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

[PointGuard]

I think the 2-3 zone that they played was a part of it...but sometimes things just don't click.

[PointGuard]

Game #4: Nov. 24, 2014; Southern Methodist Mustangs (2-2) at CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (2-1)

The team was down after the last game fiasco. But I told them it’s just like riding a horse…when you get bucked off, you just gotta get back on and ride. And with that, who should enter our gym but the Southern Methodist Mustangs.

We came out of the 1st half on top by a score of 38-28. The two big differences were turnovers where we held a 12-3 advantage and Marcus Evans, who substituted for Jerell Brown who got into early foul trouble. Evans dropped in 20 points for us on 8 for 13 shooting and 4 of 5 from 3-point distance.

In the 2nd half we applied a pressure defense that throttled the Mustangs. We steadily expanded our lead to win going away, even when we were playing all reserves.

Final Score: CSU Bakersfield-79, Southern Methodist-48. CSU Bakersfield season record: 3-1.

Scoring leaders: Evans-26, Lyde-11, Saunders-9, Dunn-8.

Rebound leaders: Saunders-8, Lyde-7

Assist leaders: Durham-6

Player of the Game: SG Marcus Evans-26 pts, 3 reb, 2 steals.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: C Mark Saunders-9 pts, 8 reb, 2 assists, 3 steals, 1 block.

Other notes: We limited the Mustangs to 29% shooting while we hit at a 50% clip. We also forced them to turn the ball over 21 times and made just 9 turnovers ourselves. We held a 34-29 rebounding advantage. The only advantage Southern Methodist had was at the line where they got 11 more free throw attempts and scored 8 more points than did we.

PG Randy Durham is nursing a sore back that could keep him out of action or limit his play in our next game.

Four games into the season and 4 blowouts (3 good, 1 bad).

[Wayne23]

Turned a corner?

[PointGuard]

Laughing, yes...but just not sure if it was onto an expressway or into an alley.

[PointGuard]

Game #5: Nov. 28, 2014; Tulane Green Wave (3-2) at CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (3-1)

Since Randy Durham is still hurting, I’m starting Darius Dunn at PG. I’m also going to start Marcus Evans at SF in place of Isaac Bryson to see if that will spark up the offense a bit. Our last game convinced me he can score. He's not afraid to put the ball up, hits a good percentage of his shots, and is very effective driving to the basket for a layup or to pull up to pop in a short jumper.

Ali Lyde scored our first 6 points but picked up his 2nd foul just 3-1/2 minutes into the game. Tulane hit 8 of their first 9 shots to open a 22-15 lead. After they hit their 8th of 9 threes and took a 32-26 lead, we dropped our 2-3 zone and employed a man-to-man defense entirely the rest of the half. The Green Wave hit 58% of their first half shots and out-rebound us 18-13. We hit 41% of our FG attempts. We leave the floor trailing 50-40. I’m all over the team during the half about their poor defense and the need to attack the boards.

My players got the message. We gradually cut their lead in the 2nd half and finally pulled ahead 59-58 with 11 minutes to play. In the next 4 minutes we then opened a 73-62 lead. Tulane fought back to cut our lead to 5, but we pulled away again as our defense stymied the Green Wave throughout the 2nd half.

Final Score: CSU Bakersfield-90, Tulane-77. CSU Bakersfield season record: 4-1.

Scoring leaders: Jrl Brown-31, Evans-15, Lyde-10, Saunders-9

Rebound leaders: Evans-7, Jrl Brown-5.

Assist leaders: Curry-8, Lyde-3.

Player of the Game: SG Jerell Brown-31 pts, 5 reb, 2 assists.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: SF/SG Marcus Evans-15 pts, 7 reb, 2 assists, 1 steal.

Other notes: We shot well in the 2nd half to increase our FG shooting to 45% for the entire game. Defensively we shackled the Green Wave in the 2nd half, cutting their shooting to 42% for the game and forcing them to make 14 turnovers (9 in the 2nd half) to our 8. We also took control of the boards in the 2nd half and finished with a 35-30 advantage. Darius Dunn and Michael Curry split time at PG. Curry was particulary effective dishing out 8 assists while making just 1 turnover.

[bloomington]

has a court been made for CSU yet?

[PointGuard]

has a court been made for CSU yet?

Heya bloomington: The one I'm using was done in Nov 2011 so it doesn't have the most up-to-date floor markings.

[PointGuard]

Game #6: Dec. 1, 2014; CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (4-1) at Washington State Cougars (2-2)

Randy Durham is no longer experiencing back pain, so he will again be the starter at PG. Marcus Evans’ strong game earned him another start at SF.

Washington State’s SF Donta Davis is scoring 18.3 ppg and hitting a high percentage of his shots, so we will double team him when we’re in man-to-man defense to try to keep him from lighting us up.

Although we hit 4 of our first 5 shots, earning us a 9-4 lead, Jerell Brown picked up his 2nd foul at the 16:19 mark of the first half. I moved Marcus Evans to SG and brought my previous starting SF, Isaac Bryson. We expanded our lead to 22-9 and were able to hold a double digit lead until late in the half when the Cougars began hitting some shots. We still held their shooting to 30% while hitting 41% of ours. We went to the locker room with a 32-28 lead even though Jerell Brown had sat on the bench nearly the entire half. Our leading scorer was Ali Lyde with 8 points. We held the Cougar’s Donta Davis scoreless.

Both teams improved their shooting in the 2nd half. Washington State tied us at 61-61 with 6-1/2 minutes to play, but we quickly hit three shots to move back ahead by 7 points. Our defense then shut down the Cougars, while we moved the ball well offensively thrusting us to an 18 point lead.

Final Score: CSU Bakersfield-82, Washington State-65. CSU Bakersfield season record: 5-1.

Scoring leaders: Durham-21, Lyde-18, Jrl Brown-14, Evans-12.

Rebound leaders: Evans-7, Lyde-6, Saunders-5, Pastner-5.

Assist leaders: Durham-6, Jrl Brown-3.

Player of the Game: PG Randy Durham-21 pts, 4 reb, 6 assists, 2 blocks.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: PF Ali Lyde-18 pts, 6 reb, 1 steal, 2 blocks.

Other notes: We hit 53% of our shots and held the Cougars to 38% shooting. We achieved a 36-30 rebounding advantage and a 12-11 turnover advantage.

Jerell Brown scored 11 points in the 2nd half after being limited to 3 points in just over 3 minutes of play in the first half. But fortunately, we got a great team effort as three other starters scored in double figures and we got solid contributions from several others as well.

Our RPI ranking leapt to 26th best in the nation.

Randy Durham was selected as the Great West Player of the Week.

[PointGuard]

Game #7: Dec. 5, 2014; CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners (5-1) at Rutgers Scarlet Knights (2-4)

Rutgers’ SG David Banta is averaging 19.8 ppg. We will try to keep him well below that.

Both teams started slow, but we caught fire after the first 4 minutes of play and began hitting our shots. We opened a 9 point lead but Rutgers cut our margin to 1 with 3 minutes to play. We built it back to 6 but then finished with just a 34-31 lead at the half. We hit 55% of our shots compared to Rutgers’ 34% shooting. We also out-rebounded the Scarlet Knights 18-14, but we turned the ball over 11 times while Rutgers had only 6 turnovers. They also got 12 free throw attempts to our zero. I picked up a technical over that. Randy Durham scored 11 and Ali Lyde added 10 to lead our offense.

As the refs continued to hammer us with fouls, I got my 2nd technical and got ejected midway through the 2nd half. At that point we led 47-44. From there, our team rallied by really kicking our defense into gear. Even though we continued to make turnovers, we were able to gradually expand our lead by making it extremely difficult for Rutgers to score.

Final Score: CSU Bakersfield-62, Rutgers-52. CSU Bakersfield season record: 6-1

Scoring leaders: Durham-13, Dunn-13, Lyde-13.

Rebound leaders: Lyde-10, Jrl Brown-7.

Assist leaders: Durham-6, Dunn-5, Jrl Brown-3, Pastner-3.

Player of the Game: PF Ali Lyde-13 pts, 10 reb, 1 steal.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: PG Randy Durham-13 pts, 3 reb, 6 assists and PG Darius Dunn-13 pts, 1 reb, 5 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks.

Other notes: Although we didn’t shoot well during the 2nd half, we still hit 44% of our shots for the entire game...AND we held Rutgers to 27% shooting. We had a 43-35 rebounding advantage, but made far too many turnovers (18) while Rutgers made just 12. Jerell Brown had a poor game (scoring just 5 points on 1 of 8 shooting) but our PG tandem of Randy Durham and Darius Dunn combined to score 26 and 11 assists. We held Rutgers’ SG David Banta to 12 points (8 of those scored from the free throw line)…he hit just 2 of 14 FG attempts.

[bloomington]

bakersfield court done