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[Wayne23]

2/10: At 10-12, 6-5 New Hampshire. We won by 22 at home. We score 8 more a game and give up exactly the same. They don't have a go to guy but they have 8 who score between 6.9 and 10.6. It will come down to how we play on the road, which hasn't been very good.

2/11: We take an early lead. Up 21 after 10. Up 31 at the half. We held them to 19 points on 5-25 shooting, 0-5 on threes. +8 RBs, 5 TOs. We shot 57.1%. +12 in the paint. Yes, I'm impressed! Up Up 33 with 10 to play.

89-53. Amazing! Does this mean anything long term or is it a fluke? No idea.

16, 11, 6 for Thor, 17, 3 for #3 guard Ad Mill. +15 RBs, +20 in the paint, +15 on 2nd chances. 8 TOs.

We're 2 up on 4 3rd place teams now.

"Any suggestions or thoughts, Dee?"

"Hey, embrace it! Sometimes teams suddenly gel. Maybe that's it. Or maybe not. In any case use it in a positive way at practice."

"Your guys are running through the AEC."

"Yeah, but it's a weak conference. If we make the Sweet 16 this year I'll be thrilled."

"You're ranked # 8."

"We are, but I think that's based more on last year. With Gracie out we're not gonna beat the top teams."

"No chance she'll be back for the post season?"

"The docs are saying she can't start working out until late May or early June."

[Wayne23]

2/14: 12-11, 7-5 Binghamton is here. We won by 11 at their place. We should dominate inside, we did last time.

2/15: We fall behind early then come back. Down 4 after 10. We're not playing D. A mini-run puts us up 11 at the half. 14 for Bays, 11 for Suli. They shot 53.8%. 5 TOs to 11.

86-67. Another strong outing. Dare I hope?

25, 2, 4 for Bays, 17, 8 for Suli, 12, 6 for Thor.

+11 RBs.

"3 really solid games in a row."

"I'm feeling pretty good about these guys right now but the next one will be a challenge."

[PointGuard]

Sorta thinking Dee needs to move on to Hawaii and turn the University of Hawaii Rainbow Wahine into national champions. Still some mountains, but no snow.

[Wayne23]

That would be a challenge with everyone not in state being expensive...

[Wayne23]

2/17: At 14-10, 8-5 Hartford. We won by 16 at home. We're favored. We should have an edge in the paint and we should be able to turn them over.

2/18: We take a quick lead. Up 6 after 10. Up 6 at the half. 16, 6 for Suli. 3 TOs. We're shooting better but giving up too many points, 42.

Down 6 with 10 left; awful 1st 10 minutes of the 2nd half. And it's getting worse.

78-92. Once again we did not play D on the road. They shot 54.9%. -8 RBs, +16 in the paint. -15 from the line. 28, 9 for Suli. Long was awful,
Bays was mediocre. The bench didn't do much, but it comes down to awful D.

2 back of 1st, 1 ahead of 2 3rd place teams.

[Wayne23]

2/21: 11-14, 9-5 UMass-Lowell is here. They won by 3, scoring 93, at their place. We're favored, as we should be. They have trouble scoring although they didn't against us, and we're at home.

2/22: Early lead. They come back. Up 4 after 10. Up 16 at the half. Bays has 21 already. 3 TOs to 13. We're shooting 50% to 41.7%. Up 15 with 10 left.

91-74, There's no place like home, 13-0. It was never close.

33, 1, 7 for Bays who typifies our team. One night he's a world beater, another night he's invisible. 13 for Cole. Our backcourt was the difference.

9 TOs to 18.

Still in 2nd, 2 back of 1st, but 2 up on 2 teams. 3 to play, 2 on the road.

Dee's team has clinched, did it a while ago, actually.

[Wayne23]

2/24: 10-16, 3-12, NJIT, there. We won by 13 at home. We're a big favorite. We scorer 12 1/2 more a game and give up 2 fewer. But it's the road.

2/25: Back and forth in the early going. Up 3 after 10. Up 9 at the half. 10, 3 for Bays but 4 TOs. +10 RBs. Very sloppy 1st half, we have a terrible 14 TOs and they have 11. We're holding them to 31.8% while shooting 54.5%. Cole has 3 fouls. Up 15 with 10 to play.

79-58. Excellent D, they shot 37.5%.+12 RBs. We only had 5 2nd half TOs.

21, 0, 7 for Bays, 12, 11 for Thor, 12, 8 for Suli, 12, 3 for Lee.

Only 1 back of Maine with 2 to play.

2/26: We're ranked! We enter the Top 25 at #19. We're 23-7, 12-4. I'm going to use this as a motivator.

"You've complained about your team all year and now you're ranked."

"Yeah, I know. Didn't see that coming. Maybe my expectations have been unrealistic."

"It's worse than that. You're missing out on the fun, and the joy. You didn't seem this negative last season."

"It's me. You're right. It's just that when we lose we're awful. It's not like we're playing hard and getting beat. When we get beat it's usually because we're NOT playing hard. And that's maddening."

"Yeah, your team does kind of go into a trance now and then. But you need to embrace the good moments."

"Working on it!"

[Wayne23]

2/28: 7-20, 2-14 MDBC is here. We won at their place, but only by 3. We let them shoot 50%, and their bench went wild. We're heavily favored.

It's senior night and we'll honor starters Rob Bays and Tom Thor, and subs Colt Hays and Brin Lee.

3/1: Takes us a while to get going. Up 4 after 10. A big, late run puts us up 19 at the half. 30 points by the bench. Only 5 TOs. Shooting
56.3% to 36%. But both Thor and Long have 3 fouls. Up only 7 with 10 to go.

88-80. Our D was pretty awful in the 2nd half. They got it to three 5 different times.

46 for our bench. 15 each for Mill and Lee, 10, 7 for Meek. 10, 3, 10, 4 steals for Bays with only 2 TOs.

-9 RBs. 11 TOs to 23.

We clinched 2nd place, and that's where we'll finish.

Brin Lee sprained a finger and he's out probably for the whole AEC tournament as well as our last regular season game.

[Wayne23]

3/3: We end the regular season at 16-12, 9-8 Albany. We won by only 1 at our place. We're a strong favorite but I'm not so sure. The numbers are pretty close and this game means nothing to us. We'll be the #2 seed win or lose. But it could affect their seeding.

3/4: Close early. Up 5 after 10. Up 10 at halftime. 12 for #3 guard Ad Mill. Cole has 3 fouls and Mill has really filled in well. Long also has 3. +11 RBs but 13 TOs. We're holding them to 33.3% while shooting 55.6%. Up 11 with 10 left.

78-64. Great road win to end the season, and solid D. They shot 33.8% to our 51%. +11 RBs but an awful 23 TOs.

17 for Mill, 15, 6 for Thor.

We end the regular season alone in 2nd place. 25-7, 14-4, ranked #18, NET #14, which is way too high given our strength of schedule. We were 7-1 in our last 8 games and we're 4-0 on neutral courts this season, and that's where we'll play the rest of our games.

+7.5 PPG, #15 in PPG. Only +2.7 on the boards; I usually have very good rebounding teams but not this season. We're okay, but just okay. -5.7 TOs. We average 12.5, which is too high but we force a8.2, and that's excellent.

We don't have a go to scorer. Suli leads us with 13.0. 7 others get between 11.6 and 6.7, so we have lots of guys who get us points. No big rebounders either.

Suli gets 6.0, Thor 5.8.

Ruf Long has the best net at 19.6, which is surprising. Bays is 2nd with 9.8.

We're 2-3 against Q1 teams, 7-3 vs. Q2, only 1 loss vs. Q3 and Q4, so despite my negativity that's pretty impressive. But again, it's not the losses but the way
we've played in those losses.

We're 5-2 in one possession and OT games.

On to the post season!

[Wayne23]

3/6: We play #7 seed, 13-17, 8-10 New Hampshire in the quarter finals. We beat them by 22 and 36, and we're heavily favored to win again.

3/7: We start slow and fall behind. Down only 3 after 10; it was as many as 9. Up only 1 at the half; we had built an 8 point lead but they came back. No D in this one, 46-45. They're shooting 48.1% to our 48.4%. +6 RBs, +8 on 2nd chances. Long and Thor both have 3 fouls and Lee is still out so we're in trouble inside. Up 10 with 10 to play.

80-65. We held them to 20 in the 2nd half. 22 for Cole, 19, 7 for Suli, 12, 4, 4 for Mill. Except for Suli our bigs were useless. Our guards pulled us through.