Hereafter

[Wayne23]

2/2: At #12 Marquette, 16-4, 6-3. We won by 21 at our place. Their starting PG, who is their best player, has a sore hand, but he's mostly recovered and will play. They're 3-4 vs. ranked teams. We should have an edge inside, but this is a good team.

We're still ranked #1 since Kentucky now has 3 losses to our 2. We have a 2 game lead in the Big East.

Center Doy Craw is #4 on the Norton list and PG Shay Webb is #16.

We had a few days off, and yes, we've been tired. Again, I didn't make the practices any more physical than they had to be.

2/3: Slow start for both teams. Down 1 after 10; I go to the man defense. Up 1 at halftime. Craw has 3 fouls; his one fault is a lack of self-discipline on D. -11 from the line; they went 18 times, we went 11. I'm on the three fools with the whistles. Up 2 with 10 left; it's anybody's game.

84-70. We closed very strong. 17, 7, 5 for Dunk, 14, 6 for Wall. Craw doesn't get out played often but he did tonight. +12 for the bench. 10 TOs, +20 in the paint.

Welch's second trial provided a big surprise.

“I've been doing a lot of thinking... I've been wrong about a lot of things. I want to change and I'm willing to work with a counsellor to change. I'm not just saying it, I mean it.”

The Council acted as jury on this one. We deliberated for a very long time.

“As Chair of the Council we have ruled that we are giving you a chance. We will make your cell as completely escape proof as possible. Your food will be handed in through a slot. Your therapist will speak with you via video. We sincerely hope that you will be able to turn your life around. You are a valuable member of the engineering department and we hope to have you back in that capacity some day. Just so you know, if you are not successful the death penalty is still in play.”

Welch actually broke down and cried. Let's see what happens.

[Wayne23]

2/5: At 10-10, 4-7 Provocation College Fryers. We won by 27 at our place. This is a team we should beat easily.

2/6: We've been much more effective playing man-to-man so I start us off that way and we take an early lead. Up only 2 after 10 minutes though. Up 19 at the half after a late run. 13, 9 for Dunk, 10, 5 for Craw, who has ben very focused in practice after being embarrassed in our last game. Gotta love his attitude! Up 27 with 10 to play.

103-68. Ugly! 27, 16 for Dunk, which is a very impressive game; his man had 3 and 3! 14, 7, 5 for Craw. Good bench play. +19 RBs, +20 inside.

17 dining halls open. All 57 holos are operational. Dining halls are no longer taking reservations but potential diners can look at the Dining Facilities website to see if any dining halls are full or nearly full, before making their way to a meal.

Interestingly, there have been very few serious injuries in the holos since the new policy went into effect. That one person who was paralyzed had surgery that restored the use of his legs but he will always walk with a fairly significant limp.

[Wayne23]

2/9: 9-13, 3-10 Georgetown is here. Hard to believe that they're having this kind of season; very unusual for them. We won by only 6 at their place in a real shootout. They aren't a big scoring team so it was our poor D. I've been talking about it in practice.

Our two starting guards got into at practice yesterday. Webb got bumped by Buck and he came back at him and knocked him down. Other players got between them before it got really ugly but I had to halt practice and give them time to calm down. After practice I spoke to them separately. They've never much liked each other. Buck is a senior but Webb is a freshman and we don't want to lose him over this. Both guys promised me they'd work on their relationship. We'll see...

2/10: I'm going with the man D all the way again. They take an early lead, Down 3 after 10. Down 24-29 at the half. 24 points in a half? Gtown is playing very good D and slowing it down on O, and it's working. I put in some changes on O to hopefully free up people for open shots. Now can we execute? 11, 4 for Craw, but 26.5% shooting, to 36.3%. Up 5 with 10 left; too close!

77-59. We finally took charge in the last 4 ½ minutes. 25, 9 for Craw, 12, 11 for Dunk, , 13, 4, 4 for Buck. +22 inside, +11 RBs, 11 TOs.

We now have a 3 game lead over 3 teams with 6 to play.

The probe directly ahead of us is seeing something at the very far edge of their range. Too soon to tell what it is but they say it is unbelievably massive.

Hali, June, and I all had a scrumptious shepherd's pie for dinner at one of the newly opened dining halls. Food on this ship just keeps getting better!

[Wayne23]

2/12: 11-11, 6-7 Xavier is here. We crushed them at their place. Their starting PG is still out with an elbow fracture. He's done for the season. This should be a blowout.

Doy Craw remains #4 on the Norton list.

Webb and Buck are still at each other. I talked to them again.

2/13: Big early lead. Up 14 after 10. Up 17 at the break. 8 and 10 fro Craw, 11 for Dunk, 10 for Webb. But Craw and Webb each have 3 fouls.

27 fouls called in the half. We're +6 from the line but still. Only 3 TOs. Up 18 with 10 left.

84-67. 18, 3, 5 for Webb, 14, 13 for Craw, 20 and 4 for Dunk, 13, 4 for Brai. 6 TOs to 21. This was a yawner.

Things have been quiet here for a few days. That never lasts long. Work has been uneventful, and that rarely lasts long!

[Wayne23]

2/14: #14 Villanova, 18-5, 10-4, in a 3 way tie for 2nd, is here. This is a very big game for them. They don't want to drop to 4th place. If the threes are falling they can be trouble, but we absolutely destroyed them by 35, at their place. The one concern with that last game is that they know and we know that they're much better than that, and they will be out to prove it!

2/15: Close early. Mini-run puts us up 9 after 10. Up 40-22 at the half. We seem to have this team's number. 12, 2, 4, 3 for Buck. +7 RBs, only 6 TOs, +7 at the line, but the incompetents only called 13 fouls, which is nice. Up 12 with 10 to play; they're closing the gap a little.

76-60. They never got closer than 8 in the 2nd half.

19, 10 for Craw, 15, 12, 3 steals, 3 blocks for Dunk, 14, 5 for Brai. +14 in the paint, +11 on 2nd chances.

Only 2 teams are 3 games back now, with 4 to play. We're in good position!

Still #1 in the country.

2/17: A near disaster on the ship. Something that can't happen, happened. We have a triple back up for our power grid. It isn't supposed to be able to fail. It failed during the “night.” Lights out. No oxygen circulation. There's a few minutes of oxygen, of course, before it runs out, and oxygen masks descend from the ceiling in every room on the ship, but try finding them in the dark.

The plan, and we do have a plan for this vanishingly unlikely event, is that you mask, mask any small children, and then get into hazmat suits and get the children into them. Of course, in total darkness this is very difficult.

The power went out. The first back up came on and immediately went out, as did the 2nd, as did the 3rd and final backup. Power stayed out. It was 4 ½ hours before it was restored, and crews are still working on the back up systems. The geeks are probing all relevant computer programs to find a cause. There's no way this happened accidently, it's a billions to one shot.

No deaths, only minor injuries, but a lot of near panic, particularly from young children and those trying to care for them.

Everyone got into shuttles in time, and people stayed there for several hours after the power was restored, just as a precaution. When we finally let people out everyone was famished. The dining halls were overrun, and they had to make sandwiches as their power took awhile to get back on line and they couldn't cook for some time.

Everything is back to normal but every effort is being made to track this down. We have a terrorist on board, almost certainly.

[Wayne23]

2/21: At #15 Creighton, 19-6, 11-5, tied for 2nd place, with 2 teams only one back of them. As was the case with 'Nova awhile ago this is a huge game for them. It's also the toughest game left on our regular season schedule. We won by 26 at home. They're 1-4 vs. ranked teams.

We feel like if we play well we win.

2/22: It's back and forth at first. Up 3 after 10. Down 5 at the half, 27-32. The O is weak and we're shooting 33.3%. 13 for Craw. Dunk has 3 fouls, and his man is eating his lunch. +7 RBs, +8 in the paint, but we're losing. Down 2 with 10 to play. We go on a mini-run, then extend it!

74-55. Stifling D, especially in the 2nd half. 26, 11 for Craw, 13, 3, 4 for Webb. +24 in the paint.

Kev Buck sprains his ankle and will miss our last 3 regular season games. Deon Sund will start and Aldo Doli will be 1st guard off the bench. We've wrapped up the regular season Big East title.

Making no progress in finding out what caused the power failure. The geeks say they are DEEP into the systems, but they haven't found anything. We now have extra safety measures in place in case this happens again, and we've made recommendations regarding families with small children, and for day care providers.

The forward probe is now telling us what they're seeing way, way out ahead is a black hole, the first we've encountered. This is very exciting. We really want to learn about it. But given how powerful those things are we will proceed with extreme caution!

[Wayne23]

2/23: Our last regular season road game is at 19-8, 10-6 Butler. We won by 17 at our place. They're 3-4 vs. ranked teams. They are very good at SG and C.

2/24: Close early again. Down 3 after 10. Up 41-40 at the break. They have 2 starters with 3 fouls each. We're +8 inside. A ridiculous 27 fouls called. Up 5 with 10 left.

96-89. Our D was awful but our O pulled us through.

26, 8 for Dunk. +10 RBs.

2/25: Another power failure. 4 people killed. They were all in a speed boat in the holo. The power went out as they were going at a very high rate of speed and they were killed. So now when we find our terrorist we charge them with murder. Everyone else was better prepared and everyone got into hazmats and onto shuttles without incident, except for some minor bumps and bruises.

Once again people stayed in the shuttles for quite some time. The shuttles actually do have the capability of providing food but the food is awful. People eat it when they're on missions to planets and moons, or at other times when they need to be in a shuttle for an extended time, but no one eats that stuff unless there's no other choice. So most people waited it out and ate in the dining halls knowing all they'd get would be sandwiches for the first meal.

[Wayne23]

3/2: 10-18, 4-15 Seton Hall is here. We barely beat them, by 2, at their place. This should be an easy win.

3/3: They take an early lead. My guys aren't into it. Down 2 after 10. The talent differential takes over. 39-29 at halftime. 17, 7 for Dunk. Craw has 3 fouls yet again. +12 in the paint. Up 20 with 10 to go.

85-59. 22, 14 for Dunk, good guard play. Craw was awful fouled ou tin 9 minutes. +20 in the paint.

Brad Gain hurts his hand but he and the other injured players will be back for our first post season game.

3/5: We end the regular season at 30-2, 19-1, #1, NET #1. We win the Big East by 5 games.

+17.9 PPG, 1st in scoring, 2nd in overall offense. +7.4 RBs, 3rd in RBs. -6.3 TOs, +5.8 assists, +3.5 steals.

Craw leads us with 15.7, is 2nd in RBs with 8.1. Dunk is 2nd in points with 15.5, 1st in RBs with 9.5.

Craw drops to #6 on the Norton list.

We lose Dunk to the draft, as well as both of the guys we red shirted.

On to the post season!

A third power outage. People know what to do and we have everything in place to make it easily done but it is extremely annoying, and despite our precautions, it is dangerous.

3/6: Yay for the geeks! They found a computer glitch buried very, VERY deeply in an obscure but related system.

At Council the head geek explained, “This is very likely a simple computer malfunction. There is no reason to believe sabotage was involved. It is fixed and this should not happen again.”

The Council took off all precautionary measures, including those related to holo activities.

“Jed, do you ever go into the holos?”

“What? I go every day.”

“No, that's not what I mean.”

“What DO you mean?”

“You know...”

“I have no idea.”

“A lot of people, men especially, use the holo for..”

“Oh! No. I consider that cheating, even though it doesn't involve a real person. I don't and I won't.”

[Wayne23]

3/9: We play #8 seed Georgetown, 14-16, 7-13, in the quarters of the Big East tourney. Beat them by 6 there and 18 at home. They're 1-8 vs. ranked teams.

3/10: Slow start. Up 6 after 10. 39-30 at halftime. 3 fouls for Dunk. 10 and 8 for Craw. +13 RBs, +18 in the paint. Up 9 with 10 to play.

92-71. As we often do we caught fire late. 18, 14 for Craw, 16, 6, 2, 4 for Buck, 14, 7, 7 for Webb, 14, 5 for Dunk. +34 inside, +15 RBs.

[Wayne23]

3/12: It's #2 seed, #12 ranked 'Nova, 24-7, 14-6, for the title. We won by 35 there, 16 at home. It worries me that we've won easily both times. We haven't seen this team at its best.

Hm, we fell to #2 in the rankings. Still #1 NET.

Game time: They look sharp early. Down 6 after 10. Down 31-38 at the half. The refs are killing us; 16 fouls on us 6 on them, -6 from the line. Wall and Webb both have 3. I took a T late in the half. We're shooting 30.6% to 44.4%.

“This is for the title guys. Time to wake up and play!”

We're a 2nd half team when we're on our game; let's see what happens. Not good; we're getting beat up. Down 7 with 10 left, but we don't look like it's there.

68-77. It's hard to beat a good team three times. The refs didn't help, 24 fouls on us to 13 on them. They just didn't let us play D. It's not the loss, it's the way it happened.

Bad injury news. Dar Dunk badly bruised his bicep on his shooting arm. He won't play again unless we reach the Final Four, and without him that will be a challenge. Rafe Brai will get his minutes. I'm not too worried about the first weekend but having to play the 2nd weekend without Dunk will be tough.