Hereafter

[Wayne23]

2/17: They take an early lead and expand it. Down 10 after 10. We're in a lot of trouble. Down 19 at the half. Akpo is the only one playing. Down 19 with 10 left.

51-76. We were never in it. 24, 13 for Akpo, sub guard Culn had 9. No one else scored more than 5.

We shot a pathetic 30.2%, 2-14 on threes. 19 TOs.

It's not going to get any easier, #6 Utah, 25-2, 12-2 is here. The stats are actually fairly close, but the way we've been playing lately...

We lost by only 10 there and we were in it most of the way. Poor shooting, poor ball handling, and major foul trouble inside did us in.

We're still alone in 5th place.

Things are back to normal on the ship. Irma doesn't have the personality and the take charge persona the late Captain had but she knows her stuff and she's doing a really good job.

I finished 3rd in the poker tourney and Lacy and I finished 4th in pitch. I went out early in 8 Ball.

[Wayne23]

2/21: Close early. Up 10 at the half; we're playing well so far. Up 16 at the half; we scored 63! Up 23 with 10 to play; this team is unpredictable.

100-85. I just don't get it. A career best 28 for Hal Huss. 19, 9 for Akpo, 14, 4 for Blen.

We shot 47.5% but were 13-28 on threes, and 31-37 from the line. The threes and the free throws did it. BIG win!

We're tied for 4th, 1 back of 2nd.

2 home games we should win sandwiched around a road game we probably won't, but if we can win 2 of our last 3 that will be great.

12-14, 5-10 USC is here next. We won by 9 at their place. Hart, Huss, and Sims led the way, and we owned the paint.

[Wayne23]

2/24: Close early. Down 5 after 10. Down 6 at halftime. Up 1 with 10 left.

78-64. Our guards did the damage. Huss' 2nd straight good game, 20 and 3, and Smid had 19, 1, 3. 10, 9 for Sims, 10, 7 for Hart. Akpo battled foul trouble again. 8 TOs, by far the best in ages, and they had 21. That was a big factor. We didn't shoot at all well, 35.4% to 47.8%, but we took 19 more shots; only made 1 more but we won it at the line, 27-34 to 16-31.

With 2 to play we're tied for 3rd place.

At #16 Arizona ST, 23-6, 11-5. We lost by 3 in OT at our place. They're a good team, and all 5 starters can score. They play solid D.

[Wayne23]

2/28: They take an early lead. Down 3 after 10. Up 6 at the half but very back and forth throughout. Down 7 with 10 left. 76-86. They were simply the better team, and their SG lit us up for 34; he was the difference.

Tim Smid had 24 for us but no one else did much. 19 TOs; ball handling has hurt us all season. We shot well, 45.8%, but our D was awful, 55.4%.

Hart played only 15 minutes due to foul trouble, and Sims didn't do enough when he was in for him.

One more to play and we NEED it. We're in a 3 way tie for 4th in the conf. and a loss would really impact our seed in the PAC-12 tournament.

We play 16-12, 6-11 Washington ST, at our place. We lost by 7 there. Fouls and their terrific bench play were the major factors. We think we're the better team but we need to play that way. Their D is not that good so we need to step up, find the open man, and hit shots. We want to work it inside, and we need to control the boards.

A few people are ill with what seems like a respiratory ailment. We thought we had wiped those out and we haven't seen one in all the time we've been in space. Hopefully it's a fluke and it will end with these three people.

[Wayne23]

3/3: Down 2 after 10. We need to make shots; we're not. Up1 at the half. Up 8 with 10 to go. We're still not shooting well. We go on a run!

86-69! Our 2nd big off the bench, Cole Shyn, had 22 and 8. Ned Sims had 12, 5, starter Fred Hart had 10 and 10. The other teams seem to have figured Akpo out. He hasn't been as effective lately.

We end up alone in 4ht in the PAC-12. 23-8, 11-7. #25, NET #16. +9.4 PPG, +6.9 RBs, -1.7 TOs but an awful 13.9. Akpo leads us with 14.8, 9.7. Our #6 scorer gets 9.8 so we're balanced, and scoring is our strength, we're #2 in the nation in PPG. #4 in RBs. We don't shoot well except from the line but we take LOTS of shots. #24 in Overall NET.

Akpo does NOT go pro. Didn't think he would but it was a possibility.

Lots of people sick but it doesn't seem that serious. So far everyone has recovered or seems to be recovering.

3/9: We play #12 seed Colorado, who shocked #5 seed Stanford in the play in round. Colorado is 13-18, 4-14, in last place. We won by 5 there and by 19 here. They had very good bench play and shot well in the first game. Their bench also helped them in the 2nd. In both games they turned us over frequently. To be them we need to control their outside game and match their bench, or come close. Good D is vital.

[Wayne23]

3/11: Back and forth early. Up 5 after 10. We're shooting well. Up 11 at the break. Up only 4 with 10 to go. It's close!

84-92. They scored 10 of the last 12 points. We could have won this one.

19, 16 for Akpo, his best game in some time. 14, 4, 7 for Smid, 16, 2, 4 for Huss. The bench was a huge factor, 18, 11, 5 for us, 30, 11, 10 for them.

+16 RBs, but 9 more TOs. Their bigs outscored ours by 48-62.

I think we're looking at a #4 or more likely a #5 seed. We're 24-9, NET #17.
#18 ranked Arizona ST upset Utah by 15 for the title.

3/12: #6 East. We play #13 Eastern Washington, 23-9, NET #34. They play very good D and we'll need to solve that. We also need to rebound and take care of the ball.

I'm disappointed with a #6 seed, particularly given that it's in the toughest bracket. Nothing we can do, of course.

More and more cases of this flu. Still hasn't hit anyone really hard. Sure, they're getting sick, and that's no fun, but everyone is recovering fairly quickly.

[Wayne23]

3/16: We trail early. Down 1 after 10. Back and forth. Down 5 at the half. Both teams are shooting poorly. Up 5 with 10 left. Still back and forth and we're shooting terribly. Mini-run late!

71-68. Tim Smid hit a three with 1.8 left for the win. We blew a 10 point lead late.

Balanced scoring, 5 guys had between 14 and 11. Akpo played well and for once didn't foul. 14 and 10.

We shot a terrible 33.3% to their 39.3%, but we took 10 more shots. The difference was definitely threes. We hit 11-30 to their 6 of 23. -4 RBs, 2 fewer TOs. They controlled the inside, which usually means we lose, and we damn near did!

#3 seed, #10 ranked Arkansas, 28-6, in the 2nd round. They're favored by 4 1/2, which is a lot. The stats are close all around. As always with us, it probably depends on which team shows up, our good team or our sleep walking team.

[Wayne23]

3/18: Down 8 after 10. Down 17 at the break; shooting % is .273. Down 3 at the half. Shooting .261. Down 5 with 10 left. We go on a late run and FINALLY start hitting shots!

69-64! We played a terrific last 10 minutes. Our guards did a lot of the damage, which is unusual for us but we'll take it.

19, 6, 4 for Huss, 10, 1, 6 for Smid, 12, 5 for Sims. Akpo was in foul trouble all night, getting 7 and 12. The shooting wound up close to even, 35.1% for
us, 36.8% for them but we really made shots late. We had 5 fewer buckets. We won it at the line, 22-27 to 8-13.

+8 RBs helped a lot. 5 more TOS didn't.

It's #2 seed, #6 ranked, #8 NET Villanova, 28-7, in the Sweet Sixteen. They are an overwhelming favorite. The people who analyze these games seem to think that they are better at every position except PF (Akpo). They play very good D. We need to play our very best to even have a shot.

[Wayne23]

3/23: Down 7 after 10. Down 9 at the half. Down 16 with 10 left.

55-69. We shot .321. 4-18 on threes. No starter had more than 7 points. We played a team that was better than we were. That's the story.

The flu is now all over the ship, in every department, on every level. Of the 2288 people on board, the Docs are saying nearly half have it or have had it. We've had our first fatality from it.

[Wayne23]

4/3: #5 Oklahoma wins the national title.

4/4: Awards: Tafa Akpo made PAC-12 1st team. Flip Hart made the 2nd team.

Once again, will I move? It would take an exceptional offer.

The flu is decimating the ship, and it has gotten a lot stronger.

Nothing approaching a good offer.

We're losing no one and bringing in 2 very good looking recruits.

4/23: I ask for $.

We get $11,000. It definitely will help.

The flu is overwhelming our limited medical staff. The Captain has all medical personnel on 12 hour shifts, 7 days a week and she has called for anyone with any medical training to assist the staff. People are dying in large numbers. An estimated 400 people have died. That's a significant portion of the crew.

We're back on 12 hour shifts for the entire crew since everyone with any medical training of any kind is now working with the med crew. That means the rest of us need to do their jobs, as well as the jobs of the ill and of those who have died. This is a very difficult time.

4/25: It's still getting worse. We're in an emergency situation and only the absolutely essential work is being done. About 600 dead, 3/4 of the living crew are ill.

4/27: The Council met this evening.

"Captain, is it time to go to robotics as a solution?"

"I was just about to bring that up. The Council needs to decide how much, if any, of our energy needs to be devoted to 3D printing large numbers of robots to do the work we can't do. We've always had the capability to print robots with specific talents. What are your thoughts? Adam"

"I don't think we have a choice. We're barely managing to do all the things we absolutely have to do to keep the ship running. I'm not sure how much longer we can manage even that, especially since the flu doesn't seem to have peaked yet."

"Lainie?"

"I agree. We don't have a choice."

A small minority worried about reliance on robots, or a robot take over, or other such things, but the vote was 10-2 in favor. And the geeks are on it.

4/30: We have 850 dead, nearly everyone else ill, and robots doing most of the work, especially the routine maintenance, care of crops, water and sewer management...

The robots are preparing and serving the meals and cleaning up the kitchen since that is a likely area of high chance for spreading the flu virus. People who are not in the hospital/infirmary are restricted to quarters except for the bridge crew. Meals are delivered to crew quarters. Hopefully this will stop the flu, or at the very least slow it down.

On a personal note, Lacy got the flu but it was very early on and it was a mild case. June and I have escaped it, at least so far.