Hereafter

[Wayne23]

2/5: 17-6, 5-4 DePaul is here to open a 3 game home stand. We absolutely need to go 3-0. They're 2-1 vs. ranked teams so we need to earn it. We score a lot more points than they do but we give up a lot more, too. We're favored by 1 ½.

2/6: Down 3 after 10; they came to play. Down 5 at halftime. Dunk has only 5, but 11 boards; his man has 15. Oh, he's going by Dar now, not Dee. 4 fewer TOs but lousy shooting, -10%. More has 3 fouls.

“You need to step it up! Dar, show me what you're made of!”

We finally take a lead; up 3 with 10 left.

74-66. A late run brought it home.

13, 13 for Dunk, 15, 3, 4 for Doli, 10, 3, 3 for Demi. We don't mention our guards much. The staff still debates whether to start Demi for Reid at PG. It's a tough call.

12 TOs to 222. That was a big factor; taking 16 more shots was the other big factor.

[Wayne23]

2/8: 9-14, 2-8 Xavier is here. Their starting C broke a finger. His sub isn't getting it done. Big opportunity for Fin More. They have a good PG. They have a lot of trouble scoring. I'm giving Demi more minutes but Reid is still starting.

2/9: Early lead. Up 7 after 10. Up 17 at the break. 11, 5, 2, 3, 2 for Dunk, 8, 1, 3 for Reid, who is rising to the challenge of losing minutes. +5 RBs. +25% shooting! +10 in the paint. Only up 8 with 10 to go.

73-66. We damn near threw it away; they got it to 2 twice.

17, 9 for Dunk but 6 TOs and 4 fouls. 16, 2, 4 for Reid; his best game in a LONG time.

2/10: 9:58 a.m. Ship's time: “Captain, we're in the midst of a lot of rocks. This is going to be bumpy. You might order people to strap in or at least to stay close to a place where they can!”

“I'm on it.

“Attention all members of the crew. As quickly as you can safely do so strap in. We may be in for a rough ride. I'll sound the all clear when I can.”

10:44 a.m.: We just got hit by a rock. It was a glancing blow. We're too much in the middle of a rock field to check for damage but all vital systems are working throughout the ship according to the reports I'm getting and there was no hull breach. Scary though, and there's bound to be some damage. And we have all those shuttles attached to the hull; we're sure to lose some of those.

3:45 p.m., ship's time: “Captain, we're out of the acute danger zone, but there are still lots of rocks. I advise going to code yellow.”

“Thanks, Chief. Will do.” Code yellow is a heightened state of alert readiness. In other words, go about your work but be ready to strap in at any moment.

11:12 p.m., ship's time: Damage report shows 12 shuttles destroyed, a weakened hull over an area of 19% of the hull that will need repairs. I've already sent robot crews out to take care of that, and we're 3D printing shuttles.

2/11: The robot crews are incredible. Most of the hull damage is repaired and the rest will be shortly.

[Wayne23]

2/12: 16-9, 7-4 Vermont is here. We beat them by 7 there. We're in a 3 way tie for third with them and one other team, 1 back of 2nd. On paper they're a lot better but we won there so...

2/13: It's close early. Up 7 after 10. 51-43 at the half. 12 for More, 9, 6 for Rude, 8 each for Dunk and Jaco, so it's the bigs who are getting it done. 1 TO so far! +8 from the line. +14 in the paint. Stretching out the lead, up 12 with 10 left.

98-90 in a real shoot out. They made a late run but never got closer than 6.

23, 6 for More, 21, 5 for Dunk, 17, 4 for Jaco, 13, 2, 3 for Reid, who is playing much better since I cut his minutes.

+6 RBs. We shot better but took 16 fewer shots, which is really unusual for us. +23 from the line.

In a 2 way tie for 3rd, 1 back of 2nd. 4 to play, 3 on the road, but 2 of those are against cupcakes.

Another thick patch of space rocks. We battened down for 6 hours but nothing hit us.

I'm not really having a lot of stress over being the final decision maker. I just make the best decision I can. When possible I seek the advice of the experts in the given field. Other times there isn't time for that so I do the best I can. Spending years as the Director of Statistics I was all over the ship, seeing every department more than once a week so I have a good sense of what goes on in every department, which helps. But do I like the job? Not at all. And I miss playing with numbers in the Stats department- a LOT!

[Wayne23]

2/15: At 11-14, 1-11 last place ST Johns. We won by only 12 at our place. They rebound poorly and have trouble scoring. They play decent D, but not against good teams usually, although they held us to 65.

2/16: Slow start. Up 5 after 10. Up 18 at the break. 8, 12 for Dunk. +10 RBs, 5 fewer TOs. +11% shooting. +8 in the paint. +8 with 10 left; they're trying to come back.

76-72. Whew! They got it to 2, with the ball, twice late.

16, 17 for Dunk, 11 each for Rude and Doli. More was awful. Played exactly 5 minutes before fouling out.; admittedly, two of them were bad calls but he showed no discipline, and he's a senior!

+10 RBs. -10 from the line and they shot better, but we took 21 more shots. +12 in the paint.

Alone in 3rd place.

We're still in the heavy rock zone but the navigators have been getting us through, often in very difficult situations.

[Wayne23]

2/19: At 7-19, 2-11 Seton Hall, BUT, we went to overtime to beat them at our place and we were very lucky to get the win! We're +5 points vs. all opponents and they're -6. They're 0-6 vs. ranked teams. We shoot better and rebound better. But they can be tough at home.

2/20: Back and forth. Up 3 after 10. Up 7 at the break. 11, 4 for Dunk, 12 for More. +9 RBs. We're shooting much better, +22.5%. We should be winning by more.

“Fin, their C has 3 fouls, go at him!”

Up 1 with 10 left.

92-89. Dan Reid hit a 30 footer at the buzzer. We've played them twice and gotten lucky twice. Hope we don't play them in the post season!

23, 11 for Dunk, 22, 9, 4 blocks for More. +17 RBs nut 10 more TOs. +10% shooting but 8 fewer shots. +10 in the paint.

An expensive win. Fin More sprained a finger and is out for the regular season.

Hali has been patient; we're not able to see each other nearly as much as I would like and I hope she would like.

“Hali, if we were married we'd see more of each other.”

“Way too soon, Jed. Talk about it in 6 months if you still feel the same way then.”

“6 months!”

Rocks. I don't know how we're avoiding them. I swear it's by millimeters sometimes.

[Wayne23]

2/22: 17-12, 7-7 Villanova is here. We won by 11 there, but we had More. This won't be easy, and we need it.

2/23: Down early. Down 19 after 10; we're getting shellacked! Down 20 at the half. -15% shooting. Dunk has 3 fouls. 11 TOs! Down 16 with 10 to play.

78-82. Huge comeback but not enough.

12, 11 for Dunk, 13, 6 for Hosi, 15, 2, 2, 4 for Doli.

18 TOs. The stats make it look like it was a close game; it wasn't.

[Wayne23]

2/26: Tied for 3rd, 1 up on 5th, 1 back of 2nd, but we play the best (by far) team in the league, #8 Georgetown, 23-8, 13-2, there. With More we might have had a slim chance; without him...

2/27: They're scary good outside.

We fall behind early, then way behind. Down 14 after 10. Down 26 at the half. Just let it end! Down 32 with 10 left. 62-89. Ugly!

Dunk had his worst game of the season, 4 and 4. 13, 8 for Hosi, 12, 7 for Rude.

We end the regular season at 21-9, 10-6, tied for 4th and we should have the #4 seed. NET #6. +3.4 PPG, +5.3 RBs, tied at 15 TOs, which is awful. Dunk leads us with 16.6, 10.5. More gets 12.8, 6.0. Reid gets 5.2 assists.

2/28: Disaster struck the ship in the middle of the night.

The navigators got into an impossible situation. They dodged three enormous rocks but we were hit with a smaller one. It hit the port side, bottom two decks, causing a hull breach in Water Procurement and Distribution and in the areas near there. 19 people were killed and it destroyed WPD. 6 shuttles were destroyed, and 14 people were injured, some seriously.

Robot crews, with some assistance from humans, are working feverishly to repair the breach. The injured have all been removed to sick bay.

3/1: 7:00 p.m.: “The Council will come to order. Captain, report.”

“The hull breach has been patched and the ship is temporarily secured. More permanent repairs are in progress. We are printing parts for the new hull for that section of the ship-”

“What about water? What about shuttles?”

“I'm getting to that, Ali. We have enough 3D printers to produce the water we need in emergency conditions, which are in place. No showers, minimal washing and cleaning. As soon as the hull is permanently secured and repairs are complete we'll start printing all of the equipment WPD needs. After that it will be repairs to the living quarters that were destroyed or damaged and then shuttles and other things that need replacement or repair. This is going to take some time.”

“The dead and injured?”

“Four of the dead were WPD employees at work. The other 15 were in their quarters when the rock destroyed them. The injured all suffered injuries from being thrown around by the impact. Two are in critical condition and may not survive. The others have injuries of varying intensity but they should all recover.”

“How can we speed up the process of getting back to normal?”

“Well, I've set a new course to get us out of the rock zone, but it will take a few days to get to somewhere that's mostly safe. Other than that, remain calm and try to help the crew to remain calm and make the most of a very bad situation.”

“We can only go at half speed for now but we don't need to be anywhere at any particular time so that doesn't really matter.”

There were more questions but these were the critical ones. It will be at least a month before we're back to normal, but we've lost 19 workers so far so we'll need to make adjustments and do some training.

[Wayne23]

3/5: No one declares for the draft. I was worried that Dunk might. I'm really glad he's staying.

The temporary hull is holding. The work crew Director says we're about a week away from a new permanent hull.

3/9: We play # 5 seed Vermont in the quarter finals. Their starting PF has a concussion but he's recovering and will play at least some. We beat them by 7 there, 8 here. It's difficult to beat a good team three times. In both games good ball handling and excellent bench play got us through.

3/10: It's close early. Up 7 after 10. Up 9 at the half. 8 each for Dunk and More. 5 TOs to 11. Bench is playing well. We're getting beat inside but we're doing the things we need to do, mostly.

“Don't let up. They won't!”

10-0 run to start the 2nd half. Up 12 with 10 to play.

89-84. They were down three with the ball with less than a minute left.

20, 8 for Dunk, 13, 2, 8 for Reid. Starters all had 12 or more. 17, 14, 5 for the bench to 16, 12, 6, so a very slight edge.

10 TOs to 16. -12 in the paint and they shot better, but we did enough to win.

[Wayne23]

3/12: #2 seed, #6 ranked Creighton in the title game. They're 26-5, 12-4. They crushed us by 29 at their place but we were in an awful slump at the time. They do a lot of things well.

Game time: “This is for the Big East title, guys.”

They take an early lead. Down 16 after 10; not good. Down 14 at the half. They're shooting 53.8% to our 34.5%. -7 RBs, 11 TOs (to 9). -8 at the line.

“No one is in foul trouble so play hard. Good shot selection and work to get open.”

Down 12 with 10 to go. It would take a miracle.

78-92. We got it to 7 twice but then they pulled away.

They shut down both Dunk, 5 and 6, and More, 9 and 6.

-11 RBs, 18 TOs (to 10). -14.9% shooting.

Jaco hurt his hip and may miss our first NCAA game.

[Wayne23]

#4 South. We play #13 Hofstra, 21-11. We're favored by 3 ½. We need to rebound and play solid D.

Water Dept. is not up to speed yet. It will take at least another week. Repairs to living quarters are on hold for now. We have plenty of vacant living quarters so we simply reassigned the affected people.

3/17: Early lead. Up 5 after 10. Down 4 at the half. Shooting 25% to 41.9%. -12 in the paint.

“It's not rocket science guys. Make some freakin' shots!”

We miss our first 5 shots in the 2nd half. Down 6 with 10 left.

69-78. Poor shooting, 32.8%, did us in.

14, 13 for Dunk but 6 TOs and he fouled out.

-6 RBs but 8 fewer TOs. -10 in the paint. But it was the shooting that did it.

Not a terrible first season here and better days are coming.

3/28: Water Department is back up and running at 100%. New employees being trained.

It's nice to have our usual water supply, which we have for the first time today. Living quarters repairs are next.

We're well out of the danger zone regarding rocks and we're just going to avoid that region of space. We should have done that to begin with but there's a star system we really want to visit and it's going to take a lot longer to get there.