A New Tomorrow

[Wayne23]

3/9: We play #8 seed Oregon ST, 17-13, 7-11 in the quarters. Beat them by 19 and 13.

3/10: 69-55. They stayed with us for a long time. 20 for Ruet, 11, 13 for Stap.

#5 seed Arizona, 21-10, 10-8, in the semis. Beat them by 6 and 30.

3/11: 82-68. They led by 9 late in the first half. We woke up and took charge from there. 18, 7 for Erds, 18 for Guri, 13, 12, 4 for Stap.

#6 seed Cal, 20-13, 10-8, upset #3 Utah, then upset #2 UCLA. We play them for the title. We beat them in OT at our place in our only meeting. We are not taking them lightly.

3/12: 70-57. 6 players scored for us, all between 8 and 16 points. We forced 28 TOs.

We haven't lost since Jan. 28, #2 RPI, and somehow we fell to #4.

#1 South. We play #16 North Dakota, 19-13.

3/16: 74-56. 44-22 at the half. +21 RBs. 10 guys scored and I played the bench quite a bit.

#8 seed, #25 ranked Princeton, 26-9 in round 2.

3/18: 80-53. We played well tonight. 18, 4 for Erds, 16, 6 for Guri. We forced 25 TOs.

Buildings still going up very rapidly. Our crews can put the shell up and enclose it in two days now. Then it's windows, plumbing, heating, and electrical. No need for cooling, it never gets hot here, only pleasantly warm. It's warm during the rainy season but not hot enough to need cooling.

#4 seed, #12 ranked West Virginia, 26-7, 12-4, in the Sweet Sixteen. They have a really good back court. We'll need to play the game inside where we should dominate.

3/23: 77-53. Our back court matched theirs and as expected we dominated inside. 16, 13, 4 for Stap, 14, 15 for Erds. +13 RBs.

#3 seed, #7 ranked Purdue, 30-6, 17-3 in the Elite Eight. We're better but they can play.

3/25: 72-82. Damn! Their SG and SF combined for 49, and that did us in. 23, 4, 5 for Guri, 19, 11 for Stap, but it wasn't enough. Disappointing to fall short of the Final Four.

Kam Stap and Chas Ruet played their last game.

4/3: #5 Houston is the champ.

4/4: Awards: Kam Stap in national Def POY. In conf, Stap is POY, Def POY, and 1st team. He's been a terrific inside player and we'll miss him. Ed Erds is frosh OY, and 1st team, as is Avg Guri. Chas Ruet makes the 2nd team. I am named COY.

Will I move? It would take a hell of an offer.

4/9: Nope. I'm staying.

4/23: I ask for money again.

No.

Great season but not as great as I had hoped. 34-5, #3 ranked, Elite Eight. Overall, 261-61, .811, after 9 seasons.

We now have 1000 crews building and finishing off structures. We're about a year away from full occupancy down here.

[Wayne23]

5/1: #3 recruiting class.

Little used guard Tim Carr transfers out. Yet again, there was never a single indication that he was unhappy. I have to say that this looks like a really good team.

#6 preseason.

6/5: We haven't had much luck with landing transfers but we have room for 3. Let's see what happens.

6/15: Nothing.

6/26: 7 scholarships. We may end up banking one or two. We need at least three guards.

7/3: And winter is here again.

Construction slows down both in the winter and in the rainy season. This time around we forestalled that by focusing on buttoning up as many buildings as possible in the
good weather so inside work could be done in the bad weather. True, different crews are generally involved but we still will save some time with this approach.

8/7: 4 Norton candidates: C Al Hans is #6, guard Cris Sine #18, guard Avg Guri #39, and forward Ed Erds #47.

8/21: We offer to 3 PGs, an SG, 2 PFs, and a C.

The winter has been colder than usual but not as snowy. Winds about normal for the season.

9/6: The weather is lovely again.

9/18: We get 2, lose 2. We get 2 PGs, #10, #35.

Tip Off in Paradise. Mostly ranked teams on the sched.

9/25: Got a PF, #41. Lost 2.

10/2: We get 1, lose 2. We get a C, #46.

First day of practice. We look really strong, and deep.

10/7: Due to some truly Herculean efforts half of our population now lives on planet.

10/9: We've got 4 recruits. Two guards, 2 bigs. We're going to pursue some long shots but we're not confident.

The rec facilities on planet are not the highest priority but they are being worked on. With half the population living there lots of us feel this should be a higher priority than it is. I am still on the hub, but i spend maybe 1/3 of my working time on planet.

Building continues at a furious pace. The target date to get all of us living down there is April 1.

11/15: Season starts tomorrow. I think we're ready and i think we're very good.

[Wayne23]

11/16: 76-50 over #11 Indiana to start the season. 21, 4 for Avg Guri, who's playing the Point this year. 13, 9, 3 for SF Jam Town. 12 TOs.

Off to the Tip Off. We play #8 seed Butler. We're the #1 seed.

11/18: 95-36. Wow! Total destruction. 50-18 at the half. 5 guys in double figures, 10 scored. They shot 22.2%. 12 TOs again.

#4 seed Texas in the semis.

11/19: 64-57. They stayed with us most of the way. . Good D, good bench play and 13 TOs.

#3 seed Florida State for the title.

11/20: 71-58. 27, 3, 4 for SG Cris Sine, 14 for Guri.

We're #1 in the rankings.

Life on board the hub is very different. The ships are very sparsely populated. Half the people now live on Domus and many who live here are on planet doing construction or scientific research. There are never lines at the cafeterias or for the holos.

The push is to get all the buildings enclosed before the rainy season hits.

11/23: 70-67. They came to play. 15 lead changes, 8 ties. Our biggest lead was 4. Scoring was very balanced. 11 TOs. We won it on a three by PF Al Hans.

On the road at #18 Georgia Tech next.

11/26: 85-74. They led by 15 early, 11 at the half. We came roaring back in the 2nd. 20, 9 for 6th man Ed Erds, 17, 6 for Town. +13 RBs.

11/30: 83-64. 17, 5, 4 for Town, 14, 7, 9 for Sine. 6 players with 10 or more. 12 TOs.

7-0, still #1. #4 RPI.

[Wayne23]

12/3: 77-72 over Minnesota. It was a battle. 22, 4 for Al Hans. 10 TOs. We're giving up less than 60 PPG on average.

12/7: 55-47 over #8 North Carolina. A real defensive battle. 14 for Guri, 10, 6, 7 for Sine.

We're beating some very good teams. 9-0.

12/10: 93-59 over Providence. 51-23 at the half. Our bench had 46.

12/14: 97-54 over #17 Purdue. 19 each for Guri, Town, and Erds. 8 TOs.

5 players averaging in double figures, between 12.1 and 11.2. Now that is BALANCE! And it makes us very hard to defend. Any of our top 8 players can hurt you.

A week off then at #11 St. Johns next.

12/21: 73-78 and our first loss. The most points we've given up all season and we shot 34.4%. It was close all the way but we couldn't make shots in key situations. 18, 4, 4 for Sine, 16, 7 for Town.

A week off to regroup then #21 Georgetown at home to finish the pre-conf season.

12/28: 70-47. 37-18 at the half. 20, 3, 7 with 4 steals for Sine, 14, 6 for Erds. A season high 18 TOs.

12-1, #2, RPI #1. I definitely think we can take a run at the national title this season. +18.9 PPG, +7.2 RBs, -5.4 TOs, our best team in this regard ever.

All essential buildings on the planet are up and enclosed. After the rainy season ends (it started two days ago) a few non-essential buildings will go up, but all buildings should be ready for occupancy by our target date of April 1.

[Wayne23]

1/4/2187: 79-37 over Washington. Ugly. 22, 4, 3 for Erds. +24 RBs.

1/7: 83-67 at Stanford. We led all the way. 20, 6, 3 for Town, 21, 5 for Erds. +13 RBs.

1/9: Worst hurricane we've seen. No way to tell how strong the winds were because all of our outdoor weather equipment was destroyed, as were 5 buildings. Partial damage to 12 other buildings. This will definitely set back the time when we can get everyone down here. No casualties.

1/11: 78-62 over #24 Arizona ST here. 18, 6, 3 for Guri, 21, 5 for Town, 19 for Erds, who we're going to start for Howe.

We're back to #1 in the rankings.

Tough road game at #7 Oregon ST next.

1/14: 64-67. It was a war. We were out rebounded 30-33. That's never good. Stats were close to even in all categories. Hans and Guri both fouled out. In the end they were just a little better. But I think we'll beat them at our place.

Clean up and repairs of the hurricane damage are proceeding slowly because the heavy rains and high winds just don't stop. All of the people in the affected buildings have been temporarily relocated. The new estimate for full occupancy is May 15.

1/18: 67-57 over #9 Arizona at our place. We led for the last 35 minutes but they kept it close most of the way. 18, 8, 8 for Sine, 15, 11 for Hans. But 18 TOs. +16 RBs.

16-2, 4-1, #2 ranked, in a 3 way tie for 1st in the PAC-12.

1/21: 79-80 at UCLA. We led early trailed late came back and then lost it on a missed three at the buzzer. They packed in the lane so we had to take an outside shot; not what we wanted. 21, 4 for Town, 14, 11, 5, 7 steals for Hans.

Another vicious hurricane. We built our structures with these in mind and still this one destroyed three buildings and damaged 11 others. 3 killed; the damn fools were watching out a large picture window when a huge branch crashed through the window killing them all. "Against human stupidity the gods themselves contend in vain." F. Schiller

You can only build so strongly, given limitations of materials and other things. Lots of repairs still to make and we have about another 6 weeks of rainy season. Final move to the planet now expected July 1 or so, just at the start of winter.

1/25: 80-55 over Southern Cal here. 23, 10 for Erds, 17, 10 for Hans, 18 for Guri. +13 RBs.

In a 4 way tie for 1st with 4 more teams one game back. It's early.

1/28: 84-58 over Utah. They're not the team they were last season. 50-17 at the half. 27, 6, 4 for Town, 17, 7, 8 for Sine, 14, 10 for Erds. It seems like different guys do the damage on different nights. This makes us difficult to defend but it also means we don't really have a go to guy. I'd probably want it in either Guri's or Erds' hands at crunch time.

2/1: 89-58 at Washington. 25, 8, 4 for Hans, 24, 4, 4 for Town, 18, 2, 5 for Guri. Sloppy game, we had 19 TOs, they had 22. +9 RBs.

At the halfway point we're 19-3, 7-2, #2, RPI #1, tied for 1st with Oregon ST, with 2 teams one game back. +18.5 PPG, +9.1 RBs, -3.7 TOs. Averaging 13.6, which I'd very much like to lower. Jam Town leads us with 13.7, but all 5 starters get at least 11.1. Hans leads in RBs with 7.8. Sine gets 5.6 assists but 3.3 TOs.

The rainy season continues to be dreadful but no more hurricanes. Another four weeks or so of this though.

[Wayne23]

2/4: 76-66 at California. They're a good team. 17, 5, 4 for Guri, 14, 2, 7 for Sine, 12, 10, 4 for Town. +12 RBs, 12 TOs.

2/8: 84-65 over Colorado. Our starters all had 12 or more. 20, 4, 4 for Sine. 10 TOs.

Same situation in the PAC-12, we're tied with Oregon ST, Arizona and UCLA are one back. 7 to play.

2/9: Yet another very strong hurricane. Thankfully this one only caused relatively minor damage with no casualties. Debris everywhere though.

2/11: 71-69 at Oregon. We expected a tough road game and we got it. They led by 17 after 14 minutes. We calmed down and got it to 6 at the half and then played better in the second. But it was a near thing. Al Hans blocked an 8 footer at the buzzer. 18, 7, 3 for Sine. +7 RBs.

2/15: 89-67 over Stanford at home. 30, 2, 6 for Sine, 17, 8, 3 for Hans. 8 TOs.

No change in the PAC-12.

2/16: Another hurricane, but less severe than most.

2/18: 71-79 at Arizona ST. We shot 25% in the 2nd half. Erds and Sine fouled out and I got T'd up. We were -4 on the boards and we rarely win when we lose the battle of the boards.

Oregon ST lost, as did Arizona. 3 way tie at the top with us, UCLA, and Oregon ST. Arizona is one back and everyone else is out of it.

4 to play, the next three against the three other contenders in the conf, including at Arizona. Not exactly a favorable schedule. Let's see what my guys are made of.

2/22: 75-36 against #4 ranked Oregon ST here. I can honestly say that I never expected this! 47-20 at the half. They shot 23.1%. +19 RBs, 8 TOs. 20, 11, 4 for Town, 18,
12 for Hans. It would be difficult to play a better game.

2 way tie with #20 UCLA. #5 Arizona next, there.

2/23: Terrible hurricane, maybe the worst ever. 7 buildings very badly damaged and 22 others damaged enough to need repairs. Worst rainy season ever. Fortunately, no casualties.

2/25: 66-63. A HUGE win!!! 18 lead changes, 7 ties. We won it on Avg Guri's three with less than a second to play. We survived 23 TOs (They had 17). This was a great game for fans and an ulcer producer for coaches.

#17 UCLA here to decide first place.

3/1: 83-65! 51-27 at the half. 19, 8, 4 for Town, 18, 11 for Hans, 20, 6 for Erds. +18 RBs, We won this one inside.

3/3: No rain for two days. Mercifully the rainy season is over. Now to repair and rebuild.

3/4: 75-61 at Southern Cal to wrap up 1st place and end the regular season. 21, 4, 3 for Town. +9 RBs.

Al Hans and Cris Sine enter the draft. Not a shock.

27-4, 15-3, #2, RPI #1. +17.0 PPG, +8.9 RBs, -3.2 TOs. Town leads us with 14.0 PPG, but #5 leading scorer gets 11.8, so very balanced. Hans leads with 7.8 RBs. Sine gets 5.5 assists and 3.3 TOs.

[Wayne23]

3/9: #9 seed Utah, 18-13, 8-10, in the quarters.

3/10: 72-61. It took a long time for us to take control. 20, 6 for Town, 12, 11 for Hans, 12, 3, 7 for Sine. 12 TOs.

Cal shocked Oregon State.

#4 seed, #8 ranked Arizona, 24-8, in the semis. Beat them by 10 and 3.

3/11: 75-57. We owned them in the 2nd half. 20, 6 for Town, 18, 5, 9 for Sine.

For the 2nd straight year Cal came out of the pack and upset two top seeds to reach the finals. #6 seed, 20-13, 9-9. They beat both Oregon ST and UCLA.

3/12: 63-38. Terrific D! 21, 9 for Hans, 14, 6 for Erds. They shot 25%. 10 TOs; they had 21. Regular season champs again!

#1 East, #1 overall. We play #16 Central Connecticut, 18-15.

3/16: 81-39. We didn't expect much trouble and we didn't get any. 45-17 at the half. 18, 1, 7 for Guri, 15, 5 for Town, 12, 6 for Hans. +22 RBs, 9 TOs.

#8 seed Alabama, 24-8, in round 2.

3/18: 92-86 in OT. They were tough and they very nearly did us in. Close all the way. +13 RBs, but 20 TOs and that is what nearly did it to us. We didn't shoot well either. They missed a three at the end of regulation that would have given them the game. Then we finally took over in OT. 22, 10 for Town, 17, 14 for Hans, 14, 5, 5 for Guri.

#12 seed Belmont, 27-9, beat #5 then #4 to get to the Sweet Sixteen, so they are not to be taken lightly.

3/23: 79-54. 46-25 at the half. +18 RBs, 7 TOs. 21, 10, 3 for Town, 20, 4, 6 for Guri.

#3 seed, #12 ranked PAC-12 rival Arizona, 27-9, in the Elite Eight. Beat them by 10, 3, and then 18 in the PAC-12 tourney.

3/25: 68-69. Damn! They led by as many as 16. We came all the way back, even took the lead three times. But they had the ball last and they ran a beautiful play that got their PF open for an easy 8 footer which he hit with less than a second to play. Both Hans and Erds had fouled out at the point, which was a huge factor, and 6th man Cris Howe had 4. Disappointing end to a great season.

4/3: #4 Duke is the champ.

4/4: Awards: Al Hans makes the PAC-12 1st team. Cris Sine, Jam Town, and Ed Erds make the 2nd team. I am conf COY.

I'm feeling like I want to move up or move down, but I want to move. We're getting to about the same place every year and can't seem to take the big leap. We'll see what happens.

4/9: Guy Lewis retired from a terrific Houston team. I'm going there. They're losing three starters but they have some great players coming back, three really good transfers, and a top 10 recruiting class.

4/23: I ask for $. Had to spend too much for a #1 assistant.

We got a huge increase. We can recruit worldwide.

Goodbye to San Diego ST. Overall record in 10 seasons is 294-66, .817.

Crews are working overtime to get all of us on planet by sometime in July.

[Wayne23]

5/1: #2 recruiting class. One guy transfers out. He didn't figure in my plans. Preseason #2.

6/5: Looking at transfers.

6/16: We get Ray Bock a really good looking soph PF from, yes, San Diego ST.

The council decides not to move everyone down until the end of winter, so early September. They feel that the crews have been over worked and it would be better for
people to start out down here during nice weather.

6/26: One scholarship. We want a guard.

7/3: And it's snowing.

7/21: And it's still snowing. Inside work is progressing on all buildings that need it. Outside work is finished.

8/7: 4 Norton candidates: SG Art Pars is #1, PF Ryan Mall is #7, C Aron Whit is #11, SG Conn Bari is #45. Looks like a hell of a team!

8/21: We offer to a PG, ranked #19.

9/3: The winter seems to be over. It was a relatively mild one.

9/7: And everyone is now living on Domus. We maintain a skeleton crew of 20 on each of the 35 ships on the hub. They serve on a rotating basis, two week shifts.

9/18: We get our Guy, PG Jon Hays, #17.

Preseason NIT. Almost all ranked teams in the pre-conf season.

10/2: First day of practice. This is a great team!

11/11: Unusual to be going for the national title in the first year at a new school, but that's exactly what I'm going for.

[Wayne23]

11/13: We're the #2 seed in the NIT. We play #15 Loyola-MD first.

11/14: 85-59. 52-30 at the half. 7 players scored between 6 and 16. 10 TOs. We were completely in control all the way.

#7 seed Minnesota in the 2nd round.

11/16: 89-69. 47-31 at the half. Starters all had between 12 and 18. 10 TOs again.

#6 seed Pepperdine in the semis.

11/18: 88-71. 53-34 at the half. 27, 5, 3 for SG Art Pars. 12 TOs.

#1 seed, #3 ranked Kansas for the title. This will be our first challenge of the season.

11/20: 80-63. Great win! 22, 16 for C Tim Carr, 20, 6, 7 for PG Conn Bari, 21, 6 for Pars. 9 TOs. This team is terrific with the ball so far.

Our recruit signs.

No let up, #4 Florida is next, at our place.

11/23: 80-57. Another great win. 21, 11 for SF Ryan Mall. +17 RBs.

11/26: 91-72 over #12 Purdue here. We led all the way. 27, 10, 3 for Mall, 17, 7, 4 for Carr. +16 RBs but 19 TOs.

Something is going on aboard the Heinlein. We're not hearing from the skeleton crew.

11/27: Ranked #1.

Still no word from the crew. Dispatching a group to the Heinlein to investigate.

11/29: The skeleton crew aboard the Heinlein are all dead. Medical personnel being dispatched to determine cause of death. Nothing is obvious. They were all found lying on the floor in various areas of the ship. Investigators and medical personnel are remaining in space suits during their investigation.

11/30: 59-44 over #23 California here. Cal led by 10 early, by 6 at the half. We completely shut them down in the 2nd, holding them to 15 points. 21, 4 for Pars.

We're 7-0, #1, RPI #1. We have yet to be seriously challenged.

No news yet from the Heinlein.

[Wayne23]

12/3: 77-67 over Louisville here, our closest game of the season. The game was close for nearly 30 minutes. We never really blew them away but we opened up a safe lead and held onto it. 26, 9 for Pars, 17, 10 for Mall. 9 TOs.

The medics, scientists, and others have determined that the skeleton crew on the Heinlein were killed by some kind of poisonous gas that got into the air filtration system. Nothing like that ever happened in the entire history of the voyage. Strange. The air filtration people are now on the ship, working in space suits, trying to clear the atmosphere. In any case the Heinlein will be shut down permanently.

12/7: 80-54 over Georgetown here. 38-16 at the half. 19 for Carr, 17, 7, 3 for Pars. +21 RBs.

We are sailing along.

We're prepping for the rainy season. This will be the first time that about half of our residents experience it and it will no doubt be a shock. During the beautiful weather people work outdoors, hike, just hang out outside, walk from building to building... During the rainy season, and during the winter too, of course, most people are stuck in the building where they live. When someone has to travel they get where they're going as quickly as possible and it is always an unpleasant journey. I don't know if there's a way to truly prep people for that but we're trying.

There is talk again of private businesses and a money based economy.

12/10: 70-58 at #8 ST Johns. We expected a tough game but we jumped all over them and it was 41-18 at the half. The final score was as close as they got. 26, 11 for Pars. +14 RBs, 9 TOs.

Precautions are now being taken in all areas of the hub. We are still keeping skeleton crews on all ships except the Heinlein but we are being very careful about it.

12/13: 71-47 at Rice. 33-19 at the half. 25, 3, 3 for Pars, 16, 12 for Mall.

12/17: 79-58 over UCLA here. 34, 7 for Pars, 19, 11, 4 for Mall. +12 RBs, 8 TOs.

#2 Duke next, at our place.

12/21: 86-95. They just beat us up inside. We couldn't keep up with them. Our guards were great. Art Pars had an amazing 43 and 9, and Conn Bari had 17. But the bigs were overwhelmed. We were +4 on the boards but they scored at will. 11 TOs.

Not sure we can beat this team. They really dominated inside. If we meet them in the post season we could be in trouble. Not telling the guys that, of course.

At #17 Florida State in the final pre-conf game. We have a week to prepare.

12/28: 88-83. We had to work for this one. We led all the way but they never quit and got it to a one possession game lots of times. 30, 6, 3 with 6 steals for Pars, 18, 6 for Mall, 16, 4, 8 for Bari.

1/1/2188: Heading for AAC play we're 13-1, #1, RPI #1. +16.1 PPG, +11.3 RBs, -3.1 TOs. Art Pars leads us with 22.9 PPG. Aron Whit gets 11.4 RBs. Conn Bari leads with 5.5 assists but gets 4.9 TOs, nearly half of our total.

The rains should start any day now. We're as prepared as we can be.