The Last Man

[Wayne23]

11/20: 2-0 to start the season. 2 close wins at home against unranked teams. That may not bode well for the future.

All 5 recruits sign.

12/4: 4-2. We’re still fiddling with the lineup. #16. Gary Blae is now starting at guard.

12/15: 6-3, #17, RPI #51.

Headed to the Las Vegas Winter Jam vs. Baylor, 6-3. We’re the #1 seed.

12/16: 26 for PF Jam Door who averages a double double. 16 for Gary Blae, who has become our best guard. +14 TOs.

#4 seed Mississippi ST, 6-2, in the semifinals.

12/17: 62-69. 20, 14 for Door, 14 for PG Chaz Brit.

12/25: 7-5 to end pre-conf. play. #14, RPI #18. +1.4 PPG, +9.2 RBs, -2.2 TOs. Guard play is the issue, but we knew that coming in. Only Blae is giving us anything.

[Wayne23]

1/15/2076: 10-7, 3-2. We’re winning at home, losing on the road.

1/29: 13-8, 6-3, #22, RPI #13. +2.7 PPG, +8.9 RBs, -0.8 TOs. In a 2 way tie for 3rd, 1 back of 1st. Door still leads us with 16.5, 9.7. He’s #2 on the Norton list.

2/12: 16-9, 9-4, #24, RPI #15.

Jam Door is #3 on the Norton list.

2/26: We end the regular season at 19-9, 12-4, tied for 2nd, #2 seed. +4.5 PPG, +7.8 RBs, +0.8 TOs.

3/5: No one going in the draft. This is probably the last time that will happen.

Jam Door fell to #6 on the Norton list.

[Wayne23]

February, 2175: My girls are still giving me the isolation bit. They will allow no contact. I tried to hold a meeting with them. I put a notice up where they would see it, asking them to meet with me at a certain time.

They didn’t show.

I’ve no idea how to resolve this. I am adamant about my position; nothing will change that. Evidently, they are as well. I will try to reach out from time to time. Hopefully at some point the situation will improve.

The temps are consistently below zero. Sometimes they are way below zero. The water is replete with ice, small chunks all the way up to huge floating islands of ice. Will the water freeze? Given that the entire planet is covered with water I don’t even know if that’s possible, but if it is this cold everywhere, and my weather instruments indicate that it is, I suppose a freeze is inevitable if this keeps up. What then?

Next: An olive branch, ice, ice, and more ice

[Wayne23]

3/9: #7 seed Texas Tech, 12-16, 6-10, won the play in. They won by 9 there, then we won by 19 here.

3/10: 69-58. It was close for 24 minutes. We then went on a 17-3 run, and eventually built the lead to 21. 31, 16 for Jam Door. +11 RBs.

#3 seed, #8 ranked Oklahoma, 22-7, 12-4, in the semifinals. We beat them by 18 here, but we played a near perfect game that night. This is a tough team.

3/11: 88-85 in OT. Hell of a game! 27 for Blae, who hit a three to take it to OT, and another one to win it. 15, 3, 5 for PG Chaz Brit, in his best game of the season. 16 for Mart. 11, 10 for Door with 4 blocks. 11 for sub guard/forward Bay Carr. This was a “bend but don’t break” kind of game. My guys hung in, and they seemed to get a basket whenever we really needed one, and a stop when we really needed one.

#1 seed, #22 ranked Kansas, 21-9, 13-3, for the title. We beat them by only 1 at our place. It looks like their inside game vs. our outside game.

3/12: 52-70. 14, 4, 3 for Blae, 13 for Brit, but 8 TOs, 10, 8 for Mart. 25 TOs, but they had 22. We only took 43 shots and never got into an offensive rhythm.

21-10, 12-4, #17, RPI #6. No idea how high we’ll be seeded.

#4 Midwest. We play #13 Yale, 22-8.

3/16: 62-41. Great D! 19, 14 for Door, 18 for Blae, 11 for Carr.

#5 seed, #14 ranked BYU, 24-7, in the 2nd round. Their best player is out with a broken leg.

3/18: 85-73. 30 for Door, 14, 7, 3 for SF Greg Hart, 13 for Brit. +12 RBs.

#1 seed, #3 ranked, #6 RPI Seton Hall, 31-1, in the Sweet Sixteen. This is going to be a tough one.

3/23: 64-82. They were the better team. 15, 13 for Door in his last college game. 14 for Blae.

4/3: My Michigan ST guys won the title. Happy for them.

4/4: Awards: Jam Door is a 1st team All American. In conf., Rod Mart made 2nd team.

4/23: I ask for a facilities upgrade. Got it. We’ll go from B- to B+.

23-11. It was a rebuilding year but we made the Sweet Sixteen. I’ll take it! Overall I’m 1452-250, .853.

Let’s go for that 16th national title!

[Wayne23]

5/1: We buy the national gold.

Preseason #2.

6/5: No one of interest in the transfer pool.

6/26: 2 scholarships. We need bigs. Looking at 9.

8/7: 4 on the Norton list: PG Marc Brad is #1, PF Sam Will #6, PG Cay Roll #28, and PG Eric Hart #43.

8/21: We offer to 2 Cs.

9/18: We get a C, #14. We lose the other one so we offer again.

Going to the Coaches Classic vs. Clemson.

9/25: Got the 2nd C, #10.

10/2: 1st day of practice.

11/6: Here’s the lineup:

Frosh Marc Brad and Cay Roll start at guard. Juco junior Dan John backs them up.

Dan John, another frosh guard, starts at SF.

Soph Rod Mart and frosh Sam Will start inside. Senior Bay Carr, and sophs Kyle Peti and Greg Hand back up.

[Wayne23]

August, 2175: Finally, after all this time of being frozen out by the girls, they’ve accepted my offer of an olive branch and met with me. The meeting was tense at first, and it never got to be easy, but I now feel that they understand why I feel the way I do, and they seem to have accepted it.

Lacy did some crying about the fact that as her only hope, if I stayed with my answer of no, she would never be able to have a child.

Amy called me selfish more than once.

But by the end of a 2 ½ hour meeting they both seemed to understand that this was something I simply cannot consider. They agreed to end their boycott of me. That is a huge relief. I’m guessing it will take some time before our relationships get back to normal, but it’s a start.

The amount of ice in the water seems to be increasing rapidly. We’re not on the move but I like to keep both the ship and the boat cruising at slow speeds. That is becoming more and more precarious due to more ice and bigger chunks of ice, both on and below the surface. I’m still wondering if it is even possible for the planet wide ocean to freeze over, and yes, of course it is. Back before society fell apart space vessels had traveled to and explored bodies that were completely covered with ice. If the temps remain below zero I guess freezing is inevitable.

Next: Lacy gets an idea, frozen areas

[Wayne23]

11/13: 73-42 over Clemson in the 1st round of the Coaches Classic. 17, 4, 3 for Marc Brad, but it was a team effort with 11 guys scoring. +11 RBs.

We’re the #3 seed.

#6 seed USC in Round Two. They seem to be an outside team.

11/15: 86-68. We led all the way. 28, 5, 4 for Brad, 23 for SG Cay Roll, 10, 12 for PF Sam Will, 9, 10 for C Rod Mart.

#2 seed, #9 ranked Duke in the semis.

11/17: 88-69. 31, 5, 6 for Brad, 20, 4, 5 for Roll, 15, 17 for Will, 14, 6 for Hart, 11 RBs for Mart. 54 RBs (+20), 8 TOs.

#8 seed UMass for the title. They get most of their points outside.

11/19: 87-68. We again led all the way. 25,6, 4 for tourney MOP Marc Brad, 15, 9 for Will. +9 RBs, 4 TOs.

11/20: 4-0, #1 in the country for the 1st time in school history.

Both recruits sign.

12/4: 8-0. #1, RPI #16. This is a really good team. Marc Brad is #1, Cay Roll #5 on the Norton list. It’s very early on but still. Sam Will is playing excellent ball inside, as is Rod Mart. We’re getting good bench play as well.

12/25: 14-0, #1, RPI #1.

[Wayne23]

1/1/2077: 15-0, 1-0.

The world is one big mess. Most of it is in utter chaos. Society has broken down in most places. Things are still holding together in most of the U. S., in at least half of Western Europe, in a few places in South America, in Japan, Thailand, and small areas of other countries in Asia and the Middle East, in South Africa, and very few other places in Africa.

Australia and New Zealand are now under water, as are all areas that were traditionally coastal.

I’m not sure if we can finish this season before the NCAA goes out of business. Another season after that seems unlikely.

1/15: 19-0, 5-0, #1, RPI #1.

1/29: 23-0, 9-0, #1, RPI #1. +18.3 PPG, +8.6 RBs, +6.6 TOs. 1 game lead over #15 Wichita ST, 2 over #5 Oklahoma, 3 over #8 Kansas.

Marc Brad is #1, Cay Roll #12, and Sam Will #14 on the Norton list.

2/12: 26-1, 12-1, #1, RPI #1. 1 up on both #4 Oklahoma and #12 Wichita ST. OK beat us there on a night when we played very poorly.

Brad remains #1, Will is #13, and Roll #16 on the Norton list.

2/26: 29-1, 15-1, #1, RPI #1. +17.2 PPG, +8.5 RBs, +6.4 TOs. We win the Big 12 by 1 over #2 Oklahoma, by 2 over #13 Wichita ST, by 5 or more over the rest.

3/5: We lose Sam Will and Marc Brad to the draft. I’m thrilled that Cay Roll is staying… assuming there even IS a next season.

Brad fell to #3 on the Norton list.

[Wayne23]

February, 2176: “Artificial insemination.”

“What are you talking about, Lacy… Oh…”

“Your big hang up is incest. Artificial insemination solves the problem.”

“… Let me think about it for a while.”

“While you’re thinking about it, Amy wants to have you and her genetic tested to see if there’s any reason she can’t have a child by you.”

“Of course she can’t have a child by me, she my biological daughter.”

“Did you fail biology? When you were in school they knew that it’s not necessarily so. Often the genetic match makes that a terrible idea, but not always. It may be that you two are not genetically incompatible at all.”

This was way too much for me. I asked for some time.

I spent every free moment for the next couple of weeks in the HC with the holobiologists, microbiologists, geneticists, psychologists, and a few other kinds of holoexperts.

In the end, and by that time Amy and I had been tested, and it was clear that we could have children with no more risk than is normal, I understood intellectually that none of this was a problem. But I couldn’t wrap my head around it. I couldn’t make it feel right.

Lacy and Amy didn’t isolate me, or treat me like a pariah. They tried reason and patience, hoping that I might eventually come around. The truth is, I might, but it will take some time.

The ocean, or maybe meg-ocean or pan-ocean, is freezing. I’m consulting with other kinds of experts to try to determine at what point we may have to get off of the ship, or even the 65 foot back up. Will we need to get into a lifeboat at some point and transfer to an icy “land” area? How do we plan a transition. We know we’ll need to take our 3D printers, our HCs, our robots, our solar cells, batteries, and panels, and a few, although very few, other things. Do we try to save the ship and the boat in case at some later point warm temps return and melt the ice. Do we build an on ice house or shelter of some kind, or print one. Life could get a lot more complicated before long.

And that’s a very good reason not to bring any kids into the world right now. Everything is too uncertain.

I mentioned that to Lacy and Amy and, reluctantly, they agreed. So we’re going to postpone our decision regarding kids.

Next: Frozen solid, birthdays

[Wayne23]

3/9: #8 seed Texas Tech, 15-13, 7-9, won the play in. We beat them by 10 here, then by 18 there.

3/10: 70-44. Great D but we were sluggish on O. Mart and Will were in foul trouble all night so we got a lot of bench minutes. Brad led us with 18, 7, 5. +15 RBs, +12 TOs. Not our best game, but then #3 seed #13 ranked Wichita ST had an even worse night, losing to Kansas ST.

#4 seed, #10 ranked Kansas, 21-8, 10-6, in the semis. We beat them by only 1 there in a really challenging game. They’re a tough match up for us, and frankly, I don’t know how they lost 8 games.

3/11: This game was so much like our prior game with them. We jumped out to a lead, stretched it to 11 at the half, 14 early in the 2nd, and then fell apart. Last time we had enough to hang on for the win. This time we didn’t. In the last minute of the game they hit a three, fouled us. We hit only one. They hit another thre81-53. e, fouled us. We hit only one. They got the ball with 9.2 left, came down and hit a three at the buzzer for the win. 19, 6 for Brad, 10, 9, 9 for Roll, 13 RBs for Will, but no one else did much of anything. We shot 28.2%, 18.2% on threes. In the second half it was 20%, and about 10% on threes.

This may cost us the #1 overall seed.

3/12: #3 Oklahoma beat #10 Kansas by 6 for the Big 12 title.

We’re 30-2, still #1 and #1.

#1 overall. Everyone else has at least 4 losses. We play 17-15 Drake.

3/16: 81-53. 48-19 at the half. 22, 5, 5 for Roll, 17, 5, 3 for Brad. +17 RBs, 9 TOs.

Wichita ST and Oklahoma both lost on Day 1.

#9 seed Memphis, 18-12, in Round Two. Tough 2nd round matchup. These guys can play.

3/18: 82-57. 29, 6, 5 for Brad, 14 for Roll. +9 RBs. We played well.

#5 seed, #18 ranked Florida, 25-9, in the Sweet Sixteen.

3/23: 84-66. Huge game for Brad, 27, 14, 6. 20 for Roll, 12, 11 for Mart. +18 RBs, +11 TOs.

#2 seed, #4 ranked Seton Hall, 30-4, in the Elite Eight. They’re very good inside and they have a great outside shooter. We need to bring our A game.

3/25: 79-74. We led by as many as 17, and the final score was as close as it got but we worked for this one. 25, 4, 4 for Roll, 17, 4, 3 for Brad. Our inside game isn’t getting us enough points lately. Thank whatever for our outside game!

3/26: We’ll play #15 ranked Temple, 25-9, in the national semifinal.

#5 Maryland, 31-6, vs. #6 UConn, 30-5, on the other side.

4/1: 72-52. 16, 6 for sub big man Greg Hand, but this was a team effort with 7 scoring 6 or more, and 9 scoring altogether. We shot very poorly due to Temple’s aggressive D, but they were often too aggressive, and we ended up on the foul line very often. +12 TOs, +7 Rbs. Our D turned them over 19 times.

We get to play for a title! The opponent is #5 Maryland, 32-6. Their starting Center, and leading rebounder and scorer, tore his ACL in the conf. tourney. That leaves them with only one decent inside player. They are very good outside.

4/3: 75-64! 15 lead changes, 6 ties. We finally took with 5-6 minutes left when a 14-4 run gave us a 14 point lead. Until then it was back and forth. 17, 6 for Roll, 15, 9, 4, 5, 5 for MOP Sam Will, 154, 5, 5 for Brad, 14, 4 for Hart.

My 16th title at 6 different schools!

4/4: Awards: Marc Brad was Final Four MOP, and 1st team All American. I got National COY for the 19th time. In conf., Brad was 1st team, Cay Roll and Sam Will were 2nd. I got Conf. COY for the 23rd time.

BIG meeting at the Final Four. Very hush hush. The NCAA decided to try to get in one more season. It won’t be easy. I’m going to stick around for as long as I can. I’m 12 away from 1500 wins, and I’d love to do 50 years. If it looks too unsafe I’ll just head for the Wyoming boonies. It would be nice to get that 50 years though. I’ll be 78 on May 1, but of course I still look and feel mid 30s.

Lots of schools offered but it’s pointless to move at this point.

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

36-2, 16th national championship. 1488-252, .855 for 49 seasons.