The Phenom

[Wayne23]

2/15: 66-62 at 15-10, 8-7 Tulsa. We took an early lead. They came back and it went back and forth. Down 1 at the half. We took the lead early in the 2nd half and held it but it got close several times.

19, 4 for Bree, 14, 11 for Hawk, 10, 6, 5 for Wins.

We didn't shoot well (35%, 5-23 on threes, 63.3% from the line).

2 game lead in the AAC.

[Wayne23]

2/17: 69-70 at 9-16, 6-9 at South Florida. Close throughout the 1st half. Up 2 at the end of it. This is not a game we should have lost. I am NOT happy.

20 TOs, only 28 RBs, we let them shoot 51.9%.

Bree was terrific with 27 and 5, and Toma had 12 and 10. Everybody else was pretty awful. This may have blown our chance of finishing in 1st place in the AAC. We could actually finish 3rd.

I called Brandi again. She told me that if I'm still here after job offer season to give her a call.

[Wayne23]

2/22: 80-59 at 11-15, 5-12 Tulane. We took an early lead. Up by 9 at the half. Easy win.

Up by 1 with 3 to play.

17, 6 for Toma, 10, 10 for Hawk, 12, 6, 3 for Bree, 11, 7, 5 for Ward.

+15 RBs. Great D held them to 35.4% from the floor and 3-11 on threes.

At #4 Memphis, 25-5, 14-4 next. We won by 24 there but this figures to be a much tougher game. On paper it's a toss up with them being favored by a half point. We need to get it inside all night long on O and beat their press, and shut down their strong outside game on D and control the boards.

[Wayne23]

2/24: 81-89. Close early, then we took the lead. Up 6 at the half. Our 2nd half D let us down; they scored 50.

They shot 52.9% and made 10 threes to our 6 (for 21). +4 RBs but 16 TOs to their 14. We didn't do the things we needed to do.

28, 10 for Hawk, 13, 5 for Toma, 17, 2, 8 for Ward, but Bree and Wins did nothing and our bench got beat, 11, 7, 4 to 47, 11, 16. Bench was the
biggest factor.

3 way tie for 1st in the AAC. If it ended today we'd be the #2 seed.

[Wayne23]

3/1: 90-75 vs. 14-14, 9-9 Southern Methodist here. We took an early lead. Up only 4 at the half. We took over early in the 2nd.

17, 12 for Toma, 16, 11 for Hawk, 16, 6 for Ward, 13, 7 for Juli.

+7 RBs, 8 TOs. We only shot 39% but we took 22 more shots.

Memphis lost. We're tied with Temple for the AAC lead with one to play, and right now we're the #1 seed. Our last regular season game is at home against the last place team.

[Wayne23]

3/3: 84-56 vs. 8-20, 4-15 Central Florida here. Big early lead. Up 22 at the half. Easy win.

16, 9, 3 for Toma, 13, 10 for Hawk, 14, 5, 3 for Wins, 12, 4, 7 for Ward.

+8 RBs, 10 TOs. We held them to 35.2%, 5-26 on threes.

Temple was upset at home so we end up alone in 1st place in the AAC.

We end the regular season at 26-5, 16-4, #8, NET #11. If we win the AAC tournament we should have a shot at a #2 seed. We'll see.

Overall NET #2, Offensive NET #3, Def. NET #27. #1 in PPG, #2 in RBs.

+14.7 PPG, +5.8 RBs, -5.8 TOs.

All 5 starters average in double figures and Deke Juli gets 9.6. Hawk leads us with 14.4, and leads in RBs with 8.4.

PG is still lots of fun. He gives me some laughs whenever I'm at home.

[Wayne23]

3/9: We play #8 seed Houston, 15-15, 7-13, in the quarter finals. Beat them by 3 in OT there, and by 14 at our place. This is not an easy game for us.

Scouting Coach Yaph King: We're better at every position and our bench is better, but they can score so we need to play tough D, especially inside.

They press often and play mostly man so we need to take care of the ball and find the open man.

3/10: 92-58. They stayed with us for 11 or 12 minutes. Up by 23 at the half. My kids came to play tonight!

22, 8 for Toma, 20, 9 for Juli, 18, 11 for Hawk, 18, 4, 3 for Bree. Our inside game was unstoppable.

+20 RBs, 8 TOs. We shot 51.6%, held them to 35.6%.

It's #4 seed, Cincinnati, 20-11, 5-5, in the semis. We won by 12 there, 38 here, so this is a game we should win, but we need to play well.

Yaph KIng: They look outside first but have a low pct. on threes. They have a C who can do it all. But they don't score easily, 69.0 PPG. SO we need top play good D and if we do they're in trouble.

On O, as always, just keep getting it inside.

[Wayne23]

3/11: 62-58. They took the lead early but we came back. Up 3 at the half. Whew! It was close all the way, with the teams never separated by more than 9. We hit our foul shots, 6-6, in the last minute or so.

16, 10 for Hawk, 14, 4 for Toma, 11, 6 for Ward. But the great D, especially on their PG and C made the difference.

The stats were very close in every category in this nail biter.

No surprise that we face #3 seed, #5 ranked Memphis, 28-6, 15-5, for the title. We won by 24 here, lost by 8 there.

Yaph King: We think we have an edge and so do the odds makers who favor us by 2 1/2.

They have a weak PG and we need to keep the pressure on him. Their SG is a strong player so Mike Wins will need to stay with him. As usual we feel like we're better inside. Our bench is better than theirs. Statistically there is very little difference between the teams.

On O we need to beat the press and work to find the open man, as well as moving without the ball.

On D we need to stop their inside game.

[Wayne23]

3/12: 76-74 and the title. Close early and it stayed that way through the half. Up 3 at the break. Never more than a 7 point difference. We won it on
Deke Juli's 12 footer with a hand in his face at the buzzer. He was fouled; they didn't call it and it didn't matter.

15, 9 for both Toma and Bree. 13, 5 for Juli. 12 each for Ward and Wins.

The stats were really close in all categories. This was a war.

Toma strained his abdominals. Out for at least the first two games of the NCAA tourney. Not good.

#7, NET #9. We're hoping for a #2 seed but a #3 is probably likely.

#2 East. Toughest region. We start with #15 seed Delaware ST, 20-12. Down the line are #7 Seton Hall, then #2, but #1 NET Georgetown.

[Wayne23]

3/16: 96-83. They came to play, and it took us a long time to take a solid lead. Up 10 at the half. We were never in danger in the 2nd half, and we led by as many as 29.

20, 3, 5 for Wins, 20, 0, 6 for Ward, 16, 3, 6 for Bree, 15, 8 for Juli, starting for Toma, and 15, 4 for Hawk.

11 TOs. We beat them from outside, 11 threes to 4.

#10 seed, conference rival Temple, 22-10. They beat us by one there, we won by 21 at home.

Yaph King: We feel like we're better at every position, even with Toma out.

They use a lot of different offenses against the man, and they score both inside and out.

On D they press now and then and go with man to man most of the time with a little 2-3 thrown in.

If we play our game we should be fine.