Transfer to the Title

[Wayne23]

3/8: It's 22-9, 13-5 Maine, the #3 seed, for the title. They beat us by 20 there then we came back and won by 14 at our place. The stats are agonizingly close.

It's going to come down to who wants it more. It would be fantastic to get to the Big Dance in my first season here but we'll need to earn it.

Game time: Lead change every possession early on. Up 4 after 10. Our guards are hot; all three of them. Up 6 at the half. Our bench has 18 points. Our 3 guards have 24 of our 41. Meek has 3 fouls which is not good; they have a really good C. Simm is stepping up though. 4 TOs to 10. -9% shooting but 10 more shots.

"20 minutes left, guys. We can go to the Big Dance. Play like you want it!"

Up 1 with 10 left. Mini-run! Another mini-run!

82-70 and the title!!! 17 each for Bays and Hays, 15, for Simm, but Long probably had the best game, 13, 14, 3, with 4 blocks, and good D. Our three starting bigs all played the last 5 minutes with 4 fouls. I kept subbing in Simm for one of them, then the other, then the other, and it worked; none of them fouled out.

7 TOs to 17. I always think ball handling, rebounding, and D are the most critical factors. 13 more shots made up for poor shooting. +10 at the line, 4 more threes.

No idea how far we'll go in the tourney but we got in!

"When is your lease up?"

"May 1."

"So you need to give notice!"

"I already did."

"Really! Oh WOW!"

Yep, I'm moving in with Dee. I'm a little nervous about it but we really get along on so many levels, hoops, hiking and exercise in general, same taste in music, same taste in food... There's not much we don't agree about. Yeah, she's more adventurous than I am.

[Wayne23]

3/12: 24-8, AEC regular season and tourney champs, NET #55. That's probably about a #13 seed.

#13 East. We play #4 seed, #9 ranked Iowa, 25-8, easily the toughest team we've faced all season. They've played 10 ranked teams (5-5), we've played none.

Here's where stats can trip you up. The numbers look like they give us an edge but strength of schedule doesn't show up on the stats sheet. They beat both #2 and #4 in the country. I'm telling my guys to enjoy being here and to give it all they have.

3/14: The women are in the Sweet Sixteen. They were #1 West but played their first two at UMass Amherst. Now they go to Seattle. They don't play on the days that we do so i can watch. I actually drove down to Amherst for the first two. I'll watch the rest on TV if we're still playing or fly out to see them if we're not.

3/16: "Give it all you have guys. It's awesome to be here!"

We take an early lead. Up 2 after 10; we're holding our own.

41-38 at the half; we look really good so far. 17 for Bays. 8, 10 for Long. Thor has 3 fouls; his man is a probable All American. Simm also has 3, and Fier has 2.

An amazing +15 on the boards and +12 in the paint, +11 on 2nd chances.

"Keep doing what you're doing. You guys are right in this thing! Look, if Harper is in scoring position don't foul him; play him tight but try not to foul him."

Down 7 with 10 to play; their talent is showing now.

70-87 but it was a game for 32 minutes. 29 for Bays. 11, 14 for Long, 10, 8 for Meek.

+19 RBs. They won it at the line, 36-41 to 8-15. Their SG and SF are world class. We knew that going in. They wound up with 29 each.

"I couldn't be prouder of my team. When you leave the locker room walk out with your heads held high!"

Post Game Press Conference (Excerpts):

"Coach Clark, you gave them all they wanted for about 32 minutes."

"Yes we did. I told my guys to go out and play their game, and they did. In the end they just had too much talent, but my guys showed a lot of heart!"

"Why didn't you press?"

"That was never going to be an option. They're two guards and their Sf are all terrific ball handlers. They would have broken the press."

"Anything you could have done differently?"

"Nothing legal. We had a few days to prep for them. We knew exactly what they were going to do. We put in our best D; anything other than that wouldn't- couldn't have worked. If you go away from what you do best you can't gain by it."

"Coach, you got the attention of the college basketball world. DO you expect any offers from top flight schools?"

"Haven't given that a thought but I'm not going anywhere. There's work to be done in Burlington and we've only just begun. I may not be there forever, who knows, but I'll be there for awhile."

"Rumor has it that the coach of the Lady Cats may be a factor in that decision."

"You want to be careful about listening to rumors."

And with that i left the press room.

[Wayne23]

3/17: I caught a flight to Seattle and watched the Lady Cats beat a decent Arkansas team by 27 to advance to the Elite Eight and #9 seed Kansas, who upset a couple of teams to get there.

3/19: 103-58 for the Lady Cats and they head for Madison Square Garden and a Final Four rematch with #2 ranked South Carolina. We beat them in November but that was a LONG time ago.

4/2: 77-75. PG Leila Janzell hit a 28 footer at the buzzer to send us to the title game vs. #1 seed, undefeated UConn. UConn has three first team All Americans but they only beat us by 8 at their place early on.

4/3: #3 ranked North Carolina upset #1 Kentucky by 9 to win the national title.

4/4: 76-81, and UConn wins the women's title. Our Lady Cats gave them all they wanted. Neither team ever led by more than 8. At the end we had to foul and Bueckers and Fudd didn't miss a single free throw.

Awards: Hey, I got AEC COY! Tom Thor made the 1st team, Bays, Meek, and Long made 2nd team. I'm happy for all of them but especially Tom. He was steady all season long, and never got the recognition he deserved.

If no one transfers we have the entire team back. I suspect we may lose Long, but I expect the other starters to stay. Simm? Hite? Fier? Who knows?

4/5: Women's Awards announced today and Dee was named National Women's Coach of the Year. Wow! One All American. 4 first team All Conference and the 5th starter made the 2nd team.

"I'm just really tired."

"Of course you are. What a terrific season."

"I really thought we had them. Up 3 with 3 and a half minutes left and nobody in foul trouble."

"They're tough."

"Yeah. Geno hasn't won 12 titles by luck. They never lost their cool, they just kept coming at us and playing their game. Impressive, really."

"I thought so, yeah. I didn't really know a lot about the women's game until this year. You guys can play the game."

"Damn right. Now let me sleep."

"I need to go pack anyway."

4/9: We hit all of our goals but our TP only went up one point, to 47.

A couple of very good schools called about the head coaching job. I thanked them and told them i'm not interested.

Dee got some really big time offers, Stanford, Baylor, Texas. She's staying, too.

4/23: I ask Ali for a budget increase. We can't compete, especially if we move to the Big East, on this budget.

We get $10,500.

"I wish it could be more, Mack, but that's really stretching my overall budget."

"Hey, I appreciate it, Ali. It will help."

24-9, 14-4, AEC champs. Pretty good first season.

4/28: I moved in to Dee's place today.

[Wayne23]

5/1: Recruiting class #62. 2 of our 3 recruits could definitely see playing time. And if we lose guys, they could even start.

We didn't get into the Big East. Next year is probably better for us anyway. Dee's not happy though.

We buy the East Basic report again. Not quite enough money to go for the Premium. We'll go to a couple of camps.

5/15: It's an adjustment living with someone else full time. You get in each other's way a lot, especially at first. Dee's condo has 2 bathrooms, and that helps a lot. She get the garage, which sucks for me, but oh well. If this works out we'll eventually get a place with a 2 car garage, maybe a place in this condo complex. There are some that are a little bigger with 2 car garages. This place is a 2 bedroom and we use the second BR for our office. We share an office and that can be an issue but we're working it out. All in all we're really doing fine. This is good.

5/29: We lose Ken Simm and no one else. I'm pleased that Ruf Long stayed, surprised, but pleased. We may well start 2 frosh this season. WAY too soon to really know, of course.

I cut Cam Grif and Kej Caro. It's a bit of a dice roll but if I can get one decent guard to transfer in I'm ahead of the game; neither of those guys are ever going to help us. So 3 spots open for transfers.

6/5: In Round One we offer to a B, and an unrated PG from Kentucky, yeah, a long shot. 0-2. Round 2: We offer to 2 PGs, both Bs, and a PF who's a C. 1-3.

We get the PF, who looks good. We need at least one guard. Round 3: We offer to 2 guards, both Ds. We get both, one of them could get minutes, the other is a practice player. We're done.

6/25: We'll go to the East Coast Jam and the Big Apple Showcase.

6/26: 4 scholarships. We want 2 bigs and 2 guards.

7/5: Recruiting is a lot of work. Sha McNeish, my recruiter, and I are making a lot of calls, sending way more texts than calls actually. We've scouted all of our top prospects and hosted all of them for visits. The latter is a full day commitment, showing them around the athletic facilities, the campus, and even downtown Burlington, such as it is. Not everyone wants to come to such a remote, cold place, and Burlington ain't NYC! But still, we figure all of that into the equation.

Sha and I coordinate carefully so that we don't duplicate our efforts which can turn a kid off. We figure out which of us the recruit seems to bond with or develop a relationship with, and if they do that with either of us, that's the person who takes over and does most of the contact work.

In September we'll be visiting families, talking to high school coaches and sometimes teachers or administrators, and the visit is the most powerful recruiting tool. We usually make or break with that.

In some ways recruiting season is as busy as during the season, and it isn't nearly as much fun, but it's vital. If you don't get the kid you can't coach him!

Dee and I are working out the kinks about this living together thing. It's amazing how important it is that I put certain things back exactly where I found them. I'm actually pretty good about that because I like to be organized, but at home certain things went in certain places, and most of them go in different places here. I often forget and just put them where I'm used to putting them. That doesn't go over very well!

7/28: We have only one kid with a lot of interest, but a bunch of other have at least some interest. Hoping that ramps up soon. I like to offer scholarships on 8/21 to get in early.

[Wayne23]

8/3: "This place is too small, Jed."

"Yeah, it kind of is. But what can we do about it?"

"Get a bigger place. We need to each have our own office, and you need a garage."

"So sell the condo and buy a bigger one? Buy a house?"

"Let me check and see what's available."

"Do we buy it together? I mean you've got equity in this place so how do we fix all that so that it's a 50-50 deal? Or did you want to be the owner, or maybe want me to be the owner?"

"Well, I was thinking we were together? Am I wrong about that?"

"NO! I want to be with you, but there's stuff we don't know and needs to find out. And what if one of us decides to go to a better school?"

"Are you backing out?"

"NO! I want to be with you, like I said. But still, we need info we don't have. Yes, let's get a bigger place and buy it together, definitely. But let's figure out the things we need to figure out."

Dee can be impulsive, and I guess insecure. That's my fault, or a lot of it is. I probably don't make it clear how committed I am to this relationship.

8/21: We offer to 2 PGs and 2 PFs. They're all interested.

There will be lots of contact with these four and lots with four other guys who are interested. We want them to stay interested in case we get rejected by some of the first four. Not a lot of big things to do until; 9/11 so this is kind of a stressful time.

9/8: "Okay, Jed. Do we have all the answers you wanted?"

"We do! It all makes sense to me now."

"Good. The condo goes on the market today and we make an offer on that 3 bedroom, 2 car garage condo down the street."

"Sounds good."

"You know, this selective helplessness of yours can be annoying sometimes."

"That's not fair, Dee. I like to think things through and have all the facts; you tend to shoot from the hip. Maybe you're just braver than I am."

"No doubt about that!"

Yes, we have our spats now and then but overall I think this is going really well. We've been hiking a few times a week ever since late April. We watched a couple of video series which we both liked a lot, and Dee watched a couple I wasn't interested in.

We talk basketball ceaselessly, her team and mine, and we watch video by the hour.

The video thing can be a problem sharing one office. Dee likes to hear the announcers. I don't, but the sound from her videos kind of annoys me. So I often go to the living room and watch my videos on the screen in there. Dee doesn't like that; she thinks I don't want to be with her. I try to explain but it doesn't always satisfy her. Oh well, when we move we'll each have our own office. I'm guessing we'll still spend lots of time together in one office though.

[Wayne23]

9/11: We visit the four families of the kids we offer to. The visits went well. Wish we could have visited the other 4 but there are only so many hours.

9/18: We get one, lose one. We get a PF, #135. We offer to another guy.

The schedule is put together. I asked Ali to try to schedule as many Big East teams as possible. We want to show the conference that we can compete there.

They don't want to play us; we managed to schedule 3 of them, all away, 2 of them very tough teams.

We're invited to the Coaches Classic so we start the season there vs. BYU.

"We have an offer for our condo."

"Good one?"

"Maybe a little low. I'm talking with the agent. I think we're going to counter offer 10 grand higher."

9/21: "The buyer went up $7,500."

"I say we take it."

"Me too."

9/25: We get 2, lose 1. Offer to another guy. We get our #1, a PF rated at #86, and a PG, #172.

9/27: "Our offer on the condo was accepted!"

"Awesome!"

"We should be able to move in by November 1 if all goes well."

"Excellent! I'll only need to clean my car off a few times with any luck."

"Yeah, flurries tomorrow."

"And so it begins!"

10/2: We get the PG, #146. They should all hit our SAT score so we're most likely done.

It's a busy, happy time. We're starting to pack. Not a big chore for me since I haven't been here that long, but Dee's been here for 3 1/2 years so she has lots of stuff to move.

10/30: The month has flown by. We closed today on our new place, and yesterday on this place. We start moving tomorrow, and the van comes in two days.

11/1: Well, everything's here in the new place. Now we need to put it away! We
have a few friends coming over later to help with that.

11/3: Most everything is where it belongs. I love my new office and love the garage just as much!

11/11: I'm laughing. Dee spends most of our "work at home" time in my office. I told her I love having her here but she needs to get head phones when she's watching video. She actually agreed!

"I want to be with you. Is that a bad thing?"

"No, Dee, it's a great thing and I'm really happy that you do."

[Wayne23]

11/12: Season starts tomorrow with Coaches Classic #4 seed BYU. We're #13 in the 16 team tournament. Not much to go on but we're actually a slight favorite.

Here's the lineup. A couple of changes even though all 5 of last year's starters are back:

Senior Rob Bays is back at PG and he has looked really good.

Frosh Marc Cole is at SG.

We're really deep at guard. #3 is junior Ad Mill, a transfer from BU. #4 is senior Colt Hays who dropped way down the depth chart. His D just doesn't cut it. #5 is returning junior Ed Hite. Finally comes another transfer from BU, junior Nate Aerr; Nate won't get minutes unless we have injuries; Hite probably won't either.

Senior Tom Thor is back at SF. He really played well for us last season. His D needs work but the rest of his game is stellar.

Junior Ruf Long is back at PF. He has a lot of talent but his attitude gets in the way. Still, he's starting... for now.

Another frosh, Tare Suli is in the middle. He has looked terrific in practice and in the exhibition games.

1st big off the bench is senior Brin Lee, a transfer from St Louis. He's looked good enough to knock last year's starting C, Jon Meek to the 2nd big off the bench. Meek is a junior. Finally it's soph Cris Fier, who gave us some decent minutes last year but isn't likely to play much this season.

We're a much better team this year than we were last year.

Oh, I'm going to go with the man to man for about 75% of the time to start, but I'm ready to go 100% man if need be.

11/13: It's close early. Down 6 after 10; we're sloppy. Up 4 at the half. 12, 4 for Thor, 12, 3 for Bays. Our rookies are showing freshman jitters and Long has 3 fouls. Such a shame that he's a head case. We have 9 TOs but they have 10; sloppy first half for sure. We're +6 from the line but -6 in the paint. Their bench is +11 over ours. Up 5 with 10 to go. The rookies are doing better. Mini-run!

84-70. Great start to the season! 14, 6, 3 for rookie Tare Suli, who had a great 2nd half; he makes us much better in the post. Thor had 16 and 5 and played excellent D, and Bays had 14, but 6 TOs. Good bench play from Lee and Mill, and Meek was okay as well.

9 fewer TOs but we still had 17 which is NOT good. +9 from the line.

[Wayne23]

11/14: #12 seed Buffalo upset #5 Michigan, so we play them in the quarter finals. We seem to have an edge on the boards, they seem to have an edge in ball handling, but it's based on one game so... Their PG went crazy, 33 points!

11/15: "Watch that PG!"

Close early. Up 2 after 10; Suli is on fire. A big run puts us up 22 at the break. 15 for Suli, 8 for Thir and Bays, who is out playing their PG, good bench play. +18 in the paint. Up only 3 with 10 left; they came roaring back. OT!

93-83 in OT. We damn near let this one get away but we gutted it out at the end.

17, 4 for Suli, almost all in the 1st half; they adjusted. 15, 6, 4 for sub F/C Brin Lee. 15, 0, 5 for Bays who was out played, but not by a lot.

Frosh Marc Cole was in over his head though; he'll get there. Our bench was +12 over theirs. -10 RBs but 15 fewer TOs. +21 in the paint. Both teams shot exactly 50% but we took 10 more shots.

[Wayne23]

11/16: #1 seed, #8 ranked Syracuse in the semifinals.

Ruf Long is bitching again. The way he's playing I should be the one who's grumpy. Their PG has a sore knee but he'll start. On paper this is a mismatch. They play really good D, and they can score and move the ball.

11/17: Close early but then they take a lead. Down only 1 after 10. Down 2 at halftime. Their PF is the only player with 3 fouls. No one on either team has more than 8 points. Most stats are close except we're -15% shooting and +8 in the paint; we've taken 10 more shots. It's a game so far! Tied with 10 to play!

76-69! My biggest win as a head coach! Marc Cole found himself in the 2nd half; wound up with 16, 6, 4. 13, 6 for Suli so our two frosh led the way. 13 for guard Ad Mill from the bench, 10, 7 for Long. 11 TOs to 18. +10 in the paint. We took an amazing 22 more shots, and that was the difference since they shot better. Great win!

Dee and I spoke on the phone. She romped her way through the preseason NIT and won the title by 23 points tonight but we talked about my game. She seemed to be as happy about it as I am.

[Wayne23]

11/18: #2 seed but unranked Texas, 3-0, for the title. Their starting PF is banged up but he'll play. On paper it's even up, pick 'em. All 5 of their starters average 10 or more so they're hard to defend. We score 5 more and give up 5 more. It looks like we're better inside but they're better outside. We definitely have a shot st this. Dee flew out and she's watching, sitting right behind the bench.

11/19: We take a quick lead. Up 2 after 10. Up 4 at the half; this one is a war. 10, 5 for Thor+4 RBs, 3 fewer TOs. We aren't shoot well, 32.1% to 50%, but 8 more shots. We haven't shot well all season. Let's see who wants it more. Down 3 with 10 left but foul trouble inside.

66-63 and the Coaches Classic title! Bays missed the front end of a one and one with 19 seconds left and I was biting my forehead. But we didn't let them have an open shot, and the three they took rimmed out, Suli got the RB and just threw it up in the air. Time expired before it came down; good move on his part! Our 3 starting bigs played major minutes with 4 fouls; I kept rotating them in and out when I could so they wouldn't be as tired- tired players foul more.

14, 8 for Thor. 10 each for Suli and Long, 9 each for subs Lee and Meek; our big guys won this one; they scored 56 of our 66 points. What a defensive battle!

+10 RBs, 12 TOs to 15. +7 from the line; they were only 14-26 and that may have cost them the game; we were 21-28. What a game!

Post Game Press Conference (Excerpts):

"Coach Clark, you came in here as the #13 seed and you took the title, beating the #1, #2, and #4 seeds. How does that happen?"

"Heart. Belief in ourselves. Gutting it out when things get rough."

"Two freshmen starters, your Center and your shooting guard."

"Imagine how good we're going to be in the Spring! These guys are still learning the game of college hoops and look what they're doing already!"

"Talk about Tare Suli."

"Wow! He plays like a seasoned veteran. He has impressed me since the first day of practice!"

"Coach, when you got hired you said that you'd build a program with transfers. You've gotten some decent transfers, Lee and Mill come to mind, but how are you managing to get recruits- and transfers for that matter, to come to Burlington, Vermont!"

"We bring them here in the summer! I think they see something special in what we're building here and they want to be part of it."

"You're bound to be ranked when the polls come out tomorrow. Tell us about that."

"If I'm dreaming don't wake me up!"

Dee flew back with us. The kids were high on winning all the way home. Even though it was a night flight no one got any sleep. It was a lot of fun though!

We're only home for a couple of days then off to a 2 game road trip.

11/20: Ranked! #7 in the country! That's too high but we deserve to be ranked!