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

[PointGuard]

Game #19: Jan. 25, 2018; New Hampshire Wildcats (8-10, 4-3) at UMBC Retrievers (10-8, 2-5)

University of Maryland Baltimore County put together a good pre-conference record (8-3), but after winning their first 2 conference games is now on a 5-game losing streak. But 4 of those 5 losses were by single digit differences. They have a good inside-outside duo in SG J.B. Rancik (16.4 ppg) and C Steve Kincade (12.6 ppg). Rancik scored 41 and 31 points in two games early this season. Kincade has two 20 point games at the beginning of the season.

We played exceptionally well on both ends of the court in the first half and pulled away to a 45-27 halftime lead. We hit 53% of our shots while holding UMBC’s shooting to 32%. We turned the ball over just 3 times while forcing the Retrievers to make 10 turnovers. Chris Faust and Edvin Jeppson both scored 11 points to lead our scoring.

We held a big lead through the first portion of the 2nd half, but then UMBC began hitting their shots while we made turnover after turnover and the refs calls went against us completely. With 3 minutes to play the Retrievers pulled to within 3. We re-opened a 6 point lead, but then UMBC hit a 3 with 30 seconds to play. We were able to keep them from getting any closer and won our first game on the road in conference play.

Final Score: New Hampshire-72, UMBC-68. New Hampshire season record: 9-10; American East record: 5-3 (3rd place tie).

Scoring leaders: Augustus-19, Jeppson-11, Faust-11, Kamara-9, Beck-9.

Rebound leaders: Beck-6, Faust-6, Babul-5, Hall-5.

Assist leaders: Augustus-3, Beck-3.

Player of the Game: PG Nate Augustus-19 pts, 2 reb, 3 reb.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: C Adrian Beck-9 pts, 6 reb, 3 assists, 1 steal.

Other notes: Our shooting deteriorated in the 2nd half and we finished the game by hitting 46% of our shots. UMBC hit 42% of their shots. We held a 34-31 rebounding advantage but with all our turnovers in the 2nd half finished with 14 while UMBC made just 11. J.B. Rancik scored 16 points for UMBC, but we held Steve Kincade to just 6 points.

[PointGuard]

Game #20: Jan. 28, 2018; New Hampshire Wildcats (9-10, 5-3) at Albany Great Danes (12-7, 6-2)

We beat Albany in the conference opener, 79-51, and the Great Danes lost the 2nd game their 2nd conference game also. But they have reeled off 6 straight wins to move into a tie for first place in the America East. Albany has 3 of their starters scoring in double figures, including both of their big men.

Albany won the first half at the foul line outscoring us by 12 from there. The Great Danes hit 15 of 20 free throws after the refs called 13 fouls against us, while the zebras called only 5 fouls against Albany on which we hit 3 for 3 from the line. On the other hand we outscored Albany 35-21 from the field. The score at the half was New Hampshire-38, Albany-36. Chris Faust and Edvin Jeppson both scored 11 points.

Our shooting that had been so good in the 1st half was equally bad in the 2nd half allowing Albany to cruise past us.

Final Score: Alban6-66, New Hampshire-62. New Hampshire season record: 9-11; American East record: 5-4 (3rd place tie).

Scoring leaders: Faust-22, Jeppson-13, Hall-8.

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

Assist leaders: Kamara-5.

Player of the Game: Albany’s PG Todd Holbrook-17 pts, 6 reb, 5 assists.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: SG Chris Faust-22 pts, 6 reb, 1 assist, 1 steal.

Other notes: After hitting nearly 50% of our FG attempts in the first half, we hit about 30% in the 2nd half and finished the night with a shooting percentage of 39%. Even with that we still scored more points from the field than the Great Danes, but their 9 point advantage at the free throw line was enough for them to win the game. We lost the battle of the boards 39-26 and turned the ball over 10 times to Albany’s 8 turnovers.

[PointGuard]

What did we do to tick off the refs?

After the first 20 games this year, here’s the data pure and simple:

Opponents: 273 fouls (13.65/game); 304 foul shots made (15.20/game); 412 free throw attempts (20.60/game)

New Hampshire: 347 fouls (17.35/game); 171 foul shots made (8.55/game); 263 free throw attempts (13.15/game)

We’ve been charged with 74 (3.70/game) more fouls than our opponents.

Our opponents have been to the line 149 (7.45/game) more times than us.

Our opponents have scored 133 (6.65/game) more than us at the free throw line.

Our opponents are playing with more than 5 men on the floor…and those players (err, I mean refs) are scoring 6.65 ppg for our opponents.

[PointGuard]

Game #21: Feb. 4, 2018; Maine Black Bears (9-12, 4-6) at New Hampshire Wildcats (9-11, 5-4)

We lost by 10 playing Maine in their gym. We want some payback tonight.

We played tight defense in the 1st half holding Maine’s shooting to 31% from the field while we hit 41% and forcing the Black Bears to make 7 turnovers while we made just 3. We left the court at the half with a 32-24 advantage. William Kamura led our scoring with 9 points.

We maintained a comfortable lead throughout the 2nd half and won going away.

Final Score: New Hampshire-72, Maine-54. New Hampshire season record: 10-11; American East record: 6-4 (3rd place).

Scoring leaders: Babul-13, L. Smith-13, Kamara-13, Augustus-9, Hall-8.

Rebound leaders: Kamara-5.

Assist leaders: Augustus-3.

Player of the Game: SG William Kamara-13 pts, 5 reb, 2 assists, 1 steal.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: C Chris Babul-13 pts, 4 reb, 1 steal.

Other notes: We knocked down 46% of our FG attempts while holding Maine’s shooting to 36%. We had a 15-9 turnover advantage.

[PointGuard]

Game #22: Feb. 8, 2018; New Hampshire Wildcats (10-11, 6-4) at Vermont Catamounts (8-14, 4-7)

We’ve only won 2 of 10 games on the road, but this is one we can win if we play hard and smart. We only won by 7 against the Catamounts when we played them in our gym, though, and their 2-3 zone can disrupt us so I think this will be a tough game.

Our defense was porous in the first half and we let the Catamounts hit 50% of their shots. We also had 9 turnovers in the half. Fortunately we shot well also hitting 46% of our shots, so we left the court at the half only trailing 39-34. Our top scorer in the first half was William Kamara with 9 points. Halftime was spent going over defensive assignments since we need to clamp down defensively to have chance to win this game.

Our defense didn’t improve, it got worse in the 2nd half. We let Vermont score inside, outside, everywhere. They built a 17 point lead and we could never get our deficit to less than 10 points.

Final Score: Vermont-82, New Hampshire-70. New Hampshire season record: 10-12; American East record: 6-5 (4th place).

Scoring leaders: Augustus-15, L. Smith-13, Faust-11, Kamara-10.

Rebound leaders: Babul-6.

Assist leaders: Hall-4, Jeppson-3.

Player of the Game: Vermont’s C D. J. Jones-17 pts, 5 reb,1 assist.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: PF Luis Smith-13 pts, 4 reb, 2 assists.

Other notes: Vermont hit 53% of their shots, so our 47% shooting which was good, wasn’t good enough. The Catamounts also hit 45% of their 3’s and 95% of their FT’s. They out-rebounded us 28-22 and held a 13-12 turnover advantage.

After the game, Jerod Ryan again mouthed off that he should be starting at SF instead of Ryan Hall and that the coaching staff was showing favoritism toward Ryan Hall. I pulled him aside and chewed him out. When he tried laying the blame on other team members, I told him I’d had enough and his attitude had earned him a one-week suspension.

[PointGuard]

Game #23: Feb. 11, 2018; Hartford Hawks (13-10, 7-5) at New Hampshire Wildcats (10-12, 6-5)

In our earlier game at Hartford this year, they stymied our offense and beat us 60-41 and their center Jeff Bain burned us for 17 points. If we can turn the tables on them on our home court, we can edge ahead of the Hawks for 3rd place in the conference.

Neither team could get their offense going for most of the first half, but we finally hit some shots near the end of the half to pull away to a 32-23 halftime lead. Both teams hit less than 40% of their shots. Our leading scorer was William Kamara with 8 points.

We continued to apply a stingy defense and gradually pulled away to a 20 point lead to revenge our earlier loss to the Hawks.

Final Score: New Hampshire-63, Hartford-44. New Hampshire season record: 11-12; American East record: 7-5 (2nd place tie).

Scoring leaders: Faust-12, Hall-11, Kamara-10, Beck-9.

Rebound leaders: Beck-9, Hall-6, L. Smith-6.

Assist leaders: Augustus-3.

Player of the Game: C Adrian Beck-9 pts, 9 reb, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: SF Ryan Hall-11 pts, 6 reb.

Other notes: Neither team shot well: we hit 38% of our shots, Hartford connected on just 32% of theirs. We held a 16-11 turnover advantage. We also held Jeff Bain to just 7 points on 2 for 12 shooting from the field, but he did haul down 11 rebounds.

The win catapulted us into a tie for 2nd place with Binghamton which lost their game tonight.

[PointGuard]

Game #24: Feb. 15, 2018; New Hampshire Wildcats (11-12, 7-5) at Binghamton Bearcats (14-9, 7-5)

Tonight it’s a battle of the two teams tied for 2nd place in the America East Association.

We pulled off an 11 point victory over the Bearcats when we played them earlier this year on our home floor. They’re a streaky team. Right now they are on a 3 game losing streak, but playing on their court will be a daunting challenge for us. They are led by SG Jared Jensen who is averaging 14.0 ppg, but Broderick Benton has come off the bench to average 8.1 ppg while playing just 14.1 mpg and is hitting a high percentage of his shots from all over the court.

We dropped behind 13-4 early in the first half when Birmingham hit their shots and we didn’t. We also were turning the ball over too much. We cut their lead to 5 several times midway through the half, but then we fell apart and the Bearcats made us pay. By the end of the half we trailed 41-23. We had been beaten on every team stat plus the refs called 10 fouls against us and only 1 against Binghamton. That gave the Bearcats 13 foul shots (on which they scored 11 points) while we didn’t get to the foul line at all. Edvin Jeppson scored 7 points to lead our scoring.

In the 2nd half we fell behind by 21 points but made a run late in the 2nd half to cut their lead to 9 points, but then the Bearcats put us away in the final minutes of the half.

Final Score: Binghamton-68, New Hampshire-53. New Hampshire season record: 11-13; American East record: 7-6 (3rd place).

Scoring leaders: L. Smith-9, Faust-8.

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

Assist leaders: Hall-4.

Player of the Game: Binghamton’s SG Jared Jensen-11 pts, 3 reb, 3 assists, 2 steals.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: PF Luis Smith-9 pts, 5 reb, 1 block.

Other notes: Both teams shot under 40% from the field, but Binghamton out-rebounded us 47-35 and we turned the ball over 13 times to the Bearcats 10 turnovers. That was enough to seal our doom.

[JMD]

I see you're having trouble breaking over .500.... That certainly wasn't an issue when I was coaching NCCU, not to be arrogant or anything.

[PointGuard]

I see you're having trouble breaking over .500.... That certainly wasn't an issue when I was coaching NCCU, not to be arrogant or anything.

Heh, heh...I picked New Hampshire because I thought it would be a challenge...and it is! Which makes the game fun for me.

It's the bumps in the road rather than the smooth pavement that makes my journey interesting. If and when too much success develops here so that it seems I'm cruising along a freeway rather than fighting stop and go city traffic, it's "hit the road" time for me.

Thanks for reading!

BTW...in your NCCU thread, it would be interesting to know more about your "beast"...where'd he come from? I assume since you're in your first year at the school, he was already there...what year is he in school? What's his ratings? Did you alter any ratings? A point guard who averages about 40 ppg and 7 or 8 rpg is quite unusual. Good luck with your team the rest of the year.

[JMD]

I only altered Riviere's scoring ratings. That's it.