After Dystopia

[Wayne23]

5/1: Not a lot of money so we buy only the National Basic.

6/5: Going after transfers.

6/12: We get 2, a PF and an SF.

6/19: We get another PF.

I’m settling in. I have a place, which is not an issue, of course, and I’m finding my way around Milwaukee, which isn’t much more of an issue.

8/21: We offer to 3 bigs and a PG.

Folks here are very friendly and welcoming. People talk about the differences between New Englanders and Midwesterners and there seems to be something to that. In any case, it has been a smooth transition.

9/18: We get 2 bigs, Dio Barr, C, #91, and Ty Buck, C, #295.

Our schedule is soft. We want wins.

9/25: We got PF Norm Gold, #71. Still need that PG. We’ve got 6 big guys for next year, 3 transfers and 3 recruits. Only need one PG but it’s been a struggle.

10/2: First day of practice. There’s a lot to work on.

It feels strange not to be involved with running my community. There have been offers to get involved, but I’ve asked that I be given time to settle in to my new job, and to coaching. I’ll get more involved in the spring, when the season ends.

Oh, the job. I’m a truck driver. As soon as something stats related opens I’ll move to that, but for now I am hauling goods from the railroad yard, and from the shore, driving on farms- doing whatever driving needs doing. It’s kind of nice. It’s relatively mindless. After years and years of heavy duty, high pressure work this is a nice break. I’m sure I’ll tire of it though.

11/13: Here’s the lineup: Senior Tom Witt, soph Art Lee, and frosh Lav Gour will share guard time about equally to begin the season. The first two will start.

Frosh Chaz Bert starts at SF.

Seniors Bo Marn and Ken More will start up front, with Marn playing a little SF.

Soph Greg Duke will back up inside.

We looked better than expected in the exhibition games, but we’ve been improving steadily over the past 5 weeks. I think we may be okay.

[Wayne23]

11/20: Great start. 11 point road win, 7 point home win.

11/27: 2 home wins to put us at 4-0. It’s been a team effort. Bert and Duke are getting lots of points, and More, Marn, and Duke are all rebounding well. Our guards are +1.5 in TOs.

12/4: Road loss to Texas A & M, the toughest team on our schedule, then a 2 point home win. 5-1.

One great thing about driving a truck is that I get to meet lots of people.

12/11: Home win, then a 4 game road trip. We lose the first one by 10.

I’ll take 6-2!

12/18: We split a pair of road games. 7-3.

12/25: A one game week and a win. We finish pre-conf. play at 8-3. I’m thrilled!

+4.7 PPG, +2.9 RBs, +1.8 TOs.

After 11 games I think we can play in this conference. Goals are to finish in the top ½ and get to the NIT, and I think we’ll do both!

[Wayne23]

1/1/2581: A loss to start conf. play.

1/8: 2 wins this week. 10-4, 2-1.

1/15: We split. 11-5, 3-2, RPI #111.

Caught! New Boston caught their serial killer. Eber Knox, a truck driver, was caught trying to hide the body of his 7th victim, Cilla Rhoades.

As I know too well, truck drivers have very flexible, erratic schedules. This allowed Eber the opportunity to stalk potential victims, and then to kill them and place them where he wanted them.

It was by pure chance that Lottie Mixx happened to be repairing a fence fairly close to where Eber was hiding the body; it’s strange that he didn’t see her. She wisely ran away rather than confronting Eber.

When she told Jenny Flood, Jenny quickly gathered three deputies and went to find Eber. They found him, Jenny confronted him. He confessed.

The trial is tomorrow, and the execution on Tuesday. Capital punishment is controversial in the communities, at least philosophically, but practically speaking, we don’t have the resources to keep someone in prison for life, and we’re not about to exile a murderer. He might find a way of killing again somewhere else.

1/17: Eber Knox saved us the trauma of executing him. He slit his wrists in his holding cell and was found dead when they came to get him at dawn.

1/22: Great week! 2 road wins. SF Chaz Bert had 25, and 1st big guy off the bench Greg Duke had 19 and 8 in the first, and Bert had 25 more in the 2nd.

1/28: An opening in stats. Jez Conklin is 68 years old, and he’s in poor health. He wants to take it a bit easier. I will move over to the stats department and work with him for a week or two and then take over the position of head statistician for the Milwaukee community. I will also take his seat on the Council. It’s a job switch. He feels like driving my truck will be easier and less stressful. He’s right!

1/29: 2 home wins this week. We’re playing great ball right now. Chaz Bert and PF/C Bo Marn led us in the 1st game, and Bert and guard Tom Witt did the damage in the 2nd.

15-5, 7-2, RPI #52.

2/5: 1-1 this week, both in OT. 16-6, 8-3, RPI #43. In a 2 way tie for 1st.

Greg Duke is now starting inside. He had 13, 12 in his debut. Bert had 17. Ken More had 9, 11 in his 1st non-start. 26 TOs did us in.

19, 6, 2 for Bert and 13, 11 for Duke in the win. 19 TOs, but the other guys had 18.

Ball handling is becoming a serious concern, mostly from our big guys.

2/7: I am now the full time head statistician for Milwaukee, with a seat on the Council. I do NOT plan to climb to the top. I hated that job in Boston.

2/12: Another 1-1 split. In a 3 way tie for 1st with 3 to play.

We lost at home on a night when we couldn’t make a shot, and couldn’t stop the other team.

Then we won one the road. Guard Art Lee had his best game of the season, 19, and we had only 13 TOs.

It’s nice to be back doing stats full time. I have always loved numbers and stats.

2/19: 2 Chaz Bert led the way both times, and ball handling was much better- 13 TOs, then 14 TOs.

19-7, 11-4, still in a 2 way tie for first in the division and in the conf. RPI #54.

2/26: Bracket Breaker with #17 St. Joe’s, there: 75-73. Great win! Duke had 23 and 11, including 2 free throws with .4 seconds to go. -7 TOs, but +9 RBs.

We ended the regular season with a road win to finish tied for 1st in the division and conf., with the #2 seed. 18, 11 for Duke, who gets better and better.

21-7, 12-4, RPI #36, going to the postseason. +4.4 PPG, +4.7 RBs, even in TOs, but 16.0 is terrible. +0.6 assists, even in steals.

2/27: The Detroit community has just sent word to the other 7 communities that they are “raising prices.” Given that we don’t actually use money- no one does except Detroit, that means they are going to be asking for a better deal in bartering. I can’t imagine this will get them anywhere. They export more wool and wool products than anyone else, and their grain products are widely regarded as the best available, but I’m guessing that the other 7 communities will choose to go it on their own or to trade more with other wool and grain producers. Detroit has always been the hardest community to deal with, and this seems to signal that it’s going to get harder still.

2/28: We had an emergency Council meeting last night. Rather than act immediately on the Detroit situation, it was decided that we would contact the other 6 colonies, and try to find a way for all of us to present a united front to Detroit.

3/3: A joint communique was sent to the Detroit Council from the other 7 communities. Essentially it stated that no changes to current trade agreements would be entertained, and that, moving forward, we would only trade with Detroit when a long term (at least 3 years), very specific trade agreement had been agreed upon.

3/5: Detroit sent a very harshly worded message. They are breaking off all trade immediately, and they are forming a Community Defense Force.

We called another emergency meeting for tonight.

3/6: The general feeling among the 7 communities who are not Detroit is that this is not good. The Force they are setting up has nothing to do with defense. There is absolutely no threat from any of us. This is seen as a threat to the rest of us. We will try to work things out diplomatically, at least for now, and have asked for meetings. We will send a delegation comprised of one representative from each community, assuming they are willing to talk.

[Wayne23]

3/7: We will play Miami (OH), 15-14, 8-8 in the quarterfinal round of the Mid-American tournament. We beat them by 4 here. Their starting C and best rebounder tore his MCL.

71-66. Down 9 in the 1st, up 10 in the 2nd, and we held on. Great play up front by Duke, Bert, Marn, and More. 21 TOs, but they had 19. VERY sloppy game.

17-12, 11-5 Bowling Green is next. They won the East division. We beat them by 6 here.

3/8: 51-63. Tough night. They were a little better in almost every area of play, and they handcuffed Bert. Duke had 15, 7. Our starting guards were in foul trouble all night. Sub guard Lav Gour had 12, 3, 3, 3, but 5 TOs.

We did enough to make the postseason, but maybe not the Big Dance. We’ll see.

3/9: Kent ST beat Bowling Green by 19 for the title.

Detroit is being intractable. They won’t even agree to meet with our representatives. All trade between them and the other 7 communities has ceased. Frankly, this hurts them way more than anyone else. They have no source of citrus fruits and other tropical and subtropical foods, and they never had factories for things like furniture and clothing.

3/12: 22-8, 12-4, RPI #39 going to selection day.

#10 seed in the NCAA Midwest. We play #7 SE Louisiana, 23-7 from the Southland. This is a game we could win.

3/16: 72-66. We led most of the way, but never by more than 11. 18, 6, 3 for Bert, 15, 7, 2, 5 for Marn, 12 for Lee. Only 13 TOs.

Next is #2 seed, #7 ranked Georgia Tech. They’re a little banged up, but this is more challenge than we’re ready for.

3/18: UNBELIEVABLE!!! 72-71. We were down 13 early in the second half. We were in foul trouble and had more than 20 TOs. But they were in worse foul trouble, and three successive calls went against them putting three of their starters at 4 fouls. From that point on we couldn’t miss a shot, and we seemed to get every rebound. We took our only lead of the second half when Chaz Bert hit a 27 foot three at the buzzer. He had
20, Marn had 14, 9, 3, 10 each for guards Witt and Gour.

Biggest win of my career.

#6 seed, #24 ranked ST Louis, 23-10, upset #3, so they’re next. We’ve never gotten beyond the Sweet Sixteen.

3/23: 64-82. 1. We were awful. 2. It was a bag job- 33 fouls called on us, 16 on them. 18 for Bert, 17 for Witt, and no one else did much of anything.

Oh well, great season anyway!

4/4: Awards: Frosh Chaz Bert made conf. 1st team. I was named conf. COY. Given how well we did, and how well they played, I thought Greg Duke and Bo Marn should have been honored, esp. Duke.

4/9: No decent job offers but I like what we’re building here.

4/16: We pick up a guard.

4/23: We need a budget increase. Got it! $10,500.

24-9, 12-4, RPI #39, Sweet Sixteen. We exceeded all expectations! Team Prestige jumps 9 points, to 48.

Overall, I am 149-44, .772 for 6 seasons.
No change in the Detroit situation. They won’t talk with us, or with any individual community. It is clear that they are building up their military. There’s not much contact with them but people have friends and family in other communities and the email exchanges indicate an increase in things like drilling, and there is talk of weapons. Where they are getting weapons from is difficult to imagine, if it’s anything more powerful than swords. No guns, bombs, or the like have been manufactured for a few hundred years.

[Wayne23]

5/1: We go basic National and International.

6/5: 2 slots for transfers.

6/12: We get guard Gar Grey, from Duquesne, and inside player Quin Mark from Michigan where he started until he became academically ineligible. If we can get his grades up he starts on day 1 next season.

6/26: Only 1 scholarship. Going for best player we can get, regardless of position.

7/6: Every community posts guards at its borders, in one way or another. Within the past couple of days both in Toronto and here in Milwaukee we have sighted strangers, armed with what look like rifles, off in the distance beyond our borders.

7/9: More sightings of what appear to be armed people off in the distance.

7/11: Toronto and Milwaukee have sent a joint message to Detroit, asking if the people we are seeing (photos included) are coming from there. We have said that we will peacefully approach these people in order to investigate what this means.

We had a LONG discussion in Council regarding whether to arm the people who will approach the “visitors.” We decided that we don’t believe the rifles we are seeing are operational. First, any very old rifles could not be operational, and any ammunition manufactured so long ago would not be operational and very likely dangerous to the shooter. Second, Detroit has never been a manufacturing community. We do not believe they could have manufactured weapons and ammunition.

7/12: Detroit replied that they are sending patrols into neutral territory in preparation for expanding their community. They say that they have every right to do this, and any approach will be considered a hostile act.

The 7 other communities all have great concern about this. The heads of all 7 governments will meet, in Cleveland, to discuss next steps.

7/19: After three days of meetings the Council Heads decided to increase border patrols and observations, but to do nothing else for now. We hold a 6-1 population edge over De3troit. Given a lack of any evidence that they have any arms superiority we’ll wait it out.

8/7: Soph PF Al Knox, a transfer from Memphis, is my first ever Norton candidate, at #40.

8/21: Tough call with our lone scholarship. We pick a guard over an inside player.

Things are quiet with the Detroit mess, but the armed “strangers” are still around. They’re lurking in sight of the New Boston community now, too.

9/3: The intruders are now camped about a ¼ of a mile from a rail terminal we use. We have decided to use it as we normally do but to have people video the terminal and the surrounding area 24/7. Videos will be destroyed if there is nothing of interest on them. This saves cost as we can reuse the dyzqs.

9/18: Nat Brie, PG, #67, has committed. His GPA is 3.1 so we should be finished with recruiting.

We’re at the Hawaiian Shootout.

Parties of about 50 each are camped within sight of rail depots in Toronto, New Boston, and here. They appear to be armed, but have not tried to get any closer to either the tracks or the depots. In all areas video is still ongoing and patrols are riding over the tracks for a distance of 15 miles in both directions.

10/2: First day of practice. We’re picked 1st in conf. and I like our chances.

10/13: I don’t get it. The people from Detroit continue to camp out near the depots in three communities, but nothing is happening. Weird. It’s consuming resources on our part to video and patrol, and they are deprived of about 150 workers. Why?

10/17: This morning the “campers” were gone- all of them. Video and patrols continue.

10/27: All three communities have decided to video and patrol intermittently.

10/31: A major earthquake struck the Detroit community last night according to seismic data. Triangulation from instruments in all 7 of the other communities indicates a quake of about 6.9 magnitude struck at the center of the community. There has been no word from Detroit.

Given tense relations we are unsure how to proceed.

11/1: The 7 community Councils held a joint session electronically and decided to send an exploratory team into Detroit, and to have medical and rescue teams on stand by.

11/2: The exploratory team reported massive destruction and what appeared to be tremendous loss of life. BUT, the three surviving members of the Detroit Council made it clear that the exploratory team was not welcome in Detroit, that they needed to leave immediately, and that no outside help was wanted, or would be accepted. They left.

11/6: Here’s the lineup, for now: We’re going with 3 guards. Senior John Wams and junior Art Lee will start, and will evenly split all the minutes at PG, and play some SG. Frosh Brad Wole will get his share of minutes at SG.

Junior transfer from FL ST, Jar Mine will start at PF, soph transfer from Memphis, Al Knox, who looks like a world beater starts at C, and Nick King, a junior transfer from Syracuse will start at SF. Junior Greg Duke will back up at all 3 positions. Chaz Bert, arguably our best player last year, is next on the depth chart, followed by guard Lav Gour, who got about 20 minutes a game last year. We feel like we’re good and we’re deep.

[Wayne23]

11/7: The exploratory team reported total chaos in Detroit, but they also reported signs of militarization. There were armed “soldiers” everywhere, and it looked like there was a military dictatorship in place from what little was seen. All the “soldiers” carried rifles that looked new. There was no sign of weaponry more advanced than rifles.

The 7 Councils will again meet jointly to discuss the situation.

11/8: The Councils decided that we have no choice but to begin preparations to arm, in order to be able to defend ourselves. All 7 agreed that only volunteers would learn to use rifles. In the meantime, volunteers will train with bow and arrow. We are manufacturing lots of bows and arrows, but the New Philadelphia community is taking the lead in that area and will supply to the rest of us.

The first step is developing the technology.

11/16: An easy win on the road to start the season. SF Nick King had 26, and Al Knox had 16. We got great minutes from our bench- Wole, Duke, and Bert. The only negative was 17 TOs.

Off to Hawaii for the Shootout. Central FL is 1st.

11/18: 68-54. Balance. 7 players scored between 6 and 13. Great D held them to 30.2%. 11 TOs.

#2 seed Charlotte, 1-1, in the semis.

11/19: 78-69. 21 for King, 14, 10 for Knox, 9, 4, 10, 4 for guard Art Lee, 12, 4, 2 for sub guard Brad Wole. +16 RBs but 16 TOs.

#5 seed Georgia ST, 2-1, upset #1 seed Prov. We play them for the title.

In a change of plan it was decided to let New Philadelphia take complete charge of weaponry. This was hotly debated in a few communities, including ours, but in the end it seemed to make sense. They are a very stable group, and we can’t imagine a situation where they would turn on us.

Their engineers are researching rifle and ammunition manufacture, and for the long haul, cannons, tanks… We will not manufacture those, but we want to be ready to do so. The hope is to figure out the tech for rifles and ammunition and to go into production as quickly as possible, diverting workers from everything except the fishing fleet when they are ready to manufacture. If Detroit plans to attack we have some time. It will probably be months before they recover from the quake.

11/20: 79-77 and the title. 27, 9, 3 for Al Knox in his 1st breakout game. 14 for King, 11 for Duke. 13 TOs. It wasn’t quite as close as the score indicated. They scored the last 5, including a 3 at the buzzer. We weren’t in a position to lose, or even to be tied, late in the game.

Ranked! #18.

Our recruit signed.

11/23: 77-45 over Vermont here. All 5 starters in double figures, led by Knox with 21, 12. 37 RBs, 9 TOs.

But it was a costly win. First big man off the bench, Greg Duke, broke his arm. He’s out until February. Chaz Bert will get his minutes.

11/27: 81-61 at UIC. 26, 5, 3, 2 for Knox, and all 5 starters played well. 11 TOs, 41 RBs.

#9, RPI #19. We’re 6-0 but we haven’t played anybody.

12/1: An awful night at Del ST, 59-84. Foul trouble, 33.3% shooting, terrible D, especially outside. Just a bad night.

12/4: We bounced back at Colgate, 81-74. 22, 8 for King, good scoring (but terrible ball handling) by the three guards, 11, 9 for Jar Mine. We’re missing Greg Duke, and we need to take care of the ball. We’re giving Al Hart a shot at the minutes. Chaz Bert hasn’t gotten it done.

4 straight at home coming up.

New Philadelphia reports that they hope and expect to have a working prototype of a rifle ready by the end of the year. It will be much like a mid-twentieth century rifle in many ways. Anything more advanced is deemed all but impossible to produce given our limitations. The engineers don’t believe Detroit is capable of producing anything much better than the model we are working on.

12/7: 78-58 over a highly regarded St. Joe’s team here. 23, 9, 2, 2 for Knox, 17 for Wole. 8, 6, 2 for Hart- great debut! 36 RBs, 7 TOs.

12/11: 77-62 over Manhattan, here. Front line of Knox, Mine, and King dominated. 11 TOs.

My job is very much like the stats job in Boston was. Some differences since the work, production, and such are different here. But I am really enjoying being back in the world of numbers.

I like the friendly attitude of the community but I’m missing the culture that was a regular part of life in Boston. The arts are not as big here, and there don’t seem to be as many readers. So friendships seem a bit more superficial. I’d love to find people to discuss books with, people to attend plays with…

Nothing approaching a romance either. Haven’t really met anyone who’s my type.

12/14: 77-60 over Central Ark., here. 20, 4, 5 for Nick King but he fouled out. All 5 starters in doubles, and Al Hart had 8, 5, 2, 2.

12/18: 68-52 over San Diego here. Huge game for King, 32 and 8. 1 TOs.

We’re 11-1, #9, RPI #18, with one more non-conf. game.

12/25: We lost at Binghampton, 57-67. Shot 27% in the 2nd half, King, Wole, and Wams all in foul trouble throughout.

We finish pre-conf. play at 11-2, #9, RPI #22. +10.6 PPG, +4.6 RBs, +3.7 TOs (12.9).

12/30: The prototype is out. After a great deal of testing it still needs some modifications. Rather than go to production with a fairly decent model it was decided to tweak until it’s an excellent model. The word is that a couple weeks will be enough.

1/1/2582: 71-61 over Western Mich. here to start conf. play. King, Knox, and Lee led the way, and Hart had 6, 9, 9 from the bench.

Knox hurt his arm but we think he’ll be back for our next game.

71-59 at No. Ill. Road wins in conf. are great, but this is a very weak team. We’ll take it! 15, 4, 6, 3 for Wole, 16 for King. 11, 7 for Wams from the bench.

At #25 W. Mich., 13-0, next. That will be tougher!

[Wayne23]

1/8: BIG road win, 60-52. All 5 starters came up big. I only played 7 guys. The two from the bench, Wams and Hart, got it done. +12 RBs, +4 TOs.

14-2, 3-0, #13, RPI #9.

1/12: An easy 73-50 home win vs. Toledo. King led us with 14 and 9, but he had lots of help. 6 TOs for the team!

1/15: An easy road win, 83-62, at Ball ST. 24, 5 for Knox, 19, 3, 5, 3 for Wole, 14, 7 for Mine.

16-2, 5-0, #12, RPI #11.

We wish we knew what is going on in Detroit. There is a total lack of communication. The only news we get is basketball related. Their teams- all of them, play 100% of their games right in the Detroit community, among the four conferences located their. The other 7 communities play as many as possible within their communities, but we all play a few “out of town.” Not Detroit. We won’t know anything until the postseason, I suppose.

1/17: The rifle and ammunition seem to be perfected. After exhaustive testing production is starting in Philly.

1/19: Tough road loss, 60-62, at Ohio, the worst team in the conf. Poor shooting, poor D, poor rebounding, and they hit a half court shot at the buzzer. Okay, we lost on a luck shot, but we didn’t play well enough to deserve to win.

1/22: 88-77 over #10 Kent ST here. 27, 4 for King, 10, 13, 3 for Mine, 18, 7, 3 for Wole, 13, 8 for Knox. 45 RBs.

1/26: A war in Akron but we won, 73-71. 19, 6, 4 for Knox, 17 for King, 12,4 for Hart. Never more than a 7 point difference. We took the last shot, a 12 footer by King, and it fell.

Greg Duke is back. Al Hart did a great job in his spot, but Duke gives us more offense and more RBs. We lose a little on D, but we’re going with Duke.

1/29: A 73-45 blowout over Bowling Green here. 16, 5 for Knox, 12, 10 for Mine, but 10 players scored. 6 TOs and +12 RBs.

19-3, 8-1, #12, RPI #11. +11.4 PPG, +5.1 RBs, +3.9 TOs. 1st in our division, but Miami (OH) is 13-7, 9-0 in the East. We play there next week.

Al Knox is #15 on the Norton list.

Still no communication from Detroit.

[Wayne23]

2/2: 82-63 over Buffalo here. 23, 7 for Knox, 18, 11 for Duke, 15 each for King and Lee. 9 TOs, +7 RBs.

2/5: 71-80 at Miami (OH). Knox was in foul trouble all night long, and Mine was in trouble in the 2nd half, and that was the difference. Duke played well but he couldn’t spell both of them at the same time. They were a little better but I think we have shot at them on a neutral court, which just may happen in the tournament.

2/7: Someone literally crawled to one of our farms today. When the farm worker heard him say he was from Detroit, after taking him in and giving him food and water, he contacted our Police Chief, Jack Liggett.

Jack and R.N. Gracie Mills got to the farmhouse as quickly as they could. As a result of what was discussed we held an emergency Council meeting this evening.

The “refugee,” Von Lewis, reported that Detroit has become a military dictatorship. Everything is going into production of military items- rifles, ammunition, tanks, cannons… The people are barely getting enough to eat.

The victims of the earthquake back on 10/31 were pretty much left to die. Those who didn’t were not treated for their injuries. Many are unable to even walk. Others are trying to work with severe injuries since those who do not work are not fed. People sneak food to the severely injured.

There will be a joint meeting of the 7 Council heads tomorrow.

2/8: The 7 Council heads decided that we must begin development of tanks and cannon, along with the required ammunition. We can do nothing to help the people of Detroit until we are armed at a level where we can be sure to defeat them. Our numbers are vastly superior so when we get the arms produced we should be able to liberate Detroit. It’s a question of time. Will we have enough time? Lewis said that Detroit is just a few months away from attacking. They will start with attacks against Toronto and here in Milwaukee.

Most of us thought we had left all of this behind when the world fell apart, but I guess there is simply something in human nature.

Lewis said his friends faked his death, even had a funeral, so that the authorities in Detroit would not know he had escaped. In what will be a HUGE help to us, his work was in weapons design. He is eager to help us.

2/9: 70-51 at Western Michigan. We held them to 19 in the 1st half, and that was that. 19, 6, 3 for King, 14, 7, 3 for Mine, 13, 6, 5 for Lee. +11 RBs.

We’re 2 behind Miami (OH), but 2 or more up on everyone else.

2/12: 71-44 over No. Ill here. It was never close.

Miami (OH) lost, so we are one back of them.

Al Knox remains at #15 on the Norton list.

2/16: 68-52 over #24 ranked Eastern Michigan here. We expected more of a challenge, but we held them to 18 in the 1st half. Mine led us with 13, 11, 3, 2, but he had lots of help. +7 RBs, +5 TOs.

We sent Von Lewis to Philly as soon as he felt well enough to travel, and we are told that he has already been a great help to the munitions development effort.

2/19: Another big road win, 84-79 at Toledo. We were down early, and there were 13 lead changes. We went on a 15-2 run with about 4 1/2 minutes left, and that did it. 19, 7 for King, 18, 5 for Duke. +10 RBs.

3 up on E. Mich. In the division; no one else is close. 1 back of Miami (OH), with 1 to play.

2/20: 81-63 Bracket Breaker win against Western Carolina here. 20, 6, 4, 2 for Lee, 23 for King.

2/23: 63-46 over Ball ST here in the regular season finale. 18, 9 for Knox, 14, 12 for Mine, 17 for King. +10 RBs, +10 TOs. We really do have a solid front line!

We’ll be the #2 seed in the conf. tourney.

Von Lewis has saved us a huge amount of time. We have a prototype all but built for a cannon, and one almost at that stage for a tank.

2/26: We end the regular season at 26-4, 14-2. #9, RPI #8.

[Wayne23]

3/7: #7 seed Buffalo, 14-15, 7-9, in the round of 8.

Whew! A narrow escape, 66-65. Al Knox was immense tonight- 23 and 19, scored our last 6 points, on a basket and 4 free throws, and cleanly blocked a shot just before the horn went. The teams were never more than 6 points apart. We were +6 in TOs. They shot only 9-14 from the line. Those were the differences.

#1 seed Miami was not so lucky. They were defeated by 4.

We play #3 seed Bowling Green, 20-11, 11-5, in the semis. We crushed them by 28 in January.

3/8: 59-52. Closer than we expected, and we never led by more than 8. We only got it to 8 with 2:11 left. Foul trouble didn’t help. 21 TOs would have killed us, but they had 28. +7 RBs. Greg Duke gave us 28 great minutes from the bench, 19 and 6. King had 14, 4. We’ll take it.

#5 seed, #21 ranked Kent ST, 24-10, 9-7, for the title. We beat them by 11 here. We’re stronger inside, but they’re stronger outside.

3/9: 84-68 and the title! It was close for 25 minutes. Then we went on a 17-3 run and never looked back. 19, 6, 4 for Lee, 15, 10, 3, 3 for Mine, 18, 5 for Knox, 13, 3, 4 for King. +20 RBs.

29-4, 14-2, #8, RPI #8.

3/12: #3 East. We play #14 FL A & M, 21-9.

3/13: We have working prototypes for both cannon and tank. Both work very, very well. They are in production, along with ammunition.

Now the debate is what to do- How much? When? Just wait?

3/15: Another joint Council meeting. The first Top Secret one in these 7 communities, as far as I know. The word won’t get out, but for now we wait, on alert status. In about 3 weeks we will have enough cannon and tanks to do whatever we choose. At that point we will be on highest alert status.

3/16: 72-53. Front line again, 22, 17, 16 points. And 4 TOs, our fewest of the season.

Conference rival Kent ST, #6 seed, #17 ranked, 25-11, in Round 2. We beat them by 11, then by 16.

3/18: 71-68, and back to the Sweet Sixteen! We actually led for the last 38 ½ minutes. They scored the last 9 on three threes, but the last was with only 0.4 seconds left, so they never had a chance for the tie.

19 each for Knox and Mine. +8 RBs. Not our best game of the season, but “survive and advance!”

#2 seed, #6 ranked Pitt, 26-2 next. This is a TALL mountain to climb. All we can do is give it our best shot.

3/23: 76-64! We did everything right! It was a war for 30 minutes, 16 lead changes, 8 ties to that point. We hit a three to take the lead and then went on a 12-0 run. From that point on we hung tough and hung on, essentially trading baskets the rest of the way. We were -10 TOs, but +17 RBs. 18, 5 for Lee, 16 for King, 11 each for Duke and Wole, 9 each for Knox and Mine. 44 foul calls; Mine fouled out but two of their starters fouled out as well.

First Elite Eight of my coaching career. We play #1 seed, #1 ranked, #1 RPI FL, 30-3. FL is, obviously, a terrific team, but I don’t know that maybe we match up better with them than we did with Pitt. Still, we’re an 8 ½ point underdog, and that’s not a bad bet- not that I bet.

3/25: 62-81. Whew! We couldn’t stay with them. They opened 14-1, and it never got better. 12, 11 for Knox, 16 for Lee, only 11 TOs. Great season!

4/3: We lost to the national champs. FL won it all!

4/4: Awards: Al Knox and Nick King made conf. 1st team, Jar Mine made 2nd. I was conf. COY again.

4/6: Our military is on full readiness status. All who are part of our military must be able to get to their designated alert point within 30 minutes, at all times. There are several contingency plans in place including some unlikely scenarios.

4/9: No interesting coaching offers. I would only leave for a top ranked school in a major conference at this point.

4/12: The New Philadelphia community was invaded at about 2:45 a.m. Turns out it was not by Detroit, but rather by Montreal, with very minimal support from Detroit. Detroit remains devastated by the quake, so they were unable to provide much help to Montreal, though they have an alliance with them.

Thankfully the Philly border guards sent out the alarm quickly. Given the strategic importance of the community New Philly has far more guards than do the other communities.

Montreal knew where the armament and munitions factories were, of course, since they had been posing as an ally.

Some significant damage was done, but by daylight the attack had been repelled, and most of the attackers had been either killed or captured.

We are now at war. Our community and New Boston are invading Detroit as I write this from a command post on the edge of Detroit, and New Philly, New York, Cleveland, and Toronto are invading Montreal.

4/13: When we got to Detroit it became obvious immediately that they could not defend themselves. We are now occupying Detroit, and New Boston is on route to join the attack on Montreal.

The fighting is reportedly heavy, but from what we hear it seems we will be in control of the community soon.

4/14: Montreal has surrendered. We control the Palace, and King Gaston IV has abdicated. He reportedly committed suicide.

We are also in control of the munitions and weapons factories, and of the military base, none of which we even knew existed. Our troops are scouting outlying areas to see what else we did not know about.

4/15: The situation is stable in both Montreal and Detroit, but Detroit needs massive aid. Thousands are starving, and many have injuries untreated since the earthquake hit 5 ½ months ago.

4/16: We’re beginning to sort out why Montreal turned around, but nothing to report yet.

Detroit simply wound up with a power mad Council and turned the community into a military dictatorship, as we knew. We didn’t know how extensive and how extreme it had become. We feel that once we destroy the military capability in Detroit we can turn the community back over to its citizens, let them elect a Council, keep troops there for a short time, and then let them rejoin the rest of us.

But first we need to restore the citizens to health. Except for those who were in the military everyone has been, if not starved, then significantly underfed. Many private citizens as well as military personnel, have been dealing with untreated injuries, some of them very severe.

The communities are sending as much aid and as many medical personnel as possible, but some need to take care of our wounded from this war, and some are needed in Montreal.

It’s a bit more complicated in Montreal, and we’re still not completely sure of the why and wherefore.

4/19: Okay, we think we get it now. King Gaston IV was revered in Montreal. And then he somehow decided he was a God. And the people bought it. He was 72 years old three years ago when he started to make the divinity claims. Speculation is that it was early onset Alzheimer’s or dementia.

He kept the plan within the community, and somehow, although there were no travel restrictions, it never leaked. That’s all but impossible to believe, but it happened that way. As his madness progressed he became obsessed with the idea that he was the ruler of the entire planet, and that all 8 communities must be put under his power. When that happened- and he had no doubts that it would, his disciples would search the rest of the world and bring anyone they found into the fold.

It was decided that the logical attack target was New Philly. The community, with all of its armaments and production facilities would be quickly captured, and then the rest would be easy.

Gaston IV and his people were convinced that they could not lose. He would use his divine powers to assure the victory.

So much for divine powers!

Now the rest of us need to decide what to do about Montreal. Gaston’s son, Marcel, is first in line to the throne. Our negotiators have spoken with him. He reports that he knew his father was mentally ill, and was not a God, but he was powerless to do anything about the situation.

We are deciding whether to allow Marcel to ascend the throne at all, and if we do, whether to allow any form of local rule. The people are mourning their dead King as a dead God, so we feel we need to occupy for the time being. For how long? There’s no way to know at present.

4/23: Back to hoops. We need a bigger team budget. We got $11,100!

32-5 season, 1st in division, 2nd in conf., and we won the tourney. Ranked #8, RPI #8. Overall we’re 181-49, .787.

[Wayne23]

5/1: New season. Our #1 assistant who was very good, but very expensive, bolted for a head coaching job. The down side is we have assistants who are not as good. The upside is we have money. We buy the National Gold and the International Basic.

5/4: We allowed Marcel to be crowned. He is now King Marcel V. He seems perfectly sane and reasonable. Montreal has had a monarchy for at least 300 years and we feel they need the symbol. We think Marcel will restore calm and sanity. BUT… we’re keeping an occupying force in Montreal.

Detroit is getting back to normal. They have a temporary Council, and will elect a regular Council next month. Staggered terms, 3 elected for a year, 3 for two years, 3 for three years. We’ll keep an occupying army there as well, but hopefully not for long.

6/5: Looking at transfers.

6/12: We get a PF.

6/26: 4 scholarships and we need bigs.

7/4: The occupying forces left Detroit today. Everything is calm. We’ve done all we can to make sure that people will have enough to eat. All injuries have been treated to the extent that they can be.

The people who wanted military power are all dead or exiled.

Montreal is peaceful, and things seem fine, but we’re not quite ready to go. King Marcel V has done all he can but there are definitely still some who see the royal family as divine, and those people are dangerous.

8/7: Al Knox is #37 on the Norton list.

8/21: We offer to 3 PFs and a PG.

9/18: Got a recruit- PF Lou Craw, #75. He was #1 on our list.

We’re in the preseason NIT, but against #10 ranked Duke. The schedule, esp. at home, is stronger this year.

9/25: Got another PF, Josh Mize, #185.

10/2: We lose a guard. Still trying to land a guard and a forward/center.

1st day of practice. I like what I see.

The troops left Montreal the other day. All of our communities seem calm and at peace.

11/6: 3 sharing the Point to start: Redshirt soph transfer Gar Grey starts, senior Art Lee and frosh Nat Brix play about equal minutes with Grey. Brix subs at SG.

Senior Nick King is at SF.

Senior Greg Duke and junior Al Knox start inside. Senior Jar Mine and soph Dio Barq sub inside. I like this team a lot!