Way Back When

[Wayne23]

12/17: Close early. Tied after 10. 43-38 at the half. +8 for the bench. 11, 5 for Rily, 8, 6 for Cage.Crow is playing well in his first start. They come out strong in the 2nd and take the lead. Down 5 with 10 left.

88-92. Awful D in the 2nd, they scored 54. Both Rily and Hend were in foul trouble for most of the 2nd half. We lost it at the line.

[Wayne23]

1/8/1926: We win 3 to end pre-conf. play at 10-2. Ranked #24, NET #3 (This is ridiculously high. We've playted one ranked team.).

SG B. J. Venn leads us in points with 16.3, and in assists with 5.6. SF Jay Cage gets 16.0, 7.2 RBs. 11.3, 8.3 RBs for Dom Hend. PF Aaron Rily is underperforming with 9.6 and 5.8. I've spoken with him.

We're +16.1 PPG, +6.1 RBs, +3.4 Assists, -5.5 TOs, with 12.4. I like it below 12 but this is not bad.

9 of our 16 Conf. B games will be against ranked opponents so we have our work cut out for us.

[Wayne23]

1/22: 2-2 to start Conf. B play.

We lost at #8 Maryland, and at Baylor. The latter is a game we could have won.

Starting PG Jaan Wats hurt his shoulder and will be on limited minutes for a week or so. Venn will move to PG and Crow will start at SG.

[Wayne23]

2/5: 3-1 in our last 4 puts us at 15-5, 5-3. Tied for 3rd in conf.

2/19: 3-1 puts us at 18-6, 8-4, alone in 2nd. Ranked #18, NET #9.

SG B. J. Venn leads us with 15.7. SF Jay Cage gets 15.1. No one else in double figures in scoring.

+9.9 PPG, but we're lousy shooters, 252% in shooting pct., 232 in free throws. +4.2 RBs. -4.0 in TOS but up to a lousy 14.0.

[Wayne23]

3/5: 2-2 in our last 4 regular season games.

We wind up 20-8, 10-6, tied for 2nd, the #2 seed. #18, NET #11.

Venn and Cage both wind up averaging 15.3 PPG. Hend leads in RBs with 8.8. Venn leads with 5.4 assists.

+8.1 PPG, +3.2 RBs, -3.5 TOS but 14.6 per game which is way too many.

3/9: We face #7 seed, #13 ranked Kona, 21-10, 8-8, in the quarter finals.

[Wayne23]

3/10: Close early. Down 6 after 10. 29-39 at the half. We're shooting 31.4%, and that's the problem. Down 3 with 10 to go.

87-82. We really upped our game in the last 5 minutes or so. 23, 10 for Rily, 16, 9, 3 for Cage, 13, 4, 8 for Venn, 10 and 10 for Hend. Wats had 12 assists. 15 for sub guard Rob Crow, so it was a team effort. +12 in the paint.

#5 seed, #15 ranked Xavier, 22-9, 9-7, in the semis. They beat us by 14 at our place. Not a lot to choose between the teams looking at the stats but they rebound better. They are 3-7 vs. ranked teams.

[Wayne23]

3/11: They start fast and take the lead. We come back. It's tied after 10. 37-46 at the half. It's a game of runs so far. 12, 5, 5 for Cage. Down 3 with 10 to go.

87-81. We had the last run. 21, 11, 5 for Cage, 14, 7, 3 for Venn. All 5 starters in double figures.

It's #1 seed, #3 ranked Maryland, 27-5, 13-3, for the title. They won by 13 there, and we won by 7 here.

Aaron Rily hurt his back and will see limited action. Tough break for us. Mark Geer will get more minutes.

We get the PG, #162, we've been chasing for months.

[Wayne23]

3/12: Back and forth early on. Down 8 after 10. They're dominating inside so far. 29-47 at the half after they go on a huge late run. They're beating us all over the floor. We're shooting 34.3% to their 66.7%. Down 26 with 10 minutes left. We're not coming back in this one.

61-80. We got our butts handed to us. 13, 7 for Cage, 12, 4 for Geer. No one else did much.

Ranked #16, NET #9. Can we hope for a #3 seed?

#3 West. We play Washington ST, 19-11. Rily is still playing limited minutes.

[Wayne23]

3/16: Robert Goddard launches the first liquid fuel rocket.

3/17: Close early and tied after 10. 45-38 at the break. So far we're winning this one outside. Only 3 TOs, +12 for our starting guards. Tied with 10 left.

81-76. We had to work for it in the 2nd half! 14, 5, 10, 3 for Venn, 17, 2, 4, 3 for Wats. +18 for our starting guards.

#6 seed, #20 ranked Indiana, 22-8, in the 2nd round. Rily is at 100%. It looks like their backcourt vs. our inside game. Looks like it could be a close one.

[Wayne23]

3/19: It's close early. Up 2 after 10. This is a battle. Unexpectedly, we're winning outside and they're winning inside. 48-38 at halftime. 13, 4 for Venn, 10, 9 for Hend. Our big guys came back and our guards are still beating theirs. +10 for the bench. Big edge on the line for once. We've taken 21 free throws to their 6, and their coach is hopping mad.

Frankly, we're a little quicker and they're fouling, but I'm guessing they don't see it that way. Up 17 with 10 left.

84-71. We never needed to turn the D up to full intensity. We chose not to press much tonight because their guards are good ball handlers. That was a good decision.

On to the Sweet Sixteen vs. #2 seed, #7 ranked Kansas, 25-8. On paper we're in a lot of trouble. They are 8-2 vs. ranked teams but they lost the last 2. We need to be at our best.