Jess Wynn, to do the impossible

[Wayne23]

At 12-11, 7-5 Alabama A & M. Beat them by 15 at our place. They’re streaky but they give up points.

2/9: This one stayed close throughout the 1st, 24-25.

We couldn’t get any O going, mostly due to 11 TOs. D was fine.

Turned it around in the 2nd. Continued the good D, only 3 TOs, 65-48.

+9, +3, 37-33%. Fouls were 8-17.

16 each for Lloyd and Skif, 14, 10, 1, 2, 1 for Fenn.

12-12, 6-7 Jackson State is in. Beat them by 9 there. 2-5 in their last 7. Strength is inside.

2/13: 37-32 at the half.

My guys look… bored? Disconnected? Uninterested? I try to shake them up in the locker room but they don’t seem to be listening. Sure, we’re leading, but we aren’t playing crisp basketball.

And it completely falls apart, 60-72. We can’t make a shot and we are a step behind on D. I need to say this wasn’t about Jackson State, it was about us. Practices are about to get interesting.

-4, +1, 36-49%.

19, 3 for Skif, 15, 4, 4, 1 for Lloyd, 6, 12, 3, 1 for Herr. Brin got 8 assists but fouled out, maybe the first to foul out for us this season.

Let’s see how we react to this. That will tell us a lot.

[Wayne23]

13-12, 7-7 Grambling is in. We won by 12 at their place. They’ve won 4 of 5. I think we got our focus back in practice after a lot of hard work.
Let’s see what happens.
2/16: 33-25 at the half.

Shots aren’t dropping but we’re playing with great energy.

We’re back to normal in the 2nd, 75-44. Great 2nd half.

+19, +5, 46-31%.

19, 1, 4, 1 for Lloyd, 16, 6, 2 for Skif, 13, 8, 3 for Fenn, 12, 4, 2, 1, 1 for Brin, 9, 8, 3 for Whit. Herr had 9 RBs and played great D.

Lloyd hurt his leg. He may or may not play in our last regular season game.

2/19: #13, RPI #11.

At 6-20, 3-12, last place Alabama State. Beat them by 17 at our place. Not an impressive team.

2/20: 31-32 at the half. Here we go again. Everything I thought I’d fixed is broken again. We stood around for a good part of the first half.

I rant and rave then walk out on them at the half.

55-58. We just lost to the worst team in the conf. Unbelievable. Part of it, maybe most of it, to be fair, was that we weren’t hitting shots, but as much as I tried to fix that by having them work it inside for layups. They continued to clang long range shots. Very frustrating. I’m not doing the numbers for this one, they didn’t matter.

Playoffs are coming up. We have a long layoff. I’ll be talking with dad about how to fix this. I am not a happy coach.

2/26: #14, RPI #15. Thought we’d fall further. We’ve been working hard at practice and will continue to do so.

We end up the reg. season 23-4, 14-2. It should have been 25-2, 16-0.

[PointGuard]

Tough loss against Ala St, but those away games can be hell.

[Wayne23]

Especially late in the regular season. I think the game is programmed to make it tougher then.

[PointGuard]

Everyone wants to knock off the leader.

[Wayne23]

3/3: The tourney is here. Play in day. We’ll be playing #8 seed East Tenn. ST, 14-14, 8-8. We won by only 7 at their place. They don’t play well on the road.

3/4: Never a game, 39-17 at the half, 82-50 at the end.

+6, +6, 52-40%.

35, 7, 4, 1 for Skif, 22, 2, 3, 1 for Lloyd, 16, 6 for Fenn.

#4 seed Jackson State, 16-12, 9-7. Beat them by 9 there then lost by 12 at home. I’m showing the video at practice hoping it motivates my guys. They’ve won 5 straight, all of them easily. When they’re on they can play. Our D will need to work hard.

3/5: 33-20 at the half. It went our way in the 1st.

They tried to come back at us in the 2nd but never got closer than 8, 65-54.

+15, -1, 44-37%.

15, 10, 2, 2 for Skif, 10, 8, 3 for Herr, 12, 4, 2, 3 for Fenn, 7, 3, 7, 1 for Lloyd, 6, 6 for Whit.

#11 seed Prairie View, 14-16, 5-11, went all the way from underdog in the play in to the title game. What a run. Our job is to stop it. They’ve won 5 of 6, playing their best ball of the year. We beat them by 20 at their place. They have some weapons.

3/6: Up 32-29 at the half but we aren’t making shots and we aren’t getting in the shooter’s face.

I tell them we need to tighten the D and work it inside on O.

It’s a war, 1:31 left, up 4. They bring it down and their PG knocks down his 4th three of the night, up 1, 1:09.

Brin commits a charge and it’s #5. Lloyd takes the Point, Skif is in, :55. Their PG knocks down another 3, down 2, :33.

We work some clock, get it inside to Skif whose shot is blocked, they RB, we foul, :12. #5, no shot. They bring it in and get away from us, we finally foul with :04 left, still no shot. They inbound deep in their own backcourt and run out the clock, 63-65.

-6, +10,35-48%, fouls 12-7. A very atypical game for us.

21, 3, 3, 2 for Lloyd, 13, 9, 2, 1 for Fenn, 8, 8 for Herr, 7, 2, 9, 1, 3 for Brin.

A very disappointing loss. The last 2-3 weeks probably moved us from a 3 or 4 seed to an 8 or so. Nothing to do but wait now.

25-5, 14-2.

[Wayne23]

3/12: #16, RPI #17. Here we go.

Not in the East.

Not in the Midwest.

Not in the South.

#5 in the West. We’ll play Stetson, 23-7. Much better than I thought, I’ll take it.

Stetson won their last 8, 10 of 11. 12-4, 2nd in conf., won the tourney. This team is red hot and they do some things very well. If we stay in our funk it will be one and done. Their back court is especially strong.

Dad and I discuss strategies to regain focus and I implement them in practice.

3/13: Ark.-PB loses in the 1st round of the NIT.

3/14: Prairie View loses their NCAA play in game, Texas Southern loses in the 1st round in the NIT, and Jackson State wins in OT in the 1st round of the NIT.

3/16: Jackson State wins in the 2nd round of the NIT.

3/17: 45-30 at the half.

Tonight the shots are dropping. Loving the O but I want the D tighter.

They’re going in and out very well and scoring a little too easily. We work on that.

And we keep control all the way, never a scare in the 2nd. The final is 79-58.

+6, +3 (6 TOs), 51-39%, 5 fouls to 13.

26, 2, 3 for Lloyd, 20, 6, 1 for Skif, 11, 5 for Herr, 8, 4, 8, 1 for Brin, 7, 9, 1 for Whit.

#17 ranked, #4 seed, 23-9, 12-4 Oregon next. Finished 2nd in the Pac 12 and lost in the tourney final.

They don’t give up a lot of points. Starting C is out with a broken finger.

Their SG does it all and their PF is very good. We think we can turn them over and we also think if we can contain their SG we can beat them. But we need to be at our best.

3/19: 22-18 at the half.

Neither team is making shots. We’re controlling the boards but I want us to take better care of the ball. That would leads to more open looks.

We open up a big lead and they try to come back but the closest they come in the last 10 minutes is the final score, 55-46.

+13, -4, 43-33%.

18, 5, 2, 1 for Skif, 11, 2, 6, 1, 1 for Brin, 10, 7, 1 for Fenn, 10 RBs for Herr, 9 for Whit. They doubled Lloyd all night and held him but we found other guys who were left open by the double.

Sweet Sixteen!

3/21: Jackson State wins again in the NIT, they’re in the final four.

[Wayne23]

Very tough matchup next, #2 ranked, #2 RPI, #1 seed Arizona, 30-5, 14-2, won the Pac 12 tourney. 1 loss since December 20, in OT. Hard to score against. They score outside. Whew!

3/24: 26-44 at the half. Those guys are TOUGH!

We could not come close to stopping their outside shooters. We dominated inside, to a point, but their 1, 2, and 3 were way quicker than our guys. We switched to 100% zone with about 5 min. left in the half and that helped, but only a little.

We never make a real run but we never give up, 52-72.

+2, -14 (21 TOs), 39-35%.

20, 4, 3 for Lloyd in his last game, he’s our only Senior. 11, 5, 1 for Whit.

I tell the guys there’s no shame in losing to a better team. We worked hard and tried our best.

It was a great season, 27-6, 14-2, Sweet Sixteen.

Will I move? If the right offer comes I would certainly consider it, the extreme heat and humidity down here is more than I can stand. BUT… we have a great team coming back, and that counts for something.

I’ll be at the final four in Charlotte. #3 KY vs. #14 Pitt, and #4 MD vs. #2 Ariz.

3/28: Jackson State beats New Hanpshire 62-58. They’ll play for the NIT title.

3/30: Jackson State loses by 5 to LSU.

4/1: #3 KY vs. #2 Ariz in the final.

4/3: Kentucky by 17 for the title. I talked with a lot of A.D.s. We’ll see what happens.

4/4: Awards: Ian Lloyd is conf. POY, Tim Herr is Defensive POY. Lloyd, Skif, Fenn make 1st team, Herr makes 2nd. I thought Brin played well enough to make 2nd team. I got the coach award, my 5th in 7 years.

4/9: We go after one more recruit and get him, C Jim Joad #34.

No tempting offers, another year in the swamp but we should have a great team.

4/16: No staff vacancies.

4/23: I want a facilities upgrade. No.

My ratings are: Off. 27, Def. 41, Recruit 44, Scout 6, Player Dev. 34, Reputation 33. My record: 173-50, .776.

[Wayne23]

5/1: A new season. We buy the National Gold.

6/5: No spots for transfers.

6/26: 8 to fill so we’ll have our work cut out for us. Looking at 16: 7 PGs, 1 SG, 3 SFs, 1 PF, 4 Cs.

7/11: Lots of kids signed up for our camps.

7/25: Camp went well. I like what I see from my team. We’re at least 9 deep, maybe 10 or 11.

8/21: We offer to 8.

9/11: 4 visits.

9/18: More visits.

Challenging schedule.

9/25: Got one, #48 C Shep Dale.

10/2: Got another one, #32 PG Ted Ard.

First day of practice.

We’re picked to win the conf. again this year.

10/9: We get 2 more, #40 C Tony Masq and #64 PG Orio Olin.

[Wayne23]

11/3: First exhibition is with Dartmouth.

40-26 at the half.

68-54. +15, +6, 48-41%. Fouls 12-15.

Fenn, Whit and Jones looked good.

11/8: 2nd exhibition is with Dartmouth.

42-27 at the half.

75-49. +17, +8, 50- 37%. Fouls 12-14.

The exhibitions confirmed the lineup. There will be no changes, at least for now.

We open with Cincinnati here. They’re a Big East team but they don’t look that strong.

11/16: 28-15 at the half.

Great D. Their 2 is scoring but no one else is, and Skif is matching him.

In control, 71-51. We were never threatened.

+23, -1 (10 TOs), 39-33%, fouls 10-16.

28, 3, 1 for Skif, 13, 8, 7 for Brin, 9, 14, 3 for Joad, 10, 10, 1, 1 for Fenn.

Great start to the season.

West Virginia, 1-0, also from the Big East, is in. Their PF can play.

11/19: 39-31 at the half. Not happy with the D, we got burned for 6 threes. We talked about how to fix it.

We fixed it, no threes in the 2nd, held them to 12 points for the half. 68-43.

+17, +6, 44-33%.

14, 12, 1 for Joad, 16, 5, 1, 1 for Skif, 16, 4, 1, 1, 2 for Fenn, 4, 2, 12, 1 for Brin.

#19. Earliest we’ve ever been ranked.

Oregon State, 1-1, Pac 12 is in. Crushed by Wake Forest.

11/20: 41-26. In practice we’ve been working on breaking out quickly and we did that tonight. Great 1st half.

We never let them get close in the 2nd, 69-52.

+11, +6, 41-39%.

24, 3 for Skif, 14, 17 for Fenn, 12, 12, 2 for Joad9, 4, 8, 3, 1 for Brin, 6, 5, 3 for Herr. Our starting 5 is very strong.