The Phenom

[Wayne23]

12/10: 89-65. We jumped out to a big early lead. Up 16 at the half. I expected more of a challenge, but I'll take it! Our bigs dominated but our guards heled their own.

I'm thinking less is more for Mims. He led us with 24 and 14 and had only 2 fouls. Car Mosh had 18 and 7. 12, 9 for Flye Murl.

+12 RBs, 12 TOs. WE\e shot 52.3%, to their 36.4%.

An amazing +32 in the paint.

[Wayne23]

12/14: 94-91 at 3-5 Penn State. Back and forth . Down 4 at the half. It stayed close all the way. We won it on a buzzer beating 28 footer by Adam Haye. Too close!

13, 10, 3 with 3 steals for Mims, who is definitely playing better and avoiding foul trouble since I've started playing him less. 18, 2, 3 and the winner for Haye. 15, 8 for Murl. 6 guys had 12 or more.

+8 RBs, 12 TOs. The difference was at the line. We had 22-34 to their 10 for 11. They outshot us 62.5% to 51.6%, and they were 11-22 on threes. Our
D didn't get it done; previous most points given up was 83 in our only loss.

#11 Georgetown, 8-1, next, at our place. Their PG is outstanding. Haye will have his hands full. They have a very good C. They rebound well and take care of the ball. Not a lot of weaknesses. As usual, we want to play this game close to the hoop.

[Wayne23]

12/17: 81-90 in OT. First half was a battle. Up 3 at the half. WE played catch up for most of the 2nd half and tied it on a buzzer beating three by Haye (again), but then they beat us up in OT. Poor shooting, especially on threes and from the line did us in. If we had hit our free throws during regulation there would have been no OT.

21, 15, 3 with 5 blocks for Mims. 14, 4, 4 for Haye.

We shot 41.3% from the floor, 31.6% on threes, and 59.1% from the line. +13 RBs. We took 7 more shots but only made one more field goal, and they were 12-24 on threes, and 18-20 from the line.

+14 in the paint and +15 on 2nd chance points, but it wasn't enough.

Post Game Presser (Excerpts):

Q: Tough loss, Coach.

Coach: We did it to ourselves. Their starting guards had 43, 27 on threes. That just can't happen. And I need to get more production from Flye and Eddy at the forwards.

Q: Two home losses this season, coach.

Coach: Home losses make me want to bite my own forehead. There were so many ways we could and should have won this one- better outside D, better free throw shooting, a couple fewer turnovers.

Q: Coach, you're 10-2. Nobody wins them all.

Coach: Why not! I want to win them all! Every damned one of them! And that's what we work toward, every day from the first practice until the last game.

[Wayne23]

12/21: 84-63 vs. 6-3 Texas A & M here. We got off to a fast start. Up 17 at the half. An easy win; we needed one!

Mims was flat. I only played him 19 minutes.

18, 3, 8 for Haye, 14, 6 for Palt, and that's the kind of performance I need from him more often. I praised him for it. 17, 4 for Mosh, who is a terrific 6th man. +9 RBs, 9 TOs, and that led to 18 more shots, of which we made 11.

+18 in the paint, +14 2nd chance points, +10 fast break points. We don't focus on the fast break since we send everyone to the boards, but tonight the fast break was there, so we took it.

A week off and then #6 Xavier, 12-2, is here. We're still #2, NET #4.They have an excellent SG, but we think we're better at every other position. We need to be focused and play our game.

[Wayne23]

12/28: 70-58. Took us awhile but we eventually opened up a good lead. Up 13 at the half. They got it close a few times in the 2nd half but we managed to win comfortably.

Aub Mims had one of his better games, 21, 17, with only 1 foul. He's on track to be a 1st team All American, and some nights he actually plays like one! 12, 3, 5 for Jonn, 7, 13 for Murl. 14, 5 for Mosh.

+20 RBs. We held them t0 36.7%, 6-25 on threes, and we shut down their SG, who is their best player.

+16 in the paint. +15 on 2nd chances.

1/1/2029: We end the pre-conference season at 12-2, #2, NET #4.

#3 in PPG and the same in RBs, but only #20 in overall NET, #12 in Off. NET, but #66 in Def. NET. We don't actually shoot very well (#144 from the field, #315 on threes, #242 from the line), but we take a LOT of shots.

Mims leads us with 15.6, and 11.7 RBs. Adam Haye gets 13.6, with 5.6 assists. The next 4 scorers go from 11.2 to 9.0.

Clearly our best two players are our seniors, Mims and Haye. But we have some terrific looking recruits coming in.

[Wayne23]

12/28: 70-58. Took us awhile but we eventually opened up a good lead. Up 13 at the half. They got it close a few times in the 2nd half but we managed to win comfortably.

Aub Mims had one of his better games, 21, 17, with only 1 foul. He's on track to be a 1st team All American, and some nights he actually plays like one! 12, 3, 5 for Jonn, 7, 13 for Murl. 14, 5 for Mosh.

+20 RBs. We held them t0 36.7%, 6-25 on threes, and we shut down their SG, who is their best player.

+16 in the paint. +15 on 2nd chances.

1/1/2029: We end the pre-conference season at 12-2, #2, NET #4.

#3 in PPG and the same in RBs, but only #20 in overall NET, #12 in Off. NET, but #66 in Def. NET. We don't actually shoot very well (#144 from the field, #315 on threes, #242 from the line), but we take a LOT of shots.

Mims leads us with 15.6, and 11.7 RBs. Adam Haye gets 13.6, with 5.6 assists. The next 4 scorers go from 11.2 to 9.0.

Clearly our best two players are our seniors, Mims and Haye. But we have some terrific looking recruits coming in.

[Wayne23]

1/4: 73-63 at 7-4 California. Back and forth in the 1st half. Tied at the break. We went on an 8-0 run about 32 minutes in, and that gave us a 13 point lead. That made the difference. 21 lead changes, 10 ties before we took over.

Josh Jonn had his best game of the season, 26, 3, 7. 19, 6 for Mims.

+8 RBs, but 20 TOs. We actually took 9 fewer shots but we made 2 more FGs. The difference was fouls though; we were 25-36, they were 14-21.

[Wayne23]

1/7: 78-73 at 9-5 Washington. Back and forth in the 1st. Down 5 at the break. This one was in doubt until the final minute when we hit two threes and made 2 foul shots. We knew their outside game would give us trouble and it gave us lots of trouble, 37 for the starting guards. We went to the 3-2 for the last 3-4 minutes, and it helped.

19, 9 for Mims, but 4 fouls. 16, 4 for Mosh, 13, 2, 5 for John who is becoming a scorer lately.

+9 RBs, but 17 TOs; we're having a little trouble taking care of the ball lately. We shot 51.7%, 2-11 on threes. They shot 50% and had 8 threes. Fortunately we hit our free throws, 16-22.

We won it inside, as we usually do, 42-16 in the paint, 18-9 on 2nd chance points, and 12-2 on fast break points.

Back home against 7-8, 0-2 Washington ST. This should be an easy game if we play well.

[Wayne23]

1/11: 87-67. 11-1 run midway through the 1st half. 58-36 at the break. At halftime I thought we'd score well over 100, but we kind of took it easy in the 2nd, too easy for my liking. They'll hear about that in practice.

14, 5, 5, 3 steals for Jonn, who has been playing really good ball lately. 15, 4, 3 for Haye, 12, 8 for Mosh. Mims was flat again. For a likely 1st team All American he has too many off nights. Still, he's #1 in the country in RBs, so maybe I'm too demanding. But on the other hand, he can do better, and I expect him to. 9 and 7 tonight, which is not impressive.

We held them to 37.5% from the floor and made 6 more field goals and 11 more free throws.

6-8, 1-2 Stanford is next. They're having a down year.

My old UMass team is having another great season, only 1 loss so far, ranked #6. Their women are #3, and undefeated.

The Oregon women are rebuilding and are 9-7. The future looks bright under coach Lu Branz. I go to their practices when I can and she knows her stuff! She comes to our practices when she can. She knows I want her input and it has been excellent.

A.D. Kara Fosse couldn't be more supportive. She's at all of our home games, of course, but she actually shows up at practice and at study hall now and then. It's a joy to work for her.

My private life is pretty non-existent. The first year in a program is pretty much all consuming. It would be nice to make some non-basketball friends, and despite my terrible luck with them it would be okay if a relationship came along. We'll see what happens.

[Wayne23]

1/14: 82-63. We took an early lead. Up 12 at the half. But Mims was in foul trouble pretty much from the start; he truly is making me crazy. This one was pretty easy.

17, 7, 6, with 7 steal for Flye Murl; great game. 6 other guys had between 12 and 8; 12, 9 for super sub Car Mosh.

7 TOs. Great D, 39.5%, 3-15 on threes. +12 in the paint, 12-0 on fast breaks.

16-2, 4-0. Back to #1 in the country, NET#3.

At #21 UCLA, 14-3, 4-0, next. We're tied with them for 1st in the PAC 12 with 3 teams one game back.

They feature a strong inside game and hit the boards hard. Our big guys will need to step up and tonight is not a night when Mims can get into foul trouble.

Red Butts, Portland Times:
We've been following the Oregon Ducks under, in his own words, their "phenomenal" new coach, Dunphy (Phee) Nomakowski.

Today we'd like to talk about a guy who may be the best 6th man in the country, Carson "Car" Mosh, a Center/Forward. Car is very versatile, playing all three inside positions. In 22.3 minutes a game, coming from the bench, he averages 11.5 points and 5.2 rebounds. I've been at the Knight Arena for every home game and either travelled with the team or watched the away games and I can tell you that Car seems to make the big play when it's needed.

His D is adequate, but getting better, and Coach Phee says it is something they're working on. Car is a hard worker from what I've seen in the two practices I've watched, and it looks like the future is bright for this talented young man!