Hereafter

[Wayne23]

1/1/2051: #7 Indiana, 12-1, 1-1, is here. It doesn't get any easier. All 5 starters average 11.6 or more. We will need to be better than we were against Michigan.

1/2: It's close early. Up 4 after 10. We heat up. 51-38 at halftime. 24, 3, 2, 3 for Fox. 8 fewer TOs. They try to narrow the gap but we fight back.

86-78 as they hit a last second three. 38, 5, 3, 7 steals for Fox. 11, 0, 7 for Blay. 7 TOs to 21.

We have 3 away games vs. top 10 teams down the line.

1/3: At 3-10, 1-3 Nebraska. They give up 9 more than they score and we get 14 more RBs.

1/4: Doesn't appear that we'll have much trouble tonight, early lead. 36-18 at halftime. 21, 3, 4, 3 for Fox, 8, 9 for Soko. 4 TOs. The lead is 30 late.

73-42. 32, 4, 6, 5 for Fox, 16, 14 for Soko, 12, 1, 7 for Blay. 10 TOs.

No space objects in sight. The probes are looking for even small space rocks.

[Wayne23]

1/8: 10-3, 2-2 Penn ST is here. They have a good outside game but we're the better team.

We stay at #1.

1/9: We score the first 11. The lead quickly builds to 20. 56-25 at the break. 21, 5 for Fox, 12 for Soko, 11 for the quiet man, Ray Jorg.

The subs will get lots of minutes in the 2nd half.

88-55. 27, 10 for Fox, 16, 3 for Soko, 15, 4 for Jorg. 8, 19, 3 for Moro- 19 RBs! +26 RBs.

1/12: Rematch with 6-8, 2-3 Rutgers here. We crushed them at their place.

1/13: We take an immediate lead. 53-19! 15, 8, 4 for Fox, 12 for Blay. +18 RBs, 3 TOs. Lots of sub minutes.

77-38. 25, 16, 5 for Fox, 14, 9 for Moro, 14 for Blay. +32 Rbs, 9 TOs.

The probe to our right has detected not one, but a large number of space rocks. We're headed that way.

[Wayne23]

1/17: At 9-7, 1-4 Wisconsin. They can score outside and they have a good bench. But they score 21 fewer and get 14 fewer RBs than we do.

1/18: We take the lead at once. It's at 20. 58-34 at the half. 22, 2, 5 for Blay, taking advantage of the double on Fox who has 14, 1, 5, 5. 15, 5 for Soko. Yet another game when the bench will get lots of minutes.

98-61. 27, 9, 3 for Soko, 24, 2, 7 for Blay, 21, 9, 6, 5 for Fox. +25 RBs, +26 in the paint.

Ryan Fox: I'm gonna make a LOT of money when I go pro in the Spring. I'm having fun this year though. I really hope I get to win a title before I go pro.

1/19: At #2 ranked Michigan, 17-1, 7-0. They beat us by one when we blew a bunny at our place. We really think we're better but Fox needs to stay out of foul trouble and have a big game and her needs to control their very good SG. It's really on him. This is a very big game.

1/20: We take an early lead, scoring inside. They're staying close. 47-31 at the half. Fox has 17, 11, 3 and only one foul. His man has 7 and 8 and 2 fouls.

We have 4 TOs to 13. The lead goes to 20 early.

99-72. A real butt kicking! 32, 14, 7 for Fox; his man had a good game, 22, 10, 4 but 7 TOs. 28, 10 for Soko. 10 TOs to 21.

We're in a 2 way tie for 1st in the Big 10, 2 up on 4 teams. This was a sweet win!

[Wayne23]

1/24: 11-7, 5-3 Minnesota is here. They can play, but I don't think they can play with us.

1/25: Up 11 in a slow paced game so far. 39-22. Fox has been unstoppable with 27, 6, 2, 4, 4. +9 RBs.

81-53. Fox was amazing, 49, 12, 3, 7 steals, 5 blocks. Wow! +15 RBs.

1/26: At #21 Ohio ST, 14-5, 4-4. Starting PF is out with a broken finger; he is easily their best player. We beat them by 17 at home and the PF was out then, too.

1/27: Slow start. Fox picks up 2 quick fouls. 34-40 at halftime. They're shooting 54.2% with 5 threes. Fox has 2 points; no one has more than 6. We finally take a lead with 11 to play.

76-65. We recovered from the awful first half. 2, 9 for Fox, just about all of it in the 2nd half. 15, 8 for Soko. +18 RBs.

We're almost to where the space rocks are but we need to be careful. The probe has been reporting that there are a lot of them.

1/29: Hio Soko is #13 on the Norton list. Fox was not nominated which still baffles me! He's the best player in the country.

We lose contact with the probe. We're guessing it was knocked out by a space rock. We're printing another one, which we'll send in its place.

[Wayne23]

1/31: At 8-11, 3-6 Iowa. On paper we're way better.

2/1: We score the first 9. 41-26 at the half. 9 each for Fox and Grat, 8 for Soko. Fox is being doubled.

84-56. Never a game. 23, 7, 5 for Fox, 21, 10, 3 for Grat, 13, 9 for Soko. +25 RBs.

2/2: At #9 Indiana, 19-3, 8-3. We won by 8 at our place so this could be a tough one. They're a good team with no weak links and they have a strong bench.

2/3: We take an early lead. 51-37 at halftime. 18 for Fox. Soko has 3 fouls.

95-74. Great win! 27, 3, 4, 6 for Fox. 16, 2, 12 for Blay, 14, 11, 3 for Soko, 12, 5 for Grat, 11, 4 for Moro. +13 RBs.

Still tied with Michigan for 1st 3 up on 3rd place, with 8 to play.

We meet up with the first space rock. It's blue. We're examining it and we've sent a test probe out from the ship to take samples and to dig beneath the surface.

2/6: We dug pretty deeply into the space rock. It's blue as deep as we can go. Nothing else unusual about it. There are a big bunch of other rocks headed our way so the ship's navigators are plotting paths to keep us safe. The probe that we lost contact with had to have been destroyed by running into a space rock.

[Wayne23]

2/7: 9-13, 5-7 Illinois is here. We think we're a lot better.

2/8: They take an early lead. We come back. Fox picked up 2 quick fouls, then a third. 40-25 at the half. 12, 1, 6 for Blay, 9, 5 for Fox. +8 RBs.

77-45. For the first time all season Fox does not get 2- 14 and 7, due to fouls. He played 16 minutes. 16, 14 for Grat, 15, 1, 8 for Blay, 14, 6 for Soko. +16 RBs, 9 TOs.

Life on the ship has been peaceful and smooth for some time now. People are enjoying the great food, and the holos have never been so busy or so popular. Interestingly enough, fishing programs seem to be the hot thing these days. Lots of people are relaxing by doing various sorts of fishing.

The navigators are still plotting courses through the space rocks. It's a fine balance between being certain not to collide with one and being close enough to do the sorts of exploration we're interested in doing.

[Wayne23]

2/12: At 9-12, 5-7 Clemson. They have a good scoring SG but this is not a team that should give us trouble.

Hio Soko is #18 on the Norton list.

2/13: We take the lead after a few minutes of back and forth. 50-27 at the break. 29 for Fox! +9 RBs.

96-48. Fox gets 50, 8, 4, 5. 12, 13, 3 for Soko. +21 RBs, 11 TOs.

2/14: 16-9, 6-8 Ohio ST is here. We won by 11 there.

2/15: We score the first 14. Up by 22 after 10. 54-15 at the half. 17 for Fox. 3 TOs.

84-61. 21, 2, 3 for Fox, 19, 13 for Grat. +26 in the paint.

Still tied for 1st.

We are probing another rock while dodging others. The space rocks are getting thicker.

“Damn it, we're taking too many chances. We're going to smash into one of these!”

“Now, Mick, the navigators know what they're doing.”

“If there are too many rocks it doesn't matter how well they know what they're doing.”

“We'll be fine.”

“And if there's a sudden unexpected bunch of rocks there could be no way out.”

2/16: 6-19, 4-12 Nebraska is here. We crushed them at their place. No reason to think we won't do it again. But three game weeks are tiring.

2/17: We have no energy and it's close. 29-20. 17 for Fox.

64-45. Low energy game that wasn't very interesting. 37, 6, 4, 4, 7 blocks for Fox. 12, 14 for Soko.

Till tied with Michigan with 4 to play.

The navigators had to beat a hasty retreat as the number of rocks increased suddenly and dramatically.

“I told you. We're damn lucky to escape!”

[Wayne23]

2/23: At 17-9, 10-5 Maryland. Maybe the toughest game left on our schedule. They're better outside than inside and they play well at home.

We had almost a week between games and we needed it.

2/24: It's close, then we go on a run. 49-31. 27, 11 for Fox. +16 RBs.

88-61. Never a game. 40 and 12 for Fox, 15, 10 for Grat, 11, 8, 3 for Soko. +27 RBs.

Still tied with 3 to play.

We're back to trying to learn more about space rocks while trying to evade other space rocks. They're all blue but they analyze as identical to space rocks we've analyzed in the past. No explanation for the pastel blue here.

[Wayne23]

2/26: 11-16, 6-11 Iowa is here. We won by 28 there and they haven't gotten any better.

2/27: It's close early. 39-34 at the break. Fox picked up 2 fouls early and only played 8 minutes, 9 and 5. Soko has 11. Up 9 with 10 to play.

86-67 but it took a long time. 27, 10, 2, 3 for Fox, 26, 8 for Soko, 13, 10, 5 for Grat. 10 TOs.

#2 ranked Michigan won as well.

2/28: At 16-12, 10-8 Minnesota. We won by 28 at home.

3/1: They take the lead. We catch them with 7 minutes left. 34-35 at halftime. 13, 10 for Fox, 14 for Soko, but they're hanging right there with us. Up by only 3 with 10 to play.

73-68. Whew! This was just the challenge we needed. We kept our heads and never quit even when it was tied at 65.

27, 16, 3 for Fox, 19, 4 for Soko. +16 RBs.

I will move on after this season, win the title or not, unless Fox shocks me and stays, which we'll know in a few days.

Still nothing unusual about either the space we're travelling through or the space rocks, other than the color.

3/2: 16-12, 9-10 Purdue is here to end the regular season. Their starting SG broke his wrist last week.

Another tiring 3 game week. The only hope Purdue has is our fatigue.

3/3: Our fatigue is showing early. Up 7 after 10. We finally get untracked and we're running away from them. 45-22 at the half. 26, 6 for Fox.

92-39. Incredible D. 38, 7 for Fox, 18, 1, 8 for Blay, 10, 11 for Moro. +14 RBs.

3/5: This is the day when decisions about going pro are revealed.

As expected Ryan Fox declares. Little used SG Lou Vina also declares. He had a lot of potential. We decide NOT to offer to offer to anyone else.

We finish the regular season at 31-1, 19-1, #1, NET #1. Weird tied for 1st in the Big 10 with #2 ranked, #3 NET Michigan. We have the #1 seed in the tourney. It is entirely possible that we will face them for both the Big 10 and the national titles. They're the only team to beat us this year, by one point.

[Wayne23]

3/8: We play #8 seed Purdue, 17-13, 9-11, the only favorite to advance in the last round. We crushed them last week.

3/9: It's close. 31-34 at the half. Fox played 9 minutes, picked up 3 fouls and has 3 points. Jorg leads us with 9.

“Get it together, guys. You're making a lousy team look good!”

Up 4 with 10 to play. Up 3 with 5 left.

69-62. Much more challenge than we expected because of Fox's foul trouble mostly. He wound up with 18 in 22 minutes. 14, 3, 8 for Blay, 15, 3 for Jorg, 7, 17 for Soko.

All the favorites won.

Alarms woke me, and everyone else, in the middle of the night.

“Hull breach on decks 14-17. Don your hazmat suits and proceed to your designated shuttle boarding location. Proceed with caution.”

That was repeated over and over again.

So we've obviously been hit by a space rock. Hope not too many lives were lost.

Not too much news on the shuttle. The pilot was too busy launching and trying to get us to a safe spot away from the worst of the rock clusters.

Several hours later we learned that major damage was done to water and waste departments, and robotic and human repair crews are working frantically as the ship tries to navigate to a safe location. We may be on the shuttles for several days while repairs to water and waste are made.

All we know about casualties is that there were some.