DDSCB25: Superstar

[Wayne23]

4/3: #6 Oklahoma ST wins it all. Yay Big 12!

4/4: Awards: Art Sale makes the Big 12 2nd team.

4/9: “Will you move if you get the right offer?”

“It would need to be a damn good one.”

No good offers.

4/23: I ask for a facilities upgrade.

No.

We finish 29-6. After 6 seasons I’m 160-48, .769. Not bad!

[Wayne23]

5/1: #9 recruiting class. We lost Sale, Mill, and Fitz so a lot to make up for.

5/22: We lose a forward and a guard. Neither would have played. We’re looking for a guard and 3 bigs.

5/26: We offer to 4.

5/29: 0-4. We offer to 4 again.

6/2: No luck.

6/9: We get a guard. We need bigs and there’s only one left we’re interested in.

6/12: We get a big. We’re going to be shorthanded up front.

6/25: We’re going to Indy and all the regional camps.

6/26: We need a guard and 2 bigs.

7/17: We make our offers.

I speak with Kip nearly every day by phone. I’m closer to him than I am to any of my assistants and I wish he’d agree to join my staff but I don’t see it happening unless I get the UConn job. He’s a homebody and he’s not leaving.

8/7: Rado Khoh is #46 on the Norton list.

I still spend lots of time reading things related to King Lear. I really want to start a Ph. D. program but until I reach my destination school it seems impractical. I don’t want to move halfway through a Ph. D. program.

9/11: We lose a C.

9/18: We get a PF and a PG, and lose a C.

We have a fairly challenging pre-conf schedule.

9/25: We lose the C.

10/2: First day of practice. As long as we don’t get a major injury in the front court we’re in pretty good shape.

We lose yet another big man.

10/9: We decide to hold the scholarship for now. We’ll check back in the Spring.

11/13: We open tomorrow. Here’s the lineup:

Senior Dave Wilk is back at the Point.

Soph Tray Witt is back at SG.

#3 guard is junior Kev Seal who is pretty good. Next is frosh Jure Staf who has lots of potential. Finally, there’s soph Mike More, a transfer from Nevada. All of our guards can play.

Soph Mike Burk is at SF. He has looked really good in practice.

Frosh Ed Hart is at PF. He does a lot of things well and we have high hopes for him.

Soph Rado Khoh is at C. He’s probably our best player.

First big man off the bench is soph Rado Soli, a transfer from UNLV. He could start if we needed him to. Finally there’s frosh Gil Stal, who is still developing.

We start with 0-1 Texas- El Paso here. They lost by 13 in their debut.

[Wayne23]

11/14: Early lead. Up 8 after 10. Up 20 late. 50-27 at the half. 14, 3 for Wilk, 10, 8 for Hart, 8, 10 for Khoh. We own the paint.

Up 14 with 10 to play.

94-76. 25, 11, 3 blocks for Ed Hart, 12, 16, 3 for Khoh, 18, 9, 5 for Witt, 14, 3, 3 for Wilk. Good bench play. +21 RBs, +24 in the paint.

11/16: 1-0 Montana is here. In their opener they didn’t play much D and didn’t rebound.

11/17: Early lead. Up 17 after 10. Hart is going crazy. 69-38. Incredible half. 25, 6 for Hart, 13 for Wilk. Only 1 TO.

Holding the lead early. Up 30 with 10 to go.

109-74, a real blowout. 36, 8 for Hart, 22, 1, 6 for Wilk, 15, 13, 3 blocks for Khoh. 4 TOs, +16 in the paint.

Witt’s not happy. He won’t say why. That’s not a good sign. He may transfer.

[Wayne23]

11/20: Louisiana-Lafayette, 0-0, in the Charleston Classic. We’re the #1 seed, they’re #8. They haven’t played yet so we don’t know much about them.

11/21: Close early. Both teams are sluggish. Tied after 10. We heat up late. 50-36 at halftime. 15, 3 for Hart, 10, 5 for Witt.

We start fast. Up 15 with 10 left.

93-76. 25, 9, 3, 3 blocks for Hart, 16, 8, 4, 4 blocks for Witt. +18 inside.

#5 seed South Carolina, 2-1, in the semifinals. They’re good outside.

11/22: Early lead. Up 4 after 10. They’re staying close. 40-34 at the half. 12, 3 for Burk, 10 for Witt. 1 TO.

We continue to lead in the early going. Up 13 with 10 left.

84-72. 23, 5, 3 for Witt, 16, 7, 4 for Khoh, 16, 9 for Burk, his best game so far, 12, 7 for Hart. Only 2 TOs. +26 in the paint.

#2 seed, #24 ranked Stanford, 4-0, in the title game. They play good D.

11/23: Early lead. Up 4 after 10. 37-34 at halftime. 11 for Witt. 3 TOs. We’re not shooting well.

Back and forth early. Up 3 with 10 to play. Late run!

84-67 and we win the Charleston Classic. Great D! 26, 5 for Witt, 10, 6, 5, 3 for Khoh, 13, 4 for sub Ken Seal, 10, 7 for Hart. Only 6 TOs.

[Wayne23]

11/23: 2-1 Bradley is here. They’ve got a good C. We should beat them.

11/24: Close early. Up 1 after 10. 42-38 at halftime. 9, 6 for Khoh. 1 TO.

We start fast. 10 point lead. Up 13 with 10 to play. Big lead late.

95-66. 20, 4, 4 for Witt, 12, 13, 3, 3 for Khoh, 11, 7 for Hart. Only 3 TOs. +18 in the paint.

11/27: We’re ranked. #13.

At 2-2 Indiana ST. We think we’re better.

11/28: We score the first 15. Up 15 after 10. 54-27 at halftime. 14, 2, 3, 3 for Hart, 13, 1, 3 for Witt. Only 2 TOs. +26 in the paint.

Huge early lead. Up 26 with 10 to play.

98-71. Never a game. 23, 5, 7 for Witt. Whatever he’s upset about, it’s not affecting his game. 20, 5, 4, 3 for Hart. 6 TOs. +38 in the paint.

[Wayne23]

11/30: 4-2 Southern Cal is in. We think we’re better.

12/1: Both sides are sluggish early. Down 1 after 10. 30-25 at the half. Balanced scoring.

Close early. Up 6 with 10 to go. Close late. Late run!

76-61. 19, 11 for Hart, 16, 6, 3, 3 for Witt.

12/4: At 1-5 Furman. They give up 14 more than they score.

12/5: Close early. Up 5 after 10. 42-30 at halftime. 18, 7 for Hart. +14 in the paint.

Holding our lead early. Up 10 with 10 to play. Late run.

94-71. 31, 12 for Hart, 16, 3, 8 for Witt, 15 for sub F/C Rado Soli. +20 RBs.

Frosh Ed Hart is exceeding expectations, playing very well just about every night.

[Wayne23]

12/11: 1-5 Akron is here. They give up 10 more than they score.

12/12: We score the first 9. Up 8 after 10. 41-24 at the break. Balanced scoring. 3 TOs.

Increasing our lead early. Up 19 with 10 to go.

80-59. 20, 2, 3 for Witt, 12, 6 for Soli, 14, 1, 8 for Wilk. +12 inside.

We’re ranked #8. 10-0.

12/18: We end pre-conf play with 8-1 Georgia here. They’re a good team and we’ll need to play well.

12/19: Both teams are cold early. We heat up. 20-11 after 10. We go on a run. 41-31 at halftime. 11, 6 for Hart, 11, 1, 3 for Witt. 3 TOs.

Up 8 with 10 to play. They’re taking a run at us. We’re fighting them off so far.

87-75. 22, 3, 6 for Witt, 15, 11 for Soli, 13, 6 for Hart. +18 RBs, +24 in the paint.

We end pre-conf play at 11-0, ranked #10. Ed Hart gets 18.9, 8.3. 18.8 for Witt. 10.6 for sub Rado Soli, 10. 2 for Wilk. 8.8, 6.4 for Burk, 8.7, 10.1 for Khoh.

+20.6 PPG, #2 in PPG. +11.3 RBs, #3 in RBs. -5.9 TOs, a terrific 7.7. +6.4 assists.

[Wayne23]

12/27: We start Big 12 play with 6-4 BYU here. They play good D but they don’t score.

12/28: Close early. Down 7 after 10. 40-44 at the half. 19 for Witt.

Close early. Down 1 with 10 to play. Mini-run!

92-69. We were terrific late. 26, 1, 6, 3 for Witt, 19, 8 for Hart, 13, 7 for Soli. 3 TOs. +22 in the paint.

12/29: At 6-4, 0-1 Central Florida. They’re a decent team.

12/30: Back and forth early. Up 3 after 10. They go on a run. 35-52 at halftime. We’re shooting 28.2%.

We’re not gaining any ground early. Down 17 with 10 to play.

86-89 but it wasn’t that close. 18, 11, 3 steals for Hart, 15, 5, 7, 6, 3 blocks for Witt, 16, 3 for Seal.

1/3/2032: 4-7, 0-2 Arizona ST is here. This is a team we should beat.

1/4: Fast start. Double digit lead early. Up 12 after 10. 50-39 at the half. 18, 6 for Hart. 2 TOs.

Playing well early. Up 15 with 10 left. Solid lead late.

96-75. 32, 12 for Hart, 21, 3, 4 for Witt, 17, 4 for Burk. 6 TOs.

Witt is still unhappy and still playing great. No idea what’s up with him.

[Wayne23]

1/5: At 9-3, 2-1 West VA. They’re really good outside. This should be a battle.

1/6: Early lead. Up 9 after 10. 47-34 at the half. 17, 1, 4, 4 for Witt, 13, 7 for Khoh.

They’re closing the gap. Up 4 with 10 to go.

77-81. We led by 21 in the 1st half. Fouls hurt us. 25, 2, 6, 4, 3 blocks for Witt, 19, 15 for Khoh.

1/8: #11 Iowa ST, 12-1, 4-0, is here. They play very good D.

1/9: Close early. Down 7 after 10. 31-33 at halftime. 9, 4 for Hart.

Back and forth early. Up 5 with 10 to play. Big finish!

84-67. 18, 4, 6 for Witt, 15, 6 for Hart, 16 for Seal.

Ed Hart hurt his shoulder. He’s day to day.

[Wayne23]

1/12: At #16 Baylor, 11-5, 2-3. Tough team.

1/13: Close early. Then they go on a run. Down 12 after 10. 33-39 at halftime. We were down by as many as 14. 12, 6 for Hart.

Close early. Down 3 with 10 left.

80-82. Hart missed a three at the buzzer. 26, 6, 3 for Witt, 19, 10 for Hart. +18 in the paint.

1/17: At 10-7, 2-4 Texas Tech.

1/18: Early lead. Up 12 after 10. 50-34 at the half. 15, 3, 6 for Witt. +12 for the bench.

Holding our lead. Up 10 with 10 to go.

86-68. 26, 6, 8, 4 for Witt, 12, 4 for Staf, 10, 6 for Soli. Not happy about 18 TOs.