2023: 3s and Put Backs

[Wayne23]

5/1: We’re in the Big Ten!

#33 recruit class but we also have a juco.

We met the required spending.

5/29: We lose 3 guys: Guard Pug Shor is a huge loss. He started last season and would have this season. Forward Aron Winn didn’t really figure in our plans. Pete Coop would have been our #3 guard.

We’re left with 2 good guards and a so so guard so we want 2 more if we can get them. That leaves us also hoping to get a big guy.

6/1: We scout and contact a bunch of guys. We don’t offer to anyone.

6/2: We offer to a PG, an SG, and a PF.

We get the SG and right now he’s our starter at that spot.

6/5: We offer to a PG and to the same PF we offered to last round.

We get the PF and he’ll start.

6/9: We offer to an SG.

We get him. He’ll be our #3 or #4 guard.

On to recruiting!

6/25: We’ll go to the Indy and all of the regional camps. We have the budget for it.

Mike Pugh is healing well. He could be back sometime in December the way it looks right now.

6/26: 4 scholarships. We want 3 big guys.

Paul Howe was not drafted. He’s going to the Celtics camp. I think he’ll do well enough there for them to sign him.

7/4: Good start to recruiting. It’s great to have all 3 assistants back.

7/11: Two one week camps starting today. We’re full up with high school and middle school kids, including about a dozen we’re trying to recruit.

7/17: We offer to a PG, 2 PFs, and a C. Two of them are from other countries.

7/31: Still recruiting hard.

The two weeks of campo went great. We got to know the kids who we’re recruiting, added a few to the list, and got to know some juniors, and one terrific looking sophomore.

8/7: No Norton candidates. If Pugh were healthy he might have made the list.

8/28: Still working those recruits. Students are on campus. We got to know our 7 new players over the summer as they were all here for both summer school and our kid camps.

9/11: We get the guard, #113, from Sweden. We lose a PF.

9/18: We get a PF, #233. Lose one.

We have a schedule: At the Hawaiian Shootout, which my guys are already excited about. Some challenges, especially at home.

9/25: We get the last 2, our #1, a C from England, #68, and another C, #203.

10/2: 1st day of practice. A lot of questions. Looks like Pugh will be back in early Nov. now.

[Wayne23]

11/13: Here’s the lineup: Junior Pat Ture is back at the Point. He did a great job for us last year.

We have a 3 way battle for SG. Junior Marc Toma, a transfer from Boston College will start, but about equal minutes will go to frosh Pat Site, who will also back up at SF, and soph Paz Lear, a transfer from Rutgers. Hopefully one of the three will step up and claim the position.

Senior Sam Call starts at SF. He was a sub last year.

Great news at PF! Soph Mick Pugh is at 100% and will start.

Senior Don Dent, a transfer from Texas, is in the middle.

We have two very solid subs inside, junior Brad Kitt, who started the last two seasons, but his excessive fouling put him on the bench this year, and senior Dan Holl, who worked his way into a starting spot last season and could do it again. Juco junior Sid Hart is next and he looks good. Finally there’s frosh Stu Boll, who can shoot the lights out but the rest of his game isn’t ready yet.

We start tomorrow with #18 Texas A & M here.

[jksander]

I'm enjoying keeping up with this one Interesting to see you guys jumping into the Big Ten so quickly ... how does your team prestige and funding stack up against the rest of the new conference? Will be interesting to see how you survive the intense Midwest recruiting wars now that your incoming classes are competing with the upper echelon of schools

[Wayne23]

I wanted more of a challenge so on May 1 I swapped my team with Northwestern to get into the Big 10. Will I be able to compete? We'll see...

[Wayne23]

11/14: Quick lead. Up 13 after 10. 60-50 at the half. Sloppy D let them back in. 16 for Sam Call, 12 for sub guard Paz Lear. Up only 6 with 10 to play.

101-82. A late run put them away. 21, 6 for Call, 15, 10 for Dent at C, 12, 8 for Pugh, 14, 1, 4 for Toma at SG, and 12 for Lear at SG. Ture had 9, 1, 8. Good inside play, good D, too many fouls,
as usual, but we play hard on D.

Off to Hawaii for the shootout. #1 seed. We face #8 Weber ST. They’ve got a very good SF.

11/18: Close early. Down 2 after 10. 40-46 at the half. The threes aren’t falling and too many fouls. Down 7 with 10 to play. Then we go on a run.

94-92. WAY too close. We were down 20 early in the 2nd. Only 14-45 on threes, Call fouled out, Ture had 4. 17, 10 for Pugh, 14, 9 for Dent, 14 for sub SG Pat Site.

#4 seed UC- Santa Barbara, 1-1, next. They have a very good C and they shoot the three.

11/15: Early lead. Up 6 after 10. Big run and it’s 51-33 at the half. 11 each for Pugh and Site. Up 16 with 10 left.

103-83. 17, 10 for Pugh, 15, 3, 7 for Ture, 19 for sub SG Paz Lear.

#7 seed South Dakota ST, 2-1, beat #2 and #3 to get to the final.

11/16: We score the first 10 points. Up 13 after 10. 60-35 at the break. 12, 5 for Pugh, 13 for Call, 10 assists for Ture. Up 21 with 10 left.

88-77 but it wasn’t that close. Tourney champs! 18, 8 for Pugh, 12, 12 for Dent, 8, 5, 15 for Ture, 15, 4 for Call, 12 for Site.

[Wayne23]

11/21: #21 Miami, 2-0, is here. We’re #15. They are really good at SG and SF.

We take a quick lead. Up 11 after 10. 45-29 at halftime. 15 for Toma, who now gets most of the minutes at SG. Up 15 with 10 left.

88-78. 26 for Toma, who outplayed their very good SG. 21, 6, 2, 3 for Call, 17, 13, 3 for Pugh. 13-42 on threes. We’re not hitting them as well this year as we did last. Losing Howe is a big factor in that.

11/24: At 2-1 Colorado ST. They have a good SG.

Close early and it’s fast paced, Down 2 after 10. We heat up late and it’s 54-36 at halftime. 11-25 on threes. 21 for Call. Up 23 with 10 left.

105-94. They never threatened us. 23, 3 for Call, 18, 6 for sub Paz Lear, 17, 7 for sub Dan Holl, 13, 5 for Toma, 11, 9 for Dent.

11/28: #2 ranked Dayton, 6-0, is here. This figures to be a real challenge. They’re very good outside and have a potential All American at PF.

It’s a battle! Up 3 after 10. We go on a BIG run! 62-37 at the break. 11 each for Call, Ture, and Toma. Very good bench play, +22. 16-29 on threes. Up 21 with 10 to go.

100-75. We rolled over the #2 team in the nation! 18, 3, 3 for Call, 19 for Toma, 13, 2, 12, 3 for Ture, 12 for sub guard Paz Lear.

“Spike Jones, AKR Sports, here with Rick Loes, head coach of the undefeated Akron Zips. Coach, you just crushed #2 Dayton. That has to feel good.”

“Yes it does, Spike. We were hitting on all cylinders tonight.”

“That crowd had to help.”

“We love our fans. Since I got here last season we’ve sold every ticket to every home game. We don’t have the biggest crowds but we might have the loudest!”

“How good IS your team?”

“Well, we’re good, but we won’t know how good until we get into Big 10 play and face tough opponents in nearly every game. That will tell the story.”

“And here at AKR Sports we’ll bring it to our fans every night. Thanks Coach."

[Wayne23]

12/1: 4-1 Nevada is here. They’re very good at SG and at C.

They’re hanging with us. Down 8 after 10. 52-54 at the half in a real shootout. Our top 3 guards have 2 fouls each. Call and Toma both scored 11. They’re shooting 66.7% and that has to change.

They’re beating us on the boards and that has to change, too. We take the lead quickly and go on a run. Up 7 with 10 to go.

106-92. We played a great 2nd half. 21-50 on threes for the night. 29, 4 for Call, 19 for Toma, 9, 1, 12 for Ture. +12 for the bench. We will need to spend practice time on our inside game. It was less than great tonight.

Dan Holl badly bruised his sternum. Out for 2 weeks. Brad Kitt will get his minutes.

12/5: #21 Seton Hall, 5-1, is here. We climbed to #5 in the latest poll. They have a solid outside game but they don’t rebound well.

They take an early lead. We’re not hitting shots. Down 5 after 10. 41-44 at halftime. 13, 7 for Call. Only 9-31 on threes and we’re not winning the battle in the paint. I re-emphasize everything we worked on in practice re our inside game, and do a little loud “motivating.”

We take the lead quickly. Up 11 with 10 to play. Then we go on a run.

100-74. We were really good in the 2nd, 59-30. 20-59 on threes. 31, 13 for Call, a great game! 15, 1, 9 for Ture, 13, 9 for Dent. Our inside game was a lot better in the 2nd.

12/12: 5-4 Butler is here. They’re having a down year. They have good inside players and their SG can shoot.
Holl is back.

Early lead. Up 16 after 10. 60-49 at the half. We led by as many as 24 but let them close the gap. I am NOT happy about that and the guys are hearing about it. 13, 2, 6 for Ture, 1, 3 for Call. But both Dent and Call have 3 fouls, Pugh and Toma have 2. Inside play is about even. They have taken 31 shots from the line to our 10. I emphasize playing with discipline... again. Up 14 with 10 to play. We get it to 20.

108-84. 18, 3, 9 for Ture, 17, 5 for Call, 13 for Toma but he fouled out. 12, 12 for Holl in his first game back. 12 for Lear. We dominated inside in the 2nd half. Only 7 TOs for the game.

[Wayne23]

12/19: #12 Villanova, 9-3, is here. They’re good at all 5 positions so we’ll need to play well. We’re 10-0 against good competition but we’ve somehow fallen to #9. I don’t get it.

Pat Ture is #2 in the nation in assists with 9.1.

We take an early lead. Up 6 after 10; they’re hanging in. 32-36 at halftime. We’re shooting only 31%, 5-28 on threes, and we’re getting beat inside. 3 starters have 2 fouls. 9, 6 for Pugh but no one else is doing much. We really need to step it up in the 2nd.

We take the lead but it’s close. Up 8 with 10 to go. We’re shooting better.

86-75 but we had to work for it. 16, 7 for Pugh, 15, 1, 7 for Ture. The inside battle was pretty much a draw. 7 TOs to their 15, which helped.

12/25: We end pre-conf. play at 11-0, #10, NET #1. We’ve beaten 5 ranked teams.

We have 6 players in double figures in scoring led by Sam Call with 18.5. 8.9 assists for Ture. 8.5 rebounds for Dent, 7.9 for Pugh.

#1 in PPG with 98.1, but 351 in PPG Allowed, 82.4 Still, that’s +15.7. Only +1.7 in RBs with 40.0, #8. An incredibly low 7.3 turnovers, #1 in the country, -8.2.

But the big test will come in the tough Big 10.

[Wayne23]

12/26: We start Big 10 play with 8-2 Indiana, here. They’re good defensively. Solid at C and SG.

They take an early lead. Down 5 after 10. 40-42. Ture has 3 fouls which is not good; he’s the key to our offense and a very good defender. 14 for Toma, 10, 9 for Pugh. We’re getting beat inside again.

Back and forth in the 2nd. Down 7 with 10 left; not good! Not gonna happen.

82-90. Tough intro to the Big 10, and at home. They shot 50% to our 34.6%, and they beat us inside. They took 18 more shots from the line. 19, 4, 6, 4 for Toma, 14, 10 for Pugh. We lost this one inside.

Sub forward Sid Hart hurt his hip. Out about a week but he doesn’t play much.

12/28: At 7-3, 0-1 Iowa. They’re good with the ball.

Close early. Up 4 after 10. 48-44 after a close 1st half. 20 and 6 for Call. We’re winning the inside war. A big run puts us up 16 with 10 to go. 108-86. Great 2nd half! 19, 13 for Pugh, 22, 7 for Call, 11,
13 for Dent. We dominated inside. Very good bench play by the back up guards, 28 points.

1/2/2024: #21 Purdue, 10-2, 2-0, is here. We’re #14. They play solid D.

Back and forth early. A run puts us up 12 after 10. 50-27. We took complete charge late in the half. 15, 3 for Toma, 9, 1, 4 for Lear. We’re playing good D but the inside battle is a toss up.

Up 20 with 10 left.

90-81 but we were never threatened. 18, 6, 3 for Toma. 4 others with 10 or more. Too many fouls, as usual and the inside battle was a slight loss.

[Wayne23]

1/4: At 8-4, 2-1 Minnesota. They’re strong inside.

Back and forth. Up 2 after 10. A late run puts us up 61-48 at the half. 15, 3 for Dent, 11 for Toma, good bench play. Good inside play. Our D could be better.

Up 13 with 10 to play. Close late.

101-98. Whew! We let them back in and they will hear about it at length during our next practice. Lousy D, 56.7%. 17, 5 for Dent, 17 for sub guard Pat Site, 16 for Toma, 14 assists for Ture. We didn’t play well inside in the 2nd half.

1/9: #20 Maryland, 12-2, 3-1, is here. They’re solid, especially outside. We’re #9.

A battle early. Up 5 after 10. 42-37 at halftime. 18, 3 for Call. We need more from our guards. Early run. Up 15 with 10 left. Another run puts them away.

98-65. 23, 6 for Call, 18, 6 for sub Brad Kitt, 16, 3, 3 for Toma. Very good D, 30.8%. We were very good inside.

Toma hurt his knee. It’s not serious but he’ll miss our next game. Paz Lear will start and Pat Site will be first guard off the bench.

1/11: #2 Michigan ST, 14-1, 3-0, is here. Their PF tore his ACL. They moved their SF to PF and he can really play.

We take a quick lead. Up 14 after 10. 53-41 at halftime. We led by 22 before they came back. 16 for Site, 11, 1, 4 for Lear so we’re getting a lot from SG with our starter out. Holding our own inside, barely. We shut down their PF in the 1st half. +13 for the bench.

They’re making a run at us. Up 10 with 10 to go as we come back.

105-95 but they got it to 4 twice. 22, 1, 6, 5 for Lear, 19, 10 for Call, 20 for Site, 17, 6, 3 for Kitt. 17 threes but they had 13. Big win against a very good team!