Point Guard

[Wayne23]

May 1 Zak:

We buy National Gold, International Basic.

June 5 Zak:

No one of interest in the transfer pool.

June 26 Fred Lee:

We have 5 to fill. We’d like 2 and 3 either way. We’re looking at 30.

Zak: I am shocked that Jaq Chan was not drafted. I predict that he will sign with a team and succeed.

July 12 Dawn:

I was offered the position of Deputy Commissioner of the Rhode Island Child Welfare Commission. It’s a great honor but I said no. First, I love what I’m doing, and second, who knows how long we’ll be in R.I.

July 29 Zak:

My 9 year old, Jamal, did pretty well at our hoops camp. He and Rob Hard are best of friends. Rob took Ed Huey’s place when Ed graduated a couple of years ago.

August 7 Fred Lee:

We add a bunch more recruits to our list.

August 21 Fred Lee:

We offer to 3 PGs and 2 PFs.

September 18 Fred Lee:

We got one, PG Mike Wite, #315.

Johnny Benedetto, new A. D.: We’re in the Hawaiian Shootout against USC. Lots of home games this year.

September 25 Fred Lee:

Got 2, lost a PG. Bo Mill, PG, #168, and PF Kris Lapp, #170 committed. Mill may have trouble hitting our SAT score.

October 2 Deke Gale:

First day of practice. I think we’re going to have a great season. We have 3 terrific guards, and 5 excellent big guys.

Zak: We’re picked to finish 6th in the A10. I take that as a challenge!

October 9 Fred Lee:

Got our last 2: Geo Saff, PG, #450, and Shep Geer, PF, #391. Only one guy we think might not hit our SAT score, but he has a shot.

November 6 Zak:

We’re starting the season with a 9 man rotation. That’s very unusual but we need to see these guys. In time people will make their case for more minutes. Our starting guards are returning senior Kam Bell and juco junior Jed Rose. Backing up are freshmen Kris Robin and Dave Ross. Senior Cal Gonn is back at SF, with senior Sal Dum behind him. Our two inside guys are returnees, junior Rob Hard and senior Drew Whye. Junior Jeff Frost backs them up.

November 16 Joe Downatti, Providence Journal, “The Low Down with Joe Down”:

We’re predicting big things for the URI Rams basketball team this year. Coach Zak Zachery has a lot of talent, and he and his staff know how to put it together. Predictions? First in the A10, and Sweet Sixteen. You heard it here first!

[Wayne23]

November 16 Deke Gale:

81-70 over Tulsa here. We felt like we were ready for the start of the season, and we were. 28, 7 for Rob Hard, 18, 6, 2, 2 for Drew Whye, 8, 4, 7 for new guard Jed Rose. 34 RBs, 8 TOs. An unbelievable 46 in the paint. Tulsa is a good team from a tough conference and we had no trouble with them.

Dawn:

We had another incident where a staff member was badly injured. I suppose it comes with the territory but I truly hate when it happens.

Zak: Off to beautiful Hawaii for the shootout; we’re the #5 seed. Dawn took some vacation time. She and the kids are here.

November 18 Zak:

86-72 over #4 seed USC. 27, 9, 3, 3 for Rob Hard, 13, 5, 3 for Jed Rose, 13, 6 for Whye, 9, 5, 4, 5 for Cal Gonn, 10, 3, 2 for Kris robin from the bench. 7 TOs.

#1 seed, #15 ranked Arkansas next.

November 19 Zak:

78-85 in OT. The stats sheet was eerie. Both teams had the same number of RBs, TOs, 2 pt. shots made, free throws made. The only difference was three pointers. Ironically enough Arkansas hit one of those at the end of regulation to send the game to OT. 23, 7 for Hard, 15, 10 for Whye17 for Rose, 13 with 6 assists for Bell.

All 5 recruits sign so we’re finished with recruiting for the year.

Dawn:

We spent 6 days in Hawaii. It was the first time I’ve been away since we opened the agency almost two years ago.

November 23 Zak:

67-55 over Pepperdine here. 15, 10, 4, 4 for Whye, 16, 4 for Gonn, 12, 9 for Hard, 9, 4, 2, 2 for Bell.

Jamal is at all of our home games, of course. The student section has discovered him, and kind of adopted him. At some point in every game they chant his name until he waves, and then they give him a big cheer.

November 26 Deke Gale:

71-63 over Auburn here. The outside D was awful- for both teams. Our starting guards had 39, theirs had 38. We didn’t take control until the last 5 minutes or so. 25, 5, 3 for Bell, 14 for Rose, 10, 8 for Whye. Rob Hard was invisible.

November 30 Deke Gale:

62-74 at #4 Temple. We fell way behind early. The first five minutes did us in. After that we outplayed them; but it was too late. We’ve got a very good front line but theirs was way better.

December 7 Al Anon:

83-52 over Tennessee here. The scouting report said we were way better at every position except the Point and we were about equal there. That’s the way it turned out. 26,
5 for Cal Gonn, 18, 11, 3 for Hard, 14, 4, 4, 2 for Rose.

Sal Dum and Kris Robin have won the battle for sub minutes.

December 9 Dawn:

Fire. Yes, it was set. We haven’t figured out by whom, but it’s either an 8 year old boy or a 9 year old girl. None of our other clients are older than 3 right now.

It didn’t do a lot of damage; this building is so fireproofed that only a bomb could do serious damage. But we had to evacuate on a snowy evening, and we had to keep out of the building for a long time. We just brought everyone over to our house; it’s just across the way.

Staff put the fire out with extinguishers but it was a battle. The fire department and then the fire marshal had to do thorough checks of everything and then test air quality before we could return to the building. The empty patient room where the fire took place will need to be redone, so our census will stay at 11 for a while. We had a discharge at the very end of the day which is why we had an empty room.

I’m sure we’ll know who set the fire within a day or two.

[Wayne23]

December 11 Dawn:

Well, it took two days. The 9 year old girl confessed. We were gentle in our questioning, but it was all pointing to her. She has some severe anger issues, not unusual for our clients. She wasn’t necessarily angry with any of us, just sort of with the world. So she set the fire. The big concern is how she got matches. We still haven’t figured that one out. There are no matches here- anywhere. Even for birthday cakes we use candles with little electric lights. We may never solve this mystery.

The girl was placed in a psychiatric facility.

December 13 Rob Hard, junior

87-63 over archrival Provocation College here. I had to call Jaq Chan. All of us love to beat Providence but nobody loved it like him. It was weird, 3 of us had 18. I had 18, 9, 2, Drew Whye had 18, 11, 2, 2, and Jed Rose had 18, 2, 5. Sal Dum had 11, 5, 2, and Cal Gonn had 10, 6, 3. +14 RBs. It was never close.

Oh, Jaq is with the Pistons. He’s their first guard off the bench.

December 21 Zak:

68-71 to Purdue here. This one was complicated. 1. We blew a 13 point lead. 2. We went 3-23 on threes. 3. We were -8 RBs but +9 TOs. 4. The game turned on a bad call.

With about 10 seconds left and the shot clock running out a phantom foul was called on Drew Whye; his man drove on him and he stole the ball but was called for a hack.

This game was televised on the sports network. They replayed the incident from three different angles. There was no contact at all. The kid went to the line, made the 1 and 1. That was the ball game. 15, 15, 3 , 2 for Whye.

We wouldn’t mind seeing these guys again in March.

Zak: The schedule is a little weird in that we play our first A10 game next. Then we play a non-conference game. there’s nothing wrong with that but it’s unusual.

December 26 Al Anon:

70-55 over La Salle here. The scouting report said they were slow. They could be beaten by good ball movement, quick passes. We did that and executed it beautifully, and sure enough, we had open looks all night. 16, 7 for Hard, 13 each for Whye and Rose.

Dawn and Zak:

“You talk about a powerhouse school. Like which schools?”

“UConn, Michigan ST, Michigan, UCLA, Stanford, Indiana, maybe one or two others.”

“No southern schools.”

“Well, given the nature of our family…”

“I doubt that Duke would be a problem.”

“If we lived on campus maybe.”

“Kansas? Oklahoma?”

“We’ll see if anybody at that level wants us.”

December 28 Fred Lee:

74-51 over Wichita ST here. 16, 8, 2, 2, for Whye. 14 each for Hard and Rose.

When I get to a game I look at it from the point of, who are we going to need to bring in. I’m finished recruiting for this year and I think the kids we’re bringing in will be able to replace the ones that we’re losing- Whye, Bell, Gonn, and Dum. 3 bigs are graduating. But Hard and Frost are back so we only need one new kid. We have two and I like the odds that at least one, and maybe both, will get it done. We have three guards coming in so we should be good there.

Jeff Frost banged up a hip. Out about a week.

Zak: We are at 8-3. We went 7-3 in non-conf. games. Hard leads the A10 in scoring, Whye is #1 and Hard #2 in RBs, Rose is #1 in assists, and Hard #1 in FG%. As a team +10.6 PPG, +3.1 RBPG, +3.3 TOPG, +1.5 assists PG, and +1.1 steals PG.

December 29 Zak:

49-65 at Duquesne. 22 turnovers, 33.3% shooting, 19 points in the entire 2nd half. Ugh.

December 31 Deke Gale:

81-78 in OT at Richmond. We are NOT playing well. This is a team we should have run away from. It took a 24 footer at the end of regulation by Cal Gonn to keep us alive in this one, and then another 24 footer, by Kam Bell, to win it. Those were our only threes of the night. We won it at the line. The refs were insane. They called 20 on us and 31 (!) on them. 26 and 9 for Whye. Jed Rose had 20 points- he was 20 for 20 at the line, and 0-7 from the floor. +9 TOs. Just a weird game.

[Wayne23]

January 2, 2028 Dawn:

Second anniversary of our agency.

January 5 Zak:

83-75 over Dayton here. 17, 4, 5, 3 for Rose, 20, 4, 2 for Hard, 14, 3, 5 for Bell, who fouled out in 19 minutes.

Our last two games have seen us give up the two largest numbers of points we’ve given up in regulation all season. Why? I don’t get it.

January 6 Zak:

The staff and I have met twice today. All we can do is observe right now, see if we can find some small thing we’re doing wrong.

January 7 Zak:

70-59 at East Carolina. Well, the D was better. And we made 14 threes. 20, 3 for Gonn, 16, 7 for Whye, 8, 11, 2 for Hard.

It still doesn’t feel like we’re playing our game. On the other hand we’re 4-1, tied for 1st in conference.

January 12 Deke Gale:

68-53 at George Washington. Are we back? We’re starting to look better. We’re really happy with our defensive effort tonight. 22, 6 for Whye, 12, 10 for Hard, 12, 7 for Gonn, 12, 1, 6 for Bell. +8 RBs. We held GW to 35.6% shooting.

January 14 Al Anon:

78-47 over Fordham here. The scouting report was three words: “Kick their a$$!” We followed it to the letter. 21, 7 for Hard, 13, 2, 3 for Rose, 12, 5 for Dum. 6 TOs.

January 19 Deke Gale:

81-54 over George Mason. 24, 7 for Whye, 22, 8 for Hard, 14, 4 for Gonn, 9, 5 for Dum. +13 RBs, +6 TOs. Whatever was wrong with us a while back is not a problem anymore.

Let’s hope it stays this way.

January 21 Dawn:

1/22, actually. I’m writing this at 2:15 in the morning. The ultimate nightmare happened at the agency this afternoon. A parent who had lost custody of her two small children came in with a gun. An aide spotted her and immediately called 911, but by the time the responders arrived the woman’s two children, five of our other clients, an RN, an LPN, two aides including the who called 911, a cafeteria worker, and a custodian were all dead. The police shot and killed the woman.

Thirteen people murdered, seven of them children, and the perpetrator is the fourteenth person slain in the incident. The agency is closed. The five surviving clients were brought to other facilities.

Parents are not supposed to know where their children have been brought. How did this woman find out? I don’t suppose it really matters but I find that I very much want to know.

I missed being a victim by just 2-3 minutes. I was at the agency doing some paperwork, and had just walked to the house to take a break and spend some time with the kids.

Within 10 minutes I got the call. By then it was over and the woman was dead.

Life changing incidents can happen so quickly.

At least two of my employees, the custodian and the LPN, were killed trying to save the children. Perhaps others were as well. There is still a great deal we don’t know.

Of the six employees killed, five had been with us since we opened the doors. The cafeteria worker, age 16, was in his second day here.

January 21 Deke Gale:

88-66 over St. Joe’s here. I coached the team tonight. Zak was at home with his family due to the shooting. 29, 10 for Whye, 15, 6, 3, 2 for Gonn, 15, 6 for Hard. 7 TOs, 36 RBs. The kids were subdued when they came in tonight. Once everyone was here I called them all together and tried to focus them. It seems to have worked, they played great ball.

At the halfway point in conf. play we are 15-4, 8-1, alone in 1st, 1 up on Dayton, 1 ½ on Duquesne, 2 on St. Joe’s, 2 ½ on George Mason. Hart and Whye are #1 and #2 in both scoring and rebounding.

January 22 Zak:

We’re ranked. #25, RPI #18.

Dawn:

Details remain sketchy. Janina Maria Formica lived in Cranston with her two children (names are being withheld) and her boyfriend. The state took the children, yesterday, because of neglect. They were both filthy. Both the oldest, a 26 month old girl, and the youngest, a 9 month old boy, were in dirty diapers and no other clothing in a cold apartment. They were crying and hungry. The worker reported that Janina and the boyfriend, Robert Italiano, were addicted to heroin. He was pimping her, with customers coming into the apartment to “get what they paid for.”

Evidently Janina overheard the worker when she called our agency, and the worker must have mentioned our name. The worker is on paid leave of absence pending the results of the investigation.

Janina arrived here no more than a half hour after her children did, and started firing immediately. She had three handguns in her possession when police examined her body. Two had been fired multiple times.

That’s what we know at the moment. Oh, all of the victims were killed, there are no wounded survivors. Those clients and workers who survived the incident were in areas where there was no shooting.

January 23 Zak:

67-63 in OT at Davidson. Close all the way. We tied it at the end of regulation on 2 free throws by Whye, who had 23, 10, 2, 3. 12, 7, 2 for Gonn. +6 TOs, +5 RBs.

We have a 1 ½ game lead.

January 26 Dawn:

We’re still closed. It may be a while. I’ve been catching up on paperwork but I’m pretty much caught up. The rest is probably doing me good.

The worker in the case has been fired.

January 30 Al Anon:

86-80 in OT at 3rd place Dayton. 23 ties, 15 lead changes. No one ever led by more than 6. Rose hit a three at the end of regulation to send it to OT. He had 22, 4, 3. 15, 10, 2 for Hard, 13, 10 for Whye, 11, 8, 6, 3 for Bell, 11, 5, 2, 2 for Gonn. 45 RBs. The scouting report said we needed to get it inside as often as possible, and that’s where we won it. +16 points in the paint, +9 second hand points.

[Wayne23]

February 4 Al Anon:

65-54 over UMass here. Again the plan said to get it inside. We did. 17, 7, 2 for Hard, 16, 8, 2 for Whye, 12, 7 for Gonn, 8, 2 for Dum. +6 TOs.

#19, RPI #14.

10 wins in a row, 3 of them in OT.

February 6 Deke Gale:

63-67 at Saint Louis. We fell behind. Then we fell WAY behind, as many as 25. We spent the rest of the game chipping away but the final was as close as it got.

Dawn: The agency reopens tomorrow. The state needs the facility open. As always, there simply isn’t any place to put these kids.

We have no culpability in the incident. As I said the worker was fired. Her indiscretion in naming our agency gave the perp all the info she needed. It was a horrible mistake.

The thing is, there was no excuse. She’d been with the state, working in that capacity, for 3 ½ years. She knew the procedures and protocols.

February 11 Deke Gale:

84-64 at La Salle. We followed the game plan and took control early. 29, 6, 2, 3 for Whye, 19, 7 for Hard.

We’re 2 up in the loss column with 4 to play.

Sal Dum hurt his leg. Out about a week.

February 13 Deke Gale:

64-33 over East Carolina. A laugher; we thought it would be. 21, 11 for Hard, 9, 11 for Whye, 12, 4, 2, 2 for Gonn. 40 RBs, 10 TOs.

Sal Dum will be back for our next game. He only missed one.

February 18 Zak:

82-63 over St. Bonnie’s here. 22, 7, 2, 2 for Whye, 17, 6 for Hard. 6 TOs. We’re playing really well right now.

February 23 Zak:

78-51 over Davidson to clinch first place. It was never a game. 23, 5 for Hard, 14, 6 for Whye, 12, 8 for Dum, 11, 5, 8 for Rose, 7, 7 for Gonn, 42 RBs, 8 TOs,

Senior night. We honored 3 starters and our 6th man: Drew Whye, Kam Bell, Cal Gonn, and Sal Dum. That’s a LOT of talent to replace.

February 25 Deke Gale:

58-57 at VCU. I’m guessing the guys knew it was a meaningless game. That would explain the lack of focus. We got behind by 15 and spent the rest of the night chipping away.

Finally, we got there. Kam Bell brought it down on the last possession, got it to Hard, and he was fouled in the act. He made both and that was it. Bell led the way with 15, 6, 2, 2. And it’s the post season!

We end regular season play at 23-5, 16-2. #16, RPI #15.

[Wayne23]

March 6 Joe Downatti, Providence Journal, The Low Down with Joe Down:

I predicted back in November that the URI Rams would win their conference and go to the Sweet Sixteen. Well, I got the first half right. They finished 2 up on St. Joe’s. Now let’s see if they can make me right on the second part.

Zak:

We play #9 seed St. Bonnie’s, 16-12, 8-10, in the quarter finals. We beat them by 19 here.

March 7 Zak:

86-59. 20, 4, 6, 2 for Rose, 17, 4, 3 for Bell. +13 TOs. Our guards did it for us tonight.

All the favorites won so we play #4 seed Dayton, 20-9, 12-6. We beat them by 8 here, and then by 6 in OT there.

March 8 Deke Gale:

73-56. Our guys seemed determined. They really want to win this tournament. 24, 8 for Hard, 14, 7, 4 for Whye, 14, 6 for Gonn, 12, 8, 3 for Bell. +10 RBs.

#2 seed St. Joe’s, 22-7, 14-4, for the title. We beat them by 22 here.

March 9 Zak:

102-70. Wow! Just wow! 24, 5, 2, 2 for Whye, 17 each for Gonn and Rose, 11, 5, 9 for Bell, 14, 8 for Dum. +12 RBs, +8 TOs.

Let’s see how high we go in the NCAA selection.

March 12 Zak:

#13, RPI #12.

Not in the East.

Not in the Midwest.

#4 in the South. We play #13 Liberty, 21-9.

March 17 Deke Gale:

74-51. 19, 10, 2, 2, 2 for Whye, 19, 4 for Hard. +9 TOs.

Premiere program Kentucky, #5 seed, #19 ranked, 22-8 next. They struggled during February and March. We need to play our best ball.

March 19 Zak:

78-58! We never trailed. 23, 6 for Hard, 12, 6, 3 for Gonn, 10, 7, 4 for Rose. +11 RBs. They never got closer than 11 in the 2nd half. A great win!

And we caught a break. #9 seed Syracuse, 18-13, upset #1 seed North Carolina. Syracuse is a great program, but they’re having a tough season. We need to control their outside shot.

Jeff Frost tweaked his back. Day to day.

March 24 Zak:

62-57! We scored the first 13 points and quickly jumped out to a 19 point lead. The final margin was as close as they got. 11, 8 for Whye but this was a team effort. 6 players had between 8 and 11. 7 TOs. A great win, and farther than either URI or I have ever been in the tournament.

Next is a rematch with #3 seed, #11 ranked Temple, 27-9. They beat us by 12 there. They beat us inside- badly. We have one practice to fix that.

March 26 Zak:

67-74. Not quite. The stats were pretty even, they had one more here, one more there. 15, 4, 3, 2 for Hard, 14, 2, 3, 2 for Rose, 9, 5 for Whye.

It was a great season!

Les More, WPRO-TV Sports:

“I’m here after the game with Coach Zak Zachery. Tough loss, Coach.”

“I’m proud of my kids. They played their hearts out. We just didn’t quite get there.”

“Best season in URI history. First time we ever get to the Elite Eight.”

“First time for me as a coach, too. It was a real thrill for all of us.”

“You’re losing three starters and your 6th man. Tough season coming up?”

“I’m not so sure of that. We have starters Rob Hard and Jed Rose returning. We have Jeff Frost, who I think is ready to play great at power forward. We have three other guards back, Kris Robin, Dave Ross, and Matt Burns, and we have some very good looking recruits. I think we’ll be okay.”

“Thanks Coach.”

March 27 Joe Downatti, Providence Journal, “The Low Down with Joe Down”: Congratulations to the URI Rams, whose season ended in the Elite Eight last night. This was the best season in URI hoops history. I predicted Sweet Sixteen and they one upped me. Way to go, Rams!

April 4 Zak:

#3 Indiana beat #5 Oregon for the title.

Awards: Drew Whye was A10 POY. He, Jed Rose, and Rob Hart made 1st team. Cal Gonn made 2nd team, and I was COY again.

April 9

We’ll be here another year. No tempting offers.

April 23 Zak:

We ask for a facilities upgrade. No luck.

29-6, Elite Eight. Overall, 190-61, .757. Off- 32, Def- 48, Recruit- 80, Scout- 67, Player Dev- 40, Reputation- 39.

[Wayne23]

May 1 Zak:

We buy National Gold, International Basic.

June 6 Zak:

No one in the transfer pool.

June 26 Fred Lee:

Can’t believe Drew Whye went undrafted.

We have 5 scholarships to fill and we need both bigs and guards.

Dawn:

Everything is back to “normal” at the agency. We try not to think about the horrible incident that happened in January, but every time we go past the little memorial, with the photos of the victims…

July 17 Fred Lee:

I have to say the recruit pool is shallow and polluted. Not much of interest there so far.

August 7 Fred Lee:

Looking at 20 more recruits. The first batch was unimpressive.

August 21 Fred Lee:

We offer to 3 PFs and 2 PGs.

September 18 Fred Lee:

Getting close with some recruits.

Joe Napoli, Assistant A. D.:

We’re at the Alaskan Classic against Bowling Green. 3 at home, 5 on the road, plus the tourney in Alaska. 3 ranked teams on the schedule.

September 25 Fred Lee:

We get one, PG Joe Topp, #362.

October 2 Fred Lee:

We get center Ben Tate, #392.

Deke Gale:

First practice. We’re thin. I’d say we have seven players right now. Hopefully one or two others will develop.

Zak:

We are picked 12th in our 15 team conference. Are you kidding me!

October 9 Fred Lee:

We get one, we lose one. We get Ozzy Akin, PF, #143.

October 16 Fred Lee:

We lose another one. 2 left to fill. We have 2 bigs and a PG committed.

There’s no one we’re interested in right now. We’ll wait before making the final two offers.

November 6 Deke Gale:

7 man rotation to start: Senior Jed Rose returns at guard and he gets lots of minutes. The rest are split about evenly between soph Dave Ross and frosh Bo Mill. Frosh Kip Lapp starts at SF and plays a lot of PF. Frosh Shep Geer backs up at SF. Inside it’s returning seniors Rob Hard and Jeff Frost.

We aren’t deep. Staying healthy would be a good thing.

[Wayne23]

November 14 Deke Gale:

64-53 over Mississippi ST here. This looks like it may be a more guard oriented team than we’re used to. 18, 5 for Bo Mill, 14 for Dave Ross, 12, 6, 2 for Ron Hard. Dave Rose and Jeff frost both fouled out, Dave in 16 minutes, Jeff in 22. Not good. +6 TOs.

November 17 Zak:

86-82 at #25 Temple. This team has had our number. It’s great to beat them! Big game for Rob Hard, 31, 8, 2, 4. 15, 5, 6 for Rose, 14, 3 for Lapp, 12 for Mill. We scored the last 4, all from the line, all by Rob Hard, who was 15-15 from the line.

November 21 Kip Lapp, freshman- text to his old high school teammate:

Man, this is HARD. Tonight I felt like I did pretty good, 12 points, 3 RBs, 3 assists. But everything is so FAST! That’s the biggest difference. It feels like it’s 3x faster than when we were playing at Marshall High. It’s really cool though; I get to start for a Division I team! And a pretty good one! Oh we won 73-58 over Air Force here.

Rob Hard is unbelievable. He’s our center, a senior. He had 19, 8, 3. Another senior, Jeff Frost, has 16, 9. Okay, gotta go! Wait! We’re going to Alaska now. The Alaskan Classic. How cool is that!

November 25 Rob Hard, senior:

I want my senior year to be something I remember for the rest of my life. I’m really working hard. 29 and 12 tonight. 68-59 over #5 seed Bowling Green. We’re #4.

We were +16 in RBs.

Zak:

#1 seed Syracuse, 2-2, next. They look tough, especially inside.

November 26 Rob Hard, senior:

Everything in the papers and on the sports channel was about how Syracuse had this great inside game and they’d beat the crap out of us. Oh yeah? 58-41 over #1 seed Syracuse. I took it a s a personal challenge and wound up with 28 and 9. Jed Rose had 19 and 7 at guard. +7 RBs. Don’t p*ss on our inside game!

Zak:

We play #6 seed (which makes no sense), #8 ranked Oregon ST, 5-0, for the title. It’s always great to get to the title game. We need another big night from Rob Hard.

November 27 Zak:

63-61 and the title! The refs did everything they could to beat us, but it didn’t work, thanks to a last second three by Jed Rose. What the three blind mice did to Rob was shameful. They fouled him out in 10 minutes; 1 of the 5 called on him was legit. Our other 3 bigs had 4 fouls each. Redshirt soph, Ryan Cone rarely plays but I needed him for 17 minutes tonight. He had 4 and 5 and played good D. 15, 7, 3 for Rose, 13, 8 for sub Shep Geer, who hasn’t had a bad game yet. Hard got 10 and 5 in his 10 minutes. We won this one with D, though. We held them to 27.3%, 21.9% on threes.

I probably will pay for this but in answer to the first postgame press conference question I said, “I’m glad you asked that, Jeff. The officials were horrible tonight. They should be working girls rec league games- the 8 year olds." Deke Gale says that will cost me about $10,000.

Ranked! #18.

November 28 Zak:

Due to a probable brain aneurism by my A. D. we had to fly from Alaska to Oklahoma, and play there on the day after the Oregon ST game.

Somehow we beat them, 81-78 in OT. Incredible! Rob was immense, 37 and 7. Bo Mill had 16, 6, 2 at guard. My guys are so tired they’re babbling. We’ve been on the plane for 10 minutes, didn’t even take off yet, and they all seem to be asleep, even the guys who didn’t play.

Just for the record, we left home on 11/23, and we’ll be back on 12/6. We have an away game on the 13th but it’s a bus ride- Providence.

November 29 Zak:

Deke had it right on the money. The NCAA announced today that I am being fined $10,000 for “comments harmful to the game.” You can say anything pretty much, as long as you don’t diss the refs. Bull!

December 1 Rob Hard:

Hey! The refs let me play tonight! I had 30 and 12. Kip Lapp had 16, 10, 3. He’s just a rookie and this was his best game so far. 65-61 at Arkansas. +14 rebounds.

Coach wasn’t happy with the guards though, 20 TOs.

Zak:

I need to say that I am overwhelmed by my kids. 8-0 with 6 of them away from home, and 3 against ranked teams.

#5, RPI #11. Highest ranking ever for URI or for me as a head coach! Highest previous was #12, last season.

December 5 Zak:

73-83 at Utah. Overdue, I guess. Another poorly officiated game. Hard fouled out in 14 minutes on some very questionable calls, and Lapp fouled out in 24 minutes.
We were outplayed though. 18, 8, 4 for Rose.

Jed Rose hurt his hip. He’ll miss a few days but our next game is in a week. He should be fine by then.

Dawn:

Remember me? The agency has been relatively trouble free. We’ve had some minor incidents, but in this business those will never stop happening. Fortunately, nothing serious. I’m thinking about a second Master’s degree, in Social Work Administration, but not until we know if we’ll be here next season.

The kids are doing great.

Jamal is 13 and in 8th grade. He’s the captain of the school basketball team; they’re 9-0 and he’s the leading scorer. Zak gets to his games when he can and the rest of us are almost always there.

Jamia is 10. Whatever LD issues she had when she was younger have disappeared. She is an A student. She loves art- drawing, sculpture- all of it. She wants to go to an arts magnet school when she gets to high school.

Jamilia is 6, as of 2 days ago. She’s in first grade. She is fascinated by everything so she’s a good learner. She still has boundless energy.

[Wayne23]

December 13 Zak:

Disaster! We lost, 66-79, but that wasn’t the disaster. Starting guard Bo Mills tore his ACL. He’s out for a year or so. Dave Ross will get his minutes. We’ll play Matt Burns and Geo Star about equally as back up guards hoping one of them emerges.

23, 5 for Hard, 11, 6, 2 for Rose, but he had 8 TOs. As a team we had 26. I don’t ever remember coaching a game where my team has had that many. Truthfully, the injury happened about 11 minutes in (While a sub was waiting at the bench to come in for Bo), and the wind kind of went out of our sails after that.

We need to bounce back- fast!

December 19

69-48 over Arizona ST here. We needed a win! 22, 9 for Hard, 16, 5, 2, 2 for Rose, and 12, 5, 2, 2 for Dave Ross in his first start. 9 TOs, 35 RBs.

The bad luck continues. Jeff Frost sprained his wrist; It happened 5 minutes into the game. Out at least a week and a half. The only good news is we have 10 days until our next game.

We end pre-conference play at 9-2, not ranked, RPI #10. Rob Hard is 3rd in the nation in scoring. In the A10 he’s #1 in both scoring and RBs, #2 in FG%. As a team we are +5.8 PPG, +5.8 RBPG, -2.0 TOPG, +0.4 assists PG, and -2.2 steals PG.

December 29

Frost is better, not 100%, but close. He played.

64-54 over VCU here to start A10 play. 23 for Dave Ross, 17, 4, 3 for Matt Burns who had to play lots of minutes because Jed Rose spent the game in foul trouble. 15, 5 for Hard. Frost had 9 RBs in his return. +7 TOs.

December 31

58-50 over St. Bonnie’s here. 13 each for Ross and Hard. 10 and 11 for Frost. 35 RBs, 12 TOs. Ross has not hurt us at guard, that’s for sure!

[Wayne23]

January 5, 2029 Deke Gale:

92-79 over George Washington here. 27, 9, 3, 2 for Hard, 15, 2, 3, 2 for Ross. Whoever could have known Ross would give us more than Mill was giving us! 17, 7 for Lapp. 6 TOs.

January 9 Zak:

67-48 at George Mason. 19, 12 for Hard, who is having a great senior year so far. 20 and 8 for Lapp. +13 RBs.

January 12 Al Anon:

61-69 to Richmond here. Not a good night. Breaking it down, as usual when we lose it was about fouls. 16 were called on them, 25 on us. No one on their team had more than 3. For us Hard fouled out, and 3 other starters had 4. But there were other problems. We were -10 on the boards, and -13 in bench scoring.

Zak:

5 of our next 6 are on the road, and that probably spells trouble.

January 14 Zak:

76-69 at Dayton. We hung tough in a close game. 25, 10, 2 for Hard, 12, 9 for Frost, 18, 4, 4 for Rose. +5 in both TOs and RBs.

January 16 Deke Gale:

62-77 at #24 UMass. 18 TOs and poor shooting. 32, 6 for Hard but no one else had more than 6. It’s not easy to win that way.

This team has been disappointing in A10 play. I hope we can get it together.

January 19 Deke Gale:

62-54 over St. Bonnie’s there. 22, 8 for Hard, 12, 5, 4 for Lapp. We won this one with good D. They shot 31.3%, 30.8% on threes.

Geo Star pulled a hammie. Out for about two weeks. Matt Burns will get his minutes. We’re getting short on guards.

January 21 Zak:

68-64 over East Carolina here. Unusual game. Rob Hard and his opposite number banged heads all night and completely neutralized each other; they both had 2 points and 4 RBs. 23, 4, 3 for Rose, 14, 11 for Frost, 13, 5, 3 for Ross. We took 13 more shots, and we needed every one of them since we shot only 35% to their 48.9%. We were a little lucky tonight.

At the halfway point we’re in 2nd place, 2 back of UMass, at 16-4, 7-2. #15, RPI #7. Hard is #5 in scoring nationally, and still #1 in both scoring and rebounding in the A10, and 2nd in FG%. Frost is #4 in RBs, #1 in blocks. As a team +5.4 PPG, +4.4 RBPG, +0.3 TOPG, -0.7 assists PG, -0.9 steals PG.

January 26 Deke Gale:

59-50 at St. Joe’s. Well, we’re winning, if not looking particularly dominant. 28, 11 for Hard, 12, 9, 3 for Frost, 12 for Ross. We never trailed tonight but they stayed close.

The injuries continue to pile up. Ryan Cone is out about 10 days with a sprained toe.

January 28 Zak:

62-63 at Davidson. We blew a 13 point lead with very poor 2nd half D. They shot 16-29 in the 2nd half, mostly because we weren’t getting a hand in the shooter’s face. 21, 8, 3, 3 for Hard, 19 for Rose. Part of it is fatigue; the bench is very short right now.

We’re still alone in 2nd place, but now we’re 3 back of UMass.

Geo Star is back, or will be for our next game.