The Phenom

[Wayne23]

11/17: 77-60 vs. Colorado ST here. They took an early lead. Ridiculous amount of whistles. Down 6 at the half. It was close for more than 30 minutes.

No stand out performances for us. 7 players had between 7 and 14 points.

11 TOs to their 25. 42 fouls called, way too many. The game wasn't that physical. The whistles made the game choppy, with no flow.

Off to the WS Midwest. We're the #5 seed. We face #4 Illinois, 0-1.

[Wayne23]

11/21: 89-60. We took an early lead and quickly got it to 10. Up 12 at the half. Easy win.

19, 4, 4 for Ward, 17, 6 for C Gabe Stan, 11, 11 for PF Marq Feld.

+8 RBs, 52.3% shooting. We still can't hit free throws, 47.6%.

The #6, #7, and #8 seed all won, so all four 1st round games were upsets. We play #8 seed Saint Louis, 2-1, in the semis. This is a game we should win.

[Wayne23]

11/22: 92-66. We took the lead right away. Up by 8 at the half. Another easy win.

19, 6, 4 for Hawk, 16, 4, 5 for Ward.

11 TOs, 56% from the field, 55.8% from the line. Smfh

#7 seed California, 3-1, for the title. Again, this is a team we should beat easily.

I hate to say it but it's more peaceful when I'm on the road. That's probably not good.

[Wayne23]

11/23: 78-44. Out to a quick lead again, and we stretched it to 20. Up 22 at the half. This tournament was a walk in the park.

22, 8 for Stan, 13, 4, 3 for Gazu, 12, 3, 3 for Wins.

+13 RBs. We had 12 TOs, they had 21. Our D held them to 27.7%, 4-22 on threes. Sadly, we shot 57.1% from the line.

An overnight flight then a home game tomorrow. Rick Hopeless screws me with scheduling every year.

[Wayne23]

11/24: 93-76 vs. UCLA here. This was a battle through most of the 1st half. A late run put us up 11 at the break. They never got close in the 2nd half.

23, 5 for Gazu, 20, 8, 3 for Stan, 11, 3, 8 for Ward.

Only 7 TOs. We took 18 more shots and made 10 of them.

Things are just not comfortable at home. It feels like we're both tiptoeing around trying to avoid a fight.

11/27: #4 in the rankings, NET #2.

[Wayne23]

11/28: 75-66 at 0-4 Charleston. They jumped out to a quick 7 point lead. Before long we caught them, but it was back and forth. Up 5 at the half.

Threes kept them relatively close. This was our smallest margin of victory all season.

22, 5 for Stan, 15, 6, 3 for Feld, 14, 3, 4 for Gazu.

Our inside game won it, 34-8 in the paint.

The next 6 are at home, and 8 of 9.

"Brandi, we need to do something. This isn't working."

"So, you're moving out?"

"I didn't say that... Is that what you want?"

"... I don't know- no. No it isn't."

"We need to do something."

"You already said that."

"I know I did."

"What did you have in mind?"

"I don't have an actual plan, but the issue is that we just don;t have enough room here."

"And?"

"And I don't think things will get better unless we change that."

"I'm not about to sell my place when we might break up."

"I agree. It's not a good idea."

"So we're stuck here."

"I don't think we necessarily have to be."

"I don't see much other than we stay or we move."

We went around in circles for awhile and it was a very cold conversation.

I suggested we try to find a bigger place to rent until say May 1. She thought that was a terrible idea.

I told her I'd pay half her mortgage as well as half the rent. She thought that was a waste of money.

I'm home for the next three weeks. I'm not sure the relationship will survive that.

[Wayne23]

12/1: 81-60 vs. 4-1 Boston College here; this is a good team. Intense D on both sides. We made a run midway through the first but they came back.

Then a late run put us up 14 at the break. We ran away with it in the 2nd, leading by as many as 26.

23, 3, 5 for Gazu, 20, 11 for Stan, 12, 4 for Juli.

+19 RBs. We took 14 more shots than they did. Our rebounding and steals have been making a difference all season long.

[Wayne23]

12/5: 87-65 with #15Texas Tech, 7-0. Toughest team we've faced this season. They have solid people at every position. They were up by 6 early. We came back and took a lead, got it to 12. Up 11 at the half. We took off in the 2nd and beat a very good team easily.

19, 9 for Feld, 14, 7, 4 for Stan, 10, 6, 8 for Gazu.

+13 RBs, 10 TOs. We held them to 37.3%, 28% on threes.

[Wayne23]

12/8: 89-49 vs. 5-1 ODU here. We jumped out to a big early lead. Up 20 at the half. A total blowout.

24, 8 for Stan, 15, 17 for Feld.

+21 RBs, 10 TOs. We held them to 29.8% from the field and we shot 53.4%.

Juli and Wins both got hurt. Juli strained a knee and is out for at least two weeks. Wins got a slight calf muscle pull. He shouldn't miss any games.

But we're thin up front so losing Juli hurts. Angelo Tria will get minutes he's not ready for.

[Wayne23]

12/13: 88-60 against 2-7 Harvard here. Double digit lead in less than 5 minutes. Up 11 at the break. Another blowout.

20, 2, 4, with 5 steals and 3 blocks for Brian Ward. 19, 9 for Feld. Tria played well, 9, 6, 3.

+10 RBs, 9 TOs to their 23. Held them to 37.5%.

Well, I'm sleeping in my office and looking for a place. It's over. I'm in the process of moving the things I moved to Brandi's place into the storage unit most of my stuff is already in. I honestly think that if we'd had more space we might have been able to make it work.