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

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UCLA (19-11, 10-6) vs Oregon (23-6, 12-4)—[Oregon frustrated UCLA in the first half with a stout defense and took a 35-16 lead to the locker room. They then expanded their lead in the 2nd half for an easy win. Kedric Willis scored 14 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for Oregon. Joe Rix was UCLA’s top scorer with 13 points. Final Score: Oregon-71, UCLA-42.]

[Interesting sidelight: Initial running of Pac-12 tourny rounds 2 thru championship produced 3 of 4 games in round 2 with upsets including Oregon losing to Arizona (Oregon's first game in tourny). Championship was Arizona vs UCLA. But my computer messed up before I saved, so after much muttering of profanities, I had to run round 2 thru championship all over again (and REWRITE those dynasty entries (grrrr)...and as shown in the above posts, there were far fewer upsets.]

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Here's the player stats for Washington State this season:

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Here's how the Cougars did as a team this year:



Overall as a team, our stats were slightly better than our opponents (as our W-L record would suggest we should have been).

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Here's the final Top 10 for the Media Poll:

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#1 seeds: North Carolina, Maryland, Duke, Louisville

USC has a play-in game against Delaware for a 12th seed in the Dayton Region

Oregon is a 2nd seed in the Albuquerque Region and will play Kent State

UCLA is an 10th seed in the Albuquerque Region and will play LSU

California is an 11th seed in the New Orleans Region and will play Oklahoma State

New Hampshire is a 14th seed in the New Orleans Region and will play Ohio State

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Stanford is a 3rd seed in the Midwest Region and will play Mississippi

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We’re a 4th seed in the West Region and will play Arkansas-Pine Bluff

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Game #29: Mar. 15, 2022; 6th seed Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions (20-8) vs 3rd seed Washington State Cougars (15-13)

Arkansas-Pine Bluff employs a 2-3 zone defense. They are led offensively by PF Phil Johnson (14.5 ppg) and SG Ben Dench (13.3 ppg).

The Golden Lions scored on their first 4 possessions to take an 11-0 lead. We struggled to catch up and finally tied the game at 32-32 with 3:21 to play in the first half. When the buzzer sounded to end the half we were up 39-38. Arkansas-Pine Bluff hit 52% of their shots, so we need to get tougher on defense in the 2nd half. Scott Robinson led our scoring with 16 points.

We scored the first 7 points of the 2nd half and held a safe lead from there on as our defense stiffened.

Final Score: Washington State-76, Arkansas-Pine Bluff-64. Washington State season record: 16-13.

Scoring leaders: Robinson-30, Lewis-12, Jone-9.

Rebound leaders: Smith-6, Jones-6, Lewis-5.

Assist leaders: Jones-6, Bond-4.

Player of the Game: SG Scott Robinson-30 pts, 3 reb, 1 assist, 1 steal.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: PG Matt Jones-9 pts, 6 reb, 6 assists.

Other notes: We hit 46% of our shots compared to the Golden Lions 47% shooting. We held a 33-32 advantage on the boards. But we forced Arkansas-Pine Bluff to turn the ball over 16 times while making just 7 turnovers ourselves.

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Game #30: Mar. 22, 2022; 4th seed Washington State Cougars (16-13) vs 8th seed Texas-San Antonio Roadrunners (18-11)

Texas San-Antonio is led offensively by SG Alex Farmer who is averaging 13.1 ppg. The Roadrunners upset #1 seed Cleveland State 78-77 in overtime in the first round of the CBI Tournament.

We hit just 34% of our shots while allowing the Roadrunners to hit 63% of theirs and fell behind 40-26 at the half. Gareth Lewis led our scoring with 12 points.

We couldn’t ignite our offense and we couldn’t shut down Texas-San Antonio’s offense in the 2nd half. While we made a couple runs, we never seriously threatened.

Final Score: Texas-San Antonio-70, Washington State-61. Washington State season record: 16-14.

Scoring leaders: Lewis-27, Robinson-16,

Rebound leaders: Lewis-12, Smith-6, Thomas-5.

Assist leaders: Jones-6, Thomas-3.

Player of the Game: Texas-San Antonio’s SG Alex Farmer-15 pts, 4 reb, 4 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: C Gareth Lewis-27 pts, 12 reb, 1 assist, 2 steals.

Other notes: Texas-San Antonio hit 51% of their shots, we hit just 39% of ours. The Roadrunners held a 33-31 rebounding advantage. We held a 16-14 turnover advantage.

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7th seed North Carolina Central-81, 7th seed Hofstra-61