Historical Association #2

[Wayne23]

5/1: We buy the Great Plains Gold.

P. T. Barnum died the other day. What a charming charlatan!

6/5: Looking seriously for guards.

6/12: No luck.

So far Manhattan, KS has been very good to me. I feel very welcome. We need money, and a facilities upgrade, but I’ll manage.

6/26: LOTS of scholarships to fill- 7, to be precise. I need 5 bigs. I would go 4 and 3 if need be.

Things are getting more and more modern all the time. We now got electric clocks on the court that can be seen, and that let us know the number of seconds left to play. Harder for the home team to cheat with those.

Every place we stay has got electric lights and a telephone. There’s no phone on the train, of course, but there’s one at every station we stop at along the way, as well as a telegraph office. They got this wire screening they put over the train windows. It don’t keep the smoke outta the train but it keeps the bugs and most a the dust out. I hear tell it’s gonna be available in buildings soon, and then in private homes. The trains move faster and they’re supposed to be safer.

7/11: Down to a dozen recruits but lots are showing interest. I don’t keep guys with ratings of D or F in D or in OVR, and I don’t keep a lot of Cs in OVR.

8/21: I offer to 2 PGs, 5 PFs. Love to get 4 of them.

9/18: Got one, a PF, #204. Lost 1 big and a PG.

Caribbean Challenge vs. Provocation College. Weak sched. I want wins!

9/25: Got a PG, #419. Lost a big and a small again.

10/2: Wow! Got 3, a PF, #109, a PF, #112, a PG, #473. My horrible luck in getting decent PGs continues. But the ratings change once more. Hoping to get 2 more big guys. Lost 2 more, but lotsa guys interested.

1st day of practice.

10/9: Got our 6th recruit. PF #215.

11/6: Here’s the lineup. I’m going with a 10 man rotation until it sorts itself out, but we’re not deep:

Returning junior Max West will start at PG and play a little SG. He may be our best player. Juco junior Jed Conn starts at SG and backs up at the Point. Senior Walk on Ron Grif and frosh Jol Thon back up at SG.

Senior Boo Hall starts at SF and will play a lot at PF. He has a small army backing up at SF- junior Tav Guns, juco junior Ax Hack, and soph Bal Pick, who started there last season.

Inside are senior Roy Maen and frosh Omar Barn.

We’re picked 6th in the 10 team Big 12. Let’s see what happens.

[Wayne23]

1/1/1892: 11-2, 2-0. Great start! But this is one TOUGH conf. 4 ranked teams.

1/15: 13-4, 4-2. RPI #30. We’re in a 2 way tie for 2nd, 1 back of 1st but it won’t last. Lots of ranked opponents coming up.

1/29: 14-7, 5-5. We hit the tough part of the schedule. RPI #30. +7.1 PPG, +4.9 RBs, +2.6 TOs. Maen and the guards get the points, but Barn and Hal are doing their part at SF and PF.

In a 3 way tie for 5th, 1 back of 3rd. 5 of our last 8 are at home, 3 of those against top 13 teams.

2/12: 17-8, 8-6, RPI #29. Alone in 5th. We almost beat #9 OK ST. Lost in OT after missing a free throw that would have won it at the end of regulation.

2/26: We end the regular season 18-11, 9-9, alone in 5th. RPI #42. +5.5 PPG, +4.3 RBs, +1.7 TOs.

Let’s see if we can do anything in the post season.

[Wayne23]

3/9: We play #4 seed Texas, 18-10, 10-8, in the semifinals. Beat them by 15 here, then lost by 12 there. This won’t be easy.

3/10: 88-84. We led most of the way. They made it uncomfortable at the end. 21, 9 for Maen, 17, 9 for Barn. All 5 starters had 10 or more. +9 RBs. We won it inside.

#1 seed, #7 ranked Oklahoma, 24-6, 14-4, in the semis. We lost by only 3 here last week. They have an excellent outside game but we can match them inside. That’s where we need the game to be played. But this is a very good team.

3/11: 87-73! AMAZING!!! We didn’t rebound (-11), but we shot 55%. When you don’t miss there’s no RB. 19, 7, 3 for Maen, 15 for Barn, 14 for Hall, 14 for Conn, 8, 4, 10 for West. Only 11 TOs. We made the most of every possession and just played a terrific game.

It’s #6 seed Texas Tech, 17-13, 8-10, for the title, in this upset laden tournament. 3 ranked teams and none made it to the title game. We beat them by 5, then 14. Their SG is an excellent scorer and their PF can play.

3/12: 75-79 in OT. Dang! Again, we missed the second half of a one and one that would have won it in the final seconds of regulation. 22, 6, 3 for Barn, 14, 17 for Maen, 13, 7 for Hall. 45 RBs. We didn’t get enough from our guards.

It would have been nice to win this one. Oh well.

20-12, 9-9, RPI #33.

#8 East. VERY tough draw, and we’d face the #1 team in the nation in the 2nd round if we get there.

But first it’s #9 Texas, 18-11, for the fourth time. We’re 2-1.

3/16: 67-55, and so we live to play another day! Excellent D, 28.2%. 28, 10 for Maen, 14, 6, 6 for Hall, 12, 6 for Conn, 11 RBs for Hack. 50 RBs.

Undefeated, #1 overall Michigan in round two. We’ll try to slow it down. We’ll try to play good D. We’ll try to not make many mistakes, but this team! Wow!

3/18: 64-91. We were hit by a passing freight train. Their starting guards combined for 60!

Losing Roy Maen, who we are truly going to miss terribly. Starting SF Boo Hall also graduates, as do Ron Grif, who played some, and 2 others who didn’t.

4/3: #2 Duke won it all. Michigan went out in the semifinal round, losing to Duke by 5.

Awards: Maen made Big 12 1st team. PG Max West made 2nd.

Would I move? It would take a truly fantastic offer.

4/9: I’m staying.

4/23: We need a budget increase. We get $11,000. I’ll take it!

21-13, 9-9. A great first season here at K State! Overall, I’m 133-63, .679 after 6 seasons as a head coach. And, for the record, I LOVE being a head coach!

It’s an election year and Mr. Cleveland has already announced that he intends to take back the presidency. No one has ever won it, then lost it, then won it, but I hope he does. I liked him.

[Wayne23]

5/1: I buy the Great Plains Gold.

Just added “The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo” to my musical repertoire. I haven’t told much about myself, but there’s not much to tell. Basketball takes up most of my time. I play my guitar and sing at home, on the train, in the hotels in the towns where we play, or where I go to scout or recruit. Yes, part of that is about meeting women, but most of it is about the fun of playing and singing. As to women in general, I love them. I don’t want to get married though, maybe ever. I like the single life. I value my independence. As long as I live in faculty housing I get meals and cleaning service. It’s a great life!

6/5: We’re looking at transfers.

6/12: No luck.

6/26: 5 scholarships. We need 2 bigs and 3 guards. It would be nice to land some good guards since our only two decent ones are both graduating.

7/17: Down to 11 recruits. One is a pipe dream but the other 10 are all real possibilities.

8/21: We offer to 2 PGs, a PF, a C.

9/18: We get a PG, #76. Lose a big and a small.

Going to the HFT tourney vs. UNC Green. Still a soft sched., but not AS soft.

9/25: Got a C, #184, and a PG, #351. Lost the other big.

10/2: We lose the big guy.

10/9: Got a PF, #273, a PG #269. We’re finished if everyone hits our SAT score, which ain’t that high.

11/6: 7 man rotation, but 2 others waiting in the wings:

Seniors Max West and Jed Conn start at guard. Conn is at SG but backs up West at the point. Frosh SF Dave Bees backs up at both SG and SF. We have two guards I dare to put in the game. We have two others that I wouldn’t, given a choice.

Frosh Bill Grow is at SF.

Soph Omar Barn is back at PF, and frosh Tar Well is at C. Backing up inside is senior Tav Guns. Juco junior Brad Syed and frosh Nisi Beli hope for minutes.

Grover Cleveland is President again.

[Wayne23]

11/20: 2-0 to start. Weak opponents but we looked good.

All 5 recruits sign.

Forgot to mention that we’re picked to finish 8th in conf., which is an insult.

12/4: 4-1. RPI #46. A loss at Columbia that should never have happened. We have 4 starters and 2 subs playing very good ball. We’re looking to make a change at SF, but we’re not quite there yet.

12/23: Headed for the HFT Tourney. We’re the #6 seed and we play #3 UNC Green, 5-3.

83-78. Down by 11 with 6 ½ to go. 28, 15 for Barn, 19, 2, 7 for West. +11 RBs.

#2 seed Seton Hall, 7-2, in the semifinals. Good team.

12/24: 92-70. 32, 7, 3, 3, 2 for Center Tar Well. 14 each for Barn and Guns. 10 each for Wells and Conn.


The last seed Akron, managed to get here. They’re actually a really good team. This won’t be easy.

12/25: 77-69. Tourney champs! Down 9 early in the 2nd half. 23, 11 for tourney MOP Tar Wells. 39 RBs, 6 TOs.

We end pre-conf. play 9-2, RPI #39. +8.0 PPG, +1.8 RBs, +5.4 TOs with a terrific 10.9. Well leads us with 17.9, 8.1. Wells gets 13.9 and really runs the offense well. Barn gets 10.8 and 7.5. We put Syed in the starting lineup at SF 5 games ago and he has produced. The Big 12 is a tough conference but we think we’re ready.

I just got a copy of a booklet of rules to standardize the game of basketball by some guy named Naismith. Read it, like what it says.

[Wayne23]

1/1/1893: We start conf. play with two ranked teams. Happy with the 1-1 split.

1/15: 14-3, 5-1. Ranked! #22, RPI #19. Tied for 2nd, 1 back of #5 Kansas.

Something going on in Hawaii. I think our Marines are overthrowing their government. I hate that kind of thing. We should mind our own business.

1/29: 16-5, 7-3, #22, RPI #13. Still tied for 2nd, 1 back of 1st. +5.5 PPG, +0.6 RBs, +3.6 TOs. Not happy with rebounding. Same guys are leading us. Well is playing outstanding ball. Still tweaking though, especially at SF.

2/12: 19-6, 10-4, #20, RPI #11. Alone in 3rd.

Tough sched. To end the regular season. Last 2 are against ranked teams.


2/26: We end the regular season 22-7, 13-5, #20, RPI #14. We end up tied for 2nd, #3 seed. +5.1 PPG, +1.1 RBs, +3.0 TOs. We slid to 12.5 TOs. My goal is always fewer than 12 per game.

We actually beat 1st place, #7 Kansas here.

[Wayne23]

3/9: We play #6 seed Texas in the quarter finals tomorrow. They’re 16-11, 9-9. They score outside, and rebound- MAN do they rebound, inside. Beat them by 8 here, 2 there, but they are tough.

3/10: 86-67. We came to play! Close for a half and then we opened the 2nd with a 23-4 run. 25, 7 for Well, 15, 6 for Barn, 14, 4, 5, 4 for Conn, 12, 6 for Syed, 11, 6, 3 for West. =1 RBs against a great rebounding team. 10 TOs.

#7 Iowa ST, 17-13, 7-11, won in an upset. They’re up in the semifinals. Beat them by 10 here, then lost by 2 there. Love to get to the title game again.

3/11: 87-57. We’re on fire right now. 17 each for Syed and Conn, 13, 7, 4 for West, 11 each for Well and Bees. +16 RBs.

And it’s #1 seed, #7 ranked Kansas, 26-5, 7-3, for the title. They destroyed us by 29 there in January, but we just beat them by 8 here last week.

3/12: 62-76. It was close for a long time, then they started stretching out the lead late, and we couldn’t keep up. Foul trouble to all three bigs hurt, and 21 TOs hurt even more. Not a good night but then Kansas caused a lot of that.

24-8, 13-5, #19, RPI #13. Hoping for a #4.

#4 South. We play #13 Murray ST, 22-8. Their strength is outside.

3/17: 75-64. 21-8 for Well, 16, 6 for Barn, 12, 4, 3 for Conn. We never trailed, and the only tie was 0-0.

#5 seed, #23 ranked Oklahoma, 20-11. We certainly know our Big 12 foe. Their PG and SG do it all. Two excellent players. We won by 15 here, lost by 27 there.

I’ve never coached a team to the Sweet Sixteen. This is the best shot at it I’ve ever had, not that it will be easy.

3/19: 72-85. Dang! They jumped out to an early lead and despite using all of my time outs they got it to 26 before my guys settled down and started to play. We got it to 14 at the half, but we never got closer than 6 after that. 21, 5, 6 for West, 17, 8 for Conn, and it was the last game for both.

4/3: #4 Georgia Tech won it all.

4/4: Awards: Tar Well got Big 12 Frosh OY and 1st team. I got COY.

The annual question- yes, I would move for the right situation, and in the south. Kansas is nice, the people are great, but it ain’t home. I gotta get back south.

4/9: Not this year.

4/23: I still need a bigger budget. Got $11,600. Love it. I didn’t expect to get anything.

25-9, 15-5. Ranked #19 in the final poll. A great season. Overall I’m 158-72, .687. Hoping to get to .700 soon.

[Wayne23]

5/1: I’m devastated. Tar Well transferred out. I’ve lost my best player. Never saw it coming. There was not the least sign that he was not happy here. I do have one very good looking C coming in, and another who looks like he may be good, but ouch!

5/10: Big, BIG news.

First there’s an Exposition in Chicago that claims to be nothing like the world has ever seen. Countries from all over the world, as well as the U. S. are exhibiting their finest products, natural resources, things they are famous for, etc., and all sorts of things that will be part of life in the future, and others that may be, are on display. I hope to see it. If we can get a game in that area it would be great.

The second item is much bigger, and it’s horrible. The New York Stock Exchange suffered the biggest collapse in history. There was a panic, and the country is broke. Financial ruin everywhere. All the banks are collapsing and people are losing everything. The businesses who were getting by on help from the banks are all bankrupt and closing. This will affect everyone.

6/5: Back to basketball. I’m looking at transfers. Same old problem, finding good guards.

6/19: No luck.

We’re getting lots of beans in the school cafeteria. And lots of soup. Money is very tight, so I understand. There’s bread to fill us up, and they really encourage us to take as much bread as we like. Things are bad and I’m lucky to be where I am.

6/26: 3 scholarships. I might go for all guards. Not sure yet. Looking at 27, 24 are guards.

Colorado says they’re gonna let women vote. What is the world coming to…

The school is cutting back on cleaning, and they’ve announced that in the cafeteria we can fit everything on a tray once, but no stacking plates on top of each other. And they’ve made it clear there will be no fancy meals. We won’t starve. I’m still playing guitar at the hotel, well, and some piano, and singing, of course, but the tips are down to almost exactly zero. And people who used to have 3-4 beers are nursing one all night, two at most.

7/31: Down to a dozen recruits.

8/21: We offer to 3 PGs.

9/18: We get a PG, #129. Lose 2.

No in season tournament this year. Definitely a more rigorous sched.

9/25: Got the other 2 PGs, #760 and #812, but both were a lot higher in all the earlier ratings.

10/2: 1st day of practice.

11/6: 9 guys in the mix and a 10th ready to join. Here’s how we’ll start.

Frosh Mark Hett starts at PG, plays some SG. He won the job by great play in our 2 exhibition games.

Ari Dexa, a senior walk on, starts at SG and will play some PG. He also won the job in the exhibition games.

Lan Jif, a juco junior was expected to start, but he didn’t get the job done in the exhibitions. He and frosh Nat Vosu will sub at SG.

Omar Barn starts at SF. He should be at PF but he hasn’t played well there in the practices, didn’t in the exhibitions. He DID play well at SF.

Soph Bill Grow is back at PF, and will sub at C, and juco junior Erl Jank is at C- we have high hopes for him.

Senior Brad Syed and soph Dave Bees sub at SF and PF.

Disrespected again and picked 7th in the Big 12 which now has 11 teams with the addition of Anal Roberts.

The Exposition in Chicago closed. I saw it. Some amazing stuff!

[Wayne23]

11/20: 2-0 start. Our front line, especially Erl Jank, look terrific, and our gaurds are taking care of the ball.

All 3 recruits sign.

12/4: 4-2. We’re still finding ourselves. We lost to 2 teams we should have beat and then beat #19 New Mexico by 10. It’s early.

12/25: 8-3 going to the conf. We lost to Rider, of all people. I rarely say this, but the referee did us in. They went to the foul line 34 times, we went 13. In our last game we beat LaSalle 70-66 in OT there. Referee again. They went to the foul line 42 times, we went 11, but we won anyway. I have a pretty calm temperament but I really lit into that referee.

RPI #38, +12.2 PPG, +4.0 RBs, +4.5 TOs (12.0). Lan Jiff is starting to play really well. We’re increasing his minutes.

Let’s see what we can do in the Big 12.

Conditions are still really bad economically, all over the world, it seems.

The biggest things here are the services for people who live on campus, and the food in the cafeteria. We now get ham and beans at least ones a week, hash the same, cheap cuts of beef on other days, some kind of thing with just macaroni noodles and melted cheese, which I can barely choke down, and other things like that.

Lunch is always soup and bread. The soups are good though. The school farm provides the vegetables. They’re good for most of the year because they store them in dark, cool places. There’s no meat in the soup but onions, turnips, carrots, potatoes, other roots, and in season, every vegetable you can think of, oh, and red beans, black beans, garbanzos. They try to vary it by putting more of one or two of the ingredients one day, and the same with other ingredients the next day. And the bread is fresh baked here every day. Actually, lunch is better than supper most days.

Breakfast used to be eggs with bacon, ham, or sausage, but now it’s oatmeal, with apples in it, peaches in season.

Times are hard, and I’m grateful. Some folks struggle to get enough to eat.

[Wayne23]

1/1/1894: 9-3, 1-0, RPI #35. 1 game week. We won on the road, which is always a good thing in conf. We don’t have a big scorer but we have 4 who are getting between 11.8, and 14.7. Jank is our big rebounder with 7.5. Grow gets 6.0. Jiff is now starting for Dexa.

1/15: 12-4, 4-1, RPI #47. In a 3 way tie for 2nd.

1/29: 15-5, 7-2. RPI #27. +9.2 PPG, +2.8 RBs, +3.1 TOs. We beat #2 and #12 (on the road), but then lost to #15 Oklahoma. They lead us by 1. We’re alone in 2nd.

2/12: 17-6, 9-3, RPI #25. In a 2 way tie for 2nd, 2 back of 1st, 2 up on 4th.

2/26: We end regular season play at 20-7, 12-4, RPI #27, alone in 3rd. +7.4 PPG, +1.9 RBs, +1.8 TOs. This is a very tough conference. I’m good with this.