Hoops in Space

[Wayne23]

3/5: Starting PG Stew Camp declares for the draft. We offer to an SG.

Flashing lights are closer. Still no idea what’s causing them.

3/6: We are even with the flashing lights. No idea what they are or what’s causing them. We’re going to observe for awhile.

3/8: We move on totally puzzled.

3/10: We play #6 seed, #4 ranked Kansas, 25-8, 13-7. We beat them by 13 at home. Tough match up this early in the tournament.

3/11: 85-95. They led all the way but never by more than 12. 17, 11 for Beck.

[Wayne23]

3/12: #4 seed East. We play #13 ST Bonaventure, 22-11. Grel is back.

3/16: 72-52. We led all the way. 17, 13, 4, 3 for Beck.

#5 seed, #18 ranked Tennessee, 23-8, in the 2nd round.

3/18: 64-74. We didn’t shoot well and the refs hurt us.

The guard signs with us.

4/3: #4 Virginia wins it all.

4/4: Awards: Dan Beck makes the Big 12 2nd team.

4/9: We’re not going anywhere.

4/23: We ask for a facilities upgrade.

No.

24-9, Ranked #15. Overall, for 5 seasons, 130-42, .756.

[Wayne23]

5/1: Recruit class #66.

5/22: Ty Bond leaves. We’re looking for 2 big guys.

We’re about a year from reaching a solar system with two promising planets.

5/26: 0-2.

5/29: 0-2.

6/2: 0-2.

6/5: We get 2. One will start, the other may start.

6/25: We’re going to Indy and all the regional camps.

6/26: 1st day of recruiting. We need 2 guards and 5 bigs.

7/17: We offer to 7.

7/19: We lost oxygen during my shift. This is, of course, a severe emergency. The main oxygen supply went down. The protocol is for everyone to don their EV suits until the problem is fixed so everyone on the ship, most of whom were asleep given it was 2:45 a.m., did just that.

The 1st back up was working so it wasn’t a true emergency but donning the suits is a sensible precaution, just in case. The problem was soled by about 5:35 a.m. so most people lost a lot of sleep.

[Wayne23]

8/7: Dan Beck is #4 on the Norton list.

9/11: We get a PG, lose 2 guys.

9/18: We get an SF, lose 3 more.

9/25: We get a C, lose 3 more.

10/2: 1st day of practice.

We get a C, lose 2.

11/13: Here’s the lineup:

Senior Mike Alst moves from Sg to PG. We don’t have a true PG on the team.

Juco junior Josh Doll is at SG. He has looked good.

#3 guard is junior John Benn, who can play. Junior Gene Span can also play. Finally, senior Des Ande never lived up to his promise.

Senior Jess Niel moves to SF. He’s a 3 year starter.

Senior Jed Wils is a transfer from Oregon. He does a lot of things well.

Junior Dan Beck is at C. He’s our best player.

1st big off the bench is senior Cris Grel. Senior Jay Sams is next. Then comes Ted Geez, finally recovered from the ACL tear. Senior Amir Rams is a transfer from Denver. Frosh Carl Roge has potential but he’s not ready yet.

11/14: We start the season with ST Bonaventure here.

[Wayne23]

12/25: 5-1 in our last 6. 9-2 at the end of the pre-conf season. Ranked #17.

88-78 at Davidson. 22, 15, 5, 3 blocks for Beck. Great front court play.

8-=82 at Montana. Interestingly we led all the way, by as many as 17, but we almost blew it late. They missed an open three at the buzzer. 18, 13, 3 blocks for Beck. 22, 6, 7 for Alst, 16, 5, 5, 1, 4 for Doll.

78-52 over Kansas City in the first round of the Las Vegas Showdown. We were the #2 seed, they were #7. +14 for the bench.

73-64 over ST Joseph in the semifinals. We led all the way. 17, 16, 5 blocks for Beck, 19, 3 for Niel.

88-72 over Rutgers in the title game. Never a doubt. 18, 5, 6, 7 for Doll, 15, 5, 5 for Beck, 16, 2, 5, 3 for Alst.

74-88 Northeastern. We shot poorly and defended poorly. 21, 17 for Beck, 24, 4, 4, 3 for Doll.

Doll leads us in scoring with 15.3. 15.1, 13.6 for Beck, 11.7, 5.8 assists for Alst.

+14.0 PPG, +11.5 RBs, -3.9 TOs, 10.8 per game.

[Wayne23]

12/30: 71-60 at Kansas ST in the Big 12 opener. 17, 14, 6 blocks for Beck, 25, 6, 2, 3 for Doll.

90-84 over Colorado here. Lots of lead changes but we took charge at the end. 39, 18 for Beck, a huge game.

#3 guard Jonn Benn broke a finger. Out for 7-8 weeks.

1/19/2106: 5-2 in our first 7 Big 12 games.

79-97 at Central Florida. Close for 25 minutes.

61-74 vs. #10 Arizona here. They led all the way. 18, 11, 3 for Beck.

73-58 over Cincinnati here. Big early lead. 18, 20 for Beck.

70-60 at Arizona ST. Niel, Doll, and Sams had 13 each.

91-66 over Utah here. Never close. 23, 3 for Wils, 16, 8, 3, 5 for Beck.

Tied for 2nd in the Big 12. #18.

[Wayne23]

2/14: 4-3 in our last 7. 9-5 in Big 12 play. Tied for 3rd. #16.

Dan Beck is #3 on the Norton list.

89-70 at Houston. 29, 1, 8 for Alst, 19, 2, 3, 3 for Doll. 70-63 at Brigham Young. Tied at the half. 22 for Doll, 14, 3, 8 for Alst. Beck was in foul trouble all night.

62-70 to Texas Cretin at home. We shot 28.9%. 20, 15, 3 blocks for Beck.

71-68 over #22 West Virginia here. They came back from down 13 but we hung on. 35, 2, 1, 4 for Doll.

82-93 at #5 Kansas. They took a 20 point lead at halftime and we couldn’t come back. 17, 3, 7, 3 for Doll.

90-87 over Texas Tech here. Close all the way. 19, 17, 4, 5 blocks for Beck. 26, 8 for Doll.

75-85 at Iowa ST. Tied at the half. 20, 15 for Beck.

Meg and I are getting along great. We’re now designing hikes. We don’t have the computer skills to get them into the system but Meg’s friend Nick does that for us. We vary intensity, amount of climbing, number of big rocks, thickness of ground cover, and a bunch of other things. Makes hiking even more fun. Once the trail is in the system we hike it several times and then we often make changes to it.

The trip itself is pretty quiet these days. We’ll hit the far reaches of the new solar system in June and we can now get pretty good views of it through the ship’s telescope. It’s exciting given that two planets could possibly support life.

[Wayne23]

3/4: 5-1 in our last 6.

82-75 over Brigham Young here. Up 2 at the half. 25, 3, 3, 3, 4 for Doll, 22, 6, 7 for Niel.

70-62 at Baylor. Tied at halftime. 25, 5, 1, 3 for Doll.

73-83 at #23 West Virginia. They led all the way. 19, 3, 7, 6 for Doll.

68-48 over Houston here. Terrific D. 17, 18 for Beck.

76-57 over Arizona ST here. Good D again. 14, 7, 1, 5, 5 blocks for Niel, 16, 7 for Wils.

83-70 at TCU. Up 1 at the half. 14, 11 for Wils, 13, 8, 4 for Beck.

23-8, 14-6, tied for 2nd, 1 back of #4 Kansas, #2 seed. Ranked #17.

Doll leads us with 16.4 PPG. Beck gets 14.0, 12.6. 11.3 for Alst.

+8.1 PPG, +7.3 RBs, -3.4 Tos. 12.1 per game is not good.

I look forward to the off season. As I’ve said I study both astrophysics and piano. I’m quite limited as to how much time I can spend on them during the season but the off season gives me a lot more free time to study and to do other things. Having said that, there’s nothing I love more than coaching.