DDSCB 23: Small Town Boy

[Wayne23]

Small Town Boy

4/5/2023: “Hello.”

“Hello. Is this Will Wynn?”

“Speaking.”

“Hi Will. I’m Len Pye, Athletic Director at Boston University. How are you?”

“I’m fine. Are you scouting one of my players?”

“Actually, I’m scouting you.”

“I don’t understand.”

“If you can get up here to Boston in the next day or two I’d like to talk to you about the head coach position here.”

“… Really?”

“Really.”

The next day was a Friday. We made plans for me to drive up on Saturday.

On the drive up I thought about this terrific possible opportunity. As a soon to be 25 year old head coach and history teacher at the high school I had graduated from I’d done pretty darn well in three years.

The first year here we’d gone to the state quarter finals. During my second year we won the state title on a 35 foot buzzer beater, and this year we won it again, this time by 17 points in a game that wasn’t as close as the score shows. I had the chance to play everyone on the team and that narrowed the final score, but hey, all these kids could someday tell their grandchildren that they’d played on a state championship team. Considering we're a small town high school out in the boonies, that's pretty good!

In my own career I made all state honorable mention in my junior year of high school, and first team my senior year, playing out of position at Power Forward.

I went on to UConn where I played my natural position of Small Forward. In my senior year I made all conference as was second on the team in both scoring and RBs, and was considered the best defender on the team.,

All I have ever wanted to do for a job was to coach and my old high school gave me the job when I graduated from UConn.

I tried to anticipate what questions Len Pye might ask. On the phone it sure looked like he’d done his homework. He knew a lot about me and my team. I thought he’d definitely ask about recruiting since that’s a major part of college coaching, and of course it doesn’t exist on the high school level.

I thought I’d talk about how well I get along with both players and their families. I’d also ask if the #1 assistant at BU was staying. He was a good recruiter and if he was staying I would definitely learn from him.

We’d probably also talk about strategy and systems and whether I molded players into my system or adjusted to the talents of the players I have. Frankly, I do a little of both but mostly teach my system and I would recruit players who I thought could play it or quickly learn to do so.

I thought he’d probably also ask about my long term plans and I was ready for that question as well.

I got to BU on Saturday morning at just a little before 10:00 after a 90 minute drive.

Pye greeted me and started off by giving me a tour of the school and of the basketball facilities. The facilities were not great but they were adequate. BU is far from being a basketball power so it was about what I had expected. Then we went to his office to talk.

Len Pye was a football guy but he knew his hoops. He was clearly an easy going, nice guy, and the talk was friendly. I never felt pressured.
As expected he asked about recruiting. Turned out the #1 was staying so that worked out well and Pye seemed happy to hear me say I was willing to learn from the experienced recruiter.

“Now how about your long term plans?”

“To be honest I hope to be good enough to coach at a major basketball power eventually. Obviously, that won’t happen for awhile but that’s my goal.”

“Can I ask for at least a three year commitment if we hire you?”

“Sure. That’s only fair. If you give me my chance I should be willing to stay at least that long.”

The interview concluded at a little past noon and Pye took me to a local restaurant for lunch. We talked about Boston and its attractions but he was noncommittal regarding the job. Frankly I was kind of disappointed that the interview lasted only a half hour. I saw that as a bad sign.

We went back to his office.

“Will, if you’re interested I’d like to recommend that the Athletic Board hire you on a three year contract.”

“I’m very interested but I feel like I need to give a two week notice at the high school.”

“Actually, we can’t start paying you until May 1, so that works out. You aren’t officially hired until the Board meets on Monday at 7:00, but I can’t imagine they’d go against my recommendation. I’ll call you right after the meeting and if they agree we’ll bring you up here to sign a contract.”

“That’s great! If I get the job I’ll want to meet with whichever assistants are staying on, and maybe with as many of the players as I can before I officially start. I’ll also need to look for housing.”

“You live alone, right.”

“That’s right.”

“I could set you up with an on campus grad student apartment. I say on campus but it’s really across the street from the school, about a ten minute walk from your office. Two bedrooms. Everybody else there is a doc student so it should be quiet.”

“Even better. I love the idea of being able to walk to work.”

4/9/2023: “Hello.”

“Hello Coach Wynn. Congratulations!”

“Wow! I’m really excited!”

“Actually, I had a little opposition from a few Board members. Three of them voted no because they thought you were too young and inexperienced. But the other six were on our side. Your job is to win over those three.”

“I hope to do so! Could I ask that you wait until about 9:00 a.m. to announce this to the press? I’d like to let my Principal and Superintendent hear it from me.”

“Actually, I have a 7:00 p.m. press conference tomorrow. I set it at that time hoping you could be here so I could introduce you to the press and let you make a short statement and answer a few questions.”

“Sounds great.”

4/10: Len introduced me. I spoke briefly about how happy I was to be the new coach at Bu, and how I hoped to turn the program around.

“Coach, you’re a kid with 3 years experience, all at the high school level. How are you going to turn around a program that won 9 games 2 years ago, 8 games last year, and 7 thius year. Seems like a tall order.”
“I believe in positives. We’re going to emphasize what we do well as individuals and more importantly as a team, and we’ll move forward from there.”
“This team didn’t do much well.”
“Frankly, the program’s greatest strength over the past few years has been recruiting and its greatest weakness has been developing talent. We plan to continue to recruit well and my recruiting assistant Brad King is very, very good at that. I feel like I’ve been good at talent development in the past and I intend and expect to continue to be. Again, we’ll work on positives. I’m not a yeller. I will, of course, correct kids when they make mistakes, but I’ll do it in a positive manner. If you yell at kids regularly they become tentative, too afraid to make mistakes. As a result they don’t play their best ball.”

The Boston sports press has always been tough and they were tough on me, but we got through it, and I didn’t let them intimidate me.

I drove home, getting there at about 10:30. I still had papers to correct so I didn’t get a lot of sleep. The next day my students made it clear that they would miss me. Faculty was really supportive as well.

Over the next week and a half I split my time between home and Boston. My apartment was available so I slowly started moving things in.

4/24: Moving day. My last day at school was yesterday and as of today I will be living in Boston. That will make my life a lot easier.

I’ve already met with my staff twice, and I’ve met individually with all of my players and recruits.

The returning players seemed relieved and happy when I made it clear that I would be teacher not a yeller. Watching video of their games from the just ended season it was clear that my predecessor yelled at the players constantly, and pulled them out of the game for every mistake. As a result they played very tentative ball. Nobody took chances and they were flat most of the time.

It would take a couple weeks of practice, still a long way off, before they got comfortable with my style. I WANT mistakes to happen because if they don’t happen the kids aren’t playing their best and hardest ball. We’ll fix mistakes as we go along.

My plan for the next few weeks is to get to know my staff and players better and to teach my staff my approach and my system.

[PointGuard]

There was a major league baseball pitcher named Early Wynn...great name for a pitcher...and he was a good pitcher. So I will expect the same from Will Wynn. IF he's good enough he can apply for a name change to Always Wynns.

Good to see you back on the boards and with a new dynasty thread.

[Wayne23]

Early Wynn won 300 games, I believe.

[Wayne23]

6/26: Recruiting starts today. Brad and I are ready!

We have 5 scholarships to fill. We’ll go with 2 bigs and 3 guards or vice versa. We’ll look at and talk with a LOT of kids along the way.

I talked a bit about being a small town boy. Believe me, that’s what I am. The high school I attended has fewer than 500 students and the town I grew up in had about 1000 residents. Living in the city is a big change. I like the convenience of having so many things right nearby but I don’t like the noise and the crowds. Still, my apartment is on a quiet street so that works out well.

I’ve been to a couple of Red Sox games and that’s always fun even though they aren’t playing very well this season. I’m sure I’ll see some Pats, Celtics, and Bruins games, too, eventually.

7/11: We’re high on a few recruits, especially Kal Wane and Ger Phil. Bri Simm is in-state and we think we have a really good chance of landing him, too.

7/25: Lots of recruits showing interest.

7/31: We offer to 5, 3 forwards, 2 guards. They all have us high on their lists. Fingers crossed!

8/14: Still recruiting hard, with those we’ve offered to and some we haven’t.

8/28: Students are back on campus, including my players. I encourage them to drop by the office when they have free time. It is vital to establish great relationships with all of them.

9/1: Classes have begun and so have study halls, 5 nights a week, 2 hours a session, with tutors and at least one coach in attendance. BU has high academic standards and we want to be sure we keep our players eligible.

The academic standards impact recruiting heavily, as well. We can only go after guys who can hit our 980 SAT score.

9/11: We lose 2 recruits, offer to 2 others. All part of the process. We get to visit 4 recruits which can have a huge impact.

9/18: We get 3, lose 2. We get our #1, Kal Wane, PF and #107 overall. Bri Simm, our #2, is an SF, #128. Ger Phil is a PG, #190.

Len Pye has put our schedule together. I wanted some early season cupcakes to build confidence. I got them, plus a lot of home games. I’m happy with the schedule.

We’re also starting with the Coaches Classic. Not sure we’re ready for that but we’ll try to be.

9/25: We get our last 2 recruits, PG Mike Hamm, #207, and SG Ken Wamp, #310, but we think he’s better than that. I couldn’t be happier with this group.

10/2: First day of practice. The guys didn’t quite trust that I wasn’t a yeller and they were a little tentative. But as practice continued I saw some progress in that regard, We did the usual drills and scrimmage. I am optimistic and I see some definite positive signs. Looks like my best player is SG Wade Lane. We’re adequate to good everywhere else except maybe a little weak at the Point, which is NOT good. We have three guys who can play there. Hopefully one of them will show us what we need to see.

[Wayne23]

10/30: Still not set at PG. We’re down to 2 candidates. We’ll start the season by giving them both minutes and then see who steps up.

We’re picked to win the Patriot Conference, which is a surprise. Bucknell, Army, and Lafayette seem to be our strongest conference opponents.

11/12: We start tomorrow at the Coaches Classic vs. #2 seed Kona. We’re #15. It will be a struggle no doubt.

Our lineup is as follows: Senior Tim Sons starts at the Point but soph Jon Tago will get almost equal time there and will back up at SG.

Senior Wade Lane starts at SG. He’s our player.

Junior Mike Smit is our other guard. He could get minutes as the season progresses.

Junior Nate Garr is at SF. He’s a good defender and he can score.

Senior Del Phil is at PF and backs up at C. He’s a solid rebounder.

Frosh Dave Plek is in the middle and he is also a good rebounder.

#1 big guy off the bench is senior John Murl, another rebounder. Soph Ly Curk is another glass eater. Junior Jeff Stan probably will struggle to get minutes.

[Wayne23]

11/13: Didn’t sleep a wink last night. Pretty excited.

Slow start as both teams are a little tentative, trying to find a rhythm. We take a 5 point lead. Up 43-39 at the half. Lane, Sons, Pick, and Phil are all scoring, and we are winning the inside battle.

Up by 7 with 10 to play. We’re still doing a lot of damage inside. We get the lead to 10 with 4:03 to go.

90-80 and we win our first game in a huge upset!

16, 6, 3 for Lane, 14, 12 for Phil, 13, 6 for Pick, and 12 for Sons. +10 on the boards. We went to the line 47 times to their 20, and that was the difference.

Jon Tago probably played better at PG than Sons did in about equal time.

During the game the staff used positives with the players while correcting errors. SF Nate Garr got in foul trouble and stayed there. We calmly tried to instruct him but he guarded their best player who got 30 against him. Our bench outscored their by 16. A great start to the season.

Post game press conference, excerpts: “Coach Wynn, you guys won 7 games for the whole season last year and you just knocked off the #2 seed in the tourney. How does that happen?”

“The power of positives. We thought we had some talent on this team and we definitely thought a positive approach would bring it out. We worked that way right from the first practice a month and a half ago. Throughout that six week period we saw slow, steady improvement. By the time tonight rolled around we thought we had a pretty good team. Tonight proved it.”

“We expected a big game from Lane. Were you surprised at the help he got from some of the other players?”

“Not really surprised, but very pleased. We have a team with a lot of weapons.”

“Your inside game was key. Do you agree?”

“We will sink or swim by our inside game. Tonight we swam. They controlled the boards, scored, and defended well. I couldn’t have asked for any more from my big guys.”

It’s #7 seed Belmont in the quarter finals. We think we’re better but their PG looked very good in the opener, as did their SG. We’ll need our inside game to dominate.

11/15: It’s close early. Down 2 after 10. Sub John Murl is playing well.

36-32 at the half. It’s close. The refs are calling it cose and both teams have guys in foul trouble. Garr has 3 for us, but again, he’s guarding the big scorer.

They tie it early, then go out to a 5 point lead. Down 3 with 10 to go.

68-68 at the buzzer and we’re in OT.

We score the first 7 in OT on a three by Lane and two lay ups by Phil. We get the lead to 14.

82-73 and another win! Del Phil led us with 16 and 12. 17, 8, 5 blocks for Pick. 15, 2, 5 for Sons, but 4 TOs (He had 5 in the opener). Very good bench play again, 11, 11, 3 for Murl, 6 for Tago and a good defensive game. Lane was held to 8, 5, and 3. His shot wasn’t dropping.

#11 seed Tulsa upset both #6 and then #3 to get to the semis. They’re very good outside and they play good D. We’ll try to play the game inside where we feel we have the edge.

11/17: Fast start for both teams as the shots are dropping. We’re trying to tighten up the D but this is a shootout early on. We go on a run. Up 11 with 10 left in the half. All 5 starters are hitting shots.

56-41 at halftime. Pick has 3 fouls. No one else has more than one.

Tulsa starts the 2nd on a 15-2 run. Then they take the lead. Down 6 with 10 to go. We go on a 9-1 run to retake the lead. It’s close late. Up by 3 with 1:07 to play.

93-88 and we’re in the title game! 19, 4, 5 for Garr. First time he has not been in foul trouble and he showed us some game. 16, 7 for Pick in only 15 minutes before fouling out. 13, 9 for phil. 15, 4, 4 for Lane. Murl had another good game from the bench. Our starting big guys scored 20 more than theirs. Our bench was outplayed for the first time.

Their not much time to fix things and make adjustments when you play every other day but we’re doing what we can and taking notes on what to work on in practice after the tourney ends.

It’s #1 seed, #3 ranked Villanova for the title. We may be in over our heads in this one but what a ride this tournament has been, however we do in the title game. Their PG has a calf injury. We’re not sure how serious it is. They play excellent D, probably the best we’ll see all season. We’ll need to try to find ways to beat that. On paper we’re in trouble but I’m telling my guys to go out there and give it their best shot.

11/19: Villanova starts strong and is up 7 after 5 minutes. Down 9 after 10. They’re beating us inside which is a BIG problem for us.

33-46 at the half. Both Pick and Garr have 3 fouls, Murl has 2. Phil is leading us with 11 but this is one tough team, especially inside.

They stretch the lead to 21 with 8:53 left. I call a time out to calm my guys down. It seems to help. We narrow the gap to 12 with 5 to play.

73-87. They were simply the better team. No shame in losing to them. 21, 9, 4 blocks for Phil, 15, 5 for Garr. Lane’s shot has been more off than on so far but he had 10 points. They were +30 in the paint and forced 21 TOs.

Post game press conference, excerpts: “Coach, I’m guessing you’re pretty happy with your team’s performance in this tourney.”

“Yes I am! We were outgunned in the title game but we never quit. In the first three games we played outstanding ball. This is looking like it will be a fun season.”

“You played four tough games. Any injuries?”

“Just bumps and bruises. We fly out in the morning. I’m going to give the guys a day off to rest and heal and then we’ll work on things in practice for the next couple of days before our next game.”

“What do you need to work on?”

“Playing good D without fouling, but that’s something every team needs to work on. Crisp passing. Moving without the ball.”

“Coach, you played the two toughest teams on your schedule in this tourney. You really don’t have any especially tough opponents for the rest of the regular season. Any predictions?”

“Nope. We’ll take it one game at a time. My goal for the season is to finish above .500 and to do all we can to win our conference but we’ll see what happens. I certainly like what I’ve seen so far.”

Wade Lane came up to me during the flight home:

“Coach, I’m not hitting my shots. Do you want me to shoot less and pass more?”

“Absolutely not! You’re a shooter. Your shots will hit. Believe in your self and take the shot whenever you’re open. I have all the confidence in the world in you and we need you to score.”

“I feel bad.”

“Get that out of your head. You’re going to be fine. I have no doubt. And there’s no pressure. We have other guys when you’re not hitting shots. Keep shooting and trust that the other guys will get us points. When the season’s over I’m sure you’ll be our leading scorer.”

PF Del Phil is leading us with points with 16.0, and in RBs, with 10.5. Center Dave Pick has 13.5 and 5.8. All 5 starters are in double figures. Murl is getting 8 and 8. I’m giving Sons more minutes at PG. He’s doing well.

[Wayne23]

11/20: For the first time in program history we’re ranked! #20. Unbelievable!

11/22: We’re at 0-2 Incoherent Word in our next game. This is a team we should beat but the road can be tough. We have a big edge inside and we score 15 more a game.

The day off seemed to help our guys. They looked good in practice and they are definitely in an upbeat mood. I am, too. We’ve already exceeded all expectations.

11/23: We start fast and build a 10 point lead early. Then we fade. Up 4 after 10. We can’t seem to wake up.

36-40 at the half.

“Okay guys. We’re better than this. Move without the ball on O and stay with your man on D. Come on. Let’s play our game!”

Back and forth early in the second. Lead changes on almost every possession. Tied with 10 to play. Sons hit s three to tie it with 1.4 seconds left. They get it to halfcourt, take a desperation shot and
it goes in at the buzzer.

80-83. Frustrating loss. 18, 6 for Garr, 14, 5 for Pick. The three other starters each had 11.

Lane shot 5-15 so his shot is still not dropping as it should.

Post game press conference, excerpts: “Coach, after playing so well in the Coaches Classic it was like this was a whole different team tonigh. What happened?”

“… No team is on every night. Sometimes it’s just not working. Tonight not much went well. The only thing I liked was the fact that we never quit. We got beat on a lucky shot but we shouldn’t have been in that position against this team. It’s a long season. We’ll have our ups and downs.”

We finally play at home in our next game against 1-2 Western Illinois. They have a good point Guard and a deep bench but they give up 10 more than they score and they don’t rebound very well. If we play well we should win this one.

11/26: They score the first 6 and I call a time out. I wake the guys up and we go on a 19-3 run. Up 10 after 10. 37-30 at the half.

“Too many fouls, guys. Other than that everything looks good. Good work inside.

We quickly get the lead to a dozen. Up 15 with 10 to go.

81-57. 17, 6 for Nate Garr, 14, 1, 5, 3 for Sons, 14, 6 for Murl, and 12 for Lane, who shot 5-10, which is much better. I tell him to take more shots though. +15 RBs, +20 in the paint.

Good crowd in our home opener. It wasn’t a sellout but we had a little over 1,500 in attendance, which is the most for one of our games in a few years. If we keep winning we’ll sell out.

We drop out of the Top 25, as expected.

11/28: I have a long talk with Lane after practice. He still isn’t showing me the confidence I’d like to see and I try to build him up.

1-3 NC-Wilmington is here next. They give up 13 more than they score and we should have a big edge inside.

11/30: Slow start and too many fouls. Pick gets 2 fouls in 3 minutes and will sit for the rest of the half. Down 11 after 10. We go on a 9-2 run.

41-42 at halftime. Balanced scoring and good play in the paint.

“Okay, nice comeback. You have them on the run. Come out fast and we’ll put them away,

And we do come out fast, building a 15 point lead early. Up 14 with 10 left.

90-73. 16, 3, 3, 5 steals for Lane who shoots well and goes 8-10 from the line. 14, 8 for Phil. Murl played well from the bench again.

We need one more good guard. We have 3 guards coming in next year and we think 2 of them will be able to help us right from the start.

Our next 2 are away, then 4 at home.

At 3-3 Delaware ST. They are 2-0 at home. As always, we need to control the paint.

12/3: We jump out to an early lead. Up 9 after 10. We’re owning the inside.

37-23 at the break, but both Garr and Pick have 3 fouls.

“Okay, we need to watch the fouls. Sometimes you get beat on a play. It doesn’t help if you foul the guy in that situation; just let him score and get him next time. You can’t help us if I have to sit you because you’re in foul trouble."

We hold the lead early and build it to 18 with 10 to play.

78-58. A solid road win! 11, 7, 3, 3, 3 for Lane, 11, 10, 3, 3 for Phil, 18 for Pick but 4 fouls.

Wade Lane was disappointed in his game.

“You did it all, Wade.”

“Yeah, but I shot 4-16.”

“I don’t care! Keep shooting. You had the best +/- on the team. Stop thinking about your shot and just shoot.”

We’re 6-2, WAY better than BU has looked for years. Our Net Rank is #43. That’s probably a little inflated but I’ll take it.

Our scoring is balanced with all 5 starters getting 11 or more and sub John Murl adds 7.5 with 7.8 RBs, 2nd best on the team on the boards. Del Phil leads us in points and RBs with 13.3 and 10.4.

“Coach, are you concerned that 4 of your top 6 players are seniors?”

“Not very. College basketball has become a one year at a time game. We’ve got some good kids coming in. If we don’t get hurt by transfers we’ll be fine next year, but frankly, I’m not thinking a lot about that. Let’s do our best this year.”

[Wayne23]

12/6: At 3-4 Coppin ST. They have a good outside game but I don’t think they can match us inside.

12/7: We start fast again and build a 10 point lead early.

51-36 at the half. Tim Sons is on fire, 17 points! Pick is in foul trouble yet again but we own the paint.

We get the lead to 28 early in the 2nd. Up 21 with 10 to play.

98-81. 252, 7, with only 1 TO for Sons. 18, 8, 5, 5 for Lane, 20, 4, 4 for Garr. +28 in the paint, +13 on 2nd chances.

It’s December 7 and we’ve matched our win total from last season!

I talk with Dave Pick on the plane ride home. We’re working every day in practice to get him to be more in control on D. He’s only a freshman and it shows. He’s in foul trouble just about every game. As always we’re taking a positive approach and teaching rather than being critical. My staff are all on board with this approach and no one is doing any yelling or interacting with players in a negative manner.

Home sweet home for 4 in a row, starting with 1-4 East Tennessee ST. The stat sheet gives us a wide edge across the board in this one, but we still need to stay focused and play well.

12/10: Once again we jump out to a big early lead, up 15 after 10.

48-27 at the break. Lane is hot, 13 points. Pick has only 1 foul but Garr has 3. Murl picks up for him, playing solid ball.

We build the lead to 30 early, and we’re up 33 with 10 to play.

96-67. We didn’t do much wrong tonight! 20, 5, 2, 4 for Lane, 14, 7, 3 for Pick, 12, 10, 3 for Phil. Back up guard Jon Tago had 12 with 8 assists, and Murl has his usual really good game.

Not many empty seats tonight but not a sellout.

It’s 2-4 Appalachian ST next. They’ve played a strong schedule and they’re better than their record indicates. We’ve tried to impress that upon our guys.

12/14: Slow start and we’re down by 5 early. These guys are tough. Down 3 after 10.

36-31 at the half. Sons and Lane are playing well.

Up 13 after 10 as we take control.

87-77 after a high scoring second half. 21, 3, 3 for Sons, 14, 5, 3, 4 for Lane, 13, 11 for Phil. We beat them both inside and outside.

[Wayne23]

12/16: 4-4 Iona is here. These guys have some players, especially the forwards.

12/17: Fast start and we’re up by 5 early. Up by 8 after 10.

44-35 at halftime. Garr has 17 points. We have 3 guys in mild foul trouble and I talk about discipline on D at the half. We are killing them inside.

We quickly get the lead to 20. Up 22 with 10 to play. I’ll empty the bench early.

89-69. 26, 6, 3, 3 for Garr, 12, 8, 3, 3, 3 for Phil. +24 in the paint.

Our 10th win. The first time in 6 years that BU has won 10 games.

Haven’t talked much about myself but there isn’t much to tell. I spend just about every waking hour working. The woman taking care of my cat, Russell, is doing a great job and she seems to enjoy it. She’s a big help.

Women’s coach Sal Blake is having a great season, only one loss so far. We are having no issues regarding sharing space and we’ve become friendly. We drop into each other’s practices occasionally and give each other our views. She is very insightful. I hope I’m helping her and she’s definitely helping me.

12/20: Akron, 4-5, is here tomorrow. They’re a good team. We’re better inside and we’ll need to make that work for us.

12/21: We start slow again and trail by 5 early. Then we bounce back. Tied after 10.

46-39 at the break. We’re dominating inside but Pick is in foul trouble with 3. Murl is playing well in his place.

We go on a run to start the 2nd half and lead by 25 with 10 to go.

84-66. 17 for Pick but he fouled out in only 15 minutes. Murl had 14 and 12 from the bench. +18 in the paint.

We close out pre-conf. play at Kennesaw ST, 4-6. This is a team we should beat but the road can be tough.

12/28: Back and forth early. Up 3 after 10.

37-38 at the break. We’re not doing what we need to do inside.

Down 5 early in the 2nd. Down 11 with 10 to go. We’re just not playing our game.

73-84. Not a good night. 21 for Garr, 15, 5 for Lane, 10, 8 for Murl, but Phil fouled out, and Pick, Sons, and Murl were in foule trouble all through the 2nd half. When we don’t win the inside game we’re in trouble and that was the story tonight, +1 RB, -4 in the paint.

We finish pre-conference play at 11-3, which is terrific. Garr leads us in scoring with 14.1. All 5 starters get at least 11.2. Phil leads in RBs with 9.1 and 6th man Murl gets 7.3 RBs. Sons gets 4.9 assists.

+10.8 PPG, +6.9 RBs, -2.1 TOs but 13.4 are too many.

[Wayne23]

1/3/2024: We start Patriot League play with Holy Crock, 5-6, here. We feel like if we get our inside game back on track we’ll be fine but the conference looks strong this year.

1/4: We score the first 7, then it’s back and forth. Up 11 after 10.

43-35 at halftime. We’re committing too many fouls, but +7 on the boards.

We start the 2nd with an 11-0 run and cruise. Up 20 with 10 to go.

80-65. 18, 6, 3, 3 for Lane, 13, 7 for Garr, 8, 12 for Phil. +12 RBs. No one fouled out but 3 guys ended up with 4 each. We keep working on this but it doesn’t seem like we’re making a lot of progress.

Post game press conference, excerpts: “Coach, it’s good to start conference play with a win, right.”

“That’s for sure. Lane was 8-12 from the floor, which is a very good sign. I liked the way we played inside. We’re still working on some things but I think we’re in a good place.”

“Despite the loss in your last game?”

“We’ve only lost 3 so far. I’m never going to be happy with a loss but we learned some things from it and we bounced back strong.”

At 7-5 Army next. This is a good team. They score outside and have a very good Center. This looks to be one of our toughest road games.

1/7: Close early. It stays close. Down 1 after 10.

45-44 at the half. LOTS of lead changes. Pick is in foul trouble. He’s in over his head with their Center. Murl is in foul trouble as well, which makes it tough for us.

It stays close in the 2nd. Down 2 with 10 to go.

87-87 and OT. Pick fouled out in the last minute and Murl has 4.

101-101 at the end of the first OT.

They go on an 8-0 run to start the 2nd and win it 116-110. Hell of a game! 23, 7, 6 for Lane, 13, 13 for Phil, 16, 7 for #3 guard Tago, his best game of the season, 17, 5, 4, 3 for Garr. Their C had 28 and 11; one tough player! We were +15 in RBs but -8 in the paint. We gave up 13 threes.

Back home with 2-11 Lehigh next. They give up 8 ½ more than they score.

1/11: Slow start and we are down by 7 after 10. Then we get it together and go on a 14-2 run.

40-31 at the half. Pick is in foul trouble again.

Back and forth in the 2nd. Up 7 with 10 to play. It stays back and forth and they don’t get closer than 4.

81-73, closer than expected but we were in control throughout the 2nd. 18, 5, 3 for Garr, 16, 7 for Murl, 10, 12, for Phil, 14, 3 for Lane. +19 RBs, +17 on 2nd chances. Pick fouled out again. I’m reducing his minutes and giving them to Murl.

Our first sold out home game of the season and first in many years here.

At 6-9, 2-1 Bucknell next. They have very good forwards and they’re tough at home.

1/14: A battle early. Up 1 after 10.

37-32 at the break. Lane has a hot hand, 17 points.

Lots of lead changes early. Up by 4 with 10 to play in a real struggle.

84-81. They missed a three at the end. 25, 5, 2, 4 for Lane, 17, 9, 3 for Phil. Good bench play, 13, 0, 3 for Tago, 10, 5 for Murl.

3-1 after 4 conf. games. In a 4 way tie for the lead but it’s very early.

Just to give you a little info about me, I start my day at 5:30. No need to set an alarm, Russell wakes me at that time every day. I feed him and go for a run, usually about 45 minutes. If the ground is slippery or if the weather is really bad I run on the treadmill at the gym, otherwise it’s outside. Then I come home, have breakfast, shower and shave, and head for the office.
I work until lunchtime and have lunch at the school cafeteria almost every day, usually with one or more of my assistants, or with Len Pye, sometimes with Sal.

After lunch I usually take a quick nap in the recliner in my office and then work until dinner time when it’s back to the cafeteria. I don’t cook. I can cook, and I don’t mind doing it, but I don’t want to spend the time most days.

After dinner I work until at least 8:00, then head home and watch a game or two, or watch videos of opponents’ games, sometimes until midnight or later. That’s why I need that nap!