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

[CoachC]

If you find a point guard, PG, share him with me!

[PointGuard]

I've thought about putting MYSELF in there, but the NCAA isn't allowing it.

[CoachC]

damn NCAA!

[PointGuard]

Game #12: Dec. 10, 2012; Central Florida Knights (8-3) at CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (6-5)

Central Florida is the toughest team on our schedule this year. Not only do they sport an impressive 8-3 record, but in their last two games they beat #7 Syracuse 55-41 and #23 Cincinnati 59-43. Earlier they also beat Wake Forest (in Winston-Salem) and Davidson. They have 3 starters with double digit scoring averages and another very close. At least we get them at home. I’m staring Rashum Kamara again at PG and also will move David Johnson back into the starting lineup at C.

The first 3 times the Knights had the ball they shredded our defense for driving baskets, but we also hit a couple baskets to keep it close, 6-4. But with 12:45 remaining in the first half we trailed 18-8. We clawed our way back into but still were behind by a 33-26 score at the half. While we made only 2 turnovers in the first half (against 7 by Central Florida), the Knights held distinct advantages in shooting (52% to 32%), rebounding (21-11), fouls (9-4), and free throws (8 of 12 vs 2 of 2). Jerell Brown scored 7 points to lead our scoring.

Our inability to figure out their 1-3-1 zone kept our shooting percentage low and prevented us from catching up with Central Florida in the 2nd half.

With a couple minutes remaining we stole 2 of the Knights’ passes in a row, converting each for driving layups to cut their lead to 62-56. Central Florida tossed a pass out of bounds, but we did likewise giving them the ball with 1:14 remaining. With their play being so sloppy, I told my guys not to foul and we were rewarded with yet another blown pass by them. I called a time out to set up a 3-point shot by Jerell Brown. Even though my plans don’t normally work, it did this time and the score was 62-59 with 41 seconds to play. I decided that rather than fouling I’d let our team try to make another stop and go for another 3 to tie the game. Central Florida got off a shot that missed, but tipped in the rebound. We called another time out with 16 seconds left. We couldn’t get off the shot, they stole a pass and hit a 3 with 2 seconds on the clock just to thumb their noses at us.

Final Score: Central Florida-67, CSU Bakersfield-59. CSU Bakersfield season record: 6-6.

Scoring leaders: Brown-20, Chase-8.

Rebound leaders: Chase-5.

Assist leaders: Holmes-5, Kamara-3, Johnson-3.

Player of the Game: Central Florida’s C Greg Slocum-14 pts, 9 reb, 3 assists.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: SG Jerell Brown-20 pts, 3 reb, 2 assists, 3 steals.

Other notes: We didn’t deserve to be as close as we were in this game. Central Florida hit 58% of their FG attempts, we managed to connect on just 41% of ours. The Knights pulled down 35 rebounds, we grabbed just 18 (that rebounding difference sickens me). They made 14 of 21 free throws, we only got 8 foul shots, making 6 of them. The only team statistic in our favor was turnovers (24-11). But…make a game of it we did!

It looks like we need to practice more on how to play against the 1-3-1 defense.

[jksander]

"Sean and Bree and me ... three's company too!" Ugh ... you're setting yourself up for a tough time, Coach. I'll keep my fingers crossed that Sean doesn't find a way to turn your backyard shed into a raging meth lab.

[CoachC]

Even though your team didn't play quite as well as you liked, it sounds like Central Florida is about to become nationally ranked, so don't be too hard on yourself.

[PointGuard]

So Central Florida leaves the sunny climes of California, goes to Utah and their players fall headfirst for the charms of the all the Mormon girls and they lose 4 nights later to 4-and-8 Utah Valley (of the Great West Conference), 50-67. I guess the Bakersfield Babes just didn't have the same charms.

[PointGuard]

"Sean and Bree and me ... three's company too!" Ugh ... you're setting yourself up for a tough time, Coach. I'll keep my fingers crossed that Sean doesn't find a way to turn your backyard shed into a raging meth lab.

I guess that's another good reason the house has a very small backyard.

[PointGuard]

Game #13: Dec. 22, 2012; CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (6-6) at Iowa State Cyclones (4-4)

This is going to be a tough game for us. Iowa State’s losses have come against some pretty good teams. SG Willie Perry leads their team in scoring (18.0 ppg) but his shooting percentage is very low…hopefully it will be even lower tonight.

We stayed even with them the first few minutes then they must have shrunk the size of our basket because none of our players could shoot worth a damn. We ended up hitting just 23% of our shots whereas Iowa State hit 42%. We trailed 29-20 at the end of the half. Two reserves, Carlos Holmes and Andrew Powers, led our scoring with 4 points each. Our starters were a combined 3 for 18 from the field. I told the players at the half, that we were only 9 points down…if we hit our shots in the 2nd half we had a good chance in this game.

After hitting our first 2 shots of the 2nd half, they clamped a lid on our basket, but it didn’t really matter because most of our possessions we were throwing the ball away before we even had a chance to shoot. Iowa State led 43-24 with 13:13 remaining. Jerell Brown then woke up. After hitting just 1 of 7 shots in the 1st half, he hit 7 of 9 (including 5 from 3 point land), but our turnover-fest continued and Iowa State starting knocking down shots. We trailed 70-47 with 5 minutes to play. At that point I decided it was time to play only subs the rest of the game.

Final Score: Iowa State-81, CSU Bakersfield-59. CSU Bakersfield season record: 6-7.

Scoring leaders: Brown-21, Powers-11.

Rebound leaders: Settles-6, Chase-5, Williams-5.

I]Assist leaders: [/I]Hill-3, Kamara-3.

Player of the Game: Iowa State’s PF Kevin Whye-20 pts, 4 reb, 2 assists, 3 steals.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: SG Andrew Powers-11 pts, 4 reb, 2 assists.

Other notes: We raised our shooting to 40% but the Cyclones hit 48%. They also got to the line 26 times (hitting 20 foul shots) to our 10 trips to the line (we hit 5). More decisive was our making 25 turnovers while Iowa State made just 10.

[PointGuard]

New Jersey Tech........8-5.....RPI: 53
North Dakota.............7-6.....RPI: 238
Houston Baptist.........6-7.....RPI: 164
CSU Bakersfield.......6-7.....RPI: 178
Seattle.....................6-7.....RPI: 276
Chicago State............5-8.....RPI: 162
Utah Valley...............5-8.....RPI: 253
TX Pan American.......2-11....RPI: 345

Thus far it looks like New Jersey Tech is the team to beat, TX Pan American is the team not to lose to, and then the rest are part of a mob.