DDSCB23: Alone

[Wayne23]

5/1: #4 preseason. #5 recruiting class.

5/29: We lose a big guy who wouldn’t have played. 2 open roster spots. We want 2 bigs or 1 and 1. We offer to a PF.

6/2: We get the PF and he’ll start.

We offer to another PF.

6/5: We get him.

6/25: We’ll go to the usual camps.

6/26: 4 scholarships. We want 1 guard and 3 bigs.

The kids don’t go to full day school in the “summer” but there are lots of learning opportunities available to them and nearly all of the kids take advantage.

Matt Baly goes at #16, Wes Ando #30.

7/11: Recruiting is going well.

7/31: We offer to a PG, a PF, and 2 Cs.

8/7: Troy Gray is #13 on the Norton list and Jem Moye is #43.

I have 2 kids who want to build their own ship to go exploring in space. Hm…

9/2: School is back in. I asked the kids who want to build a rocket to start working on the design.

9/11: We lose a PF. He was our #1. We offer to another very good PF. Long shot.

9/18: We get 2, lose 2, We get a PG, #33, and a CF, #49.

Going to the Paradise Invitational. Tough schedule.

9/25: We lose a big man.

10/2: Got a C, #49. Lost one. Still trying to get one more big man.

1st day of practice. We’re going to be good. Not sure how good.

10/9: We lose yet another big man.

10/30: We finally get the last recruit, a C, #86.

11/14: The season starts tomorrow with #11 UCLA here.

Here’s the lineup:

Junior Josh Grow moves from SG to PG, his natural position. He’s looked good in practice.

Frosh Jay Pebb is at SG. His D could be better but he looks like a good one.

#3 guard is soph Kea Toms. His issue is D as well, if it were better he’d start. Next is soph Nate Joon, who is a pretty good defender. Then it’s frosh Jon Reed, a very good scorer and passer. Finally it’s soph Mano Rami, who has been disappointing.

Senior Troy Gray is back at SF. He can play!

Soph Jem Moye started for Xavier last year. He does a lot of things well.

Senior Jed Mile is back in the middle. He’s a terrific defender and a very good rebounder.

1st big man off the bench is senior Cory Feld and he’ll get about equal time with the starters. Junior Cris Wren started for Iowa last season and we’ll try to find him minutes.

The two students who want to build a rocket ship to explore space presented me with their first set of complete plans. I handed it over to the robot who knows the most about this stuff. Let’s see what it thinks.

[Wayne23]

11/15: 87-61. Up 20 at halftime then we held them to 19 in the 2nd half. 23, 11 for Jem Moye, 21, 7 for Cory Feld, 15, 6, 6 for Jed Mile. Total control inside.

Off to the Paradise Invitational. We’re the #3 seed. We play #6 seed Utah.

11/18: 84-57. Up 16 at the half. 23, 7 for Mile, 16, 5 for Cris Wren, 13, 1, 5 for Toms. We owned the paint.

#2 seed Providence, 2-0, in the semifinals.

11/19: 93-61. Up 13 at the break. 17, 2, 4 for SG Jay Pebb, 10, 14 for Mile, 15, 4 for Moye, 14, 3, 2, 3 for Toms. We beat them both inside and outside.

Moye hurt his wrist but he’ll play.

#5 seed, #17 ranked Missouri, 3-0, in the title game.

11/20: 92-67. We romped through this tournament. Up 19 at halftime. 18, 9, 3 for Gray, 17, 6 for Wren. Big edge inside.

Tough win. Starting C Jed Mile broke his ankle. Out for at least a month.

We’re 4-0, #3, Net #19.

[Wayne23]

11/22: 79-64 over #20 Purdue here. 56-19 at the half! 30, 18 for Moye, 13, 10, 5, 3 for Gray, 16, 7, 3 for Feld, 15 for Grow. Big edge inside.

11/25: 92-70 over #12 Texas at Storrs. They led by 11 early. We came back to lead by 4 at the half. Then we took over in the 2nd. 17, 10, 6, 3 blocks for Moye, 19, 11 for Feld, 16,
11, 2, 5 for Gray. Huge edge in the paint.

11/29: 83-80 at Kona. We never trailed but it got close late. Up 10 at the half. They hit a three at the end to account for the final margin. 23, 6 for Feld, 16, 4 for Grow. +20 in the lane.

12/2: 108-89 at Temple. Lousy D. Up only 2 at halftime but we took over in the 2nd. 18, 13, 5 blocks for Gray, 19, 4, 5 for Grow, 24, 5 for Wren, 15, 7 for Moye, 15, 3, 6 for Toms.

8-0, #2, NET #1.

[Wayne23]

12/6: 90-80 over #13 Xavier here. Down 2 after a hard fought first half. We didn’t take control until very late. 19, 7, 2, 3 for Moye, 20, 8 for Feld, 13, 1, 5, 3 for Grow. +28 in the paint.

12/10: The kids are 6 today. 2 are designing a rocket ship, making the corrections the robot suggested. 2 others are designing a building to join our 2 main buildings. There are some features that neither present building has. 3 are designing some really complex text based computer games. 1 is continuing with her poetry. Several others are involved in projects.

I have to say that the kids are far more interesting than I had anticipated, and I am spending a lot of time with them.

12/13: Mile is back.

60-76 at Maryland. They’re not even ranked. We couldn’t get anything going on O. 33.8%. Our D was adequate but you need to make shots. Their guards killed us.

12/20: 93-76 over Kentucky here. The O is back. Up 16 at the half. 15, 2, 6, 4 for Pebb, 18,7 for Moye, 16, 7 for Gray. +22 in the paint.

At the end of pre-conf play we’re 10-1. The loss to Maryland drops us all the way to #9. #2 NET.

+16.4 PPG, #1 in scoring. We’re also first in steals. +6.6 RBs, +6.9 steals. -9.4 turnovers which is pretty amazing. We average 9.4.

16.8, 7.9 for Moye, 12.6, 6.0 for Feld, 12.3, 6.7 for Mile, 10.6, 10.1 for Gray.

[Wayne23]

12/26: 78-54 over Clemson here. 40-25 at the half. 20, 7 for Moye, 13, 6 for Feld. +24 RBs. Solid inside play. We only shot 34.4%, which is a concern.

12/30: 90-80 over Virginia here. Close until the last few minutes. Up 4 at the break. 23, 4, 8 for Feld, 17, 13 for Gray, 17, 4 for Mile, 13, 6, 3, 3 blocks for Moye. +26 in the lane.

1/2/2236: 82-52 over Miami here. Up 12 at halftime. 16, 3 for Moye, 15, 3 for Toms, 8, 13, 4 for Gray. +15 RBs, +26 in the paint.

Jay Pebb sprains his wrist. He’ll play but minutes will be limited for at least 10 days.

1/6: 84-59 at Georgia Tech. Up only 2 at the half but we took over in the 2nd, 43-20. 20, 4 for Mile, 15, 9, 3, 3 for Feld, 14, 8 for Moye, 8, 14, 6, 5 for Gray. +32 inside.

Pebb is back.

14-1, 4-0, #6, NET #1.

The kids continue to work on their amazing projects and new ones keep coming up. We have a kid writing music, and several playing music at a very high level.

The kids designing the new building say it is so strong it will withstand anything except a direct strike by a meteorite, and they have ways to limit the damage that would do unless it’s a really big one.

They want to cover the existing buildings with the material they’re planning to use on the new building. All three buildings will be connected, which we should have thought of when we erected the first two.

[Wayne23]

1/11: 89-70 at Clemson. Up 11 at the half. 15, 16, 3 for Gray, 16, 0, 5 for Toms, 14 each for Pebb and Feld. +18 RBs.

1/13:72-79 at #23 North Carolina. We shot 31.3%and were in all kinds of foul trouble. Moye and Pebb fouled out, Mile and Toms ended up with 4. -12 from the line. But weak outside D killed us, their starting guards scored 38 to 10 for ours. 11, 19, 7, 5, 3 blocks for Gray, 18, 9, 3, 5 for Moye, 16, 6 for Feld.

1/18: 76-65 over NC ST here. Up 22 at the half and the final score was as close as they got in the 2nd. 22, 9, 0, 3, 5 blocks for Mile, 18, 8, 4 for Moye, 13, 10 for Gray.

1/20: 71-63 over Wake Forest here. We never led by more than a dozen. Up 5 at the half. 17, 6, 3 for Feld. We controlled the inside and that’s what won it.

17-2, 7-1, tied for 2nd with Pitt, 1 back of North Carolina. #4, NET #1.

[Wayne23]

1/25: 84-86 at #2 Pitt. Down 12 early, 8 at the half. It went back and forth all through the 2nd. At the end we hit a three by Grow with 2.9 to play to go up by 1. They hit a 25 footer at the buzzer for the win.

18, 7, 4 blocks for Mile, 19, 3, 4 for Moye. Tough loss.

1/27: 83-69 at Florida ST. Up 19 at the break. Moye, Grow, and Pebb had 14 each. 11, 12, 3, 3 blocks for Gray.

1/29: Troy Gray is #12 and Jem Moye #16 on the Norton list.

One of our recruits did not hit our SAT score. We offer to a C.

2/1: 92-41 over Virginia Tech here. What a blow out! 56-24 at halftime. 28, 13, 3 blocks for Moye, 20, 9, 4 for Feld. +24 RBs, +36 down low.

2/3: 89-79 over Louisville in Hartford. Close for a long time. We were up by 3 at the half. 14, 8, 2, 4, 3 blocks for Gray, 16, 4, 5 for Pebb, 17, 6 for Moye.

20-3, 10-2, tied for 1st with North Carolina, 1 up on Pitt, with 8 to play. #4, NET #1.

[Wayne23]

2/8: 94-72 at NC ST. Up 20 at halftime. 18, 10, 3 blocks for Gray, 19, 5, 6 for Grow, 19, 6 for Moye, 12, 9, 3 for Feld. Easy road win.

2/10: 94-91 at Wake Forest. 27 lead changes, 19 ties in a game that was close all the way. Never more than a 7 point margin. We had it last. Got it with 7.9 to play. Grow held and then got it to Gray for a three pointer for the win.

27, 8, 3 blocks for Gray, 23, 11, 3 blocks for Moye. +23 boards.

2/13: 68-53 at Miami. 42-18 at the half. 17, 5, 3 for Gray, 13, 3, 7 for Grow.

2/15: 82-61 over Syracuse here. Up 14 at the break. 21, 12, 3 blocks for Mile, 17, 16 for Gray. +23 RBs.

24-3, 14-2, Up 1 on 2 teams with 4 to play. #3, NET #1.

Troy Gray is #13, Jem Moye #14 on the Norton list.

[Wayne23]

2/17: 80-46 over #20 Duke here. Never a game. Up 22 at halftime. 12, 12, 3, 4, 3 blocks for Gray. 13, 8, 3, 4, 4 blocks for Mile, 17, 3, 3 steals for Pebb.

2/20: 98-84 at Virginia. Up 12 at the half. 27, 1, 9, 4 for Grow. +36 in the paint.

2/27: 108-61 over Boston College here. Up 33 at the break. 25, 4 for Moye, 14, 11, 2, 3 for Gray, 13, 3, 6, 4 blocks for Mile, 14, 2, 5 for Pebb. +28 RBs, +50 in the lane.

3/3: 48-61 at Louisville. We shot a horrific 21.4%, 4-40 on threes. The less said the better!

3/5: Starting SG Jay Pebb declares for the draft.

The loss in our last game hurt. We’re at 27-4, 17-3, tied for the lead with Pitt at the end of the regular season but we’re only the #2 seed. #2, NET #1.

+16.6 PPG, 10.9 RBs, +4.8 steals, -6.6 turnovers, averaging 10.3.

16.0, 7.6 for Moye, 12.3, 6.5 for Feld, 11.7, 11.0 for Gray, 11.7, 6.3 for Mile.

[Wayne23]

3/9: #7 seed Virginia, 18-12, 10-10, in the quarter finals. Beat them by 10 and 14.

3/10: 87-76. Up only 5 at the half. We led by as many as 26 in the 2nd before they came back. 14, 6, 3, 3, 4 blocks for Mile, 13, 12, 4 for Gray, 16, 7 for Moye, 13, 6 for Feld. +34 in the paint.

Starting PF Jem Moye broke his foot. Out for the season. Cris Feld will start.

# 3 seed, #22 ranked North Carolina in the semifinals. They won by 7 there.

3/11: 83-66. It was never close, up 21 at the break. 17, 5, 5 for Grow, 14, 15 for Mile, 11, 15, 4 blocks for Gray. +20 boards.

4th seed, #20 Duke, 23-10, 19-2, upset Pitt so we play them for the title. We won by 34 at home.

3/12: 88-80 and the title! 49-31 at the half. The final score was as close as they got late in the game.

25, 14 for Gray, 17, 7 for Mile.+17 boards, +20 on 2nd chances, +14 in the lane.