Way Back When

[Wayne23]

4/3: We're back home. I never mentioned those Kansas City steaks. Delicious!

#2 Texas beat #3 Duke by 7 to win the title. Wish I coulda seen it but we don;t have the budget to send me. Some day.

4/4: Awards: Greg Meed and Tel Lyne make the Conf U 1st team, Jam Tell makes 2nd. I am Conf. Coach of the Year.

4/9: I'm getting telegrams about head coaching jobs. No thank you, people. I'm not interested. I want to see how far I can advance Bryant. Team Prestige all the way up to 19!

Teams as high as Conf D want to talk about head coaching jobs. No. telegrams are expensive and this wouldn't be in the athletic budget since it's personal, so I'm writing them all to say no thanks.

I've seen more and more of those pesky horseless carriages; Kansas City must have had a dozen or more and providence has some, too. They're a dangerous fad and I hope they go away soon.

The new song is Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer." Catchy!

4/16: We get a C from Poland, Romu Krzy. He's a gamble but he's supposed to be very good and he's rated higher than any of our other recruits. He's our only 4 star.

4/23: I ask Ted Baer for salary increases for my assistants, and a facilities upgrade. I hope to get the former and would be shocked if I got the latter.

My assistants go from $12.50 a week to $15, which is a nice raise. I go from $17.50 to $20. That means I'll make a little over $1000 a year. I feel rich!

I don't get the facilities upgrade. Ted Baer said the money is simply not there, and i understand. I'll ask again next year.

Terrific first season. 28-5, conference champs, and we made it to the round of 16. We're going up to Conference T.

[Wayne23]

5/1: Recruiting class #60 which is very good!

I have 7 guards on the squad and only 3 big men. We're hoping not to lose anyone to the transfer portal, and we NEED to pick up some big men or we'll be playing walk ons.

I buy only the Atlantic East basic.

5/29: OUCH! We lose 2 guards and a big. 6 spots to fill, or try to. Really sorry to lose Gar Goss. The others would not have played much.

Round 1: We offer to some guys but probably a pipe dream. 0-6, as expected.

6/2: We offer to 2 who have us in their Top 5, and 4 others who don't. 4-6, 1 B, 3 Cs. I need 2 bigs.

6/5: I offer to 2 Bs. Long shots. I get one and he'll start.

One more. Offer to a C. No.

6/12: Finished.

I am very seriously considering foregoing recruiting completely and simply going to the transfer window instead. I suspect i will gte much higher quality players there.

Lovely new song out, "On a Sunday Afternoon."

I've used the trolley more and more. It's cheap and reliable. Not so good in winter as it is freezing, but otherwise very helpful indeed for short to moderately short trips.

When we're at home the staff meets in my room whenever the weather is moderate enough for my room to be bearable. Otherwise it's the parlor.

There's a new tenant who is quite a good piano player. He is very entertaining but at times it's difficult to work above the noise.

6/25: Going to the Big Apple and the East Coast Jam.

6/26: Still pondering what to do about recruiting.

We think we'll look at very good in state and International players only.

No decent RI players so we're looking at some foreign players.

7/4: Lots of letter writing with the 4 foreign players who are showing interest. It's difficult with other languages. My bench coach Ed Morr speaks Spanish so that helps with the guy from Spain. We can't find anyone who speaks Chinese so we write to that guy in English and hope that someone over there can translate. We get letters back from him in very bad English so that's a good sign. The other two are from Australia so we speak a common language, sort of.

Ted Baer says when the time comes we may be able to book passage and take a month to visit. It will take that long on a fast ship.

7/14: The hot weather is back. We're meeting at the gym or in the parlor here. Too hot to meet in my room. Too hot to sleep, too.

Mrs. O'Shaughnessy is a fine cook. She makes hearty meals that stick to our ribs. The meal always starts with a homemade soup, bread, and fresh churned butter. Mrs. O'Brien is no fool. She knows that the men will eat less meat if they eat soup and breads first, and meat is the expensive portion of the meal. The soup is usually vegetable but sometimes chicken and vegetables or chicken and rice. Lately there have been something called "noodles" in the soup, which are pretty good.

Mrs. O'Shaughnessy makes an excellent beef stew as a main course, and my favorite, a New England boiled dinner with beef, potatoes, carrots, green beans, cabbage, and onions all cooked together with some spices until the meat is falling apart. A good size portion of that with her delicious bread is a fine meal! She also makes a chicken dinner, roast pork, ham, meatloaf, sausages, and various and sundry other meals, all good, and all with good size portions.

There's always a fresh made dessert, often something with apples- pie, cake, cobbler, and other things. In season it might be peaches, berries, or other fruit. It's always very good.

Breakfast is a bowl of porridge followed by two eggs with either ham or bacon, and plenty of toasted home made bread with marmalade. Again, very good size portions. We don't go hungry here, and I'm always sorry when I miss a meal.

Mr. O'Casey, as part of his duties, has a large garden in the back yard, and lots of berry bushes, as well as several apple trees. Mrs. O'Brien helps with the gardening, and she cans lots and lots of fruits and vegetables, so she doesn't need to purchase mush of that even in winter. She has a root cellar where the potatoes, carrots, turnips, apples, and a few other things stay year round.

For lunch, when I'm at work I go to the school cafeteria where the food is passable.

8/21: We only have 2 scholarships. We offer to a PG who has us at #1 but who may not hit our SAT score, and a PF.

[Wayne23]

9/4: The semester starts tomorrow. Our players have mandatory supervised study halls 7 days a week, even during the season. We work hard to keep everybody eligible. The players are here for a good part of the summer as well, going to summer school to lighten the course load during the regular year. They take two courses before their freshman year and every summer after that so that they can graduate on time, and only have to take four courses each semester.

We can't coach them during the summer but they play a lot and we watch and take notes.

9/5: Recruiting assistant Phil Mars and I are on the ship. First stop Spain then the LONG trek to Australia. We're skipping China; that would add too much time. We'll spend a week with the kid in Spain. The two from Australia live in the same town, and we'll spend a week there.

9/18: Spain was fascinating and we think we have a pretty good shot with the kid, but he didn't commit.

Here in Australia we've met a few times with both of the kids, their families, and their coaches. The one we offered to seems ready to commit but nothing yet. Heading home soon.

We had to get used to a whole new kind of feed in Spain and now it's another kind in Australia.

Got a letter from Ted Baer, care of one of the recruits. Lots of road games in the pre-conference schedule. I had asked him to schedule decent teams at home and, if possible, one ranked team on the road. He scheduled 2 ranked teams on the road and decent teams at home. I'm satisfied.

9/25: The Aussie we offered to committed! Pretty sure the other Aussie would too, if we had a scholarship.

After a lot of thought we withdraw the offer to the Spaniard and offer to the Aussie. We may need to find a guard or two in the transfer portal next spring but we'll worry about that then. We just don;t think the Spanish kid is going to hit our SAT score and we aren't crazy about the guard from China, If the 2nd Aussie commits it will be 2 PFs.

Headed home. We'll get there just in time for the first practice.

10/2: The ship landed at 11:30 a.m. We got to campus just in time to start practice.

We got the 2nd Aussie! Oh, #88 and #133. I never would have done that well with players from the U. S. From what we saw in Australia they both have the potential to be very good players. And there's no language barrier except that their English is quite different from our English.

Romu Krzy, our freshman from Poland is learning English but communication is difficult.

10/5: Phil and I have done a lot of sleeping over the past few days. I'm feeling more rested. The ship was wonderful and we got plenty of sleep, but travel still makes a body feel weary.

It's fall in Rhode Island. The trees are beautiful, and the weather is delightful. There are only a few months when it is neither too hot nor too cold and we all try to enjoy them!

I think we have a really good team in the makings and the first poll picks us to win Conference T. That's one of the two goals Ted Baer has set for us. The other is to win 20 games.

"So why is a handsome young man like yourself still single, Mr. Last."

"Call me Coach, Mrs. O'Brien. Well, first I haven't met anyone, and second, I'm not sure there's a woman who would want me given that i spend most of my waking hours working."

"Lad, most men do, and I'm sure there are lots of women who would love to meet you."

"I'm just too busy."

"Nonsense. Mrs. O'Flaherty has a lovely daughter. Why don't I have her ask you to supper on Saturday night."

"I'm not so sure that's a good idea."

"They live at 27 Maple and you're to be there at 6:30 sharp."

"But-"

"Enjoy the evening."

10/9: Livvy O'Flaherty is a beautiful, red haired colleen. She is very nice and quite personable. I don't think she's any more interested in me than I am in her.

I don't know that I'm a confirmed bachelor but I have no idea how I'd fit a wife, let alone children into my life. Maybe as time goes by I'll change my mind.

All three of my assistants are bachelors as well. None of them seem to be in any hurry to change that.

Read something in the paper about blood being able to be sent from one person to another. But it seems like not just any blood. The wrong kind of blood can be very dangerous. It seems that the scientists or the doctors or whoever have found a way to take a little bit of a person's blood and tell what type it is and then match them up with someone who has the same type of blood. The wonders of the modern day!

That Bill Bailey song is still very popular. Whenever I go to a musical performance they seem to play it. I'm also hearing, "My Wild Irish Rose." Mrs. O'Brien hums it all the time, for one.

10/18: I'm really enjoying Fall in New England. It's a fairly quiet time. We have practice and study halls every day but there's very little travelling. At least one of us supervises every study hall. Boys will be boys and even though there are tutors if we're not there they tend to lose focus and engage in foolishness.

I'm thinking of starting three guards this season. We seem to be stronger and have more good players at guard. Now is the time to try things!

10/25: "Nice day for a little stroll, Mr. Last."

"I was just thinking the same, Mrs. O'Brien."

"Good, good! Young Siobhan O'Kelly is waiting for you to take her and her mother for a stroll. You can meet her at 2:00 at 21 Elm Street."

"But-"

10/26: Siobhan was lovely. She's never been to a basketball game but she asked some very interesting questions.

On our way we ran into Eddie Collins and his wife. The Bostons had a good year, finishing third. I don't really know Mr. Collins but he knew who I was and we chatted for a bit. Nice fellow.

10/27: "So, Mr. Last, young Siobhan was quite taken with you t'other day. And her mother says you were a real gentleman."

"I hope so, Mrs. O'Brien."

"I was thinking perhaps you could take them to the musical performance this Saturday evening at the grange hall."

"Now Mrs. O'Brien, I-"

"It's a fine group of musicians will be playing."

"Mrs. O'Brien, I-"

"Here are the tickets. Only a dime apiece. You can pay me back when you pay your rent."

This has got to stop.

10/30: It was a very good concert.

11/4: I had a long talk with Mrs. O'Brien. I tried to be as nice as I could but I felt I HAD to get the message across that I didn't want her setting up any more of these get togethers with eligible young women. She was very difficult to convince but in the end she agreed to stop. Let's hope!

11/13: Season starts tomorrow. We're going with the three guard set:

Senior Ken Hope is back at the point.

Soph Art Cary, a transfer from Kentucky, is at SG.

Junior Deon Jack is at SF.

First guard off the bench is soph Curt Chad. 2nd is frosh Ben Rich, and 3rd is frosh John Joon.

Junior Davy Hank will start at PF this season after doing some great work as a sub last year.

Max Fisk, a senior transfer from Jacksonville ST, is at C.

1st big off the bench is frosh Romu Krzy. 2nd is soph Fly York, a transfer from Michigan. 3rd is Ted Good, a soph transfer from Delaware ST. Next is soph Azra Sims, who was at Mississippi ST last season. Last is soph Jole King, who came to us from George Washington. We have a lot of experience inside.

[Wayne23]

11/14: We start the season at Bethune-Cookman way down in Daytona Beach. We got here yesterday and the weather is nice. We don't know much about them so we'll play it by ear.

11/15: Let's see what season 2 brings!

It's close. We take a lead midway through the 1sy half. 54-45 at the half.12, 4 for C Max Fisk, 11 for Davy Hank. +8 for the bench. But 2 starters have 3 fouls each. +16 in the paint. We continue to lead midway through the 2nd.

96-85 in a game that didn't see much D. 19, 8 for Fisk, 15, 3, 3 for Hank, 13 for SG Art Cary. 3 subs had 10 each and the bench had 38. +16 in the paint and a good start to our season!

11/17: A long train ride from Daytona Beach to San Antonio. Slept on the train twice and no chance to practice.

We're at Incoherent Word, 0-1. They scored only 48 in their debut and got 15 RBs.

11/18: They take an early lead and we catch up. 25-30 at the half. Neither team is shooting well. The difference is they have 4 threes and we have none. +10 in the paint. I'm going to max the D and maybe press more in the 2nd. We score the 1st 14 in the 2nd.

78-64. The ramped up D and the press made the difference.

19, 9 for sub C/F Romu Krzy. 10, 9, 4, 4 for Fisk. +30 in the paint, 8 fewer TOs.

11/20: Neither of my committed recruits signs. Doesn't mean a lot but now I need to wait until the end of January to find out.

2 more sleeps on the train and we arrive at the train station in Smithfield in the evening. No practice again today. I send the boys home to sleep.

They don't get out of study hall when we're travelling. We commandeer the dining car in off hours and we use a couple of rooms in the hotel where we're staying. They don't have their tutors on the road but the coaching staff does what we can.

[Wayne23]

11/21: Our first two games were completely different, one high scoring, the other low scoring.

2-0 Penn is here. They don't score many but they give up even fewer; tough defensive team so far. We think our guards and our bench are better.

It will be nice to play before the home folks!

11/22: We take a lead midway through the 1st. 51-27 at the half. Their D was supposed to be good but we certainly had no problems with it. 10 each for starting guards Cary and Hope. +9 for the bench. Fisk has 3 fouls. We get the lead to 20 with 10 to go.

88-68. Our crowd was great, cheering us on all the way.

19,8 for Krzy, who is going to get starter's minutes although I won't start him yet; that may come though. 13, 6, 4 for SG Art Cary, 11, 6 for Hank, 10, 2, 5 for Hope. +22 in the paint and only 9 TOs.

11/24: One more at home before a three game road trip. 1-2 George Mason is here. They're in Conf H so a pretty decent team. Their Sg and SF can light it up but they give up 9 1/2 more than they score.

This should be a good early season test.

11/25: They can play. It's back and forth. We open up a little lead late, then expand it. 36-30 at the half as they came back a bit. 12 for Krzy. Bench is +7. +7 RBs, +8 in the paint. I haven't maxed the D but we lead by 15 with 12 to go.

79-59. 21, 5, 3 for Krzy, 17, 5, 2, 3 for Fisk, 15, 9, 4 for Cary, 11, 11 for Hank. +10 for the bench. +18 RBs, +20 inside.

Unfortunately Krzy hurt his calf. Not serious but he'll miss at least one game, maybe two. Of course this injury happens just before a game with a ranked team.

It seems some Italian named Marconi managed to send sound waves through the air. Not sure what good that does but it is interesting.

Lots of people seem to think science shouldn't fool with nature. I disagree. I think learning benefits humanity. Life is better with electricity, the railroad, the telephone, for instance.

[Wayne23]

11/28: At 3-2 Florida ST from Conf B. We score more and give up about as many but they've played better teams. Without Krzy this will be tough; it would have been tough WITH him. They just dropped out of the Top 25.

11/29: They take the lead early. They got the lead to 10 and held it there throughout; 39-28 at halftime. 3 fouls for Jack. We can't seem to get it going.

72-85. 17, 5, 4 for Cary, 11, 10 for Fisk, 11, 6, 6 for Jack, 13, 7 for Hank. Their front line had 19 more than ours. They were the better team. Would Krzy have made a difference? Yes. Enough of a difference? We'll never know.

11/30: On the overnight train from Tallahassee to North Andover, MA, practically home, where we play 1-4 Merrimack. Krzy won't play much again tonight.

We should be able to beat this team without him.

12/2: We jump out to a quick lead and get it to 10 almost immediately. Then it's 20. 49-30 at the break. 19, 5 for SF Deon Jack. We're shooting 52.8%, 9-12 on threes. They make a run.

82-81 but that was due to a buzzer beating three by their SG. 24, 3, 7, 3 for Jack. 15, 3, 4 for Cary, 13, 4, 5 for Hope, 14, 6 for Hank.

Krzy is back.

Back on the overnight train to Baltimore.

We had a wonderful ham and bean supper but our sleeping car was NOT a pleasant place to be that night.

[Wayne23]

12/5: At 3-3 Coppin ST. They're a decent team. They do most of their scoring outside. Our bench may need to bring this one home for us.

12/6: We hold a slight lead but they're right with us. 40-36 at the half. 13, 5 for Fisk, 8 for Cary. We're shooting 53.8%. It's a battle. We get the lead to 10 with 12 to go. We're holding the double digit lead.

83-69. 19, 2, 4 for Cary, 12, 7 for Krzy, 11, 3, 4, 3 for Hope, 13, 5 for Fisk.

Terribly costly win. Davy Hank hurt his back and is out for 2 weeks, and much worse, Max Fisk fractured his wrist and is out until late January. We lost our starting front line in one game! Krzy will start at C, Fly York will start at PF. Ted Good is the 1st big off the bench and Ezra Sima is 2nd. Fortunately we picked up some good transfers and we're deep inside; all of the transfers were starters at their former schools.

The only break we get here is that we have a week between games for awhile and Hank will miss only 2 games, both at home.

[Wayne23]

12/12: NJIT, 3-5, is here. Naturally they are stronger inside than outside. Ordinarily we'd have no trouble with this team, but with 2 starters out? We'll see.

It's nice to be home for awhile. The train is convenient but when travelling long distance we don't get a chance to practice. We use a blackboard to diagram things when we talk strategy, but not being able to actually run the things is difficult. And yes, it is nice to be able to sleep in our own beds.

12/13: We start slow. They're beating us up inside but it's close overall. 45-39 as we score the last 6 points of the half. 13 for Cary. Krzy has 3 fouls and I let him have it; not sure how much he understood but he couldn't miss the tone! With a short bench we need our players to be more disciplined. This one is up for grabs. We get the lead to 10 with 9 to play. Then we get it to 20.

86-66. 23, 5, 3 for Cary, 12, 6, 8, 5 for Hope, 13, 6, 3 for York, 13, 4, 5 for Jack. 10 TOs to 20, +12 in the paint. Pretty good with 2 starters out!

The cold weather is here so my room at the boarding house is only for sleeping. Good thing I have heavy blankets. I also sleep in long Johns.

The hearty dishes Mrs. O'Shaughnessy cooks are delicious in all weather but they are really appreciated when it's cold.

I don't understand it but "In the Good Old Summertime," is being played everywhere again. It's not summery outside people!

[Wayne23]

12/19: 3-5 Hofstra is here. Conf H so a good team. They're good in the back court but we think we're better. Watch out for that PG though! They rebound poorly. Hank may play a few minutes tonight.

12/20: We open up a lead at about the 12 minute mark. We then get the lead to 20 very quickly. 54-27 at halftime. 11 for Hope and our back court is out playing theirs. Sub F Ted Good has 17, 3, 3, 4. +11 RBs and we're shooting 52.6%. This is an absolute slaughter.

90-58. 24, 8, 4, 5 for Good, 16, 2, 3 for Cary, 11, 9 for Krzy but foul trouble again, 11, 3, 6 for Hope. +12 RBs, 11 TOs.

Hank is back!

2 more before conf play starts. We're 8-1, NET #69.

[Wayne23]

12/26: At #13 Alabama, 10-1, Conf. B. Wish we were at full strength but thankful that we're only without one starter. They're a big favorite. They can do a great deal of damage outside. We need to stay out of foul trouble and our bench needs to play very well.

Another LONG train ride. It's actually hot down here, high 80s. I never liked the heat. Most of our people are loving it but I'm not.

And Southern food is awful- grease, fat, and salt.

12/27: They take the lead immediately and get it to 20 in no time. We're in a lot of trouble. 43-60. Ouch! We just can't stop them from scoring; they're shooting 65.8%. They're bigger than us and faster, too. Fly York has 10 from the bench and our starting guards both have 9. When we maxed the D we cut the deficit from 25 to 17 so let's see what the 2nd half brings. We're not making any headway midway through the 2nd.

79-103. We were in WAY over our heads. I tell the boys they did their best but we're just not ready for teams like Alabama and Florida ST. We'll give everybody else on our schedule a good fight.

19, 3 for Cary, 14, 4, 2, 4 for York.

Ezra Sims hurts his foot. He's day to day.

Off to Illinois, another very long train ride and no practice until the day before our next game.