Hereafter

[Wayne23]

2/28: At 8-19, 5-13 Minnesota. We won by 32 at home. They score 60.1 per game.

3/1: Early lead. Up 9 after 10. 44-29 at the half. 12 for Webb. We only had 4 TOs. +10 in the paint. Up 17 with 10 to play.

74-57. 16, 4, 3, 5 for Webb, 16, 3, 5, 4 for Pane. 3 starters in foul trouble for most of the 2nd half. +11 RBs, 11 fewer TOs, +18 in the paint.

With one left to play only Maryland is 5 back.

“Kelly, pretty much everyone has voted in thr dining hall poll, 93.4%.”

“Let's keep voting open until the 10th.”

“Okay, it's your call.”

[Wayne23]

3/2: 20-10, 10-9 Indiana is here. We won by only 6 there, one of our closest games. Our D was not sharp that night. They do lots of things well but only 2-4 vs. ranked teams.

3/3: We're sluggish. Up 4 after 10. 40-29 at the break. We woke up a little. 17 for Webb. 8, 3 for Gard. Up 22 with 10 left.

85-64. Big game for Webb, 32, 0, 5. +16 in the paint.

We end the regular season at 31-1, 20-0, #1, NET #1. We win the Big 10 by over Maryland, 6 or more over the rest.

+19.1 PPG, #3 in PPG. +8.6 RBs, #1 in RBs. -7.8 TOs, #1 in TO margin. +5.9 assists, +5.1 steals. 7.5 in blocks, #1. #1 NET Rating, #1 in Def. Rating. Webb leads us in scoring with 16.0. Howe gets 13.7, Tony 12.3. Tony leads in RBs with 8.6. Hasi gets 7.1. Webb gets 5.2 assists, Howe gets 4.6.

Only Aus Howe goes pro. Ric Tony asked for my advice. I told him he's not ready and that if he didn't go with a team that was willing to bring him along slowly he could well fail at the next level. On the other side of the coin I told him he'd very likely be a lottery pick and the contract he signed would mean he was financially set for life. He opted to stay another year.

And now we're in the post season. In my 22nd year as a head coach it is still a very exciting time. You lay it all on the line in every single game, and an off night is a disaster. We're favored to win it all, but the favorite fails to do that more often than not. I will remind my players of that regularly. At least for me there is nothing quite like March Madness!

[Wayne23]

3/8: We play #8 seed Indiana, 21-11, 10-10, in the quarters. We just played them and won by 21. If we come to play we should be fine.

3/9: They're fighting hard early. We're down 15 after 10, shooting 25%. I just called my 2nd time out to try to wake us up. We finally do wake up late in the half. Up 35-34 at the break. 12, 5 for Gard but no one else is doing much. We're shooting 36.4% to 43.3%. Only 3 TOs but -4 in the paint. +8 from the line, and 2 of their starters have 3.

“One and done, guys. I don't think you want to watch the rest of this tournament on TV!”

They're hanging with us so I max out the D.It works; up 14 with 10 to play.

85-68. It took a long time but we finally took control. 21, 9 for Gard20, 6, 3, 3 for Howe, 13, 9 for Tony. +9 RBs, 6 TOs.

[Wayne23]

3/10: Tonight it's #5 seed Michigan, 22-11, 12-8, in the semifinals. We won by 20 at our place in early January. They're 2-5 vs. ranked teams but they won the last 2 of those.

Game time: Slow start again and we fall behind early. A run puts us up 9 after 10. My guys can be explosive. A BIG run late. Up 52-26 at the half. 11 for Webb, 10 for Tony, 8, 6 for Hasi. +14 RBs, +12 in the paint. Up 21 with 10 to play.

81-54. A walk in the park. 14, 9 for Tony, 13, 5, 9 for Webb, 14, 6 for Gard, 13, 9 for Hasi. +17 RBs, +24 in the paint. But we were sloppy, 17 TOs.

[Wayne23]

3/11: #2 seed, #24 Maryland, 25-7, 15-5, for the Big 10 title. We won by 10 there. 4-3 vs. Top 25 teams. They do a lot of things well but we have an edge inside. We won the last time because of great play bvy our bench and because they had 26 TOs. Their starters matched ours.

Game time: Slow start for both teams. Up 4 after 10. 46-41 at halftime. It's a game! Our bench is doing what they did last time we played these guys, +11 points. +6 RBs but -6 in the paint. Sloppy game for both teams.

“#1 seed overall if we win this one guys. We only need to bring the white uniforms!”

Too close; I max out the D. Up 9 with 10 left.

92-79. We took control late in the game.

24, 6, 3 for Howe, his best game since his mid-season injury. 19, 12 for Tony. 13, 6 for Gard, 16, 2, 3 for Pane. +13 RBs but -8 in the paint.

The results of the dining hall poll are in: Comfort Heaven, on deck 11, is the winner. Taste of Napoli, one of my picks, is 2nd, and Li Chi, another of my picks is 3rd. None of the Indian dining halls did that well in the polls. It's not for everybody, I guess. The best news? Every single dining hall got some first place votes, and no restaurant lagged WAY behind in the polling. Kind of a victory for everybody! Kelly says this will be an annual poll moving forward, which is a great idea!

[Wayne23]

3/12: #1 East, #1 overall. #2 seed Memphis is #3 in the polls, #4 NET. They should be a #1 or at least NOT in the #1 overall bracket! Oh well, we need to beat a lot of good teams to win it all.

Press Conference (Excerpts):

“Coach, as expected UConn is the #1 seed in the East. Does this put extra pressure on you?”

“I'm pretty sure we're expected to win it all and anything less will be widely viewed as a failure. Not much can add to that kind of pressure.”

“So, you had one bad game all season, and you lost that one to the #2 overall team in OT. Can you be beaten?”

“Actually, we had a few bad games, but only one came against a very good team. Anybody can be beaten and we certainly can. We need to bring our best game every night. We need to keep Ric Tony and everybody else in the game. Shots need to drop. A lot of things need to happen. And nobody ever wins the big dance without at least one piece of luck, large or small. There comes a time when the team that DOES win it all gets some kind of a break. There's no way to control that, of course.”

[Wayne23]

3/14: Denver, 18-15, won the play in game so they're the #16 seed we'll face.

3/16: Close early. Up 6 after 10. Up only 6 at the half; we led by as many as 16. 13 for Webb. 4 TOs. +8 inside. Tony played 6 minutes due to fouls, as did Hasi; they both have 2. Up 18 with 10 left to play.

84-63. They stayed with us for quite awhile.

15, 1, 6 for Webb, 14, 6 for Gard, 13, 5, 5 for Howe. Tony and Hasi were ineffective. We'll need more from both of them if we're going to go deep in the tournament.

[Wayne23]

3/17: #8 seed Xavier, 23-11, in the 2nd round. Their starting Cthey score 17 a game fewer than we get. is out with a broken wrist.

3/18: Close early. Up 2 after 10. We go on a run. Up 39-25 at the half. Only 2 TOs. We're shooting better. Big run puts us up 30 with 10 to go.

78-37. Amazing D! 17, 9 for Tony, 16, 3, 5 for Webb, 10, 12 for Gard. +19 RBs, +16 in the paint. 6 TOs to 17.

In the Sweet 16. No more easy teams.

[Wayne23]

3/19: #12 seed Louisiana Tech, 25-11, beat #5 and #13 to get here. Their starting SG, their top scorer, is out. We think we're a much better team.

3/23: Early lead. Up 4 after 10. A run puts us up 49-34 at halftime. 11, 3 for Pane, 9 each for Tony and Howe. Up 16 with 10 to go.

90-75. 20, 5, 3 for Howe, 18, 5 for Tony, 16, 3 for Pane, 11, 6 for Gard. +8 RBs.

Post Game Press Conference (Excerpts):

“Three easy wins, Coach. You're gliding through this tournament.”

“We haven't been challenged often this season and that's not good. Tough games make a team better.”

“You should face a challenge in the Elite Eight, #3 ranked, #2 seed Memphis.”

“And we're worried about it. I have one practice to get my kids ready for as good a team as we've played all year, and the first major challenge in months.”

[Wayne23]

Memphis, 31-4. Their C is banged up but he'll play. They can score outside and if the threes are falling it could be a long night. They're 5-2 vs. ranked teams and they are a very good team.

3/25: Early lead. Up 6 with 10 to play. 46-36 at the half. 10 for Wie. 3 fouls for Tony, and his man also has 3. +12 RBs but 16 TOs. +10 in the paint. Up
10 with 10 to play.

87-79. They got it to 1 twice. 18, 6, 5, 4 for Howe, 14, 3, 4 for Webb, 12, 8 for Gard. +16 RBs but a season worst 26 TOs to their 21.

Final Four!

Post Game Press Conference (Excerpts):

“Coach, Gonzaga is up next. They're the only team that beat you all season.”

“64 fouls were called in that one. I sincerely hope the refs let both teams play this time so we can actually have a game. They're a very good team, especially inside. We need to come to play.”

“What's your strategy?”

“This is no time to do anything but what got us here. We hope to take good care of the ball and rebound. I think those two things are always critical. We know we need to control their excellent forwards. After all of that just hope the shots drop!”