The Professor

[Wayne23]

8-9, 2-2 Yale is here. They have not played to their potential and are a definite threat. We will need to pressure the ball and stop their outside game. Their 3-2 can be confusing and our offense will need to find the open shooter. Again, ball pressure is the key. We feel we can turn them over. If we also control the inside we will be fine. But it may not be that easy.

Jan. 16: 67-54. 23, 4, 3 for Hank, 22 for Zinn, 13 RBs for Sand.

10-8, 3-2 Cornell is in. Won their last three.

Jan. 19: 86-75. 26, 11 for Sand, 25, 5, 5 for Hank, 15, 3, 6 for Zinn. 5 TOs for the game!

Jan. 22: Ranked! #23, RPI #14.

The only conference opponent we have not yet played is 2nd place Columbia, 15-4, 5-1. We travel to their place. They are a good team and this will not be easy. Their 1-3-1 is a defense we have yet to see this season so that adds a complication. We’ve been working against it in practice so hopefully that will help. They played a weak pre-conference schedule. Their weakness is ball handling so we will pressure their guards. If we can also hold our own inside we have a good chance but this will not be easy.

Jan. 23: 49-59. Our defense was good, theirs was better. Their guards greatly outperformed ours and that was a deciding factor. While our inside players easily outscored theirs, we were outrebounded 25-28. Not a good night. The regular season title will likely come down to the rematch in Cambridge in the last regular season game.

[Wayne23]

At 9-11, 1-6 Brown, the bottom of the conference. We won by 28 at home.

Jan. 26: 62-55. Much more of a challenge than expected. Sand fouled out in 24 minutes and their C had a field day. We were outrebounded again, 27-29. Greg Walk had a good game from the bench which was much needed since PG Ben Hart also fouled out, in 20 minutes. We won but I am far from impressed.

Jan. 29: We lost a recruit who had committed to us. He didn’t hit our SAT score. Luke Weis, #196 SG. We’ll offer to someone else.

11-10, 2-6 Princeton is here. They have not been playing at all well.

Jan. 30: 69-58. Sand and Hank led us. 10 TOs.

It has become a two team race. We are tied with Columbia, three ahead of the field.

At 13-9, 5-4 Penn. We won by 12 in Cambridge but they play much better at home.

Feb. 2: 81-84. This was the worst defense we played all season. We were also outrebounded badly, 26-33, worst margin of the season. There was nothing wrong with our offense. 81 points should win. Bench play was easily the difference, 42, 10, 12 to 10, 2, 6. There is work to be done.

Two minor injuries. Starter Asa Thom tweaked a calf muscle. Day to day but he will not be at 100% for our next game. Little used Inyo Robb strained abdominals. Out about a week.

Columbia was defeated as well so nothing has changed. An opportunity lost.

Feb. 5: 18-5, 8-2, Ranked #19, RPI #12.

13-10, 4-6 Dartmouth is here. We won by 4 in overtime there. 2-6 in their last 8. This appears to be a challenge despite that. We must play well.

Feb. 6: 58-38. Sand had a huge game, 20 and 16. 16, 7 for Hank. Terrible shooting by both teams, 33.3% for us, 26.2% for them. Second half was even worse. 12 TOs.

Two of our last three are on the road then home with Columbia.

[Wayne23]

At 12-12, 6-5 Yale. We won by 13 at home. Their SF is their best player, and the 3-2 is not a defense we see often. They are not good with the ball and we need to take advantage of that. They have won their last four.

Every game is important at this stage.

Feb. 9: 53-64. We simply fell apart in the second half after a very close first. We couldn’t make a shot but worse, people were not working to get open. This will be addressed at once.

Columbia lost so nothing has changed and again, an opportunity lost.

At 12-13, 5-7 Cornell. We won by 11 at home. They have lost 4 of 5. This is a team we should beat.

Feb. 13: 68-58. The starters and Greg Walk all contributed. +12 RB.

And so it comes down, as expected to the final game. We are #18, RPI #14, 20-6, 10-3. Columbia is 20-6, 10-3, #24, RPI #15. Both teams are injury free. Their weakness is ball handling. They won by 10 in their gym. Our SG and C need to be better than their PG, SG, SF, and our bench needs to match theirs. We need to turn them over and hold our own inside. Hopefully home court advantage will help. We expect a sellout.

Feb. 16: 66-54. We rose to the occasion. We started strongly and never trailed after the first few minutes. They narrowed the margin to as few as three upon occasion but we were able to counter each time. 29, 5 for Hank, 12, 9 for Sand, 11, 6, 4 with 1 TO for Hart, as good a game as he has played for us at PG. -4 TO, +6 RB.

Bracket Breaker with 14-11 Milwaukee here. This looks like a rather even match up. I think controlling the inside will likely be key. They have won 5 of 6.

Feb. 19: 59-58. A real battle. We won on a three by Ben Hart at the buzzer. We wanted an inside shot but nothing opened up so Ben launched a 24 footer And it went in. We had only 9 TOs but were out rebounded 37-42 in a poor shooting game by both sides. I was very happy with the fact that we never gave up.

And we head for the postseason with a record of 22-6, 11-3, #18, RPI #12. What a turnaround from last season. We will definitely be invited to the NCAA tournament with our RPI of 12. We hope to win the Ivy League tourney, or at the very least get to the final game.

[Wayne23]

We play 10-17, 2-12 Brown in the round of eight. This is a team we should beat.

March 3: 68-56. Never in doubt. 23, 8, 2 for Sand, 18 for Hank, good play by the others. 11 TOs.

15-13 Yale in the semifinals. We beat them by 13 then lost by 9 there so this is one we will need to work for. We simply didn’t do what needed to be done last time. They are 7-1 in the last 8. We knew we needed to pressure the ball in New Haven and we were not successful. Hopefully we will be this time.

March 4: 59-41. Shooting was the difference, 46.7%-26.2%. All other stats were about even. All five of our starters had between 10 and 12 points. 11 RBs for Sand.

As expected it’s #24, 22-8 Columbia for the title. Not much new to say. Both teams are healthy so let’s see what happens.

March 5: 59-65. Close all the way, never more than a 7 point differential. In the end they were just a bit better. Their bench had 21, 8, 5, ours had 2, 6, 6. We were +3 TO, +4 RB. 17 fouls called on us, 9 on them.

On to the NCAA tournament. It’s a question of where seeded and how high. A win here would have helped.

March 12: Selection day. Not in the East.

Not in the Midwest.

#6 in the South vs. Boise ST.

[Wayne23]

March 14: Penn won in the first round of the CHI.

March 16: Columbia won in the first round of the NCAA.

Boise ST is 19-11. They won their tourney after finishing third in the regular season. They lost the three games immediately preceding their tourney. Their conference is stronger than ours. They lost their starting SG to grades in Dec. Their big guys score more than their guards.

March 17: 58-43. Great first half defense put us into an early lead and we never trailed. 20, 11, 2 for Sand. -8 RB but it didn’t matter. We held them to 29.2% shooting.

#10 ranked, 24-7 UCLA is next. This will be a huge challenge. They play in a premier conference and played a very strong pre-conference schedule. SG is outstanding but they are good at every position, and deep. We will need to be at our very best to have any chance of winning. We didn’t come here to lose though. We’ll give it our best.

March 18: Columbia loses in the NCAA.

March 19: 69-76. We played well against a very good team. The down side is that we blew a 17 point lead. They just kept coming at us and they wore us down in the second half, scoring 50 points- the most we’ve given up in a half all year. We couldn’t stop their SG- 31 points. 20, 13 for Sand. 19 TOs (-9) hurt. +16 RBs was great but not quite enough,

A very successful season comes to an end. It would be difficult not to be happy with the way we played this season.

March 22: Penn loses in the CHI.

March 26: Two recruits agree to come here next year. #135 PG Mike Tubb and #50 SF Adam Long. Still going after two, #156 PG Jean Tyl and #157 PG Vya Seir.

I debate going to the Final Four but decide against. Next year I will definitely go.

April 1: UConn and Butler win and will play for the title.

April 3: UConn by 24 for the title.

April 4: Awards: And again, I get the error message so no idea who wins the awards.

April 9: Job offers: Some interesting offers but none are interesting enough to even consider a visit.

April 16: No assistant coach vacancies. I am very happy with my staff.
Tyl and Seir sign.

April 23: Going for budget dollars. Got $10,000!

I get an $8,000 raise.

End of season. Team Prestige jumps from 33 to 42. My numbers: 40-24, .625.

Off.- 20, Def.- 29, Recruiting 79, Scout- 91, Player Dev.- 32, Reputation- 42. Oh, I was conference Coach of the Year.

[Wayne23]

May 1: Season three begins. We buy the Gold National and Basic International Reports.

May 14: I propose. Rebecca accepts. She really likes the ring I got her. We plan to marry next May or June.

June 5: We look at a few transfers.

June 12: We pick up PG Quin Addy.

June 26: Recruiting begins. We have four scholarships to offer. We need guards more than forwards.
We are looking at 19 but some may not have the GPA we will need. That information is not yet available.

July 4: Down to 16- 6 PGs, 3 SGs, 2 SFs, 1 PF, 4 C.

Aug. 21: We offer to a PG, an SG, and 2 Centers.

Sept.7: There is a great deal to balance with the fall semester underway.

I met my two new doc students in late August and am very excited to be working with both. Randall Peck III, from right here in Cambridge, is the son of a philosophy professor at Boston University. He has some fascinating theories that he wants to test out. I feel that his research could be very valuable to our program.

Brighton DeWitt Campbell is also from this area. He arrives here having received his B. A. at age 17, and his M. A. in Mathematics at age 18. Brighton has all the credentials to be regarded as an absolute genius. I am going to let him go his own way and simply check in and refocus him as need be. He tells me this is his “first Ph. D.” He intends to get others, all in pure math. He feels statistics offers an opportunity to ground himself before pursuing the others. He will be a learning experience for me!

I am also teaching a graduate level class in statistical analysis for graduate students researching for advanced degrees. I cannot teach during the spring semester because the basketball season simply does not permit it. During the fall I make most of my classes. When I am unable to be there Arnold Stern teaches the class. He completes his Ph. D. work in the spring and I will miss him. He has done and continues to do outstanding work. I also teach a class during the summer.

And of course the requirement to “publish or perish” never leaves. I am working with two other professors in the Statistics Department here at Harvard. We have three articles in various states of preparation. One is in final edit for the leading journal in our field, and the other two should both be ready before the end of the academic year.

In between all of this I try to find time for my fiancée. Rebecca is very busy herself, of course. She hopes to complete and defend her thesis by April or May so this will be a very busy time.

Oh, and I also coach a basketball team!

Sept. 11: Home visits to our four.

Sept. 18: Three recruits committed: Colt Arms, #40, C, Curt Park, #50, C, and Del Duke, #39 SG. We feel we have a very good chance with the fourth, a PG.

We are invited to the Sunshine Shootout in Dec. The schedule is a bit stronger than last season.

Oct. 2: Ty Corr, #117 PG commits. He will be borderline as far as hitting the SAT score is concerned so we’re looking at several other PGs.

First day of practice. I really like what I see.

Nov. 6: Exhibition games. We make some changes based upon what we saw in the exhibition games.

Speaking with three PGs in case Corr doesn’t hit the SAT score.

We feel we are ready for the season to begin and further feel that we have our best team since our arrival here.

[Wayne23]

We begin the season at Penn ST. We feel we are far superior to them but it is early. There is much to discover.

Nov. 16: 64-36. Our defense looked truly exceptional. We saw that in both exhibition games as well. I was very pleased that we had but 11 turnovers and that we were +15 in rebounding. Our offense was led by Bay Sand at C, who had 14, 8, 3, while completely stifling his opponent, and by PG Jon Hank, 17, 4, 5. Tyle Gill had 10 RBs from the bench. This was a very fine way to begin the season.

Tulsa, 0-1 is here for our home debut. Tulsa is a far stronger team than was Penn ST but we feel we have more talent.

Nov. 19: 75-44. Again, outstanding defense. 12 turnovers, +7 RB. Sand and Hank both had very good games again, as did SG Al Ruck, and sub Kyle Gill. Matt Hall had 11 RBs at PF.

Nov. 20: As expected Ty Corr is not going to hit our score. Stuck with him until 1/29 but we’ll court some PGs.

At 0-2 Akron. Their C is very good but he doesn’t get much help.

Nov. 23: 60-40. The outstanding defense continues. Not happy with 15 turnovers but very happy with +14 rebounds. 19, 9 for Long, 12, 10 for Sand, 14, 5, 5 for Hank, 12, 7 for Ruck. We held Akron to 12 points in the first half.

2-1 Vanderbilt is here. We have some challenging games ahead but this should not be one of them if we play well.

We decide to give Gill a bit more playing time and Hall a bit less.

Nov. 26: 70-46. Jon Hank had 32, 4, 7 at PG. We played very good defense yet again and had only 9 turnovers.

The semester is nearing its end. Randall Peck has done some outstanding work for us. He has found some little nuances for us to use against man to man defense that open up opportunities for us to score rather easily in given situations. A few of his other ideas have led us to go to certain defenses briefly, in certain situations, to enormously positive effect.

Brighton Campbell’s work is less concrete but I do see potential for it to become useful in time and it is exceedingly interesting from a purely statistical point of view.

Our article will be published in the January issue of Statistics Today, and a second article is in final review. The third is nearing that point.

My graduate students are all doing well in the class I teach. There are only eight of them and all are doing exceptional work. Exams are next week. The exam is really a project for this course.

Rebecca has been extremely busy. We meet when we can. Often I spend the evening going over my students’ work or doing basketball related work as she works on her thesis. At least we’re together. We do try to spend a little time with each other on these occasions.

Our first real challenge of the season comes with our next game.

[Wayne23]

#11 ranked, 5-2 USC is in. We will need to stop their outside scoring especially from the SG and SF. If we are able to play the kind of defense we have played so far I like our chances.

Nov. 30: 79-69. Great win! While we gave up 69 points we held them to 33.3% shooting and that was the difference, so it was defense again. All of our starters scored in double figures. Sand had 11 RBs. Hank ha d6 RBs and 4 assists. He fouled out but played 33 minutes and only got #5 with 1:16 to go. Good bench play from Gill and from Vya Seir at guard. Only 12 turnovers.

It feels great to beat a really good team!

Dec. 2: Today we embark on a long road trip. Should we reach the finals of the Sunshine Shootout our next seven games will be on the road. We will come home only briefly between now and Dec. 18.

Our players will take their exams while on the road and I will mail them to their professors.

We begin at 1-1 Indiana ST. They are strong inside, sloppy at guard. They have played two good teams.

Dec. 3: 66-52. As has been the case regularly we had a very good first half. 14, 8 for Sand, 14, 5, 2 for Long, good bench play, especially from Gill, and 9 turnovers.

We decide to start Gill at PF. He’s been giving us considerably more than has Matt Hall.

On to 3-4 Milwaukee. They have one quality win but three very bad losses. They are stronger outside than inside. They play mostly 2-3 zone, which we have seen little of, but we have been practicing against it.

Dec. 6: 85-71. Our poorest defensive performance of the season but 21 three pointers, 7 each by Ruck and Long, got us through. Jon Hank did a very good job of running the offense. Bay Sand was in foul trouble all night, which did not help us. Still, we are now 7-0 heading to the Sunshine Shootout.

[Wayne23]

We’re seeded eighth in this eight team tournament. We begin with #1 seed, #17 ranked, 6-0 Missouri. This is a very good team. They are strong at PG, SF, and C. They take care of the ball, score inside and outside, and rebound well.

Dec. 9: 73-63. Strong first half again but we almost gave it away in the second. Both Sand and Hank were in foul trouble. Sand had a very, very good game, 21 and 17. Out other starters all put up good numbers but except for Matt Hall’s 9 rebounds we got nothing from the bench- not a single point, only 2 assists and one RB other than Hall’s. 15 turnovers. +17 rebounds made a huge difference.

This was more an escape than a win.

#4 seed, 6-2 Nebraska is next. They’ve played a strong schedule. They do many things well and have several players who can score but no stand out shooter. We feel we’re the better team but not by a great deal.

Dec. 10: 81-67. 25, 13, 4 for Sand, 18 for Long, 17 for Ruck. Solid play and great leadership from Hank. 11 turnovers.

Ranked! #15, RPI #15.

We play #2 seed, #19 ranked, 8-1 New Mexico for the title. They haven’t played a strong schedule. Good with the ball and they rebound.

Dec. 11: 81-62. Ruck, 20, 2, 5, Long, 16, 12, 3, and Sand, 16, 11 carried us. Hank played only 16 minutes due to fouls but Seir and Zinn played well in his stead. Only 8 turnovers. We have perhaps been relying too heavily on the three. We had 15 tonight, but we shot 48.4% from three point range.

We are 10-0. Two more road games but the next is in Boston so it isn’t really a road game in a sense. At least we are able to sleep in our own beds.

Boston College is 5-1. They have played well against a less than impressive schedule, but they do things well.

Dec. 13: 72-68. Our first close game. We led most of the way but there were several lead changes, and BC got within a single point upon three occasions during the last two minutes or so. In the end our rebounding (+11) got us through. Poor ball handling (18 turnovers) did not help us. We played nine and all contributed but foul difficulties for Sand and Hank made the task more difficult.

We are now 11-0.

[PointGuard]

Harvard's becoming the "Gonzaga" of the Ivy League.