may be the last season for this dynasty. When a team reaches this level they win so often it takes the challenge out. If people are following it and wish me to continue, let me know. In that case I would start a second dynasty and work both of that one and this one. I have done that sort of thing in the past.

[jcomey]

I am reading every day. Part of me is waiting for some sort of twist, though. Just something I observe when I read.

I also read Zike a lot. Could be why.

[Wayne23]

If I continue I agree that a twist is probably overdue. I've been pondering that.

[Wayne23]

10-13, 4-8 Minnesota is here. We won by 10 there in not one of our better games.

Feb. 9: 75-54. Good games for all 5 starters, not much from the bench. Never a game.

Feb. 12: Mike Chad is #6 on the Norton List, Duke Kann #10, Cam Flyn #12.

At 14-10, 8-5 Iowa. Beat ‘em by 39 at home but this won’t be so easy. They’re tough at home. Better outside than in.

Feb. 13: 68-58. Whew! They controlled the 1st half but we adjusted at halftime and took charge. 22, 8, 2 for Kann.

2 up on West Lafayette, 2 to play.

At 9-16, 3-11 Nebraska, the bottom of the conf. Only won by 13 at home. On paper it’s a blowout.

Feb. 16: 76-57. Never a game. 26, 13, 3 for Chad, 20, 2, 2 for Witt.

Greg Bray got a badly bruised sternum out 2-3 weeks.

Feb. 19: Back to #1. RPI #1 too.

#8, 19-7, 10-5 Indiana is in to close out the regular season. We won by only 7 there. They have some talent.

Feb. 20: 63-48. We couldn’t make a shot in the 1st but we went inside in the second and took control. 17, 10, 3 for Chad, 15, 10, 2 for Flyn. 9, 41.

We end the regular season 26-3, 14-2, 2 up on West Lafayette, at least 4 on everyone else.

Feb. 26: Ranked #2 for some reason. RPI still #1.

March 5: Duke Kann, Cam Flyn, and Bo Free all declare for the pros. (So why can’t I recruit to replace them since I have three free roster spots? A definite flaw in the game, as others repeatedly point out.)

Mike Chad is #6, Duke Kann #9 on the Norton List.

On to the conf. tournament.