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

[PointGuard]

Game #12: Dec. 28, 2017; Albany Great Danes (6-5, 0-0) at New Hampshire Wildcats (4-7, 0-0)

Albany’s two big men and their point guard are scoring in double figures: C Brandon Dickenman, 14.1 ppg; PF Jerome Drakeford, 11.5 ppg; and PG Todd Holbrook, 12.6 ppg. Dickenman and Drakeford have also combined to haul down an average of 14.5 rpg.

We scored the first 7 points but Albany worked their way back into the game and took a one point lead midway through the 1st half. In the latter stages of the half, we went on a run to open a 15 point lead before settling for a 41-29 halftime advantage. We hit 52% of our shots and had an 8-4 turnover advantage. William Kamara scored 11 points for us.

Our dominance continued throughout the 2nd half. We quickly built a 20+ point lead and maintained it.

Final Score: New Hampshire-79, Albany-51. New Hampshire season record: 5-7; American East record: 1-0 (1st place tie).

Scoring leaders: Augustus-19, Faust-14, Kamara-13, Hall-10.

Rebound leaders: Babul-5, Hall-5.

Assist leaders: Augustus-5.

Player of the Game: PG Nate Augustus-19 pts, 3 reb, 5 assists, 5 steals.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: SG William Kamara-13 pts, 3 reb, 1 assist.

Other notes: Nice to win our conference opening game. We hit 54% of our shots while holding Albany’s shooting to 38%. We forced the Great Danes to turn the ball over 17 times and had just 11 turnovers ourselves. We concentrated on controlling Brandon Dickenman and did exactly that, holding the 59% shooter to 6 points (he hit just 2 of 6 from the field). We also stymied Todd Holbrook who hit just 2 of 14 from the field and scored just 4 points.

Nate Augustus won both the America East Player of the Week and Freshman Player of the Week awards.

[PointGuard]

Midyear grades came out and we have two players with 2.9 GPA’s meaning they will go onto the study table. Bobby Havens had a 2.0 GPA which, while better than what he came to us, leaves no room for error. So he will stay hooked up with a tutor the rest of the year in hopes he can get his GPA higher so that when his transfer ineligibility expires next year, he’s not academically ineligible. Gotta find that guy some easier classes, but I think he’s already taken all those. The rest of our players now have GPA’s above 3.0.

[PointGuard]

The Roadrunner Five from last year’s pro leagues is now down to two.

SG Jerell Brown remains…and while he’s still on the Chicago Bulls roster, they have sent him down again this year to the DBL’s Sioux City Skyforce.

On January 1, 2018 the Skyforce are first in the Central Division of the DBL with an 8-5 record. Jerell Brown has started 9 of the 13 games and has scored well in 6 of those 7 starts and has a couple good scoring games coming off the bench. He’s scored over 20 points in two games and in double figures seven times.

Here’s Jerell’s stats thus far this year for the Skyforce:

13 games, 9 starts, 26.0 mpg, 11.2 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 2.0 apg, 1.1 spg, 1.7 tpg, 1.2 A/TO. He’s hitting 46% of his FG attempts, 33% of his 3’s, all of his FT’s, 88% of his Inside FG’s, and 42% of his jumpers, has stopped 83% of the drives against him, forced 2.2 tpg, and has an Efficiency rating of 10.3 (6th best on the team).

While he’s shooting well overall, he’s still not hitting his 3’s well enough, and he isn’t pulling down enough rebounds or dishing off enough assists. He’s developing and improving, but probably not as fast as the Bulls would like, and he seems to be slipping from a starter this year into a 6th man role for the Skyforce.

PG Randy Durham was given a DBL contract by the Iowa Energy. He’s played in 7 of 9 games, but as the backup PG for the Energy. He’s playing less than he did last year for the Bakersfield Drillers. The Energy have a 3-6 record which is 3rd best in the Central Division.

Here’s Randy’s stats for the Energy thus far:

7 games, 0 starts, 7.7 mpg, 2.3 ppg, 1.0 rpg, 1.7 apg, 0.1 spg, 0.1 bpg, 0.3 tpg, 6.0 A/TO. He is hitting just 35% of his FG attempts, 36% of his 3’s, hasn’t yet had a FT attempt, 100% of his inside shots, 0% of his jumpers, has stopped 27% of the drives against him, forced 0.3 tpg, and has an Efficiency rating of 3.4. He’s doing pretty well dishing out assists and rarely turning the ball over, but his shooting is subpar.

SG Marcus Evans and SF Isaac Bryson did not get picked up to play in the DBL and are free agents. PG Michael Curry went back to graduate school.

This year’s draftee, PF Awvee Calton, was cut by the Minnesota Timberwolves and remains a free agent.

[PointGuard]

Game #13: Jan. 4, 2-5018; New Hampshire Wildcats (5-7) at Maine Black Bears (6-7, 1-1)

We kept close to Maine for most of the first half, but in the last portion of the half, we had trouble getting the ball in the hole and the Black Bears pulled away to a 33-24 halftime lead. We hit just 31% of our shots. None of our players got hot in the half. We have 5 players who shared high point “honors” with 4 points each.

We kept close in the 2nd half but couldn’t take the lead as every time we’d hit a shot, the refs would call a foul against us so Maine could put 2 more points on the scoreboard. We tied the Black Bears a few times late in the half but then fell behind by 5 with a minute to play. At that point we had to foul and they made enough free throws to hold their lead.

Final Score: Maine72, New Hampshire-67. New Hampshire season record: 5-8; American East record: 1-1 (5th place).

Scoring leaders: Faust-19, Kamara-12.

Rebound leaders: Beck-10, Hall-8, L. Smith-7, Faust-6.

Assist leaders: Augustus-3, Kamara-3.

Player of the Game: Maine’s C Kris Hargrove-18 pts, 6 reb, 1 block.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: SG Chris Faust-19 pts, 6 reb, 1 assist, 1 steal.

Other notes: We outshot the Black Bears 42% to 40%. Rebounds were even and we held a 12-11 turnover advantage. But ultimately we couldn’t battle the Black Bears and the refs. We scored 13 more points from the field. But the refs called 23 fouls against us and just 12 against Maine, giving the Black Bears 20 more trips to the line on which they scored 18 more points on foul shots than we did.

[PointGuard]

Game #14: Jan. 7, 2018; Vermont Catamounts (5-9, 1-2) at New Hampshire Wildcats (5-8, 1-1)

Vermont is 0-6 on the road. Our intent to is keep them winless.
After leading throughout the first half, we let the Catamounts tie the game 31-31 on a 3 at the buzzer. William Kamara scored 9 points to lead our scoring.

We regained a small lead early in the 2nd half, but couldn’t pull away. Then Vermont took a 3 point lead with about 5 minutes to play. But we went on a 10 point run and then were able to hold off the Catamounts in the final minutes.

Final Score: New Hampshire-75, Vermont-68. New Hampshire season record: 6-8; American East record: 2-1 (2nd place tie).

Scoring leaders: Kamara-23, Faust-14, Hall-12, Beck-8, Babul-8.

Rebound leaders: L. Smith-8, Hall-8, Beck-5.

Assist leaders: Augustus-4, Jeppson-3.

Player of the Game: SG William Kamara-23 pts, 1 reb, 1 assist.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: SF Ryan Hall-12 pts, 8 reb, 2 assists, 1 steal.

Other notes: We outshot the Catamounts 48% to 44%. We also held a 29-23 rebounding advantage.

[PointGuard]

My old team is playing well, a 12-3 season record and a 2-0 record in the Great West Conference. Four players are scoring in double figures: SG Brett Holt, 11.9 ppg; PF Terrence Delk, 11.8 ppg; C Jeff Gilbert, 10.4 ppg, and PG Jerry Yearwood, 10.1 ppg. Jeff Gilbert has hauled down 7.9 rpg. Terrence Delk is playing so well at PF that Mike Dotson is getting very little floor time.

[PointGuard]

Game #15: Jan. 11, 2018; New Hampshire Wildcats (6-8, 2-1) at Hartford Hawks (8-7, 2-2)

After falling behind by 10 midway through the 1st half, we tied the game with a couple minutes to play. The halftime score stood at 29-25 in favor of Hartford, mainly because we shot poorly and turned the ball over too many times. William Kamara’s 6 points led our scoring.

Our shooting in the 2nd half was even worse than in the 1st half, and we let Hartford shoot better. While we had a rebounding advantage in the 1st half, we gave that up in the 2nd. The result was a disheartening loss.

Final Score: Hartford-60, New Hampshire-41. New Hampshire season record: 6-9; American East record: 2-2 (4th place tie).

Scoring leaders: Babul-8.

Rebound leaders: Babul-7, Hall-5.

Assist leaders: Augustus-3.

Player of the Game: Hartford C Jeff Bain-17 pts, 8 reb, 1 assist, 1 steal.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: C Chris Babul-8 pts, 7 reb.

Other notes: We hit 33% of our shots, Hartford hit 51% of theirs. We hit 1 of 19 from 3-point distance. Hartford completely dominated the boards in the 2nd half to achieve a 35-25 rebounding advantage. We forced Hartford to make 19 turnovers but unfortunately made 16 of our own. We simply stunk up the gym.

[PointGuard]

Game #16: Jan. 14, 2018; Binghamton Bearcats (10-5, 3-1) at New Hampshire Wildcats (6-9, 2-2)

Binghamton is on top of the conference standings. They employ a 2-3 zone. Their SG Jared Jensen is scoring 15.1 ppg.

The refs called the 7th foul against us at the 12:48 mark of the first half without a single foul being called against Binghamton. When we picked up our 10th foul with 9 minutes to play (and still no fouls against the Bearcats), I was charged with a Technical. From the time of our 7th until the 10th foul, Binghamton scored 13 straight points to pull ahead 25-12. In the next 5 minutes we scored 16 straight to forge a 28-25 lead. I guess the technical lit a fire under my guys. We finished the half with a 37-31 lead, even though Binghamton scored 7 more points from the line than did we. We held a 10-4 turnover advantage and outshot the Bearcats 40% to 36%. Top scorer was William Kamara with 11 points.

Binghamton scored the first 8 points of the 2nd half to take a 2-point lead, but we fought back to pull ahead 48-41. We expanded our lead to 10 points midway through the half, but after that the game just got ugly as both teams struggled offensively. We made fewer mistakes and missed a few less shots than they did and won by 11.

Final Score: New Hampshire-68, Binghamton-57. New Hampshire season record: 7-9; American East record: 3-2 (3rd place tie).

Scoring leaders: Kamara-14, L. Smith-13, Augustus-10, Faust-8.

Rebound leaders: Kamara-7, L. Smith-7, Hall-6, Beck-5, Babul-5, Augustus-5.

Assist leaders: Kamara-5, Augustus-4, Jeppson-3.

Player of the Game: SG William Kamara-14 pts, 7 reb, 5 assists, 2 steals.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: PF Luis Smith-13 pts, 7 reb, 1 steal.

Other notes: Shooting deteriorated in the latter part of the 2nd half for both teams. We ended up hitting 39% of our shots while Binghamton could only drop in 35%. We had a 38-35 rebounding advantage and a 16-14 turnover advantage. They scored 8 more points from the free throw line than us, but we hit 7 more 3’s than they did. We held Jared Jensen to 5 points, denying him the ball so that he could only put up 5 shots.

With our 7th win, we matched last year’s win total.

[PointGuard]

Game #17: Jan. 18, 2018; New Hampshire Wildcats (7-9, 3-2) at Boston Terriers (4-12, 1-4)

We fell behind 28-7 midway through the 1st half. We were shooting poorly and making many turnovers plus the refs were hammering us with foul calls which took the Terriers to the line frequently. The first half was just a disaster as we left the court down 50-29. We hit 39% of our shots, turned the ball over 10 times, lost the battle of the boards 15-11, and were called for 12 fouls. Not only that, but our defense was porous, allowing the Terriers to hit 70% of their FG attempts and 100% of their 3’s. Boston also hit 82% of their foul shots. Our leading scorer was Edvin Jeppson with 8 points. I tore the team apart at the half.

We played better defense in the 2nd half but had no offense and went down to an ignominious defeat.

Final Score: Boston-75, New Hampshire-53. New Hampshire season record: 7-10; American East record: 3-3 (4th place tie).

Scoring leaders: Faust-11, Kamara-11, Jeppson-10

Rebound leaders: Babul-9, Faust-7, Beck-6.

Assist leaders: Two players with 2 each.

Player of the Game: SF Damion Stephans-16 pts, 5 reb, 1 assist.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: SG Chris Faust-11 pts, 6 reb, 1 assist, 1 assist, 3 steals.

Other notes: We hit just 33% of our shots. Even though Boston’s shooting cooled in the 2nd half they still hit 49% for the game. Boston got 15 more trips to the line and scored 14 more free throws than us. The Terriers out-rebounded us 33-31. We forced Boston to make 18 turnovers but unfortunately made 17 ourselves.

This makes 2 road games in a row that we’ve simply played rotten basketball. Practice this week will be hell for the players.

[PointGuard]

Game #18: Jan. 21, 2018; Stony Brook Sea Wolves (7-10, 3-3) at New Hampshire Wildcats (7-10, 3-3)

Stony Brook is led by PG John Bains who is scoring at a 17.5 ppg clip.

We scored the first 11 points of the game and held a double digit lead through most of the first half. We went to the locker room ahead by a 37-22 score. We outshot the Sea Wolves 54% to 26%, out-rebounded Stony Brook 16-10 and held a 9-6 advantage in turnovers. Nate Augustus scored 14 points to lead all scorers. We held John Bains to just 3 points.

We continued to dominate Stony Brook in the 2nd half and were never threatened. We played our entire bench.

Final Score: New Hampshire-75, Stony Brook-54. New Hampshire season record: 8-10; American East record: 4-3 (4th place).

Scoring leaders: Augustus-24, Faust-14, Kamara-13.

Rebound leaders: Beck-6, Kamara-6, Faust-5.

Assist leaders: Augustus-4, Kamara-3, Hall-3.

Player of the Game: PG Nate Augustus-24 pts, 2 reb, 4 assists.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: SG William Kamara-13 pts, 6 reb, 3 assists, 1 steal.

Other notes: We dropped in 51% of our shots (and 50% of our 3’s) while holding Stony Brook to 35% shooting. We pulled down 34 rebounds to the Sea Wolves 27 and held a 16-9 turnover advantage. John Bains scored just 8 points for Stony Brook.