Hereafter

[Wayne23]

11/26: All the top seeds advanced so it's #4 seed Kansas ST, 2-1, in the semifinals. Their game is outside but their C can play.

Game time: We take an early lead. Up 3 after 10. Up 36-30 at halftime. No one on either team has more than 7. 3 TOs. +8 in the paint.

Up 11 with 10 to go.

80-67. 19 for Gard, 15, 8 for Rich, 10, 3, 9 for Webb, 10, 6 for Gain. -8 RBs but +24 in the paint. 4 TOs to 25.

I spoke with senior Nat Gard, who starts at SF. We spoke about his very good game tonight, and he mentioned how happy he is to be starting.

[Wayne23]

11/27: #2 seed, #7 ranked Clemson, 5-0, for the Alaskan Challenge title. 2-0 vs. top 25 teams. The two teams seem pretty evenly matched. They can score outside and their C also gets points. We'll need to play well.

Game time: Close early. Up 9 after 10. Up 44-34 at halftime. 11, 7 for Gard, 10 for Rich but he has 3 fouls. Our guards are being out played. +11 RBs, +10 in the paint. We're shooting a little better. Up 9 with 10 to play. We go on a run!

83-71. Beat #7 with a starter out; not bad! Our guards had a terrific 2nd half.

19, 6, 7 for Webb, 17, 3 for Marn. 14, 8, 3 for Rich, 11, 8 for Gard. +15 RBs, +12 in the paint.

I spoke with Jim Rich about fouls after the game. Trying to get him to play within himself. The kid has tremendous potential.

The alien ships are almost here. It would have taken us a month to travel the distance they've travelled in a few days.

[Wayne23]

11/29: #9 Wichita ST, 5-0, is here. They have a strong inside game; with our starting C/PF out this could mean trouble.

11/30: They take an early lead. We come back. Up 1 after 10. 38-39 at the half; they can play! 3 fouls for Rich again. What IS it with these big guys! Our bigs are being out played but our guards are keeping it close. They're shooting a little better but the numbers are close. Down 2 with 10 left. This is a game! They go on a run and we're in trouble.

73-80. Rich played 20 min. due to fouls and Gard fouled out in 18 minutes. With Tony out we couldn't keep up inside.

-8 for the bench. Our guards did their job but it wasn't enough. 8 TOs to 18.

Oh well, it's early and we weren't at full strength.

12/1: “Humans of the ship. We are the warrior race, the Romm. You are our prisoners. Prepare to be boarded.”

They somehow managed to get on board, easily opening the portals that provide entry to the ship. That shouldn't be able to happen.

They went immediately to the bridge, clearly knew who it was. They ordered all bridge personnel to their quarters.

“Humans of the ship. We will meet with your Council in two of your hours.”

The Council met with them. We weren't allowed to speak. They told us they were evaluating the situation.

“We have not yet determined if your ship can be converted to be of use to us. We have crew checking all of your systems. If your ship has enough value we will keep it. As to the humans on the ship, we will determine your fate based upon he value your ship has.”

“We are on a peaceful-”

“We have no interest in anything you have to say. Be silent in our presence or feel our wrath. The meeting is dismissed. You may go to your living quarters and to the dining hall nearest your living quarters for three meals on each of your days. You may go to the holo chamber nearest your living quarters to engage in recreation, which seems to be important to your species. If we find you anywhere else you will be incarcerated. If we discover you in any attempt to challenge our rule you will be immediately put to death.”

This is not good.

[Wayne23]

12/2: At least I can still coach.

At 3-2 Georgetown. They have a very good PG. They only lost to #1 Memphis by 3 on the road.

12/3: We fall behind early. Down 10 after 10. 33-46 at the half; we're getting crushed. Gard has `19 but no one else is doing anything. They're out shooting us 54.5% to 46.7% and have taken 3 more shots. They have 4 more threes. No of our guards have scored! Down 12 with 10 left; we're not closing the gap.

And now we are; late run!

88-80. Incredible comeback in the last 10 minutes! 55-34 in the 2nd half.

26, 9, 3 for Gard, 19, 11 for Rich, 14, 2, 10, 3 for Webb, all in the 2nd half. +10 RBs, +26 in the paint, again, all in the 2nd half.

Post Game Press Conference (Excerpts):

“Coach, what's the lesson here?”

“The lesson is to never, EVER give up. We were down 17 in the 2nd half, down 12 with 10 minutes left, and we turned it around. Believe me, I'll be pointing to this game for the rest of my coaching career. Never quit!”

I spoke with Nate Gard and praised him for the way he's playing and for how hard he's working.

The Romm will not interact with us in any way. We are ordered to move to the nearest wall when we encounter them on the ship. When we try to speak with them we are immediately silenced.

[Wayne23]

12/6: #25 Kansas, 5-1, is here. They turn it over a lot. They have not played a top 25 team.

12/7: This should be the last game Tony misses; he's healing.

A very loud full house here at Gampel Pavilion. I think our comeback at Georgetown really pumped them up. We feel the support!

Defensive battle early on. Up 14-6 after 10. 28-25 in a very low scoring first half. 10, 6 for Rich but Gard has 3 fouls and did nothing. Our starting guards have 2 points; what's with that lately! We're shooting 33.3% to their 28%. Their C has 3 fouls.

“Get it inside. Work on the big guy with 3 fouls!”

We start to stretch out the lead; up 13 with 10 to play.

64-44. A real defensive battle. We took over late but never got any offense going. Our D was overpowering.

16, 9, 3 steals for Rich, 15, 7 for Gain. Our starting guards had only 4 each. Backup guards added a total of 4 more. 10 TOs to 23. +16 in the paint.

Tony is back!

2 more pre-conf games, both on the road.

A few days off before our next game.

When Council members meet we do not dare speak of anything important. The Romm seem to be monitoring every inch of the ship. No executions yet, and we want to keep it that way.

They don't eat our food. We think we detect filters in their noses which means they probably breathe a slightly different mixture from ours. But we're just guessing about that, and we never see them eat or drink so we really have no idea about that.

Morale is very low. People don't like going to the same dining hall for every meal and of course they don't like the fact that we're all prisoners of a race that won't even speak with us and barely acknowledges our existence. There's a great deal of tension in the air.

[Wayne23]

12/12: At 5-2 Texas. They don't score many but they give up only 58.7. They got hammered in their only game vs. a ranked team. We think we can turn them over. This is a game where our guards have a really good shot at getting back on track.

We're #3, NET #3.

12/13: It's a shootout early. Tied after 10. Late run puts us up 44-24 at the half; we just took over with a 22-2 run to end the half. 13, 5 for Rich, 13 for Webb, 10 for Marn. Tony is rusty. 4 TOs to 17, +20 in the paint. Up 23 with 10 tom play. Subs are in early.

95-61. Once we got going we played really, really well.

19, 2, 10 for Webb, 19, 5 for Webb, 12, 2, 3 for Marn. 11 TOs to 26. 30 assists! +32 in the paint.

I spoke with Ric Tony after the game. He was discouraged because his timing was off. I complimented him on his excellent D and 8 RBs, and told him the timing would come as he gets back into game shape.

Situation is the same on the ship. Tense, stressful. No one is happy and no one feels safe. We're helpless. The ship hasn't moved since the Romm got here. Their three ships are in a triangle around our ship and they have at least 100 of their people on board.

[Wayne23]

12/20: At #25 Ohio ST, 7-3. They have a very solid outside game, but they don't score a lot of points.

12/21: A week off was good. I didn't make practice very physical. My guys should be well rested.

Back and forth. Up 2 after 10. Down 3 at the half. 10, 6 for Rich, 7 for Gard. +8 in the paint. They're shooting better. -14 for the bench is the difference. Up 1 with 10 to play; we need a run! We get one, late.

60-48. Another defensive battle. It took us a long time to take control.

13, 11 for Rich, 13, 6, 4, 3 for Gard, 11, 6, 5, 3 for Webb. -12 for the bench. +8 from the line.

I complimented Rich on his solid play and reminded him of how powerful he is when he stays out of foul trouble.

Mick, our hot headed Council member, got in trouble with the Romm. I happened to be there. He lashed out at a Romm who insulted him. He was immediately dragged off. No idea what happened to him.

[Wayne23]

12/25: We end pre-conference play at 10-1. Ranked #3, NET #3. +17.4 PPG, +5.2 RBs, -9.3 TOs, #1 in TO margin by a LOT! +7.2 assists, 5.5 steals.

Jim Rich leads us with 14.7, 6.5. Webb gets 14.5, and 7.5 assists.

We start ACC play with 7-3 Wake Forest here. This is a team we should beat.

12/26: Back and forth early. Up 1 after 10. We go on a run and lead by 56-39 at the half. Best guard play in some time, 13, 1, 4 for Webb, 12, 2, 3 for Marn. Rich has 3 fouls, as does his man. Both teams are shooting well over 50%. 8 threes to their 2. Up 12 with 10 left.

83-66. Our first ACC game and we take down a pretty good team but there are lots of those in this conference.

17, 18 for Tony but 6 TOs. 20, 5, 5 for Webb, 15, 3, 5 for Marn. +10 RBs. Rich played only 15 minutes due to foul trouble. Frustrating.
Ric Tony is hurt again. Sprained his right wrist and he'll miss at least 2 games, maybe more.

Worried about Mick. No one has seen or heard a thing. If he's in some sort of prison we have no idea how he's being fed. If he's been executed we haven't been told. Morale just keeps sinking.

[Wayne23]

12/29: #16 Duke, 8-6, 0-2, is here. They're 0-3 vs. ranked teams. This is a down year for them.

12/30: They take an early lead. Down 8 after 10. 40-44 at the half. We're not playing very good D. 3 fouls for Gard, and we definitely miss Tony. Our bigs are getting out played. Bench is +11, starting guards are plus 10. 3 TOs. But they're shooting 57.1% to 42.4%. We need to play better D. Up 3 with 10 left. It's a war!

77-72. A mini-run with about 8 minutes left gave us a 12 point lead and they couldn't catch us after that. But they got it to 2 twice late.

21, 4, 9, 3 for Webb. +21 for the bench which was huge. 6 TOs to 17, +8 in the paint. We played much better D in the 2nd, holding them to 28.

It's exciting to have long time UConn rival Duke as a regular conference foe!

Aqui Marn come into my office after he had showered and changed. He said he was disappointed in his game. I reminded him that he's our 2nd leading scorer and a very good defender who often guards the other team's best or 3nd best scorer. I told him I am very happy with his play and with his effort.

Nothing has changed on the ship. People walk around with their heads down.

[Wayne23]

1/1/2046: 3-8, 0-2 Georgia Tech is here. They have a very good SG but they give up 7.9 more than they score.

1/2: Quick start. Up 12 after 10. 48-21 at the half. +12 for the bench. +9 RBs, +16 in the paint. The bench has already gotten lots of minutes and they'll get more! Up 26 with 10 left.

83-50, a real blow out. 14, 9 for sub F/C Trev Meil. 12, 6, 6 for Webb, 12, 8 for Rich. +18 for the bench. +20 RBs, +30 in the paint, +18 on 2nd chances.

Had a chat with Meil. He wants more playing time. I told him to keep playing well.

Tony is back.

Now GA Tech could be a good team to turn around!

I haven't been allowed to do my job since the Romm arrived back on December 1. None of our people except for the food service people are working. I assume the Romm are doing the rest of the work. I certainly hope so! I have no way of knowing what is being done and what isn't and the Romm continue to completely ignore us, except for non-verbal intimidation whenever any of us encounter any of them.