Solitary Man

[Wayne23]

Maybe just a leetle high end...

[Wayne23]

9/18: We get an SG, #290.

Going with a pretty weak pre-conf. schedule.

9/25: We lose a recruit but he was iffy on hitting our SAT score.

10/2: We get a C, #241. Our other guy has us at #2 so here's hoping.

1st day of practice with my new team. We have a long way to go!

10/9: We get the 3rd recruit, a PF, #274.

11/11: Here's the lineup: Soph Kev Wilk starts at PG. He started as a frosh and the videos indicate he dished pretty well and he was a solid defender.

Senior Cris Hill is at SG. He also started last season. He seems to be a good scorer and is another good defender.

Junior Cory Kest is our #3 guard. He's a decent back up. Juniors Art King and Jim Have will only play significant minutes if we have injuries.

Senior Gabe Lutz is at SF. He started the last two seasons. He's not that good but he's what we have. If a strter loses his job it will be Lutz.

Junior Gar Spen is at PF. He's also a returning starter. He's a very good defender and we need him to be a rebounder.

Senior Arlo Vank is at C. This will be his 3rd year as a starter but like Lutz, that's because of what we lack more than because he has talent. We hope he'll be adequate.

We're very thin up front. SF/PF Junior Cory Ward is first off the bench among the bigs. He's a good defender but that's about it.

C Ken Parr is a frosh and he's not ready. We'll probably go with 3 guards if a big man gets hurt.

We're picked to win Conf. J. Not sure I believe it but I hope they're right.

I'm loving the job. I get to move around some and I feel like I have both more freedom and more autonomy than almost any other inmate in here. There are some challenging aspects to the job but nothing I can't handle.

[Wayne23]

11/13: We start tomorrow, at home.

1st Assistant Steve Brown, recruiting: I came here from Fresno ST because i think Coach Blake is a winner and I wanted to be part of that. I'm happy that we got the 3 recruits we were after. I'm now doing some preliminary recruiting fro next season, checking in with the 3 guys we got, and helping out at practice and in games. I made the right move. Coach Blake is great to work with.

2nd Assistant Tim Sales, Bench Coach: This is my first job in Div. I. I was a head coach in Div. III for the past three seasons and my team did really well. It's a big jump up though. I was thrilled when Coach Blake called about the job. The interview process was very positive and I've really liked being here right from the start. Coach gives me a voice and he listens.

3rd Assistant Jab Moore, Scouting: I was Coach Blake's #1 at UMass-Lowell. I took the demotion to #3 for a couple of reasons: first it's a big step up; UMass is a much better basketball program. Second, I liked scouting for Coach Blake and really enjoyed working with him and wanted to continue, and last but not least, it's actually more money. The money at UML was pretty lousy. This isn't great, but it's $10,000 better.

11/14: 72-64 over VMI here. 37-19 at thr half. The final score was as close as they got. 15, 10, 3 for C Arlo Vank. 17, 4, 4 for SG Cris Hill. 13, 6, 3 for PG Kev Wilk. 14, 6 for PF Gar Spen. 10 TOs.

As expected, Lutz was ineffective, but no one on the bench did anything so he's safe for now. His man had 25 though.

Kev Wilk: I was pretty happy with my game. I shut out my guy and I had only 1 TO.

Coach Blake: Just turned in my final paper for the semester. I'll take the rest of the year off and start my next classes in early January. Two more years and I should have the degree.

[Wayne23]

11/17: 76-73 at Maine. Maine is WAY below the teams we'll face in our Conf. as far as rankings and such are concerned. Not a good sign. It was back and forth all night and close all night. We were down by 3 with the ball and 45 seconds left. Cris Hill hit a three with a hand in his face to tie it. They came down and tried a 12 footer which Gar Spen blocked. Our PG, Kev Wilk wound up with the ball. He worked it until there were 4 seconds left, fired it to Hill, who hit another three, again with a hand in his face, with .5 left, and that was the winner! Hill led us with a sparkling 31. Wilk had 9, 6, 5 and only 2 TOs.

Once again Lutz was outplayed by his man. We're not making any moves yet but we're looking at SF Cory Ward and guard Cory Kest, and we won't wait much longer than 2 or 3 games.

Cris Hill: It's my Senior year and I want to leave here with great memories. Nights like tonight can make that happen. I was really feelin' it!

[Wayne23]

11/20: All 3 recruits sign.

11/21: 74-72 at Boston University. Two straight close games with weak opponents. We led all the way, but we never got a comfortable margin. They had the last possession. Their PG tried a three but Kev Wilk got a piece of it and it never reached the rim. 2nd straight 31 point game for Cris Hill, with 7 RBs; he's really red hot right now. 13, 10, 4 for Vank. Lutz didn't play badly tonight, probably about a draw with his opponent.

We'll take the win but we need to play better, especially against weak teams.

Arlo Vank: Trying to make it count in my Senior year. I think I'm playing pretty well so far, and we're winning- not a by a lot, but you only gotta win by 1.

Bench Coach Tim Sales: We're really thin. Our bench just isn't giving us much.

[Wayne23]

11/24: 88-90 at Southern Utah in OT. We were bound to lose one of these close games. 24 lead changes, 5 ties. This one was sloppy all the way; we had 21 TOs, they had 22. At the end of regulation they hit a halfcourt shot. Then at the end of OT they hit another one. But we should never have been in that position either time. We clearly had more talent, but we didn't play well, and we turned it over twice in the last two minutes of regulation, and twice more in the last minute of OT. 25, 7 for Gar Spen, 22, 3 for Hill. Lutz got badly outplayed again, and our bench even more so- 21, 6, 3 to 39, 13, 7.

We're going to give Cory Ward some of Lutz's minutes.

Our next 3 are at home.

[Wayne23]

11/28: 70-56 over William & Mary. We led for the last 34 minutes. Nice to have one that doesn't come down to the last possession. 20, 5, 3 with 6 steals for Hill, 15, 7 for Vank. We turned them over 26 times.

I've been getting lots of pressure from the Christians to go to church and Bible study. These are not the same people involved in the religion gang wars a couple of years back, but they're persistent and annoying as hell. I have no interest in what they're selling, which I keep telling them.

[Wayne23]

12/1: 66-64. Another one that was close all the way mostly because we didn't play well. At the end we gave it to Hill. He didn't have a good game but he did hit two threes in the last 30 seconds. Cory Ward had 11 and 8, and he is very close to getting the starting job at SF. Spen had 11, 9.

Toughest team on the schedule next- LSU.

[Wayne23]

12/5: 89-80 over LSU in OT. HELL of a win! We were down 12 with 15 minutes to play. We came back because of Arlo Vank, 23, 12, Cris Hill, 17, and #3 guard Cory Kest, 14, 4, 3. Kev Wilk really moved the ball around well at the Point. We tied it at the end of regulation on Vank's 8 footer. Then in Ot we just dominated. Their C fouled out in the first minute of OT and Vank scored 8 points after that. We started Ward at SF. He played well. Our bench gave us 26, 15, 6, its best performance of the season.

We're 6-1, with 2 more, both on the road, before Conf. J play begins.

[Wayne23]

12/12: 54-74 at Canisius. I was worried about this one. Turns out I was right to be. They led all the way and it was never really close. 13, 7 for Hill, 12, 5 for Vank. Ward was invisible on O but his D was good. We shot 32%, 3-20 on threes.

We simply don't have an SF. Ward at least gives us some D.

I'm enjoying the break from classes. I enjoy them but they add a lot of work to my day and I go to bed really tired when I'm taking classes.

Catching up on my rest these days. But, one of the great dangers in prison is being bored and the courses prevent that. I just coach more and read more when I'm not taking classes.