The Phenom

[Wayne23]

2/22: 78-63. Started in the 3-2. We scored the first 12 points. Up 20 with 9 minutes to play in the 1st. Up 15 at the break. Switched to the 2-3 at halftime. The 2-3 didn't work very well. I had to go to man. The man to man worked and we won easily. Concerned that the 2-3 was so ineffective. They got the lead down to 4 before I got out of it.

24, 6 for Mims, who has really been playing well for quite some time now. I'm sure he's seeing the pro scouts, or at least knowing they're here, and he wants to go high in the draft. Can't blame him! 15, 7, 3 for Palt, 13, 11, 3 for Haye.

Jonn's string of very good games was stopped. He had 3, 4, and 5, and his man had 14, 6, 4. He's entitled to an off night – as long as we win!

+9 RBs, 8 TOs. +14 in the paint. We took 9 more shots, made 6 of them.

Still tied with AZ ST with AZ 1 back and UCLA 2 back, with 3 to play.

#23 UCLA, 21-7, 11-4, is here next. We won by 10 at their place. They play pretty well inside, but I think we're better and deeper inside.

2/23: Lu and I were both in town, she leaves tomorrow, so we had dinner at a really nice restaurant in Portland. Interestingly enough she got recognized by a fan and I didn't. She really teased me about that. It was a really nice evening and we both seem to be looking forward to another one.

Lu's team is now 20-8, 13-2 in the PAC 12, alone in 1st. They really caught fire once conference play started and are now ranked #22.

[Wayne23]

2/25: 83-70. Started in a 2-3. Got the lead to 10 in 12 minutes. Up 14 at the half. Switched to man to man. The game wasn't as close as the score indicated. We were comfortably in control almost all the way; certainly after the first 10 minutes or so.

13, 13, 3 with 3 blocks for Flye Murl. 17, 7 for Mims, 14, 10 for Palt. Jonn was cold again tonight shooting 2-8, and getting only 6, but 6 RBs, 9 assists.

+23 RBs, most of them on O, leading to +24 2nd chance points. +10 in the paint. 11 TOs.

Arizona upset Arizona State at State. We now have a 1 game lead with 2 to play.

At Oregon ST next. They're 17-10, 8-8. We won by 25 at our place. As long as we don't let them go crazy with threes we should be okay.

[Wayne23]

3/1: 94-72. We went on a run late in the 1st. Up 6 at the half. This one was a breeze.

6 players in double figures. 21, 11 for Mims, 17, 7, 9 for Haye, 16, 6, 7 for Jonn; hopefully his shooting slump has ended.

+21 RBs, only 6 TOs. We took 13 more shots and made 6 of them.

+8 in the paint, 17-0 on 2nd chance points, 8-0 on fast break points.

AZ ST lost so only Arizona is 1 back, with 1 to play.

17-13, 7-10 USC is here in the regular season finale. They like to work it inside but we're better inside. Maybe we'll try some 2-3 again.

[Wayne23]

3/4: 99-78. Switched out of the 2-3 to man 10 minutes in and down 6. Up 6 at the half. Took awhile but we got there.

23, 8 for Mims, who seems very much ready for the post season. 20, 3 for Palt, 16, 3, 6 for Jonn, 13, 11 for Murl, 14, 2, 3 with 3 steals for Mosh.

+9 RBs, 11 TOs. We shot 51.5%, 10-20 on threes. We took 12 more shots and made 10 of them. +10 in the paint. +10 on 2nd chances.

Arizona lost their finale in an upset so we win the PAC 12 by 2. There really are only 4 teams that have any realistic chance in the conf. tourney.

3/5: Flye Murl declares for the draft. That's a disappointment but not a shock.

Mims winds up #2 on the Norton list.

We are at 28-4, 16-2, #2 behind Purdue, NET#1.

#4 in PPG, #2 in RBs, #8 in Overall NET, #3 in Offensive NET, only #66 in Defensive NET.

+13.3 PPG, +10.3 RBs, -3.2 TOs.

Mims leads us in PPG with 17.2,and in RBs with 10.6. Josh Jonn is 2nd in PPG with 12.0. #3-6 are 11.7 to 9.6.

Let's see what we can do in the post season!

Lu and I have some time before our next games and we're planning to spend a lot of it together. We'll break down video but also do some non-hoops stuff. There's a play on campus that we want to see, for one thing.

[Wayne23]

3/9: We play #8 seed USC, 18-14, 7-11, in the quarter finals. We beat them by 21 last week at our place. This should be a gimme.

3/10: 89-70. They scored the first 5 points. Then, a few minutes later, we were up by 10. Up 13 at the half. This was as easy as we expected it to be.

Eddy Paly led us with 25 and 7. 18 and 9 for Mosh, with 3 steals and 3 blocks. Mims, who is 2nd in the nation in double doubles had another one tonight, 12 and 11. Jonn was 0-6 from the floor and wound up with 6, 1, 5; not good!

+13 RBs, 12 TOs. We took 35 free throws, they had only 16, but they didn't have the skills to guard us so they had to foul often.

+12 in the paint, +9 on 2nd chances.

The 4 teams that I said were the only ones with a shot at the PAC 12 tourney title are the 4 teams still playing. We play the #4 seed, #21 ranked

UCLA, 24-8, in the semis. We beat UCLA by 10 there and by 13 at our place so a win is not a given, which i am making as clear as I possibly can to my kids.

They go both inside and outside but have more talent inside. We should be able to take care of that if we play well.

The other game, AZ vs. AZ ST, should be a war.

[Wayne23]

3/11: 83-55. Up 11 with 7 to play in the 1st half. Up 7 at the half. We ran away from them in the 2nd, 41-20. The refs let the teams play and that favors us.

Aub Mims hurt his knee. It's not a terrible injury but he'll miss the final, which is very bad news for us. And yes, I probably should have taken him out sooner, damn it!

20, 4, 3 with 3 steals for Eddy Palt, 16, 10 for Mims, 10, 6, 10 for Jonn.

+12 RBs. We held them to 33.3% from the floor, 3-11 on threes.

+14 in the paint, +7 on 2nd chance points.

We play #3 seed, unranked Arizona State, 23-8, for the title. They embarrassed us in the regular season, scoring 98, and winning by 10. Their SG and PF were all but unstoppable, and we'll need to stop them in this game to have any chance. With Mims out we may be in trouble.

The game plan is to try to do what we did on offense last time, but to try to stop their two big scorers on D. I'll go with a man, and double team as needed. If that doesn't work I'll try double teaming the PG, hoping that stops the two shooters from getting the ball.

The oddsmakers have this one dead even, a toss up.

[Wayne23]

3/12: 71-79. They took an early lead. Then we were down by a dozen. Down 9 at the half. We simply had no answers, and we were outplayed. Not having Mims really hurt but then they beat us when we had him.

13, 4, 6 with 3 steals for Jonn, but his man was the SG, who had 17, 3, 4. Not quite even, but not bad. 14, 6 for Mosh, subbing at C. He played well.
13, 7 for Palt. Murl was outplayed by their PFG, 15, 7 to 7, 7.

+10 RBs. We had 12 TOs, they had 11. But we shot 38.8% to their 48.3%. We had +16 2nd chance points but it didn't help, or at least not enough. They had 3 more threes than we did, and that was about the margin.

I think we'll still get a #1 seed. We'll see.

#1 Midwest. We play #16, Denver, 16-16. Aub Mims will miss the first two rounds. If we survive he'll be ready for the Sweet Sixteen.

[Wayne23]

3/16: 82-53. We're killing them inside early on. Up 21 at the half. We didn't expect a challenge and we didn't get one.

15, 11 for Murl, 19, 4 for Mosh, 14, 6, 3 for Jonn, 10 each for Haye and Palt.

+8 RBs, 11 TOs.

We shot 56.9% to their 34.6%, 1-13 on threes. +24 in the paint.

#8 seed Kansas, 22-10. They've had an off year but they're a great program so we won't take them lightly. Their SG is their best player but they're solid up front, especially at C. So Mosh will need to have a good game. And no, Mims is not available. The doc says he needs a few more days or he could reinjure the knee.

If we play our game we should win this one.

[Wayne23]

3/18: 96-84. Close early. We built a lead, got it to 15 midway through the first. Up 8 at the half. Our guards were terrific tonight!

22, 3, 8 for Haye, 21, 1, 7 for Jonn, 11, 7, 4 for Murl. I played Mims a lot more than I wanted to, 19 minutes, and he had 15 and 10 (Author's Note: I had him dead last on the depth chart with ZERO minutes assigned. The AI chose to play him 19 minutes. I play out the games in the option to the far right, superspeed. Did not intend to play him at all.).

+11 RBs, 12 TOs to their 17. They shot 50%, 5-12 on threes. We shot 46.5%, hit 8 threes, but we took 17 more shots and made 6 of them.

+14 in the paint, +16 on the fast break, +8 on 2nd chances.

Josh John hurt his calf and may miss our next game. That really hurts as we don't have much backup at guard. I may go with 4 bigs and a PG. Talking it over with my staff.

#12 seed Kansas ST, 24-13, beat #5 then #4, so they're next. On paper we beat them, but not by a lot. They have an excellent C; hopefully Mims is at 100%. The docs say he is. They also have a very good SG, and Andy Dane, who's subbing for the injured Josh Jonn, will have his hands full. Their PG could challenge Haye, as well. Eddy and Flye should be better then their opposites, and our short bench is better than their bench. We need to rebound and we need to turn them over.

Arizona and Arizona ST were both upset in the 2nd round. Two #1 seeds are out including the #1 overall, Purdue.

[Wayne23]

3/23: 71-60. We scored the first 9. Then they caught up. And then we went ahead again. Dane is shooting and making them. Up 6 at the half. They stayed close for more than 30 minutes.

Dane was amazing, 23 points. 16, 14, 3 for Mims, 14, 0, 5 with 3 steals for Haye.+5 RBs, 16 TOs, but they had 19. We took 13 more shots and made 9 of them. Held them to 37.5%.

+12 in the paint.

Post Game Presser (Excerpts):

Q: Coach, you've reached the Elite Eight, with three straight wins, and still haven't had your five starters healthy. How did you do it?

Coach: We may need to do it again. Not sure if Josh Jonn will be ready. We did it by working as hard as we possibly could and by believing in ourselves and in each
other. We asked a lot of Andy Dane tonight and man did he deliver! If we need to start him in the next game, I'm fine with that.

Q: Is Aub Mims at full strength.

Coach: The docs say he is; hey, he had 16 and 14 tonight. I'll take that any time!

Q: Creighton is next. How do you play them?

Coach: We don't know much about Creighton. The staff and I will be up all night looking at video. I'll be able to tell you more after that. We know their good. Ranked #11 but #5 in NET. Some real scorers at SG and SF, and they hit the boards.

We looked at the videos. We feel like the keys are hitting the boards and turning them over, and not letting their SG and SF get many open looks. We should be able to spot Jonn, maybe play him for 10-12 minutes.