Hereafter

[Wayne23]

11/15: At Duquesne to start. We know next to nothing about them but we think they have a solid back court.

11/16: Close early. A run puts us up 12 after 10 minutes. Up 10 at the half. 12 for C Rash Mill but his man has 15, and Rash has 3 fouls. We're shooting and rebounding well but turning it over. Up 12 with 10 to play.

80-71 and we start with a win! 16 for Mill but fouls limited him to 24 minutes.

10, 6, 3 for SF Rich Mack, 15, 5, 3 steals for PG Gary Sams, 10, 6 for back up SF Tim Hern. Good bench play.

+4 RBs, 12 TOs, we shot 52%.

First message from the ship to the probe. It's being translated.

11/17: The message: Please execute no one. We will take any prisoners subject to execution. Our people will go to any extremes to avoid the deaths of sentient life forms. We come in peace, always. Please await our arrival so that we may discuss this.

Well this is interesting.

[Wayne23]

11/18: Meant to mention that we're picked to finish 4th in the Big Ten. I'd be very happy with that!

At 0-1 Ohio next. They got crushed in their opener. They didn't do much well.

11/19: It's close early. Down 3 after 10. Down 11 at the half. We'll max the D for the 2nd. My PG has 3 fouls; not good. We half 12 TOs; REALLY not good. Sams quickly picks up foul #3 but we take the lead midway through, then give it back again. 79-76. They missed an open three at the buzzer after getting an offensive rebound off another missed three. We were lucky.

22, 5, 3 for SG Jam Ster, 19, 11 for C Rash Mill. 11, 4 for SF Rich Mack.

21 TOs, terrible. But they had 22. Each team had 34 RBs. -16 in the paint. So how did we win it? 3 more threes, 2 more foul shots.

#4 guard Kip Terl has looked really good and is getting Tony Rico's minutes.

Further messages from the ship which is coming toward us at speeds we can't come close to matching. Everything they're saying indicates they are peaceful and committed to both peace and the saving of lives.

The Council has met three times on this and our consensus is that we will listen with an open mind. We have no interest in killing people. First, we want to make sure we're not being fooled. We wouldn't want to deliver these people into a life of slavery or something like that. It seems unlikely but it's always best to try to be as sure as possible. The ship will be here after the execution is scheduled to happen but we voted to postpone it indefinitely. We've talked to Graves and he's interested in seeing what will happen.

[Wayne23]

11/20: All 4 recruits sign so we're finished with recruiting for this season.

0-2 TCU is here for our home opener. Their only scorer, at least so far. They are averaging a meager 54.5, and they don't rebound.

Penn ST has really been down for the past few years and attendance has been pretty poor. No idea what walk ups will be like but 7,200 tickets have been sold as of noon today. The place holds 15,261.

(Hey, PG, you said there's a place that shows injuries for the current opponent, I thought under “View Report.” Not seeing anything like that, and yes I'm in DDSCB21.)

11/23: It's nice to hear the noise. Not a sellout but there are lots of people here!

We take an early lead. Up 14 after 10. Up 16 at halftime. Our subs are going crazy- 18, 3 for Jan Bowe (Mill got 3 fouls and Bowe stepped up), 8 for Terl. Starting PF Tuck has
11 RBs. D could be a little better but we're scoring at will almost. Up 28 with 10 left.

84-60. A great way to open the home season. 12,968 in attendance.

25, 10 for 6th man F/C Jan Bowe. 5, 16, 3 for Hal Tuck. Good guard play.

+21 RBs, 11 TOs. +16 on 2nd chances.

The Trelor, the people in the ship approaching us, are still a few days away. They breathe an atmosphere all but identical to ours. We'll need to do testing on their ship and they on ours when they get here but we may be able to meet face to face. We have assured them that there will be no executions until our talks have concluded, and that we very much hope to avoid any executions.

[PointGuard]

Wayne, on the Daily Schedule page, you will see a very small icon in the upper right corner for each game on the schedule that is shown. Run your cursor over that icon and a popup will show that it's "Game Preview". Click the icon and a screen opens that shows info for the game and in the middle of that screen is the Injury Report for both teams.

[Wayne23]

Do you mean the "Schedule" page? Not seeing a "Daily Schedule" page. Not seeing the icon on "Schedule" for that matter. Found the Daily Schedule page. Don;t see the icon.

[Wayne23]

Do you mean the "Schedule" page? Not seeing a "Daily Schedule" page. Not seeing the icon on "Schedule" for that matter. Found the Daily Schedule page. Don;t see the icon.

FOUND IT! Thanks.

That whole thing is pretty useful actually. Thanks again!

[PointGuard]

Hey, I'm glad the people involved in the coup wrecked your hard drive (sorry about the cost though). That way, not only did your compatriots overthrow the coup and free you before you were executed (and subsequently had to open a whole new life), but you decided to leave UCLA. I agree...the Bruins were just "too good"...and you know me...not my thing. 20-30 point wins every game just gets...well, you know. I guess I will just never be a "John Wooden".

[Wayne23]

Yep. It was really boring. This game is better when it's a challenge.

[Wayne23]

11/24: Off to the Palmetto Shootout where we're the #4 seed. We meet #5 Washington ST, 2-1. They're favored by 1.5 points. Not sure why. We have a stats edge in every category. We'll see, I guess.

11/25: They're hanging with us early. Down 2 after 10. Mini run. Up 7 at the break. PG Gary Sams and sub Jan Bowe have 9 each. We could be rebounding better and our D needs to improve. I'm not quite ready to max it out or go to man but I won't hesitate if need be. I max the D with 14 left.
Up 4 with 10 to go.

80-68. Maxing the D did it! 19, 11, 3 blocks for Mill, 17, 2, 4 for Sams, but his man out played him. 14, 5 for Bowe, 9, 6 for Tuck, who usually isn't much of a scorer.

9 TOs, which makes me very happy. +16 at the line. +10 on 2nd chances. We didn't shoot well from the floor.

[Wayne23]

Our first real test tomorrow, #11 Oklahoma ST. Like us they're 4-0. On paper they're better at every position. They score and they play solid D. We rebound better but that's our only edge. A loss in November is no big dal and playing a team this good is a great thing for us- not that I plan to lose, but worst case scenario isn't that bad.

11/26: Slow start. We're missing shots, .231 after 10, down 7. I max the D with 3 to play in the 1st. Down 9 at the half. Their SF is killing us, 19 and 5. We may need to go man and double that kid. We do both early in the 2nd. It doesn't help. We're in over our heads.

56-75. Ouch! We shot .283.

Post Game Press Conference (Excerpts):

Q: Coach Clark, you did pretty well in your first four games. What happened tonight?

Coach: We ran into a very good team with a very good player, and we simply weren't ready for this level of play. All that means is it's early and we have a lot of work to do.

Q: Are you discouraged?

Coach: I didn't actually expect to go undefeated... Look, Penn St hasn't had much success over the last few years. We knew when we got here that it would take some time to build the kind of program we want. We're building. I like these kids and ALL of them will be better in February and March than they are now. Give us a little time.

Q: Nothing you di stopped Donta Logan.

Coach: And I hope nobody is going to knock Rich Mack about that. He worked like hell all night long and he had a decent game; and remember, we were in zones for a lot of the time in the first half so it wasn't on him. When we switched to exclusively man-to-man, Logan only got 9 more points. That tells me Rich did pretty well. This will teach him some things and he'll wind up being a better player for it.

Q: You shot 28.3%.

Coach: You're not gonna win many games that way. A lot of shots just weren't going in but both poor shot selection and a failure to move without the ball contributed to that. Gary Sams had only 4 TOs under some pretty tough conditions, and with his teammates not doing some things they should have been doing. Believe me, we'll work on that.

Q: Coach, you have 7 ranked opponents on the upcoming schedule, 6 of them in the Big Ten. What's the plan.

Coach: The plan is to win some of them. Unfortunately only 2 of them are at home, and that's tough. We'll do everything we can do to get the kids ready.

Q: Thanks Coach.

11/28: The Trelor are here. They're settling into orbit.

11/29: After exhaustive testing we have determined that face to face talks are feasible.

“As you have seen, we do not look like you, humans. You do not have a great deal of experience interacting with other sentient life forms. Will our appearance cause problems?”

“As Captain of my ship I can assure you that we have trained and planned for this eventuality. We are ready and we will be fine.”

With that three Trelor came over to our ship.

As we already knew they're shorter and squatter than we are. The three were between 4 ½ and 5 feet tall and very squarely built. The head was also foreshortened but very wide, leaving plenty of room for brain capacity, probably about as much as our skulls provide. Their mouths were roundish and we could never have figured out their language, spoken it, or understood it without the translation device. They have three fingers and a thumb on each hand and the thumb is even more opposable than ours is.

They had offered us a tour of their ship and three Council members were taking advantage of that at the same time the Trelor were here.

We talked for a full hour and then the Trelor asked that Graves be brought out. He was.

They asked if he could be comfortable living among creatures that looked and acted so different from his own species.

“I assume that I will have company. There are 19 of us facing the death penalty. No doubt they'll all be convicted. Will all 19 be welcome on your ship?”

“Numbers are not a concern.”

“Will you be able to provide food that we can eat and that we will want to eat?”

“Our devices can be programmed by you and your people to prepare foods to your taste.”

“Will we have living quarters comparable to those on this ship?”

“That is easily arranged.”

“Will we be free to live our lives as we see fit?”

“You will be expected to live by our laws and customs, in as much as you can do so with your different body structure and different customs. Adjustments will need to be made by all parties. And you will be expected to work, as all of our people do.”

“Meaningful work?”

“Of course.”

“May I visit the ship?”

“If your leaders will allow it, all of your group may do so in small groups over the coming days.”