The Last Man

[Wayne23]

11/20: 1-1. There are few things I hate more than losing the opener. We did just that, losing at #21 UNLV, 64-66. We never led and only were tied twice after 0-0, but the second tie was at 64-64. They went to the line 12 more times but we shot only 61.1% from the line, which was enough to do us in. 27, 6 for C Bill Love, so that was encouraging. We got nothing from the bench. Then we beat Ohio ST by 22 here, getting lots from the bench and making our free throws.

All 6 recruits signed.

11/25: 70-45 over Tulsa in the 1st round of the Alaskan Classic. Our front court has been doing the bulk of the scoring and dominating the boards.

We’re the #1 seed in this tourney. Next up is #5 seed Georgia Southern, 3-2, in the semis.

11/26: 66-44. Again, our bigs dominated.

#6 seed Fairleigh Dickinson, 3-2, in the title game.

11/27: 89-63. 24, 8 for Lack. +16 RBs, 8 TOs.

We play #4 and #7 this week, both at our place. That will tell us a lot.

12/4: Beat #7 Georgia, 66-64. We almost blew a 15 point lead but #3 guard Dave Kana hit a three at the end.

Beat #4 New Mexico 72-60. Led all the way. 13 and 13 for love.

12/25: 9-2, #, RPI #. +14.1 PPG, +7.6 RBs, +6.3 TOs.

[Wayne23]

July, 2155: Adam Kevin has arrived. Mother and baby are doing fine. Lacy is fascinated. She was very well prepared for this and at least for now is accepting it very well.

We’re still cruising. The plan is to travel about ¾ of the way around the world and we’re 2/3 of the way there. We’re still experiencing storms but they’re still relatively minor. We’re hoping this means that our theory of putting some distance between us and the storms’ source may be accurate. Time will tell.

Lana and I have committed. We’re going to hold a ceremony soon. A wedding is ridiculous in this day and age but a ceremony to celebrate our decision makes sense. Naturally, she wants it to be special so she’s planning clothes, the reception, the ceremony itself- the whole thing. She’ll move in with me at some point soon, but not too long before the ceremony. I’m the guy. I’ll do it however she wants to.

I often think about how much my life has changed since these kids came into it. I did fine alone but it’s so much better to have people around. I still need my space and my alone time, and I make sure to get it often, but being completely alone for decades was tough in so many ways. Life is very good right now, and the future looks bright.

Next: A ceremony. Storms.

[Wayne23]

1/1/2052: 2-0 start to ACC play.

1/15: 15-3, 6-1, #7, RPI #2. Tied for 1st with #1 Duke.

1/29: 19-3, 10-1, #7, RPI #3. +13.5 PPG, +5.5 RBs, +5.7 TOs. ½ a game back of undefeated, #1 ranked Duke. All 5 starters averaging in double figures. Key Lack leads with 14.4 PPG. #6 and #7 also contribute big time. Except for Duke I think we can play with anyone in the country. Not so sure about Duke though.

Key Lack is #19, and Josh Brad #23 on the Norton list.

2/12: 22-3, 13-1, #6, RPI #2. Balance continues to get it done. All 5 starters are still averaging 10.4 or more. We’re one back of Duke and 4 up on 3rd place.

Key Lack is #20 on the Norton list.

2/26: We end the regular season at 25-4, 16-2, alone in 2nd, 2 back of Duke, who trounced us there this week. +12.4 PPG, +6.0 RBs, +5.8 TOs. Balance remains the key to our success.

I truly believe we can beat anyone in the country except for Duke. Not sure anyone can beat them. They were undefeated last season and they have yet to lose this season.

3/5: Little used sub Ed Jones declares for the NBA draft.

[Wayne23]

October, 2155: Our ceremony was held last week. Lana looked beautiful in her gown, as did the other girls in theirs. Lacy wore one, too. Kevin and I wore tuxedos. After the ceremony, which we performed ourselves, there was a banquet in a small banquet hall Lana designed in an HC. We feasted, there was dancing, and we did several of the traditional wedding things, like cutting the cake… It was great.

The day after the ceremony we experienced our first really violent storm. The boats were never in any real danger but we were tossed around quite a bit and it didn’t feel safe. Lacy didn’t like it at all. With two little ones around we were very concerned.

There have been three more storms, all about at the same level.

We’re still cruising to the southeast, and we’re still hoping we can get to a place where the storms won’t have much effect.

Next: Expecting. Three months of storms.

[Wayne23]

3/7: #9 seed Miami, 16-12, 8-10, won the play in. They have 2 starters out with injuries. We won by 19 here, 12 there.

3/8: 71-53. 54-29 at the half. 21 for backup guard Jay Slan. 42 RBs, 9 TOs.

#3 seed, #18 ranked Louisville, 22-8, 12-6, in the semis. We beat them by 11 at our place.

3/9: 67-40. Fantastic D! 23, 5, 5 for Kana, 16, 5 for Lack. +10 Rbs.

And it’s undefeated Duke for the title. They’re the best team in the country this year.

3/10: 75-67! We decided to double the ball in the half court. It worked. It was 49-30 at the half. We built the lead to 23 in the 2nd before they got it as little closer. Amazingly enough, the game was never in doubt. 20, 6 for Kana, 9, 15 for Brad, 10, 9 for Lack. Three others had 9 each. 54 RBs (+21), 11 TOs. Terrific win!

3/12: 28-4, 16-2, #5, RPI #1. I think we earned a #1 seed.

#1 South. We play #16 Sacred Heart, 20-10.

3/17: 78-61. They never quit. 21, 6 for Lack, 14, 13 for Brad. But 21 TOs. They had pressure on us all game but still. Not good.

#9 seed Wichita ST, 18-11, in the 2nd round. They’re a good team. We’ll need to be sharper than we were tonight.

3/19: 97-58. We were on fire tonight. 31, 3, 10, 4, 2 for Ward, 13, 9, 7 for Lack, 15, 4, 5 for Kana. +12 RBs, 6 TOs.

It’s #5 seed, #24 ranked Kansas, 24-8, in the Sweet Sixteen. They’re very solid inside but their guards are not that good.

3/24: 83-67. 25, 2, 5 for Ward who is hot right now, 17, 7, 3 for Kana, 16, 8, 3 for Lack. We took advantage of our edge in outside play. We beat them inside too, +10 RBs.

#3 seed, #10 ranked St. Joe’s, 30-3 in the elite Eight. This is a very good team, especially outside. If we can exploit our edge inside we’ll be fine but this one won’t be easy.

3/26: 77-73. We expected a battle and we got one. They were up 15 at one point. We battled back, took the lead by as many as 9, then they came back and took the lead. The issue was only settled in the last minute when Dave Kana hit a three, got a steal, and hit another three. Brad had 25, 12, 4, 6, Kana had 20, 3, 5. +8 RBs. Good game for the fans.

We’re in the Final Four for my first time here. We’ll play #9 ranked Georgia, 31-6, and the #2 seed. We beat them by only 2 at our place in November. They’re a very good team both inside and out.

On the other side it’s #1 ranked Duke against #5 seed, #25 ranked Mississippi ST, 27-7. So 2 ACC teams vs. 2 SEC teams.

4/1: 87-79. We were down 10 midway through the 2nd half. I decided to double the ball in the half court and we got 9 TOs in the last 10 minutes of the game. That made the difference; we outscored them 23-5 during that time. 31, 10 for Lack, 11, 15 for Love, 12, 8 for Kana, 11, 6 for Brad, 9 assists for Ward. +22 RBs.

And we meet 36-2 Duke in an all ACC final. They crushed us in the regular season and we beat them by 8 in the ACC final. We played a near perfect game that night and that’s what it will take. The difference maker may be that in today’s game their leading scorer, SF Ricky Martin, broke his wrist and is out for the final. You don’t wish that on anyone but it’s part of the game.

UNC/Duke is one of the great rivalries in college basketball so this should be quite the game!

4/3: 74-84. They exploded out of the gate and before we knew it we were down 10, then 20, then 27. After calling my 3rd Time Out we finally settled down, but it was too late. 17, 11 for Love, 11, 10, 4 for Brad, 19,
1, 8 for Ward. +9 RBs.

Proud to have made it to the title game.

4/4: Awards: Key Lack, Josh Brad, and Bill Love made the ACC 2nd team. Frankly, at least one should have made first, but I guess our balance hurt us as far as awards were concerned.

4/23: I ask for a facilities upgrade which we really need. C+ facilities is a disadvantage in recruiting, and my players deserve better facilities. Got it, we’ll be at B+ once the renovations are made.

33-5, we won the ACC tourney, we made it to the title game. Great season! Overall, I’m 656-166, .798.

[Wayne23]

January, 2156: Lana is expecting. She’s due in late July/early August. We’re thrilled. She will get the same excellent care Joy gets from the holodoctors.

We had a group meeting on the subject of kids- specifically, how many can we care for, given that we’re living on an 80 foot boat. As they grow they will need more and more space, and we can’t really expand the space we have. We have two boats, and that’s probably all we’re going to have. At some point we’ll switch back to living on two boats, we’ll have to. But we can’t expand beyond that.

We decided that we’ll need to stop at four kids total.

Then Marcie spoke up and drove the conversation in a whole new direction. She told us she wants a baby. Given that there are exactly two males here, and that one of them is her brother, everyone looked at me, then at Lana, then back at me.

A LONG discussion followed. In the end we all agreed that Marcie had a right to have a baby of her own. We also agreed that Lana and I need to discuss that at length, and that she and I need to be comfortable with me fathering a child with Marcie.

Frankly, this came out of the blue. I need time to figure out how I feel about it, and so does Lana. We’ll take our time, think about it privately, and have two and three way discussions with each other and with Marcie.

Man, all of this is getting complicated.

And then there’s the weather. It has been stormy for three months. Most of the time the storms have been no more than an inconvenience, but there have been times when we needed to really batten everything down and keep a close eye on the kids. We’ve even had to strap in to seats to ride it out at times. Lacy is NOT happy when that happens, and it is difficult to keep her entertained and/or distracted. Lana is in the morning sickness stage of the pregnancy and it’s just awful for her when the weather is rocking the boat severely.

Due to the storms we haven’t cruised very far. When it calms down enough we get moving, but that hasn’t happened enough. We feel like we want to cruise about another thousand miles. We also feel that we’re better off for having moved as far as we have. While there are no longer any functioning weather satellites, we do get some long distance weather data, and the storms seem to be much, much worse where we were before we started moving, and they ease up proportionately as the data comes in from points southwest of that original spot.

Next: A really bad storm. A decision.

[Wayne23]

5/1: We buy the usual.

Preseason #5.

6/5: We see a transfer we really like.

6/12: Didn’t get him.

6/26: 5 scholarships. We want either 3 or 4 bigs.

4 of our guys picked in the draft- #11, 23, 24, 37.

8/7: 5 on the Norton list: PG Kee Deqq is #6, C Bill Love #19, PF Will Birn #20, SF Key Lack #27, PG Hal Rand #50.

8/21: We offer to a PG, an SG, 2 PFs, and a C.

9/18: Got 3, An SG, #3, 2 PFs, #4, 16. Lost a PG. We offer to a PG.

Going to the Sunshine Shootout vs GA ST. Lots of ranked teams on the schedule.

9/25: Got one, lost one. Got a PG, #22. Lost a big. We’ll offer to another big.

10/2: We get the C, #26.

1st day of practice.

11/6: Here’s the lineup:

Frosh Kee Deqq and Hal Rand start at guard, with senior Dave Kana backing up.

Senior Key Lack is at SF.

Senior Bill Love and frosh Will Birn start inside. Junior Jam Holi and senior Dal Pott back up.

We’re #5 in the latest poll, picked to win the ACC.

[Wayne23]

April, 2156: We had our first really bad storm of this go round. For up to three hours the ship was being tossed about so badly we thought we were going to sink. We took on water- lots of it. Everything not firmly tied down was tossed all lover the place. There was damage done to the boat. We lost two robots over the side.

Finally it ended. When a storm starts to look bad the two boats separate, and try to stay far apart. When this one ended we couldn’t find the other boat for a long time. When we did we saw that it had sustained even more damage than our boat had. We spent the next four days having the robots repair all the damage and get all the water out of the boats. We had to 3D print 5 robots, the other boat lost three to go with the two we lost. As soon as everything was fixed and back in order another storm started. It was bad, but not as bad as the last one.

Finally, things calmed a little and we cruised southeast at a much faster rate than usual. We’re still a few hundred miles from our destination.

Going alo0ng with all of this, and preceding it, were thoughts and talks regarding my fathering a child with Marcie.

I was really pretty uncomfortable with the idea but one night Lana said, “I think you should do it.”

That led to a very long discussion, and in the end I agreed. I was really touched by how unselfish Lana was being about this.

We decided that Marcie and the holodocs would figure out her ovulation cycle, and when the time was right, she and Lana would switch rooms for a week.

Next: A new baby. A new pregnancy. More storms.

[Wayne23]

11/20: 2-0. We beat #19 and #15, both here. Love had 2 double doubles.

All 5 recruits signed.

12/6: 6-0, #5, RPI #9. Bill Love is averaging a double double.

Off to the Sunshine Shootout. We’re the #2 seed, and we play #7 GA ST, 3-3, first. There are some good teams here.

12/9: 80-55. 20 and 6 for PG Kee Deqq, 14, 17 for Love, 14, 7 for lack. 51 RBs, 10 TOs.

It’s #3 seed Temple, 3-4, in the semis.

12/10: 83-61. 21, 5, 9 for Deqq, 24, 5 for sub SF Jam Holi, 16, 3, 3 for sub guard Dave Kana. +16 TOs.

It’s #1 seed, #23 ranked Louisville, 6-2, for the title.

12/11: 84-65. 28, 4, 3 for Deqq, 18, 4, 11 for SG Hal Rand. 42 RBs, 5 TOs. Great tournament for us!

12/25: 10-1, #4, RPI #3. +11.4 PPG, +6.3 RBs, +6.4 TOs. #1 in RBs and blocks, #3 in PPG, #4 in TOs. Love is still averaging a double double.

[Wayne23]

August, 2156: Max Lowell was born two days ago. He and mom are perfectly healthy. I’m more excited and choked up about this than I thought I’d be. It’s an amazing thing!

Marcie is pregnant, and due in February. Now that Max has arrived I’m really conflicted about this. I’m a little worried about how it will affect my relationship with Lana. That’s true not so much because of Marcie, but because of how I now know I will feel about the baby when it arrives. I’m sure I’ll feel the same way as I do about Max. Parenting here is not like it was back in the old world. All 5 adults truly act as parents to our children here. That thought eases my conflict a bit, but still, Marcie will be the mother of my child. Plus, she’s the odd one out. That has to be very, very difficult. Kevin and Joy are a couple. Lana and I are a couple. The only one left is Marcie. I guess we’ll just have to see how it all plays out.

The boat seems crowded with the new arrival. He’s too little to take up a lot of space, but he does require some space, and that is limited, of course.

The storms have continued, some of them pretty intense. Kevin tried to grab something that got loose during a really bad storm and was thrown across the room. He didn’t break anything but he was pretty banged up.

Lots of damage and some lost robots but at least so far there’s been nothing we can’t fix.

Next: A disaster