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

[PointGuard]

We have 7 scholarships to fill this year (and need several of our recruits to be guards), so recruiting is going to be difficult. I decide to conserve money since we are going to have to recruit hard throughout the entire year. I purchase just the basic Western Report and we will travel only to the Las Vegas Revue. We’ll focus on the West Coast (at least for high school recruiting). Since there are so many scholarships to fill, I’m hoping to get 3 or 4 high school players and the rest can be Juco’s…spread out the yearly recruiting a bit that way.

In early September, I offer 7 scholarships, visiting 4 players the week of September 11th. Two of the four players I visited showed a good deal of interest. Withdrawing the scholarship offers from the other two, I offered scholarships to two more players and visited 4 players the week of September 18th. Six of the seven players to whom we offered scholarships chose much more prestigious schools. We refocused our efforts, looking more closely at Juco players and making scholarship offers to several more players the week of September 25th. 3 of the 4 home visits I conducted went well. The week of October 2nd, two more players we had offered scholarships to selected other schools, plus two of those visited lost interest. That left us with 2 scholarship offers (both to high school seniors) on the table. We offered a few more players scholarships but the week of October 9th, we lost another to a college with more prestige.

So, after working hard all summer and fall, we end up 0 for 7. That means we will have to nurse things along through the winter and kick butt in the spring. It also means we are less likely to sign the 3-4 high schoolers that I had wanted.

[PointGuard]

No one from my squad is transferring. There’s a few players in the transfer list I’d like to pursue, but I have a full roster and don’t want to cut anyone (even though there are a couple who are not likely to contribute too much).

[PointGuard]

Jerell Brown and Randy Durham were both nominated for the Norton Award.

[PointGuard]

We set up a very tough pre-conference schedule for this year. In particular, all of our away games are against top-notch teams. The better teams didn’t want to play us in Bakersfield, but we got some good opponents for our home games anyway.

Pre-conference

@ Brigham Young
ARKANSAS-PINE BLUFF
NEBRASKA
@ Cincinnati
@ Ohio State
@ Temple
AUBURN
@ Gonzaga
LOYOLA MARYMOUNT
FURMAN
VIRGINIA
MISSOURI STATE
@ Boston College

Great West Conference

@ Chicago State
NEW JERSEY TECH
@ Houston Baptist
NORTH DAKOTA
@ Seattle
@ TX Pan American
UTAH VALLEY
CHICAGO STATE
@ New Jersey Tech
HOUSTON BAPTIST
@ North Dakota
SEATTLE
TX PAN AMERICAN
@ Utah Valley

[PointGuard]

Awvee Calton didn’t make any friends by verbally assaulting Jerell Brown and Josh Brown. Apparently he’d prefer a brown-out on this team. That earned him a trip to my office for a chewing out to which he became defensive. I considered suspending him, but figured I’d see how things went later in practice.

Michael Curry took cheap shots at Marcelle Pastner whenever he thought no one was watching. I sat him down and let him know I wasn’t going to put up with any more of that.

Just before the season started there was some trash talking among some of the players which I dismissed without action. But Ammer Self’s threat to fight Randy Durham was more than I was willing to put up with, so I brought him in and let him know that wouldn’t be tolerated. He accused Durham of precipitating the incident rather than accept any personal responsibility.

[PointGuard]

Since we have good strength upfront this year, I had planned to redshirt freshman PF Mike Dotson, but failed to take action on time, so he will play this year.

[PointGuard]

After a disastrous summer and fall recruiting season, I’m extremely happy that we’re ready to begin playing games. The pre-season could be a rough one since we’ve amped up the competition so much this year, but I think that our players are up to the task and we’ll win our share of games.

[PointGuard]

PG: We have 3 very good PG’s. I’m impressed by how well freshman Lionel Benjamin has played during practice.

Randy Durham, 6-4 Sr, 4.0/5.0 stars
Michael Curry, 6-3 Sr., 2.5/3.0 stars*
Lionel Benjamin, 6-0 Fr, 2.0/4.0 stars

SG: Jerell Brown is back but he can be spelled with confidence by Marcus Evans who will start some games at SF.

Jerell Brown, 6-4 Sr, 5.0/5.0 stars
Marcus Evans, 6-4 Sr., 4.0/5.0 stars

SF: Isaac Bryson is likely to split starts with Marcus Evans. Ammer Self has improved sufficiently to fill in when necessary.

Isaac Bryson, 6-8 Sr., 3.5/5.0 stars
Ammer Self, 6-7 Sr., 2.0/3.5 stars

PF: Mitchell Jarmond will start but Awvee Calton could challenge him for the starting role. Mike Dotson played well during practices. C.J. Galloway and Terrance Wiatre will get some playing time as well.

Mitchell Jarmond, 6-6 So., 2.5/4.0
Awvee Calton, 6-8 Jr., 4.0/5.0 stars
Mike Dotson, 6-7 Fr., 2.0/4.0 stars
C.J. Galloway, 6-7 Sr., 2.0/4.0 stars
Terrance Wiatre, 6-8 Sr., 2.0/2.0 stars*

C: Mark Saunders has improved significantly over last year. Marcelle Pastner and Josh Brown will split time coming off the bench.

Mark Saunders, 6-9 So., 4.0/5.0 stars
Marcelle Pastner, 6-10 Jr., 2.5/4.0 stars
Josh Brown, 6-8 Sr., 2.5/3.5 stars

* Indicates walk-on player

[PointGuard]

Game #1; Nov. 15, 2015: CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (0-0) at Brigham Young Cougars(0-0)

Brigham Young is anchored by their 6-6 sophomore PG, Aaron Ides, who scored 15.9 ppg last year.

After BYU made the first point, we took raced off to an 8-1 lead and held the lead throughout the 1st half. The Cougars narrowed our lead late in the half with the score at the buzzer being 29-26 in our favor. BYU controlled the boards 23-20, but we forced them to turn the ball over 11 times while making just 4 ourselves. Although we only hit 37% of our shots, our defense held BYU’s shooting to 32%. Awvee Calton scored 8 points for us.

The defensive battle continued through the first part of the 2nd half, but we drew away midway through the half to open a 15 point lead. BYU never seriously threatened after that.

Final Score: CSU Bakersfield-62, Brigham Young-48. CSU Bakersfield season record: 1-0.

Scoring leaders: Jrl Brown-25, Durham-11, Calton-8.

Rebound leaders: Saunders-9, Bryson-6.

Assist leaders: Durham-8.

Player of the Game: SG Jerell Brown-25 pts, 4 reb, 2 assists, 3 steals.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: PG Randy Durham-11 pts, 4 reb, 8 assists, 1 steal, 1 block.

Other notes: Our defense held firm throughout the game to stymie BYU’s shooting (32%). We only hit 38% of our shots, but out-rebounded BYU 39-36 and held a 15-9 advantage in turnovers. Mark Saunders was tenacious inside. Even though he only scored 5 points, he pulled down 9 rebounds, and had 2 steals and 1 block. Awvee Calton looked good in his first game for us (8 pts, 4 reb, 1 block) coming off the bench.

[PointGuard]

Game #2; Nov. 18, 2015: Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions (1-0) at CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners

Arkansas-Pine Bluff put on an offensive show in the first game this yearG, beating Sacramento State 87-57. PG Jef Adams dropped in 24 points in that game.

Randy Durham picked up 2 foul in the first 2-3/4 minutes of the 1st half. We couldn’t hit our shots (28%), turned the ball over too much (8 times), and had 9 fouls called against us to only 1 against the Golden Lions. Arkansas-Pine Bluff shot even worse (27%), but made only 4 turnovers, and hit 7 of 11 free throws. They opened a 10 point lead at 22-12 and finished the half with a 26-20 advantage over us. Michael Curry’s 6 points lead our anemic scoring attack.

We scored the first 7 points in the 2nd half to take a 27-26 lead. We continued our aggressive defense throughout the 2nd half and gradually expanded our lead to as much as 13 points. While we won with ease, our offense was horrible in our home opener.

Final Score: CSU Bakersfield-60, Arkansas-Pine Bluff-50. CSU Bakersfield season record: 2-0.

Scoring leaders: Evans-13, Curry-12, Bryson-9, Durham-8.

Rebound leaders: Jrl Brown-8, Jsh Brown-7, Bryson-5, Evans-5, Saunders-5.

Assist leaders: Durham-3, Curry-3, Jsh Brown-3.

Player of the Game: SG/SF Marcus Evans-13 pts, 5 reb, 2 assists, 2 steals.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: PG Michael Curry-12 pts, 2 reb, 3 assists.

Other notes: We hit 36% of our shots (18% from 3 point distance) but we held the Golden Lions to 31% shooting. We forced them to turn the ball over 13 times in the 2nd half to achieve a 17-11 turnover advantage. Jerell Brown hit just 1 of 12 shots and scored only 3 points.