Hereafter

[Wayne23]

3/7: It's a war early on. Down 1 after 10 min. Tied at the half. If we could make some free throw it would help, 12-21; ugh! Up 4 with 10 left. A late run! Another run!

83-65. We won this one inside, scoring 62 points there. Terrible foul shooting but theirs was almost as bad and we took 24 more free throws. Shooting from the floor was also close but we took 12 more shots. 6 TOs to 17, and that was a big factor.

17, 8 for Hemp, 16, 6, 3 for Cora, 15, 7 for Star, 14, 4 for Ball. +20 in the paint, +12 on 2nd chances. A good win.

#2 seed Oakland, arguably the best team in the Horizon Conf., in the semifinal. They're 19-12, 14-6, and slipped to the #2 seed (Although they're tied for 1st) by losing their last two, after leading all season long.

We lost by 3 there early on and won by a single point at our place in the regular season finale.

We need to stop their inside game, turn them over, and rebound. Given the first two games with them this one should be a battle.

The stats on grain are still not adding up, so to speak. We live on grains, greens, fruits, and berries, of course. There is no way to produce meat. But "meatless meat" has evolved to the point where it can pass a blindfold test for 99% of the people, so that's not an issue.

Anyway, grains are vital. The stats are showing significantly decreased production, which should be a gigantic problem, but when we harvest every day we come up with the same amounts we've always come up with. This makes no sense. I'm working with the geeks to see if it's a computer issue, and physically checking in at all of the grain growing facilities. I have someone actually eyeballing the harvest at each location as it is being done. The numbers still don't add up though.

[PointGuard]

Maybe there's some decendents of Enron on board.

[Wayne23]

3/8: We fall behind early. Down 4 halfway through the first. The calls are not going our way. Down 9 at the half. They go on a run. Down 12 with 10 to play.

83-93. They were better tonight, especially inside. 18 for Star, 10, 8, 3 for Ball.

We'll be in a tournament. No idea if we'll make the big one. In some ways I hope we don't. We might have a real shot with one of the others.

3/9: Oakland won the title.

3/12: We're in the Big Dance. #10. We play #7 seed UAB, 24-9, 13-5. If we can play the game inside we have a real shot. They're definitely better outside though. The oddsmakers have them favored, but only by 1/2 a point.

[Wayne23]

3/16: Back and forth early. Up 1 after 10 min. We go on a run. Up 5 at the half. Love is rebounding and playing good D. It's really close again. Up 5 with 10 to go. They catch up. Back and forth.

68-72. We faded just a little at the end. They had a slight edge in shooting pct., +3.4%, but we scored 5 more buckets. They were 21-27 from the line and we were 5-10, and that was the difference. The refs really hurt us.

That ends my first season at Wright ST. Not a bad first year, all in all. We're losing PG Ken Dens, and inside starters Kel Love and Gary Ball. We have lots of big guys coming back but we need a guard to step up, either the incoming recruit, or one of our backups.

[Wayne23]

4/3: #4 Oklahoma is the champ. UAB got all the way to the round of 8.

The mystery with the stats related to grains got me all the way to the Captain. He at first said it was just some sort of a computer glitch. I told him I thought it could be more than that.

"Suppose someone is sabotaging the food supply."

"What?"

"They've built a glitch into the system figuring at some point we'll start ignoring it. At that point the sabotage begins."

"Pretty far fetched."

"It's the only thing that makes sense to me. Our geeks are the best. If they can't solve this somebody put something really deeply into the system. There has to be a reason."

"Can't you keep monitoring the harvests?"

"I'm straining my capabilities. I can't do this over a long period of time without additional personnel."

"Well, just do what you can, maybe monitor a couple times a week or something."

The Captain isn't buying my suspicions, clearly. We'll see what happens.

[Wayne23]

4/4: Awards: We get shut out. I'm shocked. I thought at least Gary Ball would get something. Oh well.

4/9: We met or exceeded all of our goals. Team Prestige is now 37.

It would take a pretty good offer for me to think about moving after only one season.

Kent ST and Wake Forest made me stop and think, but I'm staying.

4/16: Lost all 3 assistants.

I hire some assistants I really like.

4/23: I ask for a budget increase.

No.

We end the season at 22-10, 13-7, 3rd in the conference. Not an impressive post season but not bad for my first year here.

Overall, after 5 years as a head coach, I'm 115-50, .697.

Let's see what next season brings!

[Wayne23]

5/1: #75 recruiting class. We'll see...

We buy the East, South, Midwest basic scouting reports.

6/5: Nobody transfers out.

We have a spot for a transfer. I'd like to pick up a guard.

I redshirt frosh C/PF Gil Writ and PG Ken Brey.

The third frosh, PF/C Gau Wall, seems to have bonded with me. Every now and then a kid will decide that you're his role model. It gives me an excellent opportunity to mentor him and bring him along maybe a little more quickly. This kid can play, and he may start as a freshman.

He's from France and his English isn't great. I speak some French, so maybe that's why he chose me.

6/9: We offer to a PG from Vanderbilt.

6/12: Nope.

6/25: We don't get any transfers.

We can't afford to go to any camps.

I guess I have the ability to tweak somethings in this "afterlife." It would take MUCH longer to go from Uranus to Neptune in the real world but I accelerated the time a little and we're about to orbit the most distant moon from the planet. We don't have high expectations about finding any life but let's see what we find.

Lacy surprised me at bedtime tonight.

"I think it's time to have a baby."

"What?"

"Seriously. Wouldn't it be nice?"

"Honestly, I've never given it a thought."

"Okay. In that case it's time to give it a lot of thought. Then we'll talk about it."

Hm...

[Wayne23]

6/26: 4 scholarships. I want 2 or 3 guards.

8/7: We have a couple of recruits showing a little interest, but only a couple.

Gau Wall continues to spend a lot of time in my office. He's a good kid. His English is a lot better now. Lots of kids pop into the office during the course of the day. I think it's great that they know I'm always happy to see them. Hope it continues when I start kicking some asses during practice!

We've looked at the moons. Some interesting things but no sign of life.

"Okay Lacy, I've thought about it..."

"And..."

"And I'm a little scared but... yeah... I think it's a good idea. We've been living together for about a year and a half and I think it's going really well. I think it would be a really nice thing."

She threw her arms around me and yelled for joy.

[Wayne23]

8/21: We offer to 3 PGs and a PF. We feel like we have a decent shot with one, a small chance with another and we're working hard to get the other two interested.

Neptune is incredibly windy, incredibly cold, and it seems very hostile to any kind of life form we can imagine. We'll study it and its rings but probably not for long.

Then we'll make the long trek to Pluto. Planet or not we want to see what we find there.

9/11: Crap! One of my recruits went elsewhere, signed really early.

I offer to an SG who is in state.

9/18: No one signs. A couple look like real possibilities. The other two, not so much.

We're invited to the Coaches Classic. It's a big honor but we're playing preseason #4 in the nation Xavier in the first round so... We're going with an easy pre-conf. schedule except for the Classic.

No signs yet that a baby is on the way but we're hoping!

9/25: We get a PG, #203, but we think his stock will rise. We think we're close with another PG, our #1. Getting nowhere with the other two...

On our way to Pluto.

10/2: We get the 2nd PG!

1st day of practice. We've got 4 solid contenders for the three inside spots. We really have only two solid guards at this point. Hoping someone steps up.

[Wayne23]

10/9: We're dropping one guy and offering to someone else.

Gau Wall continues to treat me as a mentor. I really like playing that role. I have to say he's looking really good in practice so far. I have him starting at SF but playing about as much at PF.

10/23: We lose a guy we had hopes of landing. We offer to another guy.

11/6: The season is a week away. I think we're ready, but not for Xavier. This is going to be one high hill to climb...

Still trying to fill 2 scholarships. The two guys we're offering to are both showing some interest. It's not clear how much...