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

[PointGuard]

Championship Game: Bryant-74, Central Connecticut St.-66

[PointGuard]

Play-in Game

Game #31: Mar. 14, 2012; Harvard Crimson (12-15) vs CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners

I’m not sure who is more nervous…my team or me…at being (nearly) in the NCAA Tourny.

Offensively, SG Scott Kirtz, is Harvard’s leader with a 15.3 ppg scoring average. But PG Donald Williams ignites their fire.

Both teams came out tight and shot poorly the first 6 minutes, then Harvard came to life and went ahead 12-5 with about 12 minutes to play in the 1st half. Halfway through the half, Harvard was hitting 25% of their shots and we had only hit 20% of ours and we trailed 12-8. But we took our first lead at 13-12 with 8:50 to play in the half. The shooting improved thereafter and we ended up hitting 41% of our shots for the half (including 7 of 11 threes). Harvard had 7 more free throws (and made 6 more) than us and that resulted in a 34-34 tie at the half. Greg Bivins hit 3 threes that gave him 9 points to lead our scoring.

Early in the 2nd half we kept moving out to small leads only to be reeled back in by Harvard, but at the 13:00 mark we opened a 10-point lead. But Harvard didn’t give up and with 3 minutes to play our lead was reduced to 71-69.

The Crimson hit a three with 2 minutes remaining to go ahead 72-71. With 1-1/2 minutes to play Greg Bivins drove to the basket and put a tough shot up over two defenders to put us up 73-72. Harvard then threw the ball away. We moved the ball around and were unable to get a shot off, but Greg Bivins was fouled well outside the 3-point line with 3 seconds left of the 35-second clock. Bivins made the first but missed the second and we led 74-72 with 46 seconds to go. Harvard then got called for travelling.

With 38 seconds to play I decided to try to run down the play clock, then put on a full-court press in the final few seconds. But Andrew Powers drove to the baseline and lofted up a shot with 25 seconds to play. It banked of and David Johnson’s tip in missed with Harvard pulling down the rebound with 22 seconds on the clock. Harvard took their time and worked the ball inside to their center whose 6 footer grazed the rim. We rebounded and I called time out with 6 seconds remaining so I could put in my best ball handlers and free throw shooters. I also IMPRESSED on my squad the need to run the clock out and not make a turnover. Harvard didn’t foul and Bivins got clear and sunk a 10-footer with one second remaining.

Final Score: CSU Bakersfield-76, Harvard-72. CSU Bakersfield season record: 16-15.

Scoring leaders: Hill-19, Bivins-18, Chase-12, Williams-9.

Rebound leaders: Johnson-6.

Assist leaders: Bivins-4, Settles-3.

Player of the Game: SG/SF Kevin Hill-19 pts, 3 reb, 1 assist, 1 steal, 2 blocks.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: PG Greg Bivins-18 pts, 4 reb, 4 assists, 1 steal.

Other notes: Both teams shot well in the 2nd half. We finished up hitting 46% of our shots and Harvard knocked down 43% of theirs. We won the game because of 11 of 18 shooting from beyond the arc. Harvard’s Scott Kirtz got into foul trouble but only hit 1 of 7 shots while he was in the game, finishing with 3 points. Roderick Manning and Jeff Burrough combined for 37 points for Harvard, though.

Our win earned us an assignment to take on #1 seed (and #1 in the polls) undefeated Georgia Tech.

[Wayne23]

Great win! Even losing to Ga. Tech, which seems likely, you wind up with a winning record, 16-16. Not many were betting on your team finishing at .500 when the season started. Great job!

[Javakamp]

Congrats on making it to the Big Dance.

[PointGuard]

Round 1

Game #32: Mar. 16, 2012; CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (16-15) vs #1 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (33-0)

I stressed to the players that we earned our way to the NCAA Tournament and to play hard and smart and do our best just like we’ve done all year, but to enjoy being in the Tournament since it’s something very few accomplish.

Four of Georgia Tech’s starters average in double figures, led by Jeremy Sanchez’s 18.6 ppg. Andrew Davis anchors their team inside, scoring 13.0 ppg and pulling down 8.8 rpg.

Georgia Tech scored first and never looked back. They clamped down defensively on us in the 1st half and took a 39-17 halftime lead.

They expanded their lead to 31 before relaxing and allowing us to score some points. Realizing this would be our only game in the NCAA Tournament, I played everyone on our bench so they all could say they played in March Madness.

Final Score: Georgia Tech-70, CSU Bakersfield-46. CSU Bakersfield season record: 16-16.

Scoring leaders: Bivins-15, Chase-8.

Rebound leaders: Williams-8, Bivins-6, Johnson-5.

Assist leaders: Bivins-4.

Player of the Game: Georgia Tech’s PF Andrew Davis-16 pts, 10 reb, 4 assists, 1 steal, 1 block.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: PG Greg Bivins-15 pts, 6 reb, 4 assists, 1 steal.

Other notes: We improved our shooting enough in the 2nd half to finish with 37% shooting, but Georgia Tech hit 42% of theirs. We only got 2 free throw attempts, compared to Georgia Tech’s 18. The big difference in the game was that we made 18 turnovers, while Georgia Tech made only 5.

After the game I reminded the team that the Roadrunners won just 6 games last year and were picked to finish last in the conference this year. And speaking to each of the players, I said, “You guys played your hearts out this year and surprised EVERYbody. It was quite a year to finish 2nd in the conference, then win the conference tournament, and win our way into the NCAA Tourny.” I stressed to our team that it was an honor to play the #1 team in the nation and that even though we lost, our 2nd half performance was impressive…and Georgia Tech played their starters for most of the game. Bobby Rivera said, “Yeah, it took the #1 team in the nation to knock US out of the tournament.” It got a good laugh from everyone, and we headed home with our heads held high.

Georgia Tech rolled to a 85-54 shellacking of St. Louis is Round 2, then dumped Arizona 77-58 in the next round, and blew out Indiana 80-61 to get to the Final Four. Notre Dame went down in flames, 66-43, to the Yellow Jackets in the Semi-Finals. In the championship game, they played the #2 ranked team in the nation, Florida, who had also won all 5 of their tournament games handily.

Championship Game[: Florida-57, Georgia Tech-47

[PointGuard]

Out of the 32 games we played this year, we participated in 2 overtime games, had 9 games in which there was a 4 point or less difference, and 7 games in which there was a 6-10 point difference.

[PointGuard]

2nd Team All Conference Team: PG Greg Bivins

[PointGuard]

There still seems to be some interest from NBA scouts in PG Greg Bivins, but while he continues to rise slightly in their eyes, he’s still has about 150 possible draftees that are rated higher, so he’s making plans outside of basketball for the future.

[PointGuard]

PG Greg Bivins—Greg will be going to work in a junior management position for Chevron Oil in the San Francisco Bay Area.

[PointGuard]

SG Jerell Brown, 6-4, HS Sr from Middletown, CA with a 3.2 GPA. 20.8 ppg, 6.1 apg, 8.3 rpg, 4.3 spg, 1.9 bpg. Jerell is an excellent scorer and a good shot from outside but also some ability to score inside as well. He’s a great passer, although his ball handling skills are just average. His rebounding skills excite me as does the fact that he is a real ball hawk. He’s very athletic. His defense, other than his stealing abilities, needs work. He’s familiar with the triangle offense, which is one of the 3 offensive sets we will be employing and one of our defenses, the 2-3 zone. Although not exceptionally strong at it, he’s willing to put the ball on the floor to drive to the basket. He’s a balanced player, comfortable shooting the 3 and also playing in the post. He was a Top 5 player in the Las Vegas Revue. He is rated as the 20th best recruit in the country and 3rd best SG.