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February 2036

Still no offers going out on the recruiting front. Have to assume that we'll just punt on our remaining scholarship and hope to land a transfer. One one hand, we can grab an impact player like the previous staff did with Lindsey, but we'll be in immediate need of a post player if we're to remain respectable next season with Kratzner and Duley graduating. I don't want to sound ungrateful because I've really learned a lot from Dave and love working with the players, but the last thing I want is for my career to stagnate because we couldn't keep the cabinet stocked with players; nobody's looking to hire assistants from 8-24 teams.

We visit Wake Forest on the first of the month. The fans sense a prime opportunity for an ACC victory, and the 8-0 lead the Demon Deacons jump to whips them into a frenzy. We eventually become acclimated and take our first lead, 26-24 with 4:30 left in the half on Lloyd Hintz's three- pointer.

Wake Forest has significantly cooled down, and we build upon our 35-30 halftime lead despite not firing on all cylinders offensively. Then, Nathaniel Doss begins to take over. His 16th point of the contest gives us a 55-39 lead with 8:38 to play. We milk the clock for a 73-51 win and climb back to .500 in the ACC.

Next is the rematch with North Carolina. They're 1-5 in conference and will be looking for revenge. The RPI paints a pretty accurate portrait of our season thus far; 0-6 versus the top 50 and 8-0 against teams ranked 200 and lower. This game seems destined to come down to the wire. We're tied with them at 23 with 5 minutes left in the half, thanks to the layup we've gotten from breaking their press. UNC hits a buzzer-beating three to go ahead 31-29. They're killing us 26-15 on the glass; unsurprisingly the three-pointer was a second-chance opportunity for them.

In the 2nd half, our scoring is as balanced as it's been this season. Kratzer completes a couple three-point plays, and we grab a 54-53 lead with 5:13 remaining. Jones, Doss, Kratzer and Duley are all in double figures. Over the next 2 minutes, we go 2-6 on free throws but continue to turn North Carolina away. We get a nice bounce when UNC misses a three that's rebounded by our best free-throw shooter, Lindsey, and he makes them both to put us up 64-57 with a 1:02 left. Then, we proceed to do every single thing wrong. UNC's sharpshooter Lehr gets 3(!) tries to make a three-pointer the following possession thanks to offensive rebounds. That puts us up 64-60 with 35 seconds left. Their center proceeds to steal the inbounds pass from Duley (he of the 20 HND rating) and make a layup. We turn over the next inbounds pass as well, force UNC into a miss, give up an offensive rebound, and then foul Lehr with 6 seconds remaining. He makes the first, misses the second.. and then tips in his own miss to give them the lead.

I call a timeout to set up a final play - a wing pick-and-roll for Duley. Everyone in the arena knows it's going to him, and he rises up with 2 seconds left - and dumps it to the wide-open screener Freddie Diaz! North Carolina tries to foul our unheralded starting PF (3.6 PPG), but it's too late: he gets the bucket, and one. UNC's halfcourt heave falls just short, and we've swept the Tar Heels!

With that, we're 12-8 (4-3) and face Clemson at home. Both teams spend much of the first half shooting over 50 percent. We just need to string together some stops, and that should allow us to build a comfortable lead. With 5 minutes remaining in the half, we begin to do just that and lead 40-30. At intermission, Duley and Jones are both in double figures.

In the 2nd half, Clemson gets within 4 before a Doss steal and breakaway jam helps us regain the momentum. We eventually settle on a 10 point lead, with Beau knocking down two heat check threes whenever Clemson makes a run. We win 73-57. Lindsey fills up the stat sheet with 16, 6, and 6. Beau has 19, 5, and 4. We commit only 15 fouls the entire ball game, which is right in line with our season average. Being the 2nd-most foul-averse team in the nation has certainly helped us in close games.

Virginia comes to visit Chestnut Hill. They're currently underachieving at 2nd-to-last in the conference. Let's keep it that way. They start out hitting some 3s against our 1-3-1, so we abandon that for man-to-man. Beau keeps us afloat early with 10 points in the first 10 minutes, and we take our first lead of the game (30-29) 12 minutes in. Some ugly defensive lapses have us trailing 50-45 at the half.

In the 2nd half, we just missed all of our open looks while they made theirs. An 18-point home loss to the 2nd-worst team in the conference will just about seal our NCAA at-large chances. We're tied for 5th in the conference with NC State and sit 2 full games ahead of the 7th place teams. The four teams ranked ahead of us are all in the top 25, and we get Miami at home next.

#9 Miami threatens to blow us out early, but some good work on the boards keeps us within 2 over the first 10 minutes despite shooting 38% to their 56%. Duley has had an off game, but I know he's not going to stay quiet all night. John Kratzer's playing his best half of basketball in months, and we pull ahead 38-37 on a Lindsey Jones 3. When that shot's falling for Lindsey, there aren't many wings in the country I'd take over him. He's got 15 at the half as we lead 43-42. Kratzer has 13 and 4.

Doss gets going early in the 2nd half with a couple steals and some jumpers, and we lead 55-48 with 11 minutes left. A four-turnover streak allows Miami to whittle away a 59-50 lead with 8 minutes left, and we're clinging to a one-point lead inside the last media timeout. Kratzer steals a post entry past and is off to the races. He then lobs it to Quesada off the glass (at least Big John says it was a lob; some of his teammates are convinced he completely lost control while attempting a layup), and Quesada finishes an and-one dunk to put us up 4. Miami scores back-to-back buckets to tie it, and Duley hits a jumper from the left wing (only his 5th point of the game) to put us up 2 with 53 seconds left. We commit a foul with 18 seconds left, and Miami's Coy Clifton splits the pair. Doss ends up with the rebound and makes his foul shots. Miami then takes us by surprise by not taking a timeout, and reserve guard Kieth Judge swishes a three from a step inside halfcourt to send it into OT.

The first minute sees Kratzner foul out Miami's center and sink two free throws, followed by Jones stealing and dunking the ensuing inbounds pass to put us up 4. We then trade baskets the next few minutes, with Jones and Kratzner scoring all of our points. When Miami starts going for threes, we again secure the rebound and make our free throws (26-28 for the game). This time they're out of miracles, and we hold on for an 87-82 win. Kratzner had 25 and 9 on 8-13 shooting, and Jones poured in 25, 5, and 5 shooting 10-16. At 14-9 (6-4), we've eclipsed our ACC win total from the past two years, but our guys aren't complacent. In fact, I hear quite a few of them still lamenting the Virginia loss.