Temporary: Don't get too attached

[Wayne23]

12/9: 4-2 Duke is here. We beat them by 12 in the NIT. Their D is pretty awful. Maybe my offense can wake up against them.

12/10: We take an early lead. Up 9 at the half. The D is holding them to 34.4% and we're hitting shots. Joon has 11. Hyme is playing well from the
bench. Let's see if we can keep it up. Looking good!

90-72. We needed this! We shot 55% to 41.5%.

+4 RBs. 18 TOs but they had 21. +12 in the paint.

20, 1, 3 for Joon, 13, 11, 3, 4 steals for Burk, 15, 5, 5 for John, 14, 8 for Tsir, 10, 7 for Hyme.

We REALLY needed this. I can use it to psyche my guys up.

[Wayne23]

12/13: 4-3 Ohio St is here. They're struggling this season and we definitely can beat them if we play well.

12/14: We fall behind then catch up. Up 1 at the half. We're playing good D.

83-70. Solid D and a late run won this one.

26, 6, 4 for Joon; great game. 14, 7 for Wink, 14, 4 for Burk.

+8 RBs. 52.6% to 39.3%.

We're 9-2.

The conference is not strong this season. I'm hoping we can hold our own in conf., when we get there, until Star comes back.

[Wayne23]

12/16: #24 Xavier, 6-3, is here. This looks like either team could win it. Home court will help us.

12/17: We take an early lead. They come back. Down 3 at the half. All O, no D, 48-51. We're rebounding and Wink has 15 but we need to play some D. Max and man for the 2nd. Up 3 with 10 to play.

85-86. We blew an 11 point lead late. They won it on a last second 16 footer.

23, 3 for Wink, 17, 6 for Star (who shouldn't be playing at all- he's last on my depth chart, was given no minutes and was unchecked at every position).
12, 9 for Hyme.+4 RBs, 11 TOs. +14 in the paint, +11 on 2nd chances. They shot better but we took more shots. They had 8 threes, we had 2. Tough loss.

I guess I'm not expecting to win these games without Star. He's probably going to miss the first 4 AAC games. If we can go 2-2 in those we'll have a chance to win the conf.

[Wayne23]

12/20: #9 Butler, 9-1, is here. They play solid D and are favored to win this one. It's going to be tough.

12/21: Back and forth for awhile. Then they take a lead. Down 2 at the half. Stats are close in all areas. We take a lead. Lots of people on both teams in foul trouble.

78-66. We played terrific ball in the 2nd!

13, 10, 3 for Joon, 14, 5, 6 for #3 guard Kel Nunn, 14, 7 for Burk.

+10 RBs. Stats were close in most categories. We held them to 34% and shot 38%. We made 4 more shots and 4 more from the line. BIG win.

[Wayne23]

12/27: Wisconsin, 7-5, in our last game before AAC play begins. Stats are pretty close for this one.

We're #14 in the latest poll. They were ranked earlier but are not ranked now.

12/28: It's close early. They go on a BIG run. Down 25 at the half. We're in big trouble. Shooting 29% to their 62%; complete breakdown on D. We're coming back! WE'RE IN IT!

92-82. An absolutely insane comeback! 67-32 in the 2nd half; we shot more than 70%. Not the greatest win of my career but the most astounding.

-3 RBs, 8 fewer TOs. 9 threes, all in the 2nd half. +6 at the line.

22, 8, 4 for Joon, 20, 4, 4 for Burk, 16, 7, 3, 3 steals for Wink, 16, 0, 7 for John; no one on our team had more than 7 in the 1st half. We were down 29 at one point early in the 2nd half!

12/29: I didn't sleep a wink last night. I was so excited by the incredible win my eyes wouldn't close.

1/1/2021: Going into AAC play we're #14, NET #6, 11-3, 4-3 without Star, who will probably miss our next 4 games.

+6.1 PPG, +6.3 RBs, -2.4 TOs, but an awful 14 per game.

Jay Joon leads us with 16.4 PPG. Del Star, whose stats are all messed up because he is playing a few minutes in every game, gets 13.5 PPG and 7.4 RB; he leads us in RBs. Don John gets 5.6 assists.

Star will probably lose any chance of awards due to his stats being so messed up. Too bad, but maybe it will keep him here an extra year!

Lu and I are getting together on basketball stuff. We help each other with both of our teams. She went undefeated last season and is 15-0, #1, right now.

[Wayne23]

1/3: We play Central FL, 6-7, here to start AAC play. They have trouble scoring.

1/4: We quickly take the lead. Up 15 at the half. Burk has 12 and 4, we're +6 on the boards, only 3 TOs.

83-58. This was a breeze. Great D!

19, 7 for Burk, 15, 10 for Hyme. 14, 8 for Tsir, 11, 10, 3 for Wink.

+13 RBs, 6 TOs.

[Wayne23]

1/6: At 6-6, 0-1 Tulane next. They have a lot of trouble scoring, they don't rebound, and they turn it over. If we play our game we should do fine.

1/7: Back and forth. Down 6 at the half. We usually go to max and man earlier since Star has been out. We didn't this time. We will for the 2nd half; they shot 63%. We need to hit the boards harder, -5. Down 7 with 10 to go.

66-70. We didn't get there. Lousy D, they shot 54% to our 43%. -10 RBs, but 11 fewer TOs. -11 from the line, and that was a big factor.

18, 4, 2, 3 steals for Joon. 12, 1, 7 for John.

This was an opportunity lost; we could have and should have won this game.

2 more without Star.

[Wayne23]

1/10: 6-8, 0-2 Houston is here. Their guards are good, but we should be able to own the paint.

We drop to #18.

1/11: They're staying close because we're not stopping their outside game. Now we are and we have a big lead. Up 17 at the half. Terrific D, holding them to 28.6% for the half. +12 RBs and we're scoring at will inside. It's a blowout!

73-47. Exceptional D! +16 RBs, 10 TOs. We held them to 28.6%. +18 in the paint, +13 on 2nd chances.

22, 10 for Burk, 9, 13 for Tsir, 9, 9 for Hyme.

Starting big Kyri Tsir strained a hamstring; he's out for about a week. So both of our starting bigs will miss our next game. We'll start walk on Jim Hyme at C.

[Wayne23]

1/13: At 8-6, 2-1 Tulsa. They're not very good but we don't have many weapons with 2 starters out, and we have no bench regarding big guys. I'm being very positive and upbeat with the guys but...

1/14: They take an early lead. We come back. Down 2 at the half and I haven't upped the D. We're hanging in. I'll max the D but not going to man yet. I go to man 6 minutes in.

72-77. Not enough weapons. The stats were close in every category but they had a slight edge in every category.

14, 4 for Burk, 11, 12 for Star, who I gambled and played 16 minutes. He's back for our next game, but Tsir is still out.

#19, 13-5, 2-2 as Star returns.

[Wayne23]

1/17: East Carolina, 6-10, 0-4, is here. They score fewer points than anyone in the AAC, and fewer than almost everyone in Div. I. With Star in the lineup we're pretty confident.

1/18: It's close and we're not playing well. Down 2 after a lousy first half. Star is rusty and picks up 3 fouls. No one scores more than 6 and we shoot
28.6%. I stay calm, make some changes and max the D before we go back out. This is a game we should win. If we wake up we will. It takes several minutes but we grab the lead and take off.

78-55. Once we got it together we were unstoppable.

18, 8 for Joon, 11, 8, 5 steals, 3 blocks for Burk, 10, 5, 4 for Wink, 11 for Hyme.

9 TOs to 20. We played solid D.

Tsir is back for our next game, so we're back at full strength. Joon is moving to his natural position, SG, Burk will start at SF, and Wink will sit.