The Phenom

[Wayne23]

3/19: 79-63. Back and forth. Up 1 at the half. Still back and forth midway through the 2nd half. Then we go on a run. It took a long time, but we got there.

21, 9 and excellent D for Sulu. 20 and 6 for Beck. 12, 12 for Palt.

+11 RBs. +16 in the paint.

#4 seed, #15 ranked Indiana, 26-9, 7-6, in the Sweet Sixteen. This is a good team, especially at PG and PF. We definitely need to control the boards and take care of the ball.

AZ ST and Washington advance in the NIT again.

The women are still undefeated and headed for the Elite Eight.

[Wayne23]

3/24: 81-80 in overtime; we're 4-4 in OT this season. We take an early lead but it's close. Up 6 at the half. OT. They fouled PG Brian Evan late and he hit both. They had it with 4.2 left but missed a three; great D on that possession for us. We led most of the way in the 2nd half; they caught us late and it went back and forth for the last couple of minutes; they tied it with a three at the end of regulation.

21, 3 for Back, 11, 14 for Palt, 16, 6 for Rice, 13, 8, 3, with 4 steals for Sulu.

+4 RBs. We had a dismal 18 TOs but they had 22.

We won it at the line again, 28-37 to 18-22.

USC is also in the Elite Eight.

#8 ranked, #3 seed, VCU, 29-8, in the Elite Eight. They're a solid team but we feel we have the edge on the boards, and we should be able to turn them over. Still, they play a tight 1-3-1, which we haven't seen much, and we still don't have our starting guards and won't.

[Wayne23]

3/26: 92-79. Slow start for both teams. Late run puts us up 10 at the half. Tied with 7 minutes left. We really went for it in the last 4-5 minutes. Never expected to get to the Final Four with both starting guards out. Amazing!

29, 10, 4 for Sulu, 17, 4 for Mosh. +6 RBs. 14 TOs but they had 22. Both teams shot really well, 53% for us, 54.7% for them. But we took 13 more shots and made 6 of them. +6 from the line.

+18 in the paint, plus 13 on 2nd chances.

USC joins us in the Final Four! They're next up. #5 seed, #16 ranked, 29-7. We won by only 11 at our place. Last time we were +17 on the boards.

Their PF and SF did a lot of damage.

[Wayne23]

4/1: 74-63. We take an early lead. They come back. Up 6 at the half. Big run early in the 2nd. Up 14. Incredible! We're in the title game!

20, 11, 3, with 4 steals for Sulu. His man had 2 and 1. 13 each for Rice and Beck.

+10 on the boards, and only 11 TOs. As usual we won it at the line, 29-39 to 14-19.

+12 in the paint, so that was a huge factor.

#2 seed, #3 ranked Texas, 33-6, shocked overall #1 Duke by 15 in the semifinal. We beat them by 8 in December but we were healthy then. On paper they are the better team and are favored by 4 1/2. Their man to man is stifling but we managed 74 against that D last time. Of course our two leading scorers were Jonn and Cevi, both now out for the season. This is going to be a tough one!

[Wayne23]

4/3: 81-71. We take an early lead, but it's close. Up 5 at the half. Up 10 with 16 left. They catch us and go ahead. Back and forth. Truly and completely unbelievable! We win the title with our starting backcourt out with injuries!

19, 3 for Sulu, who was matched by their C. 17, 3, 3 for Beck, who shut down their SG. 14, 5 for Palt. Their PG, one of their 2 best players, had 8 TOs.

-9 RBs, which is very unusual for us, but we had 9 TOs and they had 23. And yet again we won it at the line, 34-42 to 21-31.
I'm in shock!

The women went undefeated so both teams win the national title.

Back to back titles for us!

[Wayne23]

4/4: Awards: Marc Sulu is Final Four MOP. In conference, Sulu is POY and 1st team. Eddy Palt makes the 2nd team. I get conf. COY.

4/9: I'm not going anywhere. Lots of calls though.

4/23: Time to ask for a facilities upgrade.

Kara said yes. Facilities for both the men's and the women's teams go from A- to A.

33-5 and a highly improbable 2nd national title in a row, my 3rd overall. In 11 seasons I'm 343-59, .853.

[Wayne23]

5/1: Preseason #1 preseason. #2 recruiting class.

6/5: Room for a transfer.

6/12: We get a PF from NC ST. Looks like a good one.

6/26: 5 scholarships. We'll go 3 and 2 either way.

Keith Barr goes #5 in the draft.

The women's team lost 2 starters and a sub who player a fair amount but they have 2 great looking incoming frosh. They're preseason #3.

Lu and I both like it here in the Pacific Northwest. We may move but if we don't, that's fine too.

8/7: Frosh PG Kurt Hout is #4 on the Norton list. Frosh PG Doug Carr is #17, and C/F Eddy Palt is #41.

8/21: We offer to 3 PGs and 2 PFs.

9/18: 4 for 5. PGs #26, 29, PFs #12 and 13. Lost a PG but going after another one.

Going to the preseason NIT vs. Belmont. Everyone on the pre-conf. schedule is ranked.

9/25: Lost the PG. Going after a C.

10/2: 1st day of practice. We're good and we're deep.

Lost the C. We're probably going to bank the scholarship but we'll look again in the Spring.

[Wayne23]

11/6: Play starts next week but I have my lineup:

Frosh Kurt Hout, who looks like a budding superstar, is at PG.

Frosh Doug Carr, who also looks terrific, is at SG. Senior Sadu Cevi is my #3 guard, senior Josh Jonn #4, and frosh Aski Glau is #5

Junior Marc Sulu, who was our best player last year, is at C.

Minutes at SF and PF, and back up minutes at C will be shared about equally among Steve Agai, a soph transfer from Kona, who starts at SF, senior
Eddy Palt, who starts at PF, and junior Rico Beck.

#1 (us), 2, 3, and 5 ranked teams are all in the NIT.

[Wayne23]

I'm ending this association. Ran out of steam.

Ya want an ending? Okay, here it is:

11/12: Red Butts, Portland Times. I am very sorry to report that Dunphy "Phee" Nomakowski, known as Coach Phee, Coach Nom, or "The Phenom," was killed last night in a freak accident. He was walking across campus toward his home when he was struck and killed by a box truck. In a million to one shot, just as the car was coming up beside him the front right tire blew out, causing the truck to swerve and strike Coach Phee. The coroner said that the autopsy was still to be done but it seemed obvious that death was instantaneous.

The Coach was to head out to the NIT soon to begin defense of his back to back national titles. First assistant Jim Frey will serve as interim head coach, probably for the entire season, though no official announcement to that effect has been made by the athletic department. He leaves his fiancee, women's Oregon coach Lu Branz, and his parents, Walter and Yvonne Nomakowski, of Lowell, MA.

[JMD]

Sulu from Star Trek did it for you!