Point Guard

[Wayne23]

(Note: I lost my notes for 5/1-11/1 in the transfer to a new computer so I tried to recreate them. Not sure I’ll continue this dynasty. It’s on a dying old computer [The notes were on a now dead computer].)

May 1 Zak:

We buy the usual reports.

June 6 Zak:

No one in the transfer pool.

June 26 Tank:

We got 5 ta fill.

September 18 Tank:

We got 2: PG Val Smith, #57, an’ PF Cal Rose#43.

Tuffy Thomas, A. D.:

We’re in the Coaches Classic vs. #22 Kentucky. We have a pretty challenging schedule this year.

September 25 Tank:

We got the other 3: PG Bo Ives, #46, PG Dave Garr, #68, an’ PF Brad McKie, #56. A good haul!

Dawn:

The kids are back in school, and have been for quite a while. Jamal is a senior.

Jamia is a freshman at what looks like a really good Arts Magnet High School.

Jamilia is in 6th grade. She has found two loves, piano and soccer.

October 2: Earl:

First day of practice. I think it’s going to be a good year.

November 6: Earl:

Here’s the lineup: Junior juco Ed Klein and returning junior Shoe Floyd start at guard, and soph Doc Payne and senior Mal Akins back up. Payne will fight to get his starting job back. Senior Cory Madic is back at SF with Mick Tigs backing him. Up front it’s sophs Kit Adams and Rik Tracy, both returning starters, with Tigs behind them. Junior Juke Antt started as a frosh, but his minutes have gone down since then.

[Wayne23]

November 13 Zak:

62-57 over #5 seed, #22 ranked Kentucky in the 1st round of the Coaches Classic. They took 20 more shots. They had 8 fewer TOs. They were +18 in the paint, +16 on fast breaks, +6 on 2nd chance points. We won it on threes (We had 9, they had 4), and at the line (We were 21-31, they were 11-14). 9 and 9 for Madic, 12, 5 for Adams, 10, 7, 2 for Tracy.

#13 seed Iowa beat #4 seed Duke so they’re next.

November 15

54-41 over Iowa. 19, 2, 2 for Shoe, 12, 4, 2 for Madic. +4 RBs. They took 8 more shots but we both made the same # of FGs. Again, we won it at the line, 15 of 20 to 2 of 5.

#1 seed, #4 ranked Oregon is next. They look tough.

November 17 Zak:

65-55. 19 TOs (-4). We won it at the line yet again, 20 of 23 to 9 of 10. 19 for sub Mick Tigs, 14, 7 for Shoe, 11 and 5 for both Madic and Tracy. +4 RBs.

#2 seed, # 19 ranked Stanford for the title.

November 19 Zak:

60-64. It was close all the way, and close on the stat sheet in pretty much every category. In the end they were just a little better. 16, 3, 3, 2 for Madic, 12, 9 for Adams, 11, 7 for Tracy.

We’re ranked. #17.

Tank:

All 5 recruits done signed. It jes’ might be the bes’ recruitin’ class in the country!

November 23 Earl:

72-48 over Charlotte in our home debut. We played really well tonight. 23, 2, 6 for Floyd, 17, 6 for Tracy, 9, 17 for Adams. 6 TOs, 35 RBs, and we shot 48.1%.

The fans are back. We sold out.

November 26 Earl:

71-54 over Colorado here. Teamwork! Tigs and Adams had 13 each but 7 guys had at least 7, and Payne played well, too. 11 TOs, 32 RBs, and for once we took more shots than the other guys- 49-43.

+12 in the paint and +11 on the fast break.

November 30 Earl:

57-70 at Oklahoma ST. We’re an inside team. Tonight our guards did well but our outside guys were over matched. -6 RBs, -28 in the paint(!). 21, 5 for Shoe, 12, 2, 5 for Ed Klein. Zak and I will work on
that. The big guys are mine. Zak works with the guards. Of course everybody works with everybody but those are our specialties.

December 3 Earl:

61-49 over Wichita ST here. We practiced banging it inside. Ezra’s scouting report said that would work. They doubled Adams but Tracy, and sub Mick Tigs took advantage of that. Tracy had 18 and 8 and Tigs had 10 and 7. Adams had 10 RBs.

[Wayne23]

December 7 Zak:

65-58 over Purdue there. Klein, Madic, and Tracy, who was injured (see below) led the way. 20, 3, 3, 3 for Madic, 17, 2, 2 for Klein, 14, 9, 2, 2 for Tracy. We led most of the way, but never by a whole lot. We won it at the line again.

Rik Tracy twisted his back. Out 10-12 days. Tigs and Antt will get the minutes.

December 10 Zak:

73-72 over a very tenacious Dayton team here. We wanted to get it inside on the final play but Dayton overloaded the paint and Shoe managed to get an open look. He drained it with 1.1 left.

13, 7 for Adams, 15, 4, 2 for Madic, 14, 3, 2, 2 for Shoe. Klein, Tigs, and Payne all played well. Antt didn’t do much. We’re going to need more from him while Tracy is out.

We’re 8-2, #15, RPI #7.

December 13 Ezra:

69-65 in OT at Houston. Using my “scout’s eye” I have to say we won this one inside and at the line. +13 RBs, +8 in the paint, +4 free throws (but the issue was that they had 3 starters in foul trouble and we had none), -7 TOs. Big game for Kit Adams, 15 and 13. 15, 7, 2, 2 for Madic, 13, 7 for Tigs. Antt gave us a little more tonight.

One more without Tracy, although I may be able to spot him in our next game.

December 17 Zak:

65-77 to #5 Stanford here. Both of our starting guards fouled out, Floyd in 19 minutes, Klein in 26. Doc Payne played well backing them up but Mal Akins didn’t. That was part of the problem, but really, they were better than us. They only won by 4 in the title game of the Coaches Classic, but we had Tracy in that game.

We decided to not risk playing Tracy. He really wasn’t ready and better a loss than having him reinjure himself. He’ll be back for our next game, at 100%.

Jamal’s team has played 4 games. He and the two inside players are seniors. All three are very good. The team is 4-0, with the closest game being a 22 point win.

December 21 Zak:

49-64 at Xavier. Well that’s as badly as we’ve played all year. We shot 31.1%, 25% on threes. – 10 TOs, -12 in the paint, -13 on the fast break. For the 2nd game in a row our guards were in major foul trouble. Klein fouled out, Floyd had 4. Madic played well, 14, 10, 3.

One more before SEC play starts.

December 28 Zak:

67-56 over Iowa here. -16 in the paint, -10 TOs, but +12 RBs, +8 free throws made, +5 threes made, we shot 44.7%, they shot 38.6%. 14, 12 for Tracy so I guess he’s back! 17, 6 for Madic.

We finish preconference play at 10-4, #24, RPI #10. Adams is #2 in the SEC in RBs, Klein #5 in assists, and that’s it for leaders, which is a little troubling. As a team we’re #5 in RB and that’s it, which is even more troubling. +4.3 PPG, +2.8 RBPG, -1.9 TOPG, -0.1 assists PG, and -3.1 steals PG.

I’m not sure this bodes well for SEC play.

Dawn:

Jamal’s team is 7-0, and they are really beating up on the other teams.

Jamia loves her school. They encourage her to pursue her art projects and the staff has some people who really know how to work with her.

Jamilia’s soccer season is over but she’ll play in another league starting in mid-January. They play all year here. She’s starting to compose songs on the piano.

I continue to fight for kids. It’s never easy to beat the system in this VERY red state, but we do what we can.

[Wayne23]

(Author's note: Scroll down a few lines to 1/10 for the big finish!)

January 4, 2033 Earl:

56-37 over Arkansas. We held them to 24.1%, 13.8% on threes. +9 RBs, but 17 TOs. 15, 11, 3 for Adams, 11, 7 for Floyd, 9, 6 for Tracy. It was an ugly game.

January 7

73-74 at Florida.

Akins hurt his calf. Out for about two weeks. Payne will get his minutes.

January 10 Zak:

Dawn and I had a pretty life changing talk last night. Her next birthday will be her 49th. I’ll be 42 soon. She sort of issued a challenge. What am I doing, what are we doing, to make the world a slightly less awful place. Turns out she has a plan.

We’re worth about 250 million dollars- most of that is hers. The commissions she got representing athletes in contract negotiations were astronomical. I knew that; I mean she negotiated my one and only contract and I know what I paid her.

So anyway, we’ve got all this money.

“So let’s make a difference. Let’s go somewhere- after the school year is over, but we’d need to start work right now, tomorrow. Let’s found a national organization for troubled kids. I mean kids who are living in impossible situations. We’ll use our own money to start-”

“Dawn, I won’t jeopardize our future and our kids’ futures.”

“No, no. We’ll keep maybe 10 or 20 million for ourselves. But the rest? Let’s start a nonprofit. We’ll build orphanages that are not hell holes. Places where kids can live decent lives with trained, caring staff that are like families. And shelters. And temporary placement facilities for short term situations. And whatever else is needed. We’ll encourage people who should be doing so to do foster care. We loved it; we could convince other well to do, decent people that they’d love it, too. We’ll go for government money, of course, but we won’t rely on it strictly.

“We know 3 or 4 billionaires who are philanthropists. They know others.”

“I don’t know anything about that kind of work, Dawn.”

“No, but you know people. You know how to give a talk that people want to listen to. You’ve always been great with people one on one and in small groups. I can see you convincing the people with tons of money, and then leading our campaigns for donations from the rest of the population. I can see you working with kids, maybe running camps for kids in our facilities. Who knows what else.

“Zak, this has been a problem forever. We throw kids away. We ruin their lives-”

“Well, their families did that.”

“NO! Their families started it, but then when society could have stepped in and saved these kids- okay, not all of them but some of them, maybe lots of them- we just threw them away. And then their generation went the same way. We’re on what, the 3rd, 4th generation of that? Let’s stop it, or at least slow it way down.”

“Whew!”

“Come on, you don’t have the passion for coaching you used to have. You’re not having a lot more fun this year than you did last year, even though you have a much better team.

“Let’s do this, Zak.”

I quit my job. This morning I walked into Tuffy Thomas’ office and handed him my resignation, effective at 7:00 p.m. today. I met with my staff. Ezra Johnson will be the interim head coach for the rest of the season. I met with the kids at the beginning of practice, took a fair amount of Ezra’s practice time to explain what I was doing and why, and then shook hands, hugged everyone, cleaned out my office, and went home.

I got to see all of Jamal’s games. I turned down his coach’s offer to become part of his coaching staff. I had too much to do.

Jamal won another state title, and was named a high school All American, just missed national player of the year.

The Tigers went 18-12, 8-8 for the regular season. Finished tied for 7th, #8 seed in the SEC tournament.

They lost in the play in round of the SEC tournament.

They were 18-13, RPI #23 going to the selection show.

They were #7 Midwest, played #10 California in the first round, won.

They lost to #2 seed Georgia Tech in the next round, wound up at 19-14.

My final stats as a head coach: 286-110, .722.

Here on May 1 we have 11 billionaires committed to mind bogglingly large investments. We have several hundred business people, organizations, corporations, celebrities of one kind or another on board, all making large donations, and most of the celebrities at least, wanting to serve as spokespeople, many also wanting to help in some way, including, in many cases, by taking in foster kids. We have a Board of Directors, with Dawn as chair, made up of many of the most highly placed movers and shakers in business, politics, social services, entertainment- you name it. By the beginning of June we will have the framework for a plan. Our national headquarters is in Detroit, for several reasons. Detroit is a city that had all but died of abuse and neglect, but that is on its way back. We love the symbolism of that. Second, it is fairly centrally located in this very large country.

And that’s where my story ends. I have found a passion for this kind of work that had kind of run its course with coaching.

I think we’re going to be able to change lives, and yes, make the world a slightly less awful place.

Oh, Jamal is going to Michigan ST, close enough for us to see his games. There is a truly awesome Arts Magnet School for Jamia, and a Renzulli Academy for Jamilia.