Walk on dynasty

[Wayne23]

5/1: A new season.

(Author’s note: Reviving this. I still want to see how far I can take a team. Going with a team in R, Chicago ST, since I needed to start over. Notes will be sparse in season 1 since we will have all but 2 scholarship players. In the 2nd season of the restart all will be walk ons again.)

6/25: 1st year needs to have mostly scholarship players. I went with seniors, juniors, sophs, plus the 2 walk ons.

9/18: We have a schedule.

10/2: First day of practice.

11/6: 8 man rotation.

11/20: 1-1.

11/27: 2-0, 3-1. We make some lineup changes.

12/4: 1-1, 4-2. We’re actually doing lots of things well- 11.8 TOs for one thing.

12/11: 1-1, 5-3.

12/18: 0-1, 5-4.

12/25: 1-0, 6-4. 1 more pre-conf. game.

1/1/’23: We end pre-conf. play 7-4, RPI #126. +4.0 PPG, 1.4 RBs, 2.2 TOs.

[Wayne23]

1/8: 2-0 start in conf. R play, 1 at home, 1 away. 9-4, 2-0.

1/15: 1-1 in 2 road games. 10-5, 3-1. RPI #82. In a 4 way tie for 2nd but it’s very early. Still 3-1 with 3 road games is great!

1/22: Won at home, lost on the road. 11-6, 4-2, RPI #92. Still in a 4 way tie for 2nd, but 2 back of #1.

1/29: 2-0, winning 1 home, 1 away. 13-6, 6-2. RPI #91. In a 2 way tie for 2nd, 1 back of 1st.

2/5: 2-0; we’re playing great ball on the road, 4-2 in conf. play, 6-5 in all.

15-6, 8-2, RPI #98, alone in 2nd, 1 back of 1st. 4 of our last 6 are at home.

2/12: 2-0 vs. the #1 and #3 teams in conf., both at home.

17-6, 10-2, RPI #82. Tied for 1st, 2 up on 3rd.

2/19: 2-0 and another road win. 19-6, 12-2, RPI #59. Still tied for 1st, but 3 up on 3rd with 2 to play.

2/26: We split but so did the other team in the tie so we’re still tied for 1st but we get the #1 seed in the tournament.

We end the regular season at 20-7, 13-3, RPI #56; tied for 1st. +6.8 PPG, +2.6 RBs, +3.7 TOs.

[Wayne23]

3/1: #8 seed Texas-San Antonio, 14-14, 8-8, won the play in. We play them in the quarters. We won by 19 here but lost by 11 there, last week.

3/2: 66-59. That should get us to Conf. Q next season. 8 guys had between 5 and 13 points. +8 TOs.

#5 seed SE Louisiana, 16-13, 8-8, in the semis. We didn’t play them this season.

3/3: 59-66. Down 13 at the half, 19 with 15:22 left.

Is the season over? I don’t think so. Our RPI is still 79, but it will change once more. We may make the NIT but we’ll go somewhere.

SE Louisiana won the tourney by 2 points.

3/12: 21-8, 13-3, RPI #64 going to the selection show.

NIT, #2 East. We play #7 Purdue.

3/13: 33-29. We had them by 18 but fell apart late in the half.

60-77. We fell apart completely in the 2nd half. In over our heads against a Conf. B team.

4/4: Awards: I get Conf. R COY, a senior C makes 1st team.

4/23: We ask for a facilities upgrade. No.

21-9, 13-3. +5.6 PPG, +1.9 RBs, +3.5 TOs.

143-74, .659.

All walk ons next season in Conf. Q, so more info in the write ups.

[Wayne23]

5/1: Here’s the breakdown for my all walk on squad. We’re keeping 14: 3.5-1, 3-4, 2.5-4, 2-5.

9/18: We have a schedule.

10/2: First day of practice. Not a bad looking team.

11/6: 8 man rotation: Senior Kas And and soph Lon Hais will share the Point and back up at SG. Junior Kab Hion will get all the minutes he can handle at SG.

Senior Mark Held will start at SF.

Juniors Dey Ders and Pete Wood will start inside. Junior Aron Esch will back up at SF and PF, and frosh Stan Reed will back up at PF and C.

[Wayne23]

3 of our 1st 4 are on the road then it’s 5 at home, 1 on the road, 2 more at home. Then conf. Q play begins. Hoping for 2-2 in our 1st 4.

11/20: 0-2. 31 point loss at Wm & Mary. 4 guys played decently, 21 TOs.

Lost by 8 in the 2nd. 19 TOs. Tempting as it is to make changes, we’ll see another game or two first.

11/27: 86-68 at home. 24, 7 for C/PF Ders, 18, 8 for SG Hion, 10, 8, 7 for SF Held, 11, 6, 2 for PF/C Wood. Esch gets Reed’s minutes up front, and Hais gets most of And’s at guard.

75-55 on the road. 15, 3, 3 for Held, 8, 8 for Hion, 10, 7, 2 for recently demoted Reed. +12 RBs, but 22 TOs (-4). TOs are a problem again this year. We cannot seem to find walk on guards who can take care of the ball.

2-2 in our first four as we’re finding our lineup. Next 5 are at home, and 7 of 8.

12/4: 2 wins, by 11 and then 7. 4-2, RPI #123.

C/PF Dey Ders and SG Kab Hion are emerging as our scorers. SF Mark Held is playing well all around. 13 and 14 TOs in these 2 games. I’ll take it!

2 more at home this week but against better teams.

12/11: 2 more wins at home, by 18 and 14. 6-2, RPI #80. Ders, Hion and sub Aron Esch provided the scoring in both games. Esch may need more minutes. 12 TOs in the 1st game but then 23 in the 2nd.

Esch will get some of Wood’s minutes.

3 more pre-conf. games, 1 per week. 1st at home, 2nd away, 3rd at home.

12/18: 71-60. PG Lon Hais had 25. 38 RBs, but 22 TOs.

12/25: 63-82 road loss. Ugly. 16, 12 for Ders, 14, 6, 2 for Held. 20 TOs.

We’re increasing the offensive pace to try to cut down on TOs. Esch will start for Wood.

1/1/’24: 90-66 win. 24, 4, 5, 2 for Hion. 16 TOs, so not much help speeding things up.

We end pre-conf. play 8-3, RPI #76. +5.9 PPG, +8.5 RBs, but -4.3 TOs.

[Wayne23]

1/8: 1-1 in a pair of home games, which is not good. 9-4, 1-1, RPI #108.

We won the 1st by 8. 20, 5, 2, 2 for Hion, 15, 4 for Hais, 13, 3, 3 for Held. +10 RBs, but 21 TOs (only -2).

Then a 7 point loss. 19, 4, 3 for Held. 21 TOs, but this time it was -8, and it was the difference, leading to 10 more shots by the other team.

1/15: 1-1. We lost a road game we should have won. 10-5, 2-2, RPI #140. 19 TOs in the 1st game, 22 in the 2nd. We’re #328 in TOs.

1/22: Another 1-1 week- barely. We almost lost the home game. We’re 11-6, 3-3, RPI #157, in a 6 way tie for 6th.

Giving Stan Reed Pete Woods minutes up front.

1/29: 1-1 again. 12-7, 4-4. RPI #161. Still in a 6 way tie for 6th.

Halfway through conf. play. 5 of the last 8 are on the road, where we have yet to win a conf. game.

+3.0 PPG, +8.0 RBs, -4.1 TOs- #324.

[Wayne23]

2/5: 1-1. 13-8, 5-5, RPI #156. In a 7 way tie for 5th. TOs all the way up to #315!

Trying Russ Bard for Stan Reed.

2/12: 2-0 week and we won a road game!

15-8, 7-5, RPI #127. In a 6 way tie for 3rd.

4 to play but the next 3 are away. A 2-2 finish would be great.

Russ Bard had 2 GREAT games. He’s starting.

2/19: 1-1 in 2 road games. 16-9, 8-6, RPI #120, in a 4 way tie for 4th, 1 back of 3rd.

Should have won both. We blew a 14 point lead in the loss.

It would take a lot of luck for us to go 2-0. The road game is with a team tied for 2nd.

2/26: 1-1. We end the regular season 17-10, 9-7, RPI #114, in a 3 way tie for 5th. #7 seed in the Conf. Q tourney. I think this means we will remain in Conf. Q but it is possible that if we do well in the tourney we still may move up. Not totally sure how it works.

+3.0 PPG, +6.6 RBs, -3.8 TOs (#309).

[PointGuard]

I'm pretty sure if you win the conf tourney, you move up regardless of where you finished in regular season conf play.

[Wayne23]

#10 seed UMBC, 9-18, 8-8 in the play in. We beat them by 7 at our place.

3/1: 71-66. We led by as many as 15 but they almost caught us. They had the ball down 3 with 17 seconds left. They missed the shot, fouled, and we hit both.

27 for Bard. Only 11 TOs.

#2 seed Campbell, 16-11, 10-6, in the round of 8. They beat us by 15 there.

3/2: 38-30 at the half. Some foul trouble.

65-66. They hit a three at the buzzer. 21 fouls called on us, including three in the last minute, 2 of which were phantom. This was a tough game to lose.

That will definitely end our season and we will not advance to the next highest conf. BUT, only one senior who played significant minutes, and walk ons sometimes get better so…

4/4: Awards: Dey Ders made Conf. Q 2nd team and I somehow got conf. COY.

4/23: We ask for a facilities upgrade. No.

18-11, 9-7, RPI #115. +2.9 PPG, +6.2 RBs, -3.3 TOs (#307).

Overall I’m 161-85, .655 for 8 seasons.

[Wayne23]

5/1: 3.5-1, 3-4, 2.5-5, 2-3, 1.5-1.

(Author’s note: This is the test season. If we don’t move up I will assume we’ve maxed out.)

9/18: We have a schedule.

10/2: 1st day of practice.

11/6: We’re going with a very unsettled lineup:

Three guards will split the time almost equally: junior Lon Hais and soph Che Toma will play Point and back up at SG, and senior Kab Hion will play SG.

Frosh Cal Cole and junior Joel Carr will split SF equally.

Three inside players will split the time up front almost equally: sophs Russ Bard and Cole Task will play PF and back up at C, and senior Aron Esch will play C. There will be changes.