Hereafter

[Wayne23]

12/1: 75-72. Down 5 after 10. Down 1 at the break. They go on a run. Down 8 with 10 to play. We go on a mini-run. Whew! 16 lead changes, 9 ties. Their C almost did us in, 32 and 10. We doubled him for the last 5-6 minutes which helped.

16 for sub F/C Josh Cobb, 12, 7 for Bond, 13, 5 for Wall.

+3 RBs, 16 TOs again, but they had 21.

We shot 40.4%, better than usual. They shot 47.8%.

At 1-4 Colgate next. Statistically we have an edge in just about every area, but other than TOs, it's a small edge.

Lacy and I are spending even more of our free time together.

We're now exploring the 55th moon. New knowledge regarding all of them, but nothing shocking.

[Wayne23]

12/5: 73-82. It's close early, then they go on a run. Down 8 after 10. I ramped up the D but not much help if any. Down 18 at the half. Down 4 with 10 left. We're back in it. Then they go on another run. Couldn't get there.

16, 10 for Lee, 15, 1, 3 for King, 11, 7 for Watt. Thop fouled out again and didn't have a very good game.

Only +1 RB and 19 TOs to 12. We shot 43.4%, which is good for us but they took more shots, made more FGs and free throws.

1-2 on the road trip so far with 2 to play.

At 3-4 Incoherent Word next. On paper we should win this one but their SG and SF can score a lot of points.

Evidently getting the ship and the shuttles into a safe orbit around Jupiter is a very complex task, given the intense gravity. Considering that we plan to orbit some stars with gigantically large gravity wells this is a good training ground for that. This is something we can't get wrong!

[Wayne23]

12/8: 71-69, but they scored the last 5, including a buzzer beating 3. Behind early yet again. Down 8 after 10. Down 3 at the half. Down 3 with 10 to play. We had to earn it!

16, 10 for Lon Wall. 13, 4 for Watt. Our bench was the big difference tonight.

+7 RBs, 14 TOs to 17.

We shot 37.9% to 43.6%, and won it at the line again.

The last game of this long road trip is at 6-1 Merrimack. We're 2-2 on the trip so this one determines whether we end it with a winning record for the trip. They've been very successful so far. Mostly weak teams but they beat Texas A & M by 20, and Northwestern by 6, so they can play against decent teams. On the other hand NJIT just beat them by 22. Their PF is a big time glass eater. This should be a challenge.

[Wayne23]

12/12: 60-93. Back and forth early. Down 5 after 10. Down 15 at the half. Getting crushed by 28 with 10 left. Ugly loss. Most points given up all season, 2nd fewest scored.

20, 6 for Bond. No one else did much. -2 RBs, 18 TOs, to 11.

We shot 39% to 51.5%. They were 15-33 on threes.

Even worse than the loss, Juwan Lee broke his leg. Back in early Feb., with luck. John Watt will start, but at PF. Wall moves to the middle.

4-5 Hampton is here next. They're decent inside, which will test us.

We went 2-3 on the road trip, winning by 2 and 3, losing by 26, 9, and 33.

[Wayne23]

12/15: 60-53. Close early. Up 1 after 10. Up 10 at the half. Up 4 with 10 to play. It was close until very late. Great D won this one for us.

18, 7 for Wyatt Bond. 11, 8 for sub Josh Cobb, 10, 8 for Wall. Watt was a non-factor. We'll give him a couple more games though.

-2 RBs, 20 TOs. They shot 38.2%, we shot only 34%. We won it at the line again. -10 in the paint.

Backup F Chuck Maer sprained a finger. Out 2 weeks. He doesn't play much but the bench is getting very short.

At 6-5 Tarleton ST next. They score lots of points from the 2 and 3 spots, and they play good team D. This looks like a tough one.

67 moons explored, one way or the other.

I'm loving being an assistant at UMass. Halfway through the season I can't even explain how much I've learned. The team isn't as good as it was the last 2 years. We're holding our own, but in the middle of the pack in the conference.

[Wayne23]

12/19: 80-77. Up 12 after 10. Up 14 at the half. Up 7 with 10 left. We lead for the last 35 minutes but they almost stole it late.

22, 7, 6 for Thop. 15, 7 for Bond. The other starters all had 10 or more.

+2 RBs and a season low 9 TOs. We shot 42.9% and won it at the line again.2-9 Low Point is here next. They're having a tough season. Their PG is their best player but he doesn't get much help.

[Wayne23]

12/22: 74-63. We take an early lead. Up 8 after 10. Up only 4 at the half. Up 6 with 10 to play. They got close then we went on a late run.

15, 7, 4, with 5 steals for Thop. 14, 3, 7 for Bond, 11, 7, 6 for Watt, who is starting to grow into his new role. 13, 2, 4 for King, 8, 6 for Cobb. 12 TOs.

We shot 45.5% to 37.3%, rare for us.

Our last pre-conf. game is at 5-7 Howard. They can score outside and they have a strong bench.

Haven't talked about piano in a long time. I still play every day but that's about it. I'm not in any groups, I don't perform publicly. There simply isn't time. But I LOVE playing. It relaxes me. And in the holo the noise doesn't bother anyone; not that I'd call it "noise" exactly.

[Wayne23]

12/26: 73-81. Behind early. Down 4 after 10. Tied after a very back and forth half. We go on a run early in the 2nd. Up 4 with 10 to go. They out lasted us. We had 3 guys with 4 fouls late and we couldn't play good enough D because of it.

21, 4, 9, 5 steals for Thop. 11, 8 for Bond, 13, 5 for Watt. We shot 36.1% to 50.9%; free throws kept us in it.

We finish pre-conference play at 8-5, NET #118.

Stats are not pretty, #274 in O, #172 on D. Near the very bottom on FG %, #341.

-3.4 PPG, +1.6 RBs, -0.9 TOs- an awful 15.2.

Thop leads us with 13.2 PPGT, Bond is 2nd with 12.0. The next 4 get between 9.9 and 8.3. The injured Juwan Lee leads us in RBs with 8.3, but he's gone for another 4 1/2 week. Wall is next with 6.0.

1st up in the AEC sched. Is 3-10 New Hampshire, here. They're actually favored by 1.5. Time for us to step up.

79 moons explored. That leaves 14, including a couple we've just discovered. We aren't seeing anything surprising other than the fact that there's a lot of variety regarding structure, orbit speed and pattern, and some other things. No sign of life on any body we've discovered here, with the possible exception of the classified stuff.

[Wayne23]

1/2/2025: 50-75. Down 7 after 10. Down 12 at the half. Down 15 with 10 to play. We were awful, particularly on O. Never got anything going. I sure don't like to get beat up, especially at home.

17, 9 for Bond, 12, 8, 5 for Thop. The entire bench got 2, 2, and 1.

We shot a pathetic 28.4%, 3-16 on threes.

At 5-9 NJIT next. Another team that isn't very good but may be good enough to beat us.

Trying to piece things together until Lee gets back but I don't know how many we can win without him. Probably not many.

[Wayne23]

1/5: 57-70. We trail early again. Down 15 after 10. Down 27 at the half. We don't have the horses and we're down on ourselves. Down 19 with 10 to play. We played pretty well for the last 7-8 minutes but it was too late.

10, 7, 6 with 4 steals for Thop, but he had 6 TOs. No one played well.

We shot better than usual, 40.9% but we only took 49 shots due to 22 TOs.

4-11, 0-2 Maine is here next. It's early to call a game a must win, but it kind of is, in order to stop us from completely giving up on ourselves. I'm going positive with my players, telling them we're the better team in this one, which I believe we are. They have a good PG but we think we're much better at SG and SF and we think Thop and Bond should both score lots of points. We feel like we have a chance to control the paint, too.