Basketball 2111

[Wayne23]

2/28: In our 9 team conf., only the top 8 teams qualify for the tourney. Since we’re the #1 seed we play #8 Binghamton, 7-20, 4-12. We won by only 1 there, but by 21 at home. We’re favored by 3 ½.

Rav finally got the cast off of his broken hand. He said working with the cast on was very challenging. The hand is stiff and it will be a while before he has normal flexibility in that hand, and there’s some pain when he moves it certain ways, but he’s on the mend.

3/1: 71-61. We jumped out to an early lead and built it to 19. It was 15 at the half. They never got it closer than 9. Good team effort, 7 guys scored between 6 and 13 points.

The favorites all won so we play #4 seed New Hampshire, 17-11, 9-7. They beat us twice, by 2 at our place, and by 5 there. Both very close games. We’re favored by ½ point and we expect a battle.

3/2: 88-83. Great O, not much D. 7 players with between 10 and 15 points, so a really balanced attack. +9 RBs, +8 TOs.

#2 seed Albany, 19-10, 11-5, for the title. We won by 18 at our place and lost by 13 there. The game is rated a toss up.

3/3: 96-73. We were firing on all cylinders all night long! 27, 10 for Dee Slay, 16, 8 for sub guard Jam Bows, 13 each for Hart and sub Jon Call. +16 RBs, only 3 TOs (+7)! Great game and we’re in the big dance!!!

23-7, 12-4, regular season and tourney AEC champs. RPI #119. We won’t get a great seed, but we’re in.

3/12: #14 East. We play #3 seed, #13 ranked Wisconsin, 22-9. Yikes! They’re the best team we’ve faced in my two years here.

3/16: 57-87. We tried but they were WAY better than us. 16, 14 for Mat Carr.

4/3: #1 North Carolina is the national champ.

4/4: Awards: Junior PF Josh Hart is AEC POY and 1st team. Forward Des Slay is Frosh OY and 1st team. Senior C Mat Carr and frosh guard Cam Gard make the 2nd team. I get
COY!!!

4/9: Will I get any decent offers?

None. Our TP jumps from 15 to 21 and we have some very good players coming back. I’m not unhappy about coming back here for another season.

4/23: I ask for a facilities upgrade. We need one! Nope.

23-8, 12-4, AEC champ. RPI #119. +6.5 PPG, #70, #90. +7.3 RBs, #16, +1.9 TOs, #43.

After 2 seasons we’re 39-21, .650. Not bad!

If I have a weakness it is recruiting but my assistants are not a lot of help with that and we’re a small school that is far from highly rated. I am hoping that this year’s success will have an effect.

My son Aron is now almost 7 months old. He’s crawling. He has developed a personality and he is simply a joy.

[Wayne23]

5/1: #294 recruiting class. No surprise, we only landed one guy. And to make matters worse one of my transfers came in with a GPA of 1.7. My fault. I forgot to work on his studies.

We buy East Gold.

6/5: Hoping to land a couple of transfers. We only have three forwards on the squad. No centers.

6/12: We get a C from VMI who likes like he could help us.

6/26: 3 scholarships. We’re only looking at big guys.

8/21: We offer to 3 Cs.

9/18: We lose a C.

No in season tourney again this year.

9/25: We get a C, Tom Burr, #77. The highest rated recruit we’ve ever gotten. He’s from here in CT, which helped. We lost one.

10/2: We get another terrific C, Mark Hall, #82. We lose one. Hoping to land one more big but even if we don’t this is our best recruiting class ever!

1st day of practice. We’re picked to win the AEC.

11/6: 6 man rotation:

Senior Lal Dass starts at PG. Soph Cam Gard starts at SG, subs at PG.

Soph Jam Bows starts at SF, subs at SG. Junior Jon Call subs at SF and PF.

Soph Des Slay starts at PF, subs at C. Senior Josh Hart is at C.

Religion: I’ve mentioned a few things about it but I may not have captured how powerful it is. As well as the mandatory two hour or more Sunday service there is a “strongly recommended” service on Wednesday evenings. It lasts about as long as the Sunday service and while it is not officially mandatory people who don’t attend should plan on facing some hard questioning unless they have a very good reason for their absence. Athletic teams are expected to work around the service whenever possible and to attend unless they are travelling or have a game scheduled. I would LOVE to schedule a game every Wednesday but that would be too suspicious.

The pastor, the assistant pastor, one of their wives, or one of the deacons will often “drop in” on any community member’s home without warning or notice. They are always to be made welcome.

Public prayer and a religious song precede any public event- sports, music, theater, movies…
In short, religion is everywhere. It is absolute inescapable. And anyone who fails to show enthusiasm in practicing the religion is also subject to hard questioning. I am writing this journal in secret, and I am taking every precaution to see that it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands, but I hesitate to speak about my real feelings on this subject.

[Wayne23]

11/20: 2-0 start. Soft opponents and both games at home but we’ll take the wins.

Both recruits sign. We’re hoping to land one more.

11/27: 3-1. We lost a road game to an undefeated team. Frankly, we should have beat them; lousy D did us in. We’re in the middle of a 6 game road trip.

12/4: 4-2. Still on the road. Splitting 2 games in a week on the road is fine.

At this point in the season we aren’t handling the ball as well as we’d like and we’re giving up too many points.

No lineup changes. Actually, we have six players and that’s it. We may make minor adjustments to minutes or positions but unless an injury hits we’re not going to do much with the lineup; we can’t.

12/11: 5-3, RPI #61. Well, we split the 6 road games. 3 more games before conference play, 2 of them at home.

12/18: 7-3. 2 home wins. RPI #77, which is WAY too high. We’ve played very weak teams. One game left before AEC play, on the road.

12/25: We head for conference play 7-4. RPI #85. +6.6 PPG, #19, #248, +5.9 RBs, #32, +1.2 TOs, #115. We practice D 75% of the time and we’re #248? We practice O 25% of
the time and we’re #19? I don’t get it…

Jef Meek remains ineligible. Considering whether to keep trying to get him eligible or to just cut him. Deferring the decision for the moment while trying to get him to study more and getting him a tutor.

Nell and I are making plans for Spring. If we have a decent season we’ll probably get a decent job offer. We didn’t get one last year but I think two good seasons in a row would do the trick. After this season I really will have done about all I can do here at U. Hart., and I’ll be ready for a new challenge. Being here this season is fine, but I’m hoping this is my last season here. Nell is fine with this decision. She feels that she’ll be able to get a teaching job at our new school, but actually, we’re hoping that by then another child will be on the way. If we have two kids she will stay home for a few years before going back to work. Aron is almost 15 months old. He’s walking (and running), he’s getting into everything, and he says a few words and communicates very effectively both with and without words.

[Wayne23]

1/1/2114: 8-5, 1-1. RPI #107. Lost by 3 at Stony Brook. This is a team we should have had no trouble with. I am not happy. 21 TOs did us in.

I’m feeling that this team really has not jelled. I think we have a lot of talent but we aren’t finding each other on O or backing each other up on D. At least not as well as I had expected. Hopefully we’ll put it all together. I think we can win the AEC again this year but we’re not at the level to do that yet.

Not having any luck getting that 3rd recruit.

1/8: 10-5, 3-1. RPI #109. Honestly? We played 2 terrible teams this week.

I’m looking for an alternative to guard Lal Dass. He’s just awful with the ball. I may give Mark Gure a shot. Really upset that Jef Meek isn’t studying enough to be eligible.
He’d really help us at guard.

Anyway, I’m shaking up the lineup. Let’s see what happens.

1/15: 11-6, 4-2. Lost on the road, won at home. Same old same old. I need to give the new lineup a chance for at least another 2-3 games though.

1/22: 12-7, 5-3. We lost to a team that had 3 wins all season, there. After that game I had my first ever yelling, screaming, throwing things fit in front of my players. I’m usually pretty calm no matter how well or how poorly things are going but that loss did me in and I let it show. Not sorry. In our next game we beat a good Albany team by 19.

We’re in 2nd, 1.5 back of 1st, ½ ahead of 3 teams. Going back to the old lineup except that Call is getting more minutes and Dass less.

I’m very close to releasing Meeks. He STILL isn’t improving his grades.

1/29: 13-7, 6-3, RPI #129. A one game week and a 30 point home win.

2/5: 15-7, 8-3. Road win against a good team. Things may be looking up, 4 wins in a row, ½ game back of 1st place. Call is getting more minutes and he is really making them count. Hart leads us with 16.5, 9.0.

2/12: 17-7, 10-3, and we’re in 1st by ½ game. 2 of our last 3 are on the road but we should finish 1st or 2nd. RPI #79. Call had 19 and 12 in our road win. Hart had 26 and 19 in our win over then 1st place UMass-Lowell.

6 game win streak.

2/19: 18-8, 11-4. Still in 1st by ½ game. RPI #79.

2/26: We end the regular season with a road win to finish 19-8, alone in 1st. RPI #66. +8.0 PPG, #38 PPG, #98 PPG Allowed, +5.4 RBs, #43, +3.6 TOs, #63. Hart leads us
with 16.2, 9.1. Slay gets 4.3, 6.3. Bows gets 14.1.

The plague. I mentioned it in passing. In 2057 an ebola type filovirus popped up in Zaire. This one was different though. First, it was transmitted by contact, like a cold, and through the air. Second, it wasn’t as virulent as the older filoviruses usually were so it didn’t wipe people out too rapidly to spread. And it really did spread. By the end of 2058 an estimated 50% of the world population had been killed by the virus. What stopped it? No one knows, it just stopped, or more likely went dormant. No cure or vaccine was discovered. No drug or drug combination killed it. As a matter of fact medical science never found anything that would even slow it down. If you contracted it you died, within just a few days. And yes, everyone who contracted it died. It had a 100% kill rate. Why 50% were afflicted and the other 50% were not? No one knows.

Scientists have been predicting ever since that it would “waken” at some point. We all live in fear of that happening.

[Wayne23]

2/28: We play #8 seed Binghamton, 8-19, 5-11, in the quarter finals. They won by 7 there. We won by 16 at home. We’re favored by 2 ½.

3/1: 78-62. 25, 6 for SF/SG Jam Bows, 21, 12, 4 for Josh Hart, 12, 7, 4 for PF Des Slay. Only 8 TOs. We looked good tonight.
#5 seed UMBC, 10-19, 8-8, in the semis. We won by 28 at home then lost by 15 there. We’re favored but by only ½ point. They’re deeper than we are so their fresh legs could give us trouble.

3/2: 73-51. We led from start to finish, by as many as 26. 27, 14, 4 for Hart, 17 for PG Cam Gard, 14, 6 for Slay.

#2 seed UMass-Lowell, 17-12, 11-5, for the title. They won by 8 there, then we won by 15 at our place. We’re favored by 1 ½. They’re solid and deep, though.

3/3: 82-78. HELL of a game. Never more than a 7 point difference. 25 lead changes, 18 ties. We scored the last 5 points on a three by Cam Gard, a steal by Jam Bows, and two free throws by Des Slay. 16, 6 for 6th man Jon Call, 5 guys had 10 or more. +8 RBs. We win the title for the 2nd year in a row.

RPI #52. AEC regular season and tourney champs. Hoping for a #12 or #13 seed.

3/12: #13 South. We play #4 seed, #14 ranked Maryland, 21-9. Tough draw, but not unfair. They have an outstanding backcourt and we’ll need to find ways to not let them do what they want to do. Tall order!

3/17: 65-83. Their backcourt did us in. 23, 11 for Josh Hart in his last game.

4/3: #10 Purdue is the champ.

4/4: Awards: Senior Josh Hart is AEC POY, Def. POY, 1st team with soph guard/forward Sam Bows and soph forward Des Slay. Soph PG Cam Gard makes 2nd team. For the 2nd year in a row I am AEC COY!

4/9: Nell and I are excited about our chances of coming up with a new job. Just waiting for the phone to ring…

East Carolina, from the AAC wants us. Not sure. They may not have the budget to compete in that conference. Hoping for a better phone call. We’ve gotten a few others, but not for situations that would have been better than what we have.

East Tennessee State in the Southern Conference. Better. Conf. Prestige is 34, TP is 28.

After much deliberation, we’re staying another year. I’m disappointed in the quality of the job offers.

4/23: I ask for a budget increase. Denied.

22-9. Overall, 61-30, .670. RPI #52, +7.8 PPG, #48 PPG, #88 PPG Allowed, +5.3 RBs, #39, +3.4 TOs, #62.

When ½ the population dies things change- gigantically. I wasn’t around in 2058, and who knows how accurate the history reports are, but everything I’ve seen indicates that at least for a while it was all chaos. Only the fact that the U. S. was a strong dictatorship allowed it to survive. Initially there was a complete breakdown. Goods and services could not be obtained and food was frightfully scarce. People were on the edge of starvation, and actually many were starving. Given that most of the population lived a mere subsistence existence it’s hard to believe that more than a handful survived.

But within a matter of days the troops, police, and fire fighters were all mobilized. They took over the farms in places where the farmers had died from the plague. They took over driving the trucks from the truck drivers who had died. Food was brought from the warehouses and from the fields to the population, and starvation was averted.
Jobs were re-assigned to the living, and slowly and painfully, society got going again.

The theories state that had there been less than a totalitarian government none of that would have been possible. So even though the already hard lives of the people grew even harder, people survived, and the government survived. It took years but everything eventually returned to “normal.”

Will we be so lucky next time? I’m guessing probably not.

[Wayne23]

5/1: Recruiting class #268 but that’s very deceptive. We recruited two jucos and got a transfer, all of whom should help us. We buy East Basic. I cut Jef Meek.

5/3: Press Conference (print newspapers are back due to lack of internet access in most homes):

Barney Sims, Hartford Gazette: Coach, there were rumors you were leaving. You’re still here. What happened?

Me: I love it here at U. Hart. It’s no secret I’m ambitious and my goal is to coach at a powerhouse school eventually. I won’t be here forever. But I won’t move until and unless I find a job that is a big jump from here. No need to. Nell and I are very happy here.

Jen Florry, Waterbury Post: Coach, you lost your best player to graduation as well as a starting guard. Are the Hawks in trouble this year?

Me: On the contrary. I have plenty of guards and we’re bringing in four big kids, all of whom have the potential to help us.

Ron Blaze, Meriden Reader: So tell us about your expectations for the coming season, Coach.

Me: We’re looking to have a breakthrough season. I see us winning at least 25 games, maybe as many as 27 or 28, and maybe even making some noise in a post season tournament. We’re going to be both good and deep.

Willa Morr, Middletown Bulletin: Coach, you cut Jef Meek and another kid.

Me: Jef refused to do the studying he needed to do in order to become eligible. We fought that battle all season long last year and nothing changed. He was a senior. He wasn’t ever going to play for us the way it looked. The other kid just didn’t have the talent to help us. Just for the record we arranged for both to be able to complete their education here at U. Hart.

It went on like that for about an hour. Reporters always ask the same questions.

6/5: Room for 2 transfers.

6/12: We get a PG from Wyoming who looks like he’ll help us.

6/26: 3 scholarships. We’ll go 2 and 1 either way. Money is a little tight so we’ll need to be careful.

We thought Josh Hart might be drafted but he wasn’t. I hope he can land a spot with a team. He’s had a couple of tryouts already.

8/21: We offer to a PG, a PF, and a C.

Some interest being shown by a few recruits.

Rav stopped by last night with great news. He is now the head of supply for the cafeteria, and the entire building it’s housed in. It’s really mostly a desk job with some delivery, and it’s day shift. He has two people working for him. LOTS of supplies, including food, but much more than that, comes into that building.

“This is a real step up for Lara, me, and the kids. We get a really nice two bedroom apartment, and the job is going to be great. I’m hoping that I can get Lara in there. One of the two guys who works for me is close to 70 years old and he has trouble doing the job. I won’t fire him, but he’ll need to retire at some point.”

9/18: We lose one but I feel like we’re close on the other two.

No in season tourney. I’m disappointed.

9/25: We lose another one.

10/2: Got one, a C, #148. Close on a PG.

1st day of practice. We’re picked to win the AEC. I like this team!

10/16: We get a PG, #73.

11/6: 7 man rotation to start:

Junior Cam Gard starts at PG. Junior Jam Bows is at SG. Senior Mark Gure subs at both guard spots.

Junior Des Slay is at SF. Senior Jon Call gets equal time with Slay, subbing at SF and PF.

Juco junior Mark Hall starts at PF, subs at C.

Juco junior Will Dean is at C.

[Wayne23]

11/20: 2-0. Both road games. SG Jam Bows, back at his regular position this season, PF Mark Hall, and C Will Dean look like our heavy hitters. Happy with most things but we need to give up fewer points and we need to take better care of the ball.

11/27: 4-0 with 3 of them on the road. Des Slay is out performing Jon Call but I want to wait at least another week before adjusting minutes. They get equal minutes right now.

The goal this year is to sell out the home season. We’re 1 for 1. Chase Arena only sits 4017, and tickets are a hot item around town, especially this year with expectations running so high. We are now 2nd in CT in popularity. Look out, UConn! Just kidding. We won’t catch up to them.

We’re one game into a 4 game road trip right now.

12/4: 6-0, 5 of them being road games. Not great teams, admittedly, but still, 5-0 on the road!

Last road game before 3 of the next 4 are at home, then conf. play.

12/11: 8-0. RPI #55 (which is too high, we haven’t played anybody). Probably our strongest road opponent of the pre-conf. season next.

12/18: 10-0, RPI #44. Gotta say that I’m pretty happy with my team right now.

12/25: 11-0. RPI #37. +12.8 PPG, #72, #29; we’re playing really good D! +8.6 RBs, #12, +5.0 TOs, #43. 12.5 TOs is higher than I want it to be, but I love our margin!

Jam Bows leads us in scoring with 17.1, and he’s a really good defender. PF/C Mark Hall gets 13.2, 10.5, and C Will Dean gets 14.2, 7.0. The other 4 guys who get minutes all produce. My only weak defender is Jon Call, and that’s why he doesn’t start.

We ran the preseason table and sold out every home game. My A. D. is talking about a renovation to add seating but if I’m still here next year my top priority is recruiting money, not renovations.

Road trips are awful. We go everywhere by bus. It’s a 55 passenger coach bus and we travel with usually about 25 people, so everyone gets their own seat, but there are times when it’s a very long ride. Jersey is bad, Maryland is REALLY bad. Fortunately that’s our longest trip and it’s only once a season.

Every school that is involved in intercollegiate athletics has a special dorm for the visiting team. The dorms vary in quality from fair to very poor. When on another campus we eat in the same dining hall where the home team athletes eat, in our own section. All in all it’s never great but it’s seldom awful. Still, one more reason why I want to move up the ranks is because things like this will improve as well.

[Wayne23]

1/1/2115: 13-0, 2-0, RPI #30. We’re just playing solid basketball so far. Our 7 guys play as a unit, back each other up on D, hit the boards hard, and find the open man on offense. They’re pretty much doing all that I want them to do. And we’re now #13 in PPG Allowed!

1/2: Nell informed me that we’re going to be parents again! Baby is due in early to mid June.

1/8: 14-0, 3-0, RPI #30. A one game week. We won at home.

Still trying to land a PG. We’re talking with 4 guys and we are really leaning on our record. 3 of the 4 seem interested but none are ready to commit.

1/15: 16-0, 5-0. RPI #28. #11 in PPG Allowed. The win streak continues!

1/22: 18-0, 7-0, RPI #30. The Connecticut press is clamoring for us to be ranked. Not sure we play a tough enough schedule but if we keep winning it could happen.

Our next game is the one we should have the most trouble with in the regular season. We’re at 9-9, 6-1 UMBC, only 1 game back of us. Even if we lose, and they’re unbeaten at home this season, we play them at home in the season finale.

1/24: It was bound to happen, 77-93. Our usually excellent D was invisible tonight. They scored the first 9 points and never looked back. We never got closer than 5 at any point, and that was only once. We let them shoot 56.4%. We shot only 36.5%. They say you can’t win them all. I’m not going to be all over my guys about this game. I just want to keep them focused. It’s not the end of the world. Assuming things stay as they are the season finale will be a huge game. But Binghamton is only one back of us and UMBC and we play them on the road next. Could be a rough week!

1/29: 19-1, 8-1. Great and easy 20 point win at Binghamton so it’s definitely a 2 team race now. RPI still #30. +11.4 PPG, #71, #13, +6.8 RBs, #19, +5.4 TOs, #26. Bows still leads us with 16.7. Hall gets 12.4, 8.8. Dean gets 14.7, 6.9.

2/5: 20-2, 9-2. 7th place New Hampshire beat us there. Their back court shut ours down, and we could have rebounded better. We’re a game back of UMBC. RPI #31.

2/12: 21-2, 102, RPI 27. This was a one game week for us, and we’re tired. The rest helped. We’re back in a tie for 1st since UMBC lost a game this week.

2/19: 22-3, 11-3, RPI #28.. Another road loss. It’s a long season and some of it is fatigue, but we’re only 4-3 since our 18-0 start. UMBC is one up on us again, with only 2 to play. That season finale will very likely decide first place.

2/26: 24-3, 13-3 and we win the AEC. We beat UMBC by 18 in the season finale. We led by as many as 33 and it was never close. RPI #24. +9.0 PPG, #85 in PPG, #9 in PPG Allowed. +6.1 RBs, #21. +5.5 TOs, #17.

We feel like the only team that could beat us in the tourney is UMBC. The #3 teams are 5 back.

Okay, so the planet is not underwater. You may be wondering how that happened. It was a near thing. By the late 2020s cities were going… well, not underwater, but there was water in the streets, which made many of these cities uninhabitable. It wreaked havoc with the economy.

Things got worse and worse until 2032 when world leaders revealed that a science based solution had been found. Scientists had been working for decades on all kinds of bots, of all shapes and sizes, and used for all sorts of things. The announcement was that bots capable of taking pollution out of the air had been perfected. Uncountable billions of these were released into the atmosphere from points around the globe, and the effects of air pollution immediately began to reverse themselves. The waters still rose, as there was a delayed reaction, of course, but by 2038 the waters were no longer receding. As a matter of fact they had begun to recede.

Sadly, the waters, including the oceans, were disastrously polluted. It was not until the mid-2030s that the practice of dumping all kinds of trash into the ocean was finally halted in most places, but the damage was done. A great deal of marine life had been destroyed and many species had gone extinct. Still, this too was beginning to turn around.

Things improved but the planet simply could not support the more than 8 billion humans living on it by 2041. Food supplies decreased and decreased. Decent housing, clean water, adequate jobs all became hugely problematic.

The plague of 2057-2058 took care of that problem. Once the world adjusted to the loss of half its population, things got better for the planet. By 2100, air pollution was firmly under control, water pollution was getting there, and the oceans had receded enough that clean up and re-occupation of most of the cities most affected was well underway.

The priority was not taking care of the people of Earth, however. The top .1% now owned everything worth owning and everyone else lived the kind of subsistence lives that I have already described. Again, a few rose above the lowest levels, but most did not. Life was, and remains to this day, a great struggle for the overwhelming majority of the people.

We don’t know much about people living in other countries. News is 100% managed and censored so we only get the “news” that those in charge want us to get. The general feeling though is that conditions are essentially the same throughout the world. By the late 21st century all of the democracies had been supplanted by dictatorial governments of one sort or another.

[Wayne23]

2/28: We play #8 seed Vermont, 11-16, 7-9, in the quarter finals of the AEC. We won by only 6 there and only 12 at home. We’re favored by 1 ½.

3/1: 80-60. 17, 10 for PF Mark Hall, 16, 7 for C Will Dean, 15, 5, 4 for PG Cam Gard. We led for the whole 2nd half.

#4 seed Albany, 11-17, 8-8, in the semis. We won by 24 at home but then they beat us by 13 there. We’re a big favorite.

3/2: 64-52. 41-19 at the half. I played subs for most of the 2nd half. 28, 9 for Dean. +13 RBs, +11 TOs.

As expected it’s #2 seed UMBC, 18-11, 13-3, for the title. They beat us by 16 there. We won by 20 at home. Let’s see what a neutral floor will do. We’re favored by 2 ½. If they beat us it will be outside. We need to defend them well out there.

3/3: 59-51. It was a defensive battle all night. They led by 10 early, and by as many as 8 with about 7 minutes to play. We were stopping them but we couldn’t hit shots. That finally began to change in the last 7 minutes, during which we just locked them down. They scored 6 points in the last 7 minutes and we scored 22. We were a pathetic 1-19 from behind the line. Fortunately, they fouled a lot to stop us, and we scored 8 more from the line than they did. It was an ugly game, but it was OUR ugly game in the end. Hall had 15 and 10. Dean and SG Jam Bows had 14 each. We forced 26 TOs while getting 13 of our own and that was a big factor in the win.

27-2, regular season and tourney AEC champs. Ranked, for the first time in program history, #20 as of 3/5, #18 as of 3/11. RPI #19. I think we can hope for a #5 or a #6.

3/12: #6 West. We play #11 Murray ST., 22-7. We’re favored by 2 ½. They have some players, mostly at C, SG, and PF.

3/17: 87-68. 26, 4, 8 for Bows, 14, 8 for Dean, 15, 7 for Slay. Up by 20 at the half and it stayed more or less that way. +21 RBs.

I have now met every goal I set for us. A little extra wouldn’t be a bad thing, though.

#3 seed, #16 ranked Texas A & M, 23-7, in the 2nd round. On paper we’re in a lot of trouble. They’re very, very good outside and their Center is very good. This won’t be easy.

3/19: 63-81. Excellent team. We were not a match for them. Great season though!

4/3: #1 Duke is the champ.

4/4: Awards: Junior C Will Dean is AEC POY and 1st team. Junior SG Jam Bows is Def. POY and 1st team as is junior C Mark Hall. Junior PG Cam Gard makes the 2nd time and, for the 3rd year in a row, I am Conf. COY.

4/9: Several schools want us. We’re assessing.

Sometimes the mountain won’t come to Muhammed.

We’re staying, but we’re going to move to the Mid-American Conference.

4/23: We ask for $ again. Hopefully this time we’ll get some. We get $7,800. I’ll take it!

28-4, AEC champs. Overall, 89-34, .724. Ranked #18, RPI #19. +10.5 PPG, +6.7 RBs, +5.3 TOs.

[Wayne23]

5/1: We move to the Mid-American Conference (MAC). #146 recruiting class but we have some good players coming in. We buy the National basic.

6/5: Room for one transfer.

6/11: Jeli Louise is born. She and mom are both healthy and doing great!

6/12: We get a PG from Oklahoma ST who looks like he’ll help.

6/26: 6 scholarships. Yikes! We’re losing 3 guards, 3 bigs.

8/21: We offer to 2 PGs, 2 SGs, and 2 Cs but there’s not a lot of interest.

9/18: We lose one.

Still no in season tournament.

9/25: We get 2 PGs, #288, #644, and we lose 3 guys. Ugh.

10/2: We lose 2 more.

1st day of practice. We’re picked to win the MAC. We jumped from a school with a CP of 17 to one with a CP of 40 and we’re still picked to win it. I know we’re good. We’ll have to see if we’re good enough.

People were shocked when I stayed on here at U. Hart., but a few factors went into it. First, the best offer was from a team with a TP only 9 points higher than ours but in a conference with a CP of 71. They didn’t have the resources or the players to be successful in that conference. The next two schools that offered were 7 points better than us but one was in a lousy conference and the other was not in a position to do much, I thought. Finally, my A. D. told me that both the Atlantic 10 and the MAC were courting us.

He asked which conference I preferred and it was definitely the MAC. He said he was almost certain he could get us in. As it turned out he did.

My hope is to win here and then finally to move up next year, or at the latest the year after.

10/9: We get an SG, #246, and we lose one. Not close to landing a big guy.

11/6: 7 man rotation:

Senior Cam Gard is at PG. Senior Jam Bows is at SG. Junior Mal Long, a transfer from Wyoming, subs at both guard spots.

Senior Will Dean moves from C to SF this season. Senior Des Slay subs at Sf and PF. He’s used to starting and will try to work up to that but we’re strong inside.

Senior Mark Hall starts at PF, subs at C.

Soph Tom Burr starts at C.

Expect changes.