Hereafter

[Wayne23]

5/1: Recruit class #58. That's really good for a small school in a low rated conference. Now let's see how quickly they develop!

We only have 4 guards, one of whom simply isn't any good. Hopefully no injuries in the backcourt. We're pretty good up front, 5 guys who look like they can play.

We buy the Atlantic East basic report.

6/5: Nobody transferred out. We're looking at the transfer pool.

6/12: No luck.

6/25: Not going to any camps. Can't afford it. I kept a walk on guard just for insurance purposes.

6/26: 4 scholarships. Either 3 bigs or 2 bigs.

My senior hoops season has begun. I'm actually starting at SF, which is a really great surprise! This is the last year in my life that I'll play competitive basketball so it's great that I'll get to maximize the experience.

7/11: A few recruits are showing mild interest but it wouldn't surprise me if recruiting goes deep into Spring again. Such is life at a small school, especially when there are no in state recruits we're interested in.

Looking out the windows. Well, there are no windows on a spaceship but all of us can pull up the view from pretty much 360 degrees, and I do so often. Sometimes it's just empty space but even that is breath taking to me. I often play piano or listen to music while "star gazing."

8/21: We offer to 2 PGs, a PF, and a C. If we get one I'll be happy. If we get 2, I'll be thrilled.

Life on the ship... There's actually a fair amount of down time when we're not actively exploring but just moving through space. Yes, the navigators need to be on the lookout for objects that we absolutely do NOT want to run into. Astronomers and various types of scientists are looking at high quality photos and videos. We have an extraordinary telescope mounted to the hull and it is giving these people views that they've never seen before.

But I'm not a scientist, I'm a statistician, so once we job is finished, again 30-35 hours a week, my time is my own. As I've said I'm living my life as a now 21 year old UMass senior, playing hoops, playing piano, studying my stats..., and I'm coaching UMass-Lowell. I only check in on the life of 21 year old me, so that takes up as much or as little time as I choose. Coaching takes up a big chunk of my time.

I don't socialize much. I'm not anti-social but I am a bit of an introvert, and I need alone time.

If a relationship presented itself that would be okay.

[Wayne23]

9/18: Didn't get anybody but we feel like we have a chance with 3. We dumped the 4th and offered to someone else; he wasn't going to come here.

Schedule is still weak, but a little stronger than last year.

9/25: Got one, lost one. Got a PF, #253. Lost a PG. Offered to another one.

10/2: Got another PF, #329, but he's better than that.

We're picked to win the AEC. I think we have a shot.

UMass Hoops is going well. Halfway through the conference season. We're in 1st place and I'm still starting, getting about 26 minutes a game. 8.8 PPG, 4.6 RBs, 2.8 assists, and 1.8 turnovers. The Coach says my best asset is my D, so I'm pretty happy. Oh, we're ranked #23.

10/9: Lost a guard who was a long shot. Going to reopen the search.

10/16: We got a 3rd big, #282. We REALLY need a guard. Working on it.

11/13: On a plane soon to fly to our first game.

Here's the lineup, at least for now:

We have no frontrunner at the Point. We 're going to start walk on Pete Robb, a senior, but frosh Del King will get about equal playing time until we figure out which of them earns the job full time.

Junior Rash Thop is at SG. He went to the Point last year when injuries hit but he's a natural at the 2 spot. He was our leading scorer last season.

#4 guard is Tony John, a soph who barely played at all last year. #5 is frosh Euf Miki. We probably should red shirt him but...

Senior Cal Mill, our 6th man last year until injuries made him a starter, starts at SF.

Junior Juwan Lee, who barely played at all last season, is at PF.

Senior Pete Andy returns at C. He was our leading rebounder and 2nd leading scorer last season.

Senior Alex Murt is our first big man off the bench. He was a sub last season.

Junior Josh Cobb will come off the bench as will frosh Wyatt Bond, soph Chuck Maer, and frosh Gerry Sims.

We play at Southern Utah and this early on we don;' know much about them.

[Wayne23]

11/15: 90-74. Close. Down 2 at the half. We go on a mini-run to start the 2nd, then stretch it out. It was our inside vs. Their outside. Our inside won.

27, 9 for Pete Andy at C; he held his man to 4 and 1. 17, 7, 4 for Juwan Lee at PF. Rash Thop had 20, 6, 4 at SG, but his man had 22, 2, 5.

Not much to separate our 2 PGs. I'll give it 4-5 games at least before deciding who gets the major minutes.

+8 RBs. 13 TOs to their 20. We shot 55.7% to 49.1%. Our D could have been tougher.

+22 in the paint, +10 on 2nd chances.

Not a bad start to the season.

At Brown next. They haven't played yet. On paper we're much better.

I have no idea how all of this works- I mean this new life on the space ship. How real is it? Could we really run into a rock that would kill all of us? Can I be killed? How much control do I actually have here? I mean I don't think I can change outcomes or anything but then I haven't tried to do that, so who knows?

[Wayne23]

11/18: 79-71. We take a quick lead. They come back and make it close. Down 1 at the half. Up 8 with 10 to play. They never quit and we never broke it open.

24, 7 for Thop. 14, 10 for Andy, 13, 2, 3 for King.

Stats were pretty close. We had a slight edge in most categories, but only slight.

Home opener with 1-1 Army next. And for the 3rd game in a row we think we're the much better team.

[Wayne23]

11/22: 87-88. Down 1 after 10 minutes. Down 10 at the half. Down 3 with 10 to play. We've ben chasing them most of the game. Kind of wondering if we're going to have a tough season. We never quite got there in our home opener and they're really not a good team. Disappointing.

28, 9 for Andy; he's not the problem. 16 for Thop.

10 TOs. +10 in the paint. But we let them shoot 51.6%, 9 threes.

Not waiting any longer; the starting PG spot is going to Del King. He's definitely better defensively and he's dishing better than Robb.

Starting PF Juwan Lee hurt his back. He may miss a game.

At 0-3 Campbell next. On paper they're better than their record indicates.

Wyatt Bond is starting at PF for Juwan Lee.

[Wayne23]

11/25: 79-63. We take an early lead. Up 10 after 8 minutes. Up 20 at the half. Both King and Bond really stepped up in their new roles.

22, 5, 4 for Andy. 16, 8, 3 for Bond.

+7 RBs. We shot 51.7%. +14 in the paint. Maybe the Army game was a fluke or just an off night.

Lee is back but Bond moves up in the rotation.

At Low Point, 1-3, next. On paper we should win.

We're in the part of the asteroid belt closest to Jupiter. And again, it's a time for careful navigation, but we'll soon be closing in on Jupiter. It's already a very large part of what we see when we look in the right direction. So many moons to explore, as well as the planet. We'll be there for awhile!

[Wayne23]

11/29: 86-76. Early lead but it's close. Up 8 after 10 minutes. They come back and take the lead. Up 6 at the half. Up 8 with 10 to play. They hung in but we stayed determined.

26, 7, 3 for Andy. 15, 7 for Lee, 15, 3, 5 for King. 9, 7, 3 for Bond, our new 6th man.

Only 5 TOs. We shot 50% to 44.6%. +18 in the paint.

3-2 Lamar is at our place. We think we can turn them over often.

Our only loss so far came in our only home game.

I've mentioned that our navigators are carefully tracking all of the various kinds of rocks here in the asteroid belt, but really, all along our path wherever we may be in the future as well as the present. Obviously, this is done by very sophisticated devices on the ship that can do it far more thoroughly and effectively than the human eye, aided or unaided, ever could. The navigators use this information in planning and altering our flight path.

I've talked about how good the food on the ship is and the fact that there's a great deal of variety. For dinner tonight I had an Indian meal and it was delicious.

[Wayne23]

12/2: 68-57. We jump out to an early lead and get it to double digits. They get back into it. Down 2 at the half. Up 8 with 10 to play. This was a defensive battle.

18, 7 for Andy, 16 for King. No one else had more than 9.

We shot 47.3%, they shot 37%. -7 RBs; it's unusual for us to lose the battle of the boards, and we'll address this in practice. 11 TOs.

We're 5-1, NET #300, which is about right given the level of our competition.

Pete Andy is our leader on the floor and our stats leader with 22.5 PPG and 7.8 RBs. Rash Thop gets 14.3 PPG, and Del King, even though he played
limited minutes in our first 3 games, is #3 with 11.0. We're going to give some of Cal Mill's minutes to Wyatt Bond.

Our next 2, and 5 of our next 6, are on the road.

First is at 1-5 North Alabama. Statistically there's not a lot of difference between the teams so we'd better come to play!

[Wayne23]

12/6: 81-79. It's the battle of the Centers early on. Ours is winning that battle but we're trailing. Down 6 at the break. Trailing by 9 with 10 to play; our D isn't getting it done. We catch up late. Whew! This was a tough one!

20 and 5 for Andy, 14, 9 for Thop, 12, 7, 3 for Mill, who reacted positively to losing some minutes, and 13, 6 for Lee. We didn't get much from our bench, certainly not enough.

+9 RBs. We made one more field goal, a three, and one less free throw. +12 in the paint, and that was the difference.

4-3 Alcorn ST is next, there. We're the better team, especially at SG, SF, and C, but it's a road game, so there are no guarantees. They don't seem to play great D though.

[Wayne23]

12/9: 81-77. Up 7 after 10 minutes. They're doubling Andy. Down 3 at the half. Our D is awful. Tied with 10 to play, but they're shooting .585. 4 lead changes in the last minute.

17, 10 for Mill, 14, 4, 4 for Thop, 15, 3, 3 for King. They neutralized Andy but he played great D.

-5 RBs, which is starting to be a problem. 12 TOs to 22. The D got better late but they shot 50%. 8-18 on threes for us and that won it.

3-4 Louisiana-Monroe comes to our place next. We need to turn them over and get it inside, especially to Andy.