Hereafter

[Wayne23]

1/21: Nobody is making shots. Up 2 after 10. They got hot. Down 7 at halftime. We can't buy a basket. Down 7 with 10 left. OT!

68-75. We were awful in the OT, couldn't score. This was a defensive battle all the way; we shot 34%. They won it at the line and inside.

17, 5, 4 for Maxx, 13, 5 for Ward. A season high 18 TOs.

Washington ST, 7-10, 1-5, is here. This is a game we should win easily. This should be the last game Milt misses.

[Wayne23]

1/25: Big early lead. Up 15 after 10. Up 27 at the break; this is a blowout. Up 35 with 10 left.

97-55. The guards did a lot, Ward had 21, 6, 7, Maxx had 20, 5, 6. 15, 12, 3 for Mann, 14, 4 for Moro.

We shot 5.1% to 30%. +18 RBs, 8 TOs. +24 in the paint. A real laugher.

Milt is back! Free stays at SF. Tuck and Ruck are the first 2 bigs off the bench.

12-6, 4-3 UCLA is here next. Very solid back court with an SG who can light it up. We're much better inside. We'll need to play well.

Mal Moro, red shirt soph C/F: I came to this school to play, and when I was recruited they told me if I worked hard I would play. It's not happening and I'm not happy. I'm looking into transferring.

The probe is getting signals from the spacecraft but so far the probe can't decipher the signals and neither can we. We're trying to break the code and figure it out.

[Wayne23]

1/28: Back and forth. Down 4 after 10. We can't make a shot. Down 6 at the half. Shooting .281. Down 12 with 10 left. We're in a lot of trouble. We get back in it late!

74-71. HELL of a comeback. We were down 17 with less than 5 minutes left and we suddenly both got hot, and started causing TOs. I went to a full court man-to-man press and it created 6 TOs in the last 4 ½ minutes.

19, 7 for Free, 15, 12 for Mann, 13, 0, 9, 3 steals for Ward, 10, 5 for Tuck, who clearly plays better from the bench than he does starting. Milt's rust was showing.

They shot better, 46.7% to 38.5%, but we took 20 more shots, made only 4 of them, but it was enough. 13 TOs to 23, many of theirs were late. +26 in the paint.

Ranked #6. 1 game up on Utah and Washington. Colorado is 2 back. It's still early.

Jam Moro: I played 2 freakin' minutes. Got a basket and a rebound. Just give me a shot!

At 11-10, 3-5 Oregon. We won by 16 at our place. They are a good inside team and they play tough D.

Still trying to decipher the message from the spacecraft to the probe. It's not breaking at all.

[Wayne23]

2/1: It's a battle early. Down 3 after 10. They're killing us from behind the line. Down 21 at the half. Not good. Down 22 with 10 left. We're getting blown out.

59-82. Now THAT was an old fashioned ass kicking. Not happy!

They shot 50%, we shot 33.3%. -11 RBs. Their PF had 34 and 15. We just didn't show up tonight.

Last time this happened I ignored it and moved on, focusing on the next game at practice. That actually worked pretty well.

Art Ruck hurt his foot. Out about a week.

We're tied with #21 Utah for the PAC 12 lead. Washington and Colorado are one back, UCLA is 2 back.

At 11-10, 4-5 Oregon ST. We're better in every statistical category but we need to play better than we just did.

6 of our final 9 are away. We play all the top teams, and every one is a road game.

Our geeks think they may be beginning to crack the message from the spacecraft.

Council meetings have been pleasant and efficient. Ruth Ward has worked very hard. Some of her views are not in accord with the rest of us, but she makes her point, calmly and rationally, and moves on. Once or twice she has shifted the Council's thinking a little.

[Wayne23]

2/4: Tied after 10. Down 6 at the half. We look awful. Down 13 with 10 left. I have no answers.

77-88. Back to back double digit losses to mediocre teams. We lost it at the line, 15-29.

24 for Ward.

We're getting nothing out of the Center position.

The staff had a long meeting after the game. We came up with nothing. Whatever is going on is going to need to fix itself. This is our best lineup and we're staying with it. Hopefully playing at home will help.

9-12, 4-6 Stanford is here. They lead the PAC 12 in TOs; sloppy team.

[PointGuard]

Slumps suck!

[Wayne23]

Yes they do, especially when there are no good options regarding changing things up.

[Wayne23]

2/8: Early lead. Up 12 after 10. Up 18 at the half. We look a lot better tonight. Up 24 with 10 to play.

77-68, but it wasn't that close.16, 7, 3 for Mann, 16, 3, 3 for Free. 10, 9 for Milt, his first decent game since coming back from the injury. We let them shoot 53.3% but we took 25 more shots. Made 5 more. -6 RBs, which is not good. 8 TOs.

Our next 4, and 5 of our next 6, are going to be challenging.

We're 18-5, 8-3, alone in 2nd, 1 back of 1st, 1 up on 4th.

At 13-9, 7-4 Washington, just one back of us. They don't score a lot of points but they are tough to score on. We need this one to stay alone in 2nd place.

We've deciphered the message and answered it. Fortunately, the beings on the spacecraft were patient.

They asked about our motives and intentions. Their message was welcoming in nature and they made it clear that they understood it might take us a while to translate their message and get back to them.

Our reply told them that there were no life forms aboard the probe but that it was in touch with a ship. We informed them of our planet of origin and told them we were on a peaceful mission of exploration and discovery.

We are now translating their reply, which came after a two day delay. We assume they're having their own translation issues but they are clearly better at it than we are.

Translating is a process for us because their method of communication is totally unlike ours.

[Wayne23]

2/11: Good start! Up only 2 after 10. Up 3 at the half. If we could make some shots... Run! Up 14 with 10 left.

84-83. We let them back in and damned near gave the game away.

19, 12 for Mann, 19, 4 for Maxx, 14, 7 for Free.

+9 RBs but 15 TOs, 2 in the last minute. They shot 50% and took 3 more shots than us, making 3. We won it at the line, 23-26 to 9-17. They were +16 in the paint.

We don't get any style points but we got the win, barely, but we got it. We're in a 2 way tie for the PAC 12 lead with Utah, 2 up on 2 teams, 3 up on 3 more. This was a very big win.

Great news! We get the final recruit we've been chasing since July.

At 13-10, 7-5 Colorado. We won by 25 at our place, scoring 103. They usually play good D but we completely shredded it.

[Wayne23]

2/15: Every game is a pressure game from now on. Let's see how we handle that. Not well early. Then we come back. Up 8 after 10. Up 18 at the half! Up 19 with 10 to go.

97-70. We crush their D again! 16, 6 for Maxx. Great bench play inside, 15, 6 for Tuck, 14, 3 for Ruck. 13, 7 and lock down D for Milt.

Shooting pct. was similar but we took 14 more shots, made 6, and were 11-17 from behind the line, +8 at the line. +12 RBs, 8 TOs.

Still tied for 1st with 5 to play. Everyone else is out of it, at least 3 back.

14-10, 4-9 Arizona is here. We won by 14 there. On paper it's not a tough game but we need to play. It feels like our slump is over so hopefully we WILL play!

Slow communication with the spacecraft. I expect it to speed up as we get to know each other's form of communication better.

They ask to meet our crew. We reply and ask if we can scan the inside of their ship first and let them know they will be allowed to do the same if we do meet. Waiting for a reply.