Hoops in Space

[Wayne23]

3/5: No one declares for the draft.

3/7: We play #8 seed UAB, 16-14, 9-9, in the quarter finals. We won by 11 there.

3/8: 71-78. VERY disappointing loss. They took a big early lead and we never caught up.

Not happy with our post season play last year or with this game. Hoping for at least one win in the NCAAs.

3/12: #6 Midwest. We play #11 Abilene Cretin, 24-8. This is a team we should beat.

3/16: 78-67. They led by 8 early and by 4 at the half. We started fast in the 2nd, took the lead and held it. 18, 2, 4 for Ells, 20 for Wats, 11, 13 for Mart.

#14 seed Temple, 19-15, was an upset winner. We play them in the 2nd round. We beat them by 17 and 3.

3/18: 79-69 and we’re in the Sweet Sixteen! We led by as many as 22. 31, 7 for Jonn.

[Wayne23]

3/22: We play #2 seed, #10 ranked Tennessee, 26-8. We’ll need to be at our best.

3/23: 85-72! HUGE win!!! We got off to a fast start and led all the way. We were up 9 at the half. 18, 14 for Mart, 22, 5, 3 for Ells, 10, 11 for Tony. Solid D.

#1 seed, #4 ranked Duke, 27-8, in the Elite Eight. They’ve lost 8 times, which gives us hope, but they’re a very good team.

3/25: 80-99. We couldn’t stop their powerful offense. Our starting guards had 37 but theirs had 48. -17 for the bench.

I couldn’t be prouder of what this team did this season, and we’re only losing one starter!

4/3: #1 Kentucky is the champ.

[Wayne23]

4/4: Awards: Stan Jonn is AAC Def POY. Led Mart makes the 1st team. Jonn and Mel Ells make the 2nd team. O am Conf. COY.

4/9: I don’t expect to move with the great team I have coming back.

Staying.

4/23: I ask for a facilities upgrade.

No.

27-7, 14-4, Elite Eight. Overall, for 3 seasons, I’m 74-28, .725.

I haven’t talked much about friends. I don’t really have any close friends. I have lots of people I’m friendly with, mostly due to mutual interests like hiking, bridge… and I get along well with all of my coworkers. I’m a loner by nature. I don’t hate people and I interact just fine with people in my day to day life but I like my own company. Romance? I’d like to have a family but I haven’t met the right person. The right person for me would need to understand my need for personal space and I would need to learn to include her as much as possible.

[Wayne23]

5/1: #17 recruiting class. Pretty good!

5/22: We lose one guy. We encouraged him to leave. Looking for a big guy.

5/26: 0-1.

5/29: 0-1.

6/2: 0-1.

6/5: 0-1. The transfer Portal is getting ridiculous. I’ve offered to the same guy every time, he has us in his Top 5 every time. SMFH

6/9: 0-1. Lost the guy I just mentioned. Offered to a guy who also has us in his top 5 every time.

6/12: 0-1. I quit. Lost this guy too.

6/25: Going to Indy and Houston.

6/26: 1st day of recruiting. We need 2 guards, 1 big.

6/29: 2:45 a.m. “Captain, glad you7’re here. I see something way, way at the farthest reaches of what I can see. Take a look.”

“Definitely something there, Jake, but it’s too far away to tell if there’s any danger. Monitor it and make sure all the navigators and copilots are aware on all shifts.”

7/1: 4:07 a.m. “Captain, the object we’ve been tracking is gigantic, at least planet size, and it’s definitely heading this way.’

“Best evasive action?”

“Seems to me we should go 90 degrees to prot and continue full speed in that direction.”

“Pilot, make that happen at once.”

7/5: We’re heading to port as fast as we can go. This object is much bigger than Jupiter and may be as big as our home sun, if not bigger. Not 100% sure we can get out of danger before it gets here.

7/9: The object will reach us in about 10 days. It is about twice as big as our home sun. Our calculations indicate that ships 4 and 10 are very borderline as to whether they can evade it.

7/17: We offer to 2 guards and a C.

7/19: Ship 4 looks safe. Ship 10 is fighting the objects gravity. Today is the critical day.

Ship 10 has some structural damage but it has passed the point of most danger. Repairs are underway. They indicate that they do not need help from any other vessels.

The Commander has decided that we will turn 90 degrees to starboard. That will leave us considerably to port of our original course. That’s because an object as big as the one that just passed is bound to have other objects trailing in its wake. By staying on the new course we should avoid most of them.

[Wayne23]

9/18: We get a PG, lose 2.

9/25: 0-2.

10/2: 0-1.

1st day of practice.

10/9: 0-2.

10/16: We get a PF.

11/13: We lose another PG. Offer to an SG.

Here’s the lineup:

Senior Mel Ells is back at PG where he has done a great job for us.

Senior Stan Jonn is back at SG where he has also done great.

We’re going with a 3 guard set again. Soph Alan Wats is back at SF and will back up at both guard positions.

Our other guard is frosh Trey Well who is not ready.

Juco junior Matt Henn is at PF. He has looked very good in practice.

Junior Gord Tony is back in the middle.

#1 big off the bench is frosh Aron Troy. Junior Emo Bake is next. Frosh Ted Geez isn’t bad. Frosh Brad Webb is not ready and probably never will be.

I haven’t talked nearly enough about back up systems. We have excellent back up systems in all areas, especially in life support areas like oxygen, lighting, waste transferal… Our oxygen back ups
are three deep. In other words if the system fails there’s a back up, then another one, then another one. Obviously oxygen is vital so this is necessary. At the very least people need time to get into their EV suits, which, of course, provide them with oxygen, and procedure says that if we need to go to first back up people immediately put their suits on until we have the problem resolved.

Lighting is very important as well, of course. In interstellar space it’s dark. If the lights fail it is totally dark. So again, a triple back up system.

Everything, and I mean absolutely everything is recycled and reused here so that system also needs a triple back up.

Our engine systems also have multiple back ups.

Crops and food labs are the key to survival so the back up systems are deep there as well.

Whatever I’ve missed also has deep back ups.

Relatedly, if there's a hull breach the section where the breach occurred is immediately sealed off to limit the disaster.

[Wayne23]

11/14: We start tomorrow with Colorado ST here.

12/5: 6-0 start. Ranked #24.

79-65 over Colorado ST here to start. We took charge in the 2nd half. 17 each for Jonn and Wats. 10, 10, 5 for Henn.

86-66 at Delaware. We trailed by 1 at halftime. 20, 3, 4 for Ells. 16 RBs for Tony.

98-82 at the Citadel. 27, 3, 4, 3 for Jonn, 12, 10, 5 for Henn.

68-47 over Charleston here. We started fast and led all the way. 13, 14, 3 for Tony, 17, 5, 4, 3 for Wats, 16, 5 for Ells.

79-67 over Drake at home. We held them to 17 in the 1st half. 22, 8, 7 for Henn who has looked really good.

81-70 over Butler here. We never trailed. 27, 4, 3 for Ells, 21, 7, 6 for Wats.

More about EV suits. If the oxygen system went to back up, as I said, everyone would need to immediately don the suits. This presented a problem in that everyone could not leave their work stations to go to their living quarters to get the suits. We have a plan in place as to who goers in what order. If the oxygen system totally failed, including all back ups, there would be about 20 minutes of oxygen before things got critical. People would need to hurry, but everyone should have time to get into their suits within that time. Our orders were to leave the suits on our recliners whenever we left our quarters so they would be readily accessible.

[Wayne23]

1/1/2104: 6-1 in our last 7. 12-1 at the end of the pre-conf season. Ranked #16.

79-88 at Colgate in the 1st game. They took an early lead and we never caught up. 14, 8, 7 for Wats, 17, 8 for Henn.

97-73 at Anal Roberts. Never trailed. 28 for Ells, 19, 2, 4 for Jonn, 16, 3, 3 for Wats.

87-71 in the 1st round of the Battle 4 Atlantis over #7 seed Stephen F. Austin. Big early lead. 14, 15, 4 blocks for Tony, 23, 2, 3 for Jonn.

85-77 over #3 seed Colorado in the semifinals. Again we led all the way. 18, 13 for Henn, 12, 12 for Tony, 18 for Jonn.

71-59 over #1 seed, #24 ranked Oregon in the title game. We led all the way and never trailed in the tournament. 16 each for Henn and Jonn.

77-53 over Texas El Paso here. We led by 31 at the half. 18, 10, 6, 4 for Wats, 11, 15, 3 for Henn. Only 6 TOs.

88-66 over Furman here. Again we led all the way. 17, 10, 3 for Henn, 15, 11 for Tony.

Jonn leads us in scoring with 15.6. 14.4 for Ells. 13.8, 4.8, 5.0 for Wats. 12.0, 9.8 for Henn. 10.2, 10.3 for Tony. Great starting 5!

+14.7 PPG, +6.7 RBs, -5 TOs, averaging 10.3, which is good.

We get the SG we were after.

The noon to 6:00 p.m. navigator spotted some space rocks coming toward us. These are no doubt trailing the huge body we passed some time ago. We’re watching the rocks but they don’t seem to pose a danger at this point. We’ll keep watching.

[Wayne23]

1/22: 5-1 in our 1st 6 AAC games. 17-2 overall, tied for 1st with Wichita ST. Ranked #9, our highest ever.

87-47 over Charlotte here. A real blowout. 19, 6, 2, 3 for Henn, 18, 5, 4 for Ells, 19, 2, 3 for Jonn. Aron Troy has been a terrific 6th man at F/C.

65-75 loss to Memphis at home. I HATE home losses! They led most of the way. 16, 20, 3 blocks for Tony.

92-78 at East Carolina. We never trailed. 28, 4 for Ells, 22, 8 for Troy.

92-76 over Temple at home. Easy win. 19, 11 for Wats, 13, 13, 6 for Henn, 18, 3 for Troy.

84-55 over UAB here. Never a game. 14, 9, 8, 5 for Wats, 15, 17, 3 blocks for Tony.

101-79 over Rice here. 29 for Jonn, 22, 4 for Ells, 6 players in double figures. Only 5 TOs.

Space rocks still don’t seem to pose a threat. They are a good distance to starboard of ship 10, which is the farthest starboard of our ships.

[Wayne23]

2/8: We won our last 6. 23-2, 11-1, 1 game lead on Memphis. Ranked #3!

80-68 at Temple. Big early lead. 20, 10, 6 for Henn, 22, 5, 3, 3 for Jonn.

90-76 at Wichita ST. 20 point lead at the half. 22, 6, 5, 5 for Jonn, 17, 14, 5 for Henn.

81-77 at Rice. We led easily then at the end they made a run at us but the final score was as close as they got. 20, 10, 3 for Wats, 16, 9, 8, 3 for Henn, 16, 2, 4 for Ells.

87-67 over Tulane at home. 22, 17, 6, 5 for Henn, 24, 4 for Jonn.

92-74 at South Florida. Big early lead. 18, 9, 5 for Jonn, 19, 2, 8 for Ells.

91-75 at Florida Atlantic. Never in doubt. 24, 11, 4 blocks for Henn, 18, 7, 4 for Wats. 6 in double figures.

“Hey hiker!”

I turned around to see a woman.

“Hello.”

“Hi. I’ve never met anyone on a hiking trail before. Do you use this one regularly?”

“Now and then. I’m Jake Geer.”

“Meg Rand.”

“I assume you’re a regular hiker since this trail is pretty high level.”

“I am. I love to bushwhack. Obviously, you do, too.”

We continued the conversation. Then we decided to finish the hike together. Meg was a redhead, a natural redhead. I’d say about my age, late 20s. She was very fit and if anything, went at a faster pace than I did on the hike.

We really clicked and decided to have lunch together when we finished. It went really well and I asked if I could see her again. She said yes.

[Wayne23]

2/15: “A scientist? I didn’t know we had full time scientists on board, although when I think about it, it makes sense. What kind of science?”

“Medical research. I got my Ph. D. working with the team that developed life extension and then age reversal.”

“Wow! So what do you do? That seems pretty complete.”

“Actually not quite. I’m working on wiping out disease. We don’t die but we can get awfully sick sometimes, and other times we get annoying things like the common cold and the flu. I’m working to put an end to that.”

“That’s fantastic. Are you making progress?”

“We seem to be. It wouldn’t surprise me to see some really positive results within a couple of years.”

Our second “date” was dinner at a sushi restaurant on level 14. We talked about lots of things and had a really nice time. At least I did.

3/4: 4-2 for our last 6. We end the regular season at 27-4, 15-3, alone in 1st in the AAC. Ranked #3.

77-61 over North Texas here. 29, 8 for Jonn.

92-66 over East Carolina at home. 24 point lead at the half. 31 for Jonn, 11, 6, 8, 3 for Wats.

90-76 over Texas-San Antonio here. 20, 10 for Henn. 6 players in double figures.

94-84 at Charlotte. 17, 5, 4, 5 for Troy.

67-68 at #13 Memphis. Close all the way. We missed an open three at the buzzer. 20, 4, 7, 5 for Wats. We should have won this one.

76-81 at UAB. We shot 31.3%, and that about sums it up. 25 for Jonn, 15, 12, 5 for Henn.

Jonn leads us in scoring with 16.5. 14.0 for Ells. 13.5, 10.0 for Henn. 13.2, 5.3, 4.7 for Wats.

+14.4 PPG, +8.5 RBs, -5.2 TOs, averaging 10.3.

I’m seeing Meg almost every day. She works and lives on deck #1, as I do, so it’s easy for us to meet for lunch, or after work (She works 6:00 a.m. to noon. I work the night shift and sleep until noon.).
We hike a couple times a week, just hang out some evenings.