Philly Gym Rat (The Perry “QM” McMullin Story)

[PointGuard]

PPG: Brown-21.8, Powers-6.6, Chase-5.8, Williams-5.2, Settles-4.8, Johnson-4.4, Hill-3.9, Holmes-3.5, Kamara-3.2, Rivera-2.2, Jones-1.8, Self-0.8, Galloway-0.5

RPG: Settles-5.3, Chase-4.2, Brown-4.0, Johnson-3.4, Willaims-3.2, Rivera-2.7, Powers-2.2, Hill-2.1

APG: Hill-2.8, Holmes-2.6, Kamara-1.8, Brown-1.4, Johnson-1.1, Settles-1.0, Williams-0.9, Chase-0.9

SPG: Brown-2.7, Williams-0.9, Johnson-0.7, Powers-0.5, Chase-0.5, Rivera-0.5, Holmes-0.4, Hill-0.4, Jones-0.4

BPG: Hill-0.5, Chase-0.5, Johnson-0.2, Jones-0.2, Powers-0.1, Williams-0.1, Rivera-0.1, Settles-0.1

A/TO: Holmes-1.5, Kamara-1.5, Chase-1.3, Johnson-1.3, Rivera-1.2, Powers-1.0, Jones-1.0, Self-1.0

GS: Brown-13, Williams-13, Chase-13, Settles-11, Hill-9, Kamara-3, Johnson-2, Holmes-1

Min: Brown-30.5, Chase-23.3, Settles-23.2, Williams-22.0, Hill-17.1, Powers-16.5, Johnson-16.0, Rivera-14.1, Holmes-12.6, Kamara-9.8

[PointGuard]

Record: 6-7; Home Record: 2-2; Away Record: 4-5; Ranking: NR; RPI: 178

PPG: 63.5 (278th in nation); Opponents’ PPG: 64.3 (94th in nation)
APG: 14.7 (154th in nation)
RPG: 30.9 (172nd in nation)
BPG: 1.8 (257th in nation)
SPG: 7.5 (41st in nation)
TOPG: 16.5 (320th in nation)

[PointGuard]

1. Florida, 13-2
2. Georgia Tech, 11-1
3. North Carolina, 10-2
4. Duke, 11-3
5. Michigan, 13-1
6. Georgetown, 10-2
7. Kentucky, 10-2
8. Missouri, 12-1
9. Louisville, 9-2
10. Miami, 13-2

(Furthest west team in the Top 10: Missouri….hmmmmm...some East Coast and Midwest bias?)

[PointGuard]

Game #14: Jan. 2, 2013; Chicago State Cougars (5-8, 0-0) at CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (6-7, 0-0)

We’re excited to be starting conference play. Chicago State has had as up-and-down a year as have we, but 3 of their losses are against some stiff competition (#7 Miami, Utah, and Nevada). They like to use a 1-2-2 zone, so we’ll see how we do against it.

Jerell Brown picked up 2 fouls in the first 2 minutes of play. Neither team made any points until Chicago State hit a bucket 3 minutes into the game. Both teams continued to struggle offensively…the score was 6-6 after 7-1/2 minutes of play. I had slowed our normal pace to see if that would reduce our turnovers, but we were still treating the ball as if it were a hot potato. Fortunately the Cougars were doing the same thing. We finally hit some shots and spurted to a 14-6 lead with 10 minutes to go in the half. We muddled offensively through the rest of the half, finishing with a 25-23 lead. Defensively we did force the Cougars to make 13 turnovers. Andrew Powers scored 8 points to pace our scoring.

We pulled ahead by a small margin for the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half, but then let Chicago State back into the game and they took the lead. Down 51-48 with about 4 minutes in the game, we made a run that put us ahead 56-51 with 2:14 left. Our guys played their hearts out in the last 4 minutes and we pulled away for the win.

Final Score: CSU Bakersfield-68, Chicago State-59. CSU Bakersfield season record: 7-7; Great West record: 1-0 (1st place tie).

Scoring leaders: Brown-15, Holmes-12, Powers-11, Johnson-11, Williams-10.

I]Rebound leaders: [/I]Settles-5.

Assist leaders: Holmes-5, Johnson-3.

Player of the Game: C David Johnson-11 pts, 4 reb, 3 assists, 3 steals, 1 block.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: PG Carlos Holmes-10 pts, 1 reb, 5 assists, 1 steal.

Other notes: Chicago State outshot us 47% to 42%, but they made 25 turnovers while we made just 11. For most of the game we played like we didn’t want to be on the court, but we had a few short spurts that were enough to get the win. After playing just 2 minutes in the first half and scoring no points, Jerell Brown tossed in 15 points in the 2nd half.

[PointGuard]

Sean and Bree flew into LAX. I drove down there and picked them up. We got into Bakersfield late the night of January 3rd. Sean is rougher looking than I remember him. Bree is as pretty as she’s always been.

They got set up in the house the next day, and I showed them around the city (what there is of it) the afternoon after that. They were not impressed, but Bree tried to fake a little enthusiasm. Sean, on the other hand, did little more than roll his eyes.

[PointGuard]

Jerell Brown has garnered 4 of the first 8 Great West Conference Player of the Week honors. He’s also been named Great West Freshman of the Week in 7 of the first 8 weeks of play.

[PointGuard]

Game #15: Jan. 5, 2013; CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (7-7, 1-0) at North Dakota Fighting Sioux (7-7, 0-1)

North Dakota’s SG Herb Dahl has scored 20.4 ppg which is very comparable to our Jerell Brown’s 21.4 ppg. Their PG Robert Acani (9.1 ppg, 5.6 apg) is much better than any of those we’ve tried at PG. North Dakota has the highest team scoring average (71.5 ppg) in the conference, so we need to clamp down on them defensively.

We turn over the ball 9 of our first 18 possessions. North Dakota’s PG Robert Acani is called for 2 fouls in the first 5-1/2 minutes. We’re trailing 21-8 with 8-1/2 minutes to play in the first half. With 21 seconds left in the half, I foolishly call to play for a last shot. 14 seconds later we make our 12th turnover of the half. We leave the court down 35-23 after hitting just 32% of our shots while allowing the Fighting Sioux to hit 46% of theirs. Herb Dahl scores only 3 points, but his replacement at SG, Shawn Fox, hits 3 of 3 from beyond the arc and 5 of 6 FT’s to score 14. Our leading scorer is Jerell Brown with 7.

North Dakota makes 3 turnovers in the first 2 minutes allowing us to trim their lead to 35-29. The Fighting Sioux fight back to score the next 11 points, putting us behind by 17. With 10 minutes to go we trail by 18. Trailing by 20 with 4-1/2 minutes to go, I decide to play the far end of the bench. We walk off the court with a thorough drubbing.

Final Score: North Dakota-71, CSU Bakersfield-51. CSU Bakersfield season record: 7-8; Great West record: 1-1 (1st place tie with all 8 teams).

Scoring leaders: Brown-13, Kamara-8, Johnson-8.

Rebound leaders: Johnson-8, Settles-6, Brown-5.

Assist leaders: 4 players with 2 each.

Player of the Game: North Dakota’s SF Jesse McPherson-13 pts, 7 reb, 1 assist.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: C David Johnson-8 pts, 8 reb.

Other notes: We continued our miserable shooting in the 2nd half, finishing the game by hitting 34% of our FG attempts and 21% of our 3’s. North Dakota made 46% of their FG’s and 42% of their 3’s. North Dakota out-rebounded us 38-30. We made 18 turnovers but the Fighting Sioux were even worse with 21 turnovers. We had trouble with the 1-3-1 zone earlier this year, but tonight we showed an inability to solve the 2-3 zone.

Jerell Brown hits 6 of 23 shots (and 1 of 10 from 3 point distance) and scores just 13 points. His counterpart on North Dakota, Herb Dahl, is even worse hitting just 4 of 18 (although 3 of 12 from 3-land) and scores just 11 points.

Rashun Kamara played fairly well at PG, but Carlos Hill and Kevin Hill added little. I’m considering trying something entirely different this coming game to try to create some pop at that position.

Thus far in conference play, no away team has won a game. All 8 teams are tied with 1-1 records.

[PointGuard]

Game #16: Jan. 9, 2013; TX Pan American Broncos (3-12, 1-1) at CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (7-8, 1-1)

The Broncos like a fast-pace game, but have given up a lot of points.
I’ve decided to try Jerell Brown at PG tonight. I suspect there will be a lot of turnovers, but we’ve been making loads of turnovers anyway, so not sure if it can get worse. Maybe putting him at PG and Andrew Powers at SG will give us some pop from outside.

Jerell Brown picks up 2 in the first 6 minutes and when brought back into the game later in the first half picks up a quick 3rd. We outshoot the Broncos from the field but they get to the free throw line more. We end the half ahead by a score of 40-33. Our leading scorer is Andrew Powers with 11 points. Jerell Brown was held scoreless but only played 7 minutes.

In the 2nd half we couldn’t hit our shots and the Broncos began knocking down their shots. We found ourselves trailing 51-47 with 13:05 left. We just couldn’t get things going in the 2nd half. This was aggravated by the refs whistling us repeatedly. With 4 minutes to go we trailed 69-60. Jerell Brown fouled out with 2:35 left. We tanked losing to a bad team in our own gym. Very disappointing!

Final Score: TX Pan American-78, CSU Bakersfield-69. CSU Bakersfield season record: 7-9; Great West record: 1-2 (5th place tie)

Scoring leaders: Powers-14, Settles-13, Brown-10.

Rebound leaders: Johnson-5, Chase-5, Williams-5.

Assist leaders: Kamara-7, Brown-3.

Player of the Game: TX Pan American’s PF Brett Granger-18 pts, 7 reb, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: PG Rashun Kamara-6 pts, 2 reb, 7 assists, 1 steal.

Other notes: The refs called 24 fouls against us giving TX Pan American 35 free throws. We only got 17 trips to the line. That differential won the game for the Broncos. But we played badly and without spirit. We let them out-rebound us 43-28. On a positive note we only made 7 turnovers compared to the Broncos 14.

My experiment with starting Jerell Brown at PG was a failure, although the foul calls against him were part of the problem. Back to the drawing boards.

[PointGuard]

Game #17: Jan. 12, 2013; CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (7-9, 1-2) at Utah Valley Wolverines (6-10, 1-2)

We’ve been in a slump the past 5 games, losing 4 of them. Utah Valley lost their first 7 games of the season but has won 4 of their last 6. The Wolverine’s Matt Rosen and Bryan Boyce have combined to score over 26 points per game.

Rashun Kamara will return to the starting lineup at PG and Jerell Brown will move back to SG for us.

The zebras assessed 2 fouls against our starting SF Justin Williams in the first 1-1/2 minutes. Andrew Powers picked up his 2nd foul with 13:48 left in the first half. We hit 50% of our shots while the Wolverines hit 46%. We took a 36-34 lead to the locker room. Jerell Brown’s 10 points led our scoring.

We were called for 5 fouls in the first 4 minutes of the 2nd half, putting 3 players on the bench with 3 fouls each. No fouls had been called against Utah Valley. A 4th starter for us picked up his 3rd foul 2-1/2 minutes later. With 13:15 left in the 2nd half, we were charged with our 7th team foul. A 5th player on our team picked up his 3rd foul with 12-1/2 minutes to play. But we continued to shoot well and led 51-44 with 12 minutes to play. As the fouls continued to pile up against us (and not against Utah Valley), the momentum shifted and we fell behind by 4 points with 3 minutes to play.

We closed the score to 61-60 but the refs called yet another foul with 1:05 left. Utah Valley sunk both free throws. We called a time out and Carlos Holme scored on the pick and roll making the score 63-62 with 50 seconds to go. Another foul called on us with 39 seconds remaining. Utah Valley missed both shots, grabbed the rebound and missed an inside shot. We called a time out with 27 ticks on the clock. We isolated Jerell Brown but he travelled. We intentionally fouled with 14 seconds to play. Utah Valley hit both shots and we trailed by 3. We called our final time out with 9 seconds left to set up a 3-point shot for Jerell Brown. When he was covered, Carlos Holmes lofted up a 3 that connected with 5 seconds to play to tie the game at 65-65. We pressed and kept them from advancing up court.

OT: The refs continued to call fouls only against us allowing Utah Valley to take a 67-65 lead with 3:57 left in the OT. Jerell Brown hit a 3 from the corner to make it 68-67 with 3:20 remaining. Utah Valley knocked down a jumper from the baseline to recapture the lead at 69-68 with 2:43 on the clock. Turnovers and misses by both teams ensued in the next minute. Mike Settles finally scored from 6 feet away with 1:30 left to give us a 70-69 lead. Jerell Brown stole a Wolverine pass and Mike Settles took it inside again for a short jumper to put us ahead by 3 with 1:05 to go. Utah Valley’s Bryan Boyce drove, pulled up and scored to cut our lead to 1, but on our next possession Mike Settles got the ball outside the key, drove to the basket and slammed home a dunk with 40 seconds left to make it 74-71. We played extremely tight defense to prevent a shot and then forced the Wolverines to toss the ball out of bounds with 13 seconds left. I inserted my best free throw shooters. But Utah Valley had only been called for 4 fouls the entire 2nd half and nearly all of the OT, so ultimately the refs help to Utah Valley was to our benefit. The Wolverines fouled 3 times in 7 seconds before any shots were taken. Carlos Holmes then put both ends of the one-and-one cleanly through the hoop to ice the game.

Final Score: CSU Bakersfield-76, Utah Valley-71 (OT). CSU Bakersfield season record: 8-9; Great West record: 2-2 (3rd place tie).

Scoring leaders: Brown-16, Holmes-12, Hill-8, Settles-8.

Rebound leaders: Chase-7, Brown-6, Settles-5.

Assist leaders: Kamara-5.

Player of the Game: SG Jerell Brown-16 pts, 6 reb, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: C Mike Settles-8 pts, 5 reb, 2 assists, 1 steal.

Other notes: We dropped in 51% of our FG attempts (and 50% of our 3’s) while holding Utah Valley to 41% shooting (and 33% from outside the arc). Utah Valley was awarded with 35 free throws (hitting 27 of them) while we had just 17 trips to the line (making 13). Brian Boyce scored 20 for Utah Valley.

[Wayne23]

I begin to wonder if the fact, and it seems to be a fact, that many more fouls are called on the live player when playing games out is Gary's way of making up for the deficiencies in the AI. Thoughts?