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

[PointGuard]

The sports writers in the various Great West Conference cities predicted what the conference standings would look like at the end of this season. They forecasted that North Dakota, New Jersey Tech, and Seattle U would finish 1-2-3 in the conference. We were projected to finish last. Hopefully we can surprise a few people though and finish a little higher.

I post the article in the locker room and am pleased when players bristle at the prediction for us. Let’s hope they are peeved enough by it and motivated to make a maximum effort on the court this year.

[PointGuard]

We had some hard-fought contests during the recent team practice session for starting positions. I didn’t decide on a starting lineup until just before the first game of the season. Some of these contests were so close that we very well may have 2 or 3 new starters before the end of the season. Here’s how we will begin the season, though:

PG Greg Bivins, 6-0 Senior (the most talent and the clear-cut leader of the team)

SG Andrew Powers, 6-1 Sophomore (barely edged out Kevin Hill for the starting nod)

SF Jeremy Jones, 6-8 Sophomore (beat out Justin Williams on basis of being a stronger rebounder)

PF Johnny Chase, 6-6 Junior (a strong rebounder)

C David Johnson, 6-9 Junior (very close call in starting him rather than Mike Settles)

[PointGuard]

Game #1; Nov. 16, 2011; CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (0-0) at North Florida Ospreys (0-0)

We hit 52% of our shots in the first half and knocked down 6 of 8 three-pointers en route to a 44-30 halftime lead. Andrew Powers scored 16 and Greg Bivins added 10 for us.

The Ospreys got hot in the 2nd half and cut our lead to 2 points midway through the half and took a 61-10 lead with 5:55 to go. We fell behind by 4 with 2 minutes to play, but battled back and took a 70-69 lead on Greg Bivins drive to the basket with 23 seconds remaining. North Florida’s Alex Martin hit a 3-pointer from the corner with 12 seconds left to give the Ospreys a 72-70 lead. We called a time out with 9 seconds to go to isolate Andrew Powers for a shot. We were unable to execute and get Powers free so Bivins was forced to put up a long 3-pointer at the buzzer which bounced off the front of the rim.

Final Score: North Florida-72, CSU Bakersfield-70. CSU Bakersfield season record: 0-1.

Scoring leaders: Powers-24, Bivins-14, Chase-9.

Rebound leaders: Chase-5, Bivins-5, Powers-5.

Assist leaders: Bivins-4, Powers-3.

Player of the Game: North Florida’s SG Jon Jackson-17 pts, 3 reb, 2 assists, 2 steals, 1 block.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: Andrew Powers-24 pts, 5 reb, 3 assists.

Other notes: Even though this was a disappointing loss, I felt the team played well. It’s just darned tough to win on the road. We hit 45% of our shots to the Osprey’s 40% shooting. North Florida held a 35-30 rebounding edge, but we made just 12 turnovers to the Ospreys’ 17. Ultimately though, the game was won at the foul line as North Florida had 6 more free throws and made 7 more points from the line than did we.

[PointGuard]

When we get home, I read the Bakersfield Bee’s article about the game. Its focus is not on the valiant effort we made in this road game and the many good things our players did, but on how we blew a big lead in the second half. So the overall tone is negative rather than positive. Upset at first, I finally reconcile myself by considering that the press and public have become used to Roadrunner losses and misfortunes, so to them this was just a continuation of poor play by the Roadrunners. We can only turn that around by putting some W’s up on our record…and maybe making some thrilling comebacks of our own.

[Wayne23]

PG, do you use CoachC's exhibition game strategy? I see no mention of it here. I've found it extremely helpful. We discuss it in my thread called "Exhibition Games" under "Suggestions".

[PointGuard]

PG, do you use CoachC's exhibition game strategy? I see no mention of it here. I've found it extremely helpful. We discuss it in my thread called "Exhibition Games" under "Suggestions".

Yes, I've seen the discussions and understand how it can help set your starting lineup and depth chart. It seems a reasonable thing to do. I'd probably do it if the AI were doing the same thing. But I'm trying to minimize the advantages the human inherently has over the AI where I can, so have decided not to do it. Therefore, my choice of starters was mainly decided upon individual player ratings (which may be off some depending on the evaluation skills of my assisstant coaches). I want to make my upward climb as difficult as possible and this is one way of doing that.

I am pretty aggressive with recruiting though, and have thought about laying back some since the AI isn't nearly as aggressive and doesn't shoot for top-ranked players (except for the elite teams). But I enjoy recruiting so much (it's my favorite part of CB2) that I just can't really do anything but go after the best players I can get. For example, this year I corralled and signed the 20th ranked player for a college with a prestige of 2...very unrealistic. Since this player had a 3.2 GPA, in real life he probably would have signed with one of the UC schools or at least a good mid-major in California since playing close to home was his main concern. But recruiting to me is a part of the game I have to try to do my best at it since I love the challenge that recruiting presents. This particular signing was somewhat "luck" as well as wise and skillful recruiting, but I (as CSU Bakersfield) definitely went after much better players than other AI-controlled programs and did it in a much more dogged manner.

[Wayne23]

Understood. I'm very competitive, in life, as well as in games. I'll always take any advantage I can get (obviously not if it actually hurts people unnecessarily).

[PointGuard]

Nothing wrong with being competitive and wanting to win, Wayne.

Ultimately I'd like to see Gary tighten up and improve the AI in any future edition of DDSCB he does...it's good now, but could be better and create more of a realistic challenge. I think this mainly applies to recruiting (where a human can now kick the tail of most AI-controlled teams other than the most prestigious) and in-game play/strategy (i.e., time out management, defensive and offensive set management based on how the AI team is doing in that game, injured player in-game play time, substitution to avoid playing tired players, end of game play strategy). If that were accomplished, then playing the exhibition games would not be an issue at all.

[PointGuard]

Game #2; Nov. 19, 2011; Ball State Cardinals (1-0) at CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (0-1)

Ball State tore our defense apart in the first half. They hit 60% of their shots but more importantly they conducted a clinic on the boards, out-rebounding us 24-9. The refs apparently wore red like the Cardinals, assessing 14 fouls against while whistling Ball State for just 2 fouls. We got 2 free throws while the Cardinals went to the line 19 times. Five of our players picked up 2 fouls each. The result: Ball State-51, CSU Bakersfield-30 at the half. Two of our subs, Kevin Hill and Rashun Kamara led our scoring with 5 points each.

The Cardinals continued their dominance in the 2nd half. We could never make a run against them.

Final Score: Ball State-86, CSU Bakersfield-64. CSU Bakersfield season record: 0-2.

Scoring leaders: Bivins-10, Hill-9, Chase-9, Powers-8.

Rebound leaders: Chase-4.

Assist leaders: Johnson-4, Bivins-3.

Player of the Game: Ball State’s PG Mark Stevens-21 pts, 3 reb, 2 assists, 1 steal.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: PF Johnny Chase-9 pts, 4 reb.

Other notes: Ball State annihilated us on the boards, grabbing 47 rebounds to our 21. Their shooting cooled slightly in the 2nd half, but they still ended by knocking down 52% of their shots, while we could manage to hit just 42% of ours. Ball State’s Rasheed Darby, Mark Stevens, and Reggie Woods combined to score 55 points, hitting 21 of their 37 shots. It looks like we need to work hard on our defense.

This was a home game but we had so few fans in our 10,800 seat arena that it didn’t seem that way. I’m sure our play won’t encourage more people to attend our next game.

The only good thing that happened today was the Jerell Brown signed his Letter of Intent to play for us next year. I’m happy he sent it in before the game, otherwise he might have reconsidered his decision.

The next day reserve SG Kevin Hill injured his leg in practice. We’re going to keep him out of practice the next few days, so maybe he will be ready to play in our next game, even though likely not at full capacity.

[PointGuard]

Losing by 22 at home is just embarrassing. That loss is making me wish I had been able to recruit more than one player this year. Some big changes are needed, but the rebuilding process will definitely take some time.