Hereafter

[Wayne23]

5/1: Recruit class #29. Preseason #22.

6/5: We don't lose any transfers.

6/12: No one of interest in the pool.

6/26: 2 scholarships. I'd like 1 and 1.

7/18: 6 months with Millie as of today. I made a very big deal of it. I told her how much she means to me. I felt it was too soon to propose. I'm thinking mid-October if things continue to go as well as they've been going.

8/7: Hel Tuck is #25 and Trey Berr #50 on the Norton list. Both underrated, I say!

We're getting close to the solar system. Only three planets. The outer one has 7 moons but it's too far away from its sun. The inner one is too near.

8/21: We offer to a PG and a PF.

We are orbiting the planet and moon we're interested in. Just getting into orbit. No signs of intelligent life, at least so far.

[Wayne23]

8/24: Robotic landers on both the planet and the moon indicate that intelligent life has never developed here but there are lots of interesting plants, some very sophisticated.

8/27: There are lots of indications that the plant life here is intelligent. It seems like there are family units among several species for one thing., For another, plants seem to grow toward a destination.

They do not seem threatened by our robots and do seem curious about them. It seems unlikely that we'll be able to communicate with the plants and there's no way to tell, at least for now, how intelligent they are. The same species exist on both the planet and the moon.

9/18: We get the PF.

Going to our first in season tourney, Tip-Off in Paradise in Hawaii where we play Marshall. Challenging schedule. Hopefully not too challenging!

9/25: We get the PG.

The experts seem to think the plants are trying to communicate with us. We're extending our stay to see if that's true, and to see if we can make it
happen.

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

No real communication with the plants yet but the experts think they may be close.

11/1: The plants are definitely trying to “talk” to us. We're sending math now to see if that will help. We can't interpret what they're sending but they ARE sending, actually, to our computer system. How? We have no idea. Telepathy? Anyway, we've had no success translating what they're sending, at least so far.

Millie is a psychologist and she is very involved in the attempt to communicate with the plants. If communication is successful she will be a member of a three person team that “talks” with them. She is understandably very excited about this.

11/13: Here's our lineup: Junior Trey Berr is back at PG and looking very good in practice.

Soph Kay Scot is at SG.

Our #3 guard is soph Guy Bara. #4 is juco junior Jon Grey, who has been disappointing. #5 is walk on soph Ren Will, who will play only in blowouts or in case of injury.

Soph Max Wain is at SF. He's more comfortable inside but handles the ball well. We have high hopes for him. He's a transfer from Michigan ST, where he started.

Senior Hal Tuck is back at PF. How well and consistently he plays will be a big factor in how successful we are.

Soph Dev Stok is back at C. He had a great rookie season and looks even better so far this year.

1st big off the bench is soph Mal Bult who didn't play much last season but has really upped his game.

2nd is Kris Cole, who we expected to either start or be 1st big off the bench but he hasn't been impressive so far.

Finally we have frosh Dan Hays who has great potential but isn't quite ready yet.

[Wayne23]

11/14: We start play tomorrow with Butler here. They're a good team. We don't know much, of course but we think we're better even though they are a 3 ½ star team. We'll see.

11/15: Let's see what we're made of!

Close early. Up 4 after 10. Up only 1 at the half. Tuck is looking good, as is soph Max Wain. 2 TOs. +14 in the paint. But their bench is +13.

“I need more effort on D!”

A mini-run puts us up 6 with 10 to play.

76-74. We went back door to Wain, who dunked it with less than a second left. They were overplaying Tuck, which allowed the back door play to work.

26, 12 for Tuck with 5 blocks, 19, 10 for Wain; we were thrilled to get him when he decided to transfer from Michigan ST.

We got next to nothing from the bench, 4, 5,2 to their 25, 10, 4. We did play our starters for lots of minutes. 7 TOs to 14. Slight edge in shooting %, and a
huge +20 in the paint.

We beat a good team in our opener!

A breakthrough in communicating with the plants! Our translators are getting more emotions than actual words, but the emotions are strong, and not positive. We're sensing fear, extreme fear. The communication is in the form of colors, shapes, things like that. Evidently the gradations in meaning are exceedingly subtle. While our translators feel they now have an understanding, at least a basic understanding, of what is being transmitted, they still don't know how to respond. We want to make it clear that the plants have nothing to fear from us. In the weeks we've been here we have not so much as taken a cutting of a single plant, and we won't. But it may be some time before we can deliver that message.

[Wayne23]

11/17: Off to the Tip-Off in paradise where we're the #2 seed. We face #7 Marshall, 0-1. They didn't look good in their opener, which was against a nobody.

11/18: We take a quick lead. Up 11 after 10. Up only 5 at the break. Trey Berr has 12, 2, 6, sub Kris Cole has 9 and 4. +5 RBs, 2 TOs. Their SF has 15. They take a lead. Up 4 with 10 to go.

84-82. Another one possession game. Trey Barr hit an 18 footer with 4.6 to play. We defended well and they got off a poor shot that went wide.

19, 6, 3 for Wain, 17, 5 for Stok, 13, 9 for Tuck, 14, 6, 6 for Berr, 10, 8 for Cole.

+8 RBs, 9 TOs. +20 in the paint, most of them in the 2nd half.

[Wayne23]

11/19: #3 seed Southern Cal, 1-0, tonight in the semifinals. They score most of their points outside. We think we're better.

11/19: Game time: We take a lead. Up 13 after 10. Up 11 after 10. Balanced scoring. We're shooting 50% to 42.3%. Too many TOs but 5 fewer than them. Up 6 with 10 left. They're coming at us. Tuck gets hot and scores 8 in about 2 minutes.

93-76. BIG finish! 20, 9 for Stok, 19, 5 for Tuck, 17, 4 for SG K Scot, in his first good game. 11, 1, 11, 4 steals for Berr.

+9 RBs, but 17 TOs (They had 22). We outshot them 57-45%. +18 in the paint, +14 on 2nd chances.

An expensive win. Starting C Dev Stok hurt his wrist and he's out for a week. We're going to start Kris Cole; he's been looking good.

[Wayne23]

11/20: #4 seed, #20 ranked ST Bonnie's, 3-0, for the title. We think we have an edge but they've looked good. They haven't really played anyone though. We climb to #8.

11/20: Game time: We take a lead. Up 10 with 10 played. Big run puts us up 17 at the half. 17, 1, 6 for Scot, who seems to have found himself. We're shooting 56.3% to 33.3%. Up 24 with 10 left.

91-54. Now THAT was a butt kicking!

25, 2, 9 for Scot, 16, 8, 2, 3 steals, 3 blocks for Tuck, 12 each for Berr and #3 guard Bara.

+10 RBs, 10 TOs. +23.3% shooting. +10 in the paint.

The translators are still wrestling with the frustrations of communicating with the plants. They feel they're getting close. In the meantime our robots are keeping their distance from the plants and working extra hard to be nonthreatening.

[Wayne23]

11/21; 2-0 Dayton is here. They've looked pretty good against nobodies but they are sloppy. Dev Stok will miss this game and our next but he's recovering well.

11/22: “Don't let their PG beat you!”

Back and forth. We heat up and lead by 8 after 10. Still up 8 at the midway point. 13 for Berr, 11, 6 for Cole. +9 at the line and their inside guys are both in foul trouble. +7 RBs, 3 TOs. +8 in the paint. Strong start to the 2nd half. +15 with 10 left.

83-66. I was worried about their PG but he wasn't a factor. Easy win.

26,5 for Tuck, 19, 10 for Cole. Scot had 8, 6, 11.

+11 RBs, 6 TOs. +18 in the paint.

[PointGuard]

Bud, I thought your posts might stem from being on weed, but didn't want to sound like a dim-bulb as i tried to get to the root of your recent field of thought and how fir you wood take it. But then I rose up and figured you're such a pistil that you're just planting seeds that will flower in the future. So I'm digging it and at this point will just leaf you alone to germinate more ideas and then spruce up your comments, and we'll just see what the fruit of your labors will yield.

[Wayne23]

A very well grounded post!

[Wayne23]

11/24: 3-0 Miami is here. They have an excellent Point and they work it inside well. They play excellent D. Kris Cole will need to step up tonight; he's been playing well so I think he will.

11/25: It's close and they're good. Tied after 10. Up 6 at the half. 13 for Tuck, 12 for Berr, 10, 6 for Wain, who has been quiet lately. Sloppy 1st half, we have 7 TOs, they have 10. Both teams are shooting well over 50%. We're winning it at the line, +13.

“You need to play harder on D.”

Up only 5 with 10 to go. Big late run.

92-72. 3 guys with 20 or more, Berr had 24, 3, 5, 21, 11 for Wain, 20, 10 for Tuck. +12% shooting, +18 in the paint.

We're 6-0, ranked #3!

I proposed to Millie last night. Ring and everything. She said yes. It wasn't exactly a surprise to her, we've talked about it, but she didn't know when I was going to do it. I decided it's time. I don't want a long engagement either.
“Not until we settle this thing with those plants. I'm working really long hours and it will stay that way until we figure it out and hopefully are able to really communicate well with them.