Temporary: Don't get too attached

[Wayne23]

11/16: It's a battle early. 46-41 at the half. They can play! Their bench scored 35 of their 41 points. Their star PF picked up 3 fouls. Star already has a double double with 17 and 12. We're +13 on the boards. I'm maxing the D to start the 2nd. Not going to man yet. Early run!

92-80. Not happy with the D but VERY happy with the O and the rebounding (+17).

21, 16, 4 blocks for Star, 21, 3 for Joon, 13 for 2nd big man off the bench, walk on Jim Hyme, 10, 3 for #3 guard Kel Nunn.

Not happy with 17 TOs but they had 15. +13 on 2nd chance points. We shot 50%.

[Wayne23]

11/17: #7 seed Georgetown, 2-0, in the semis. They have a solid PG and a good C, and they play good D. But we should own the boards. We need to take care of the ball.

11/18: Early lead. 43-22 at the half, and we did it without Star, who picked up 2 quick fouls, and then a third and had only 2 and 2. The other 4 starters all scored well, and we're taking care of the ball for once and playing D. But we'll need more from Star in the 2nd. I kicked his butt in the locker room. They get it to single digits.

72-62. They got it to 7 twice but no closer.

With Star playing only 16 minutes we did not dominate inside; it was about even there. But we only turned it over 11 times to their 19, and we took 11 more shots.

Sub Rash Burk had 10, 7, 3, 4 steals. 12, 4, 6 for Joon, 14, 1, 3 for John. Only 10 and 7 for Star, his worst game so far. Hope he got it out of his system.

[Wayne23]

11/20: Both recruits sign. We're still chasing some guys in case Star goes pro, and we've kept some money available for that.

#1 ranked, #1 seed Kansas for the NIT title. They are amazing outside and their bigs really hit the boards. This is going to be tough.

We're ranked #4 before the game.

11/21: No shortage of butterflies in my stomach.

Back and forth. We go on a run midway through. 50-33 at the half. I can't believe how well we're playing! 21, 5 for Star but our D is doing the job, we're +8 on the boards, and we're not turning it over. Still a long way to go. Uh oh. They go on a run and catch us.

85-77! No quit in my team! They caught us, took a lead, led by 5. I took a time out, calmed my guys down, told them to just play within themselves; they went back out, retook the lead, and held it the rest of the way.

Del Star had 29 and 11, shut down his man, and didn't commit a foul, not one! 20 and 4 with 3 blocks for Joon, the only guy to get in foul trouble, but he was guarding their best scorer. 13, 1, 7 for PG Don John. We may need to make a change. SG Ry Wink isn't doing much.

+5 RBs, 5 fewer TOs. +10 in the paint.

This definitely feels fantastic. We beat #1 in the country!

I've been drinking too much since I ended it with Lu a few months ago. Two days ago I decided no more booze. I would love a celebratory drink, but no, I'm not going to do it.

[PointGuard]

3/26: We'll be thin inside but not as thin as I feared, IF we get that guy who accepted after not hitting our SAT score.

(Author's Note: I've never seen this before. The recruit's SAT score was 920. We need 940. I just checked and his score now shows up as 960. I KNOW it was 920 in January when the scores were posted. Again, I have never seen this happen in the almost 15 years I've been playing this game.)

Uhhh...can you say "RICK SPRINGER"?

[Wayne23]

Hah!!!

[Wayne23]

11/22: I thought about giving Rash more time and Wink less but my bench coach, Tre Sall said,

"Coach, don't break up a winning combination."

Good point. Maybe I'll wait a little while.

#19 Brigham Young, 3-0, is here. They score a lot of points outside and they play lock down D. But they haven't played anybody. Let's see what happens.

11/23: They're hanging with us. We take a double digit lead. They come back to tie it at the half. Going to max and man. 16, 7 for Star. No one else is doing much and we're not playing D. They're tough!

91-85. We did it in the last 2 minutes. This was a war!

27, 14, 3, 3 for Star. He fouled out, but there were only 27 seconds left. 11, 10, 3 for Tsir. Joon and Burk had 10 each.

+16 RBs, 12 TOs. They shot better, 51.7% to 48.1% but we took more shots. They made us work for it.

Tre Sall and I have been coming up with practice plans and game strategies late at night at my place. We break down video and talk at length, throwing out ideas. Eventually things come together. He's a really good strategist. I get together during the work day to talk with Jam Writ about recruiting and scouting, mostly recruiting, and Deon Owen on scouting. Seems like I'm either talking with assistants, or texting or talking with recruits, other coaches... whenever I'm not actually with the kids. It's a complex job and at times I get pretty tired. I love it though.

[Wayne23]

11/25: 2-1 North Carolina is here. It's an off year for them; they're not ranked. They may have an edge at the Point but we feel like we have a big edge inside.

11/26: Back and forth. Down 9 at halftime. We were awful. I went to max and man with 6 minutes left and it didn't help much. We shot 25% for the half and committed 9
TOs. We scored 20 freakin' points! It was not a pleasant locker room. Let's see if I woke them up.

69-60. 49-31 in the 2nd. We took our first lead with less than 7 minutes to play.

24, 18 For Star, most of it late. 20, 6 for Wink; his first good offensive game. +8 RBs, 5 fewer TOs. I'm not happy with this game.

Rash Burk: Just before leaving after the game I went into Coach's office. I'm fed up with sitting.

"You're playing 21 minutes a game."

"It's not enough. I should be starting. I'm better than Ry!"

"Oh good, you're crapping on a teammate."

"I don't mean it that way. I just am. I score more, rebound more, and play at least as much D!"

"You realize he just had his best game of the season."

"Yeah, yeah. His only decent game of the season!"

"I'll give you a few more minutes. You're playing well and you've earned them."

"I'm a senior, Coach. This is it for me!"

"I understand your frustration. I'll put you in more."

It wasn't what I wanted but it was something.

Coach: I'm going to give Wink and Burk about equal time and see what happens. Tre still doesn't want to make any changes but I overruled him.

We only went from #4 to #3 in the new poll the other day. I thought we might be #1.

[Wayne23]

11/29: 3-1 Villanova is here. This looks like a challenge. They play terrific D and when the threes are falling they can be tough to beat. We need to stop waiting until the 2nd half to play.

11/30: We take an early lead. 33-26 at the break. Star picked up 3 fouls. I let him know I'm not happy with that. He and Joon had 11 each.

67-64. We didn't win, we escaped. They missed an open three off a double pick at the end.

14, 9 for Star but his man outplayed him, which doesn't happen very often; he seemed to be playing hurt. 13, 6, 3 for Joon, 14, 3 for Wink, 8, 9, 3 for Burk.

+8 RBs, only 9 TOs to 15. We shot a dismal 36% but were +9 from the line.

11/30: Star came to me first thing this morning and told me he hadn't slept all night because of nose pain. I went to the infirmary with him. X-rays showed a badly broken nose. He's out until mid January.

Well, Burk got his wish; he's starting...

We're in a lot of trouble.

[Wayne23]

12/2: #6 Pitt is here. Figures that we're playing an extremely good team immediately. It's going to be very hard for us to win this game.

12/3: Close early. Tied at the half. Frankly, we're playing great; maybe a little over our heads. The bench is surprising me. But we're shooting 28% and
our starting guards haven't scored. Maxing the D to start the 2nd. Not going man-to-man yet though.

60-70. They went on a late run. We shot 32.8% for the game. Without Star we're pretty easy to defend.

15, 5 for Burk, 14, 4 for Joon, 12, 9, 2, 3 steals for walk on Hyme, who is now my 6th man.

-8 RBs but 7 fewer TOs. +12 in the paint. The difference, very simply, is that we couldn't hit shots.

We fall to #8 in the poll. I suspect we'll fall a lot further before Star comes back.

[Wayne23]

12/6: At 3-3 Texas Tech next, our only road game in the pre-conf season. I actually think we have a shot at this one.

12/7: We fall way behind early. Down 15 at the break; they shot 63.3%. We shot 36%.

74-90. Awful. 19, 9, 4, 3 steals for Joon. 14, 2, 4 for Wink, 12, 3, 5, 3 for #3 guard Kel Nunn.

+7 RBs but 18 TOs, plus 6. They shot 52% to our 40% and they dominated inside.

Yeah, I'm drinking again...