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

[PointGuard]

Two former players played in the pros this year: Jerell Brown and Randy Durham.

SG Jerell Brown was called up to play on the Chicago Bulls for 4 games in mid-season. During those 4 games he played 8.8 mpg, scored 2.5 ppg, pulled down 1.3 rpg, and dished out 1.3 apg.

The rest of the year, he played for the Sioux Falls Skyforce in the DBL. He played in 43 games, starting 29, playing 28.1 mpg, scoring 11.2 ppg, he grabbed 3.6 rpg, had 2.4 apg, and 1.2 spg. He hit 49% of his FG attempts, 32% of his 3’s, and 73% of his FT’s.

Jerell is trying to jump up to the Chicago Bulls roster. He got twice as much playing time in the DBL this year as compared to last year and had a cup of coffee with Chicago, but his future is in doubt. Even though he has a lot of natural talent, his work ethic never has been strong, so I think that's keeping him from making the leap.

PG Randy Durham played for the Iowa Energy in the DBL. He played in 43 games, starting none. He played 8.3 mpg, scored 2.5 ppg, grabbed 1.0 rpg, and dished out 1.2 apg, and had 0.1 spg and 0.1 bpg.

Randy hung on for a second year in the DBL, but his playing time was greatly reduced from his rookie year...not a good sign.

The Sioux Falls Skyforce finished the DBL season in first place in the Central Division with a 34-14 record. They won the DBL championship by beating the Springfield Armor 2 games to none.

The Iowa Energy finished last in the Central Division of the DBL with a 10-38 record.

[PointGuard]

The lone graduating senior from this year’s team is Chris Faust. He very well could have started at SG this year, but understood that I was playing not only for this year, but the future and wanted to develop players for next year’s team. He accepted his role at 6th man and did a phenomenal job with that position, filling in at both SG and SF. Typically his arrival on court meant some quick point for us as can be seen by his averaging 11.5 ppg in 19.8 mpg. His willingness to help the younger players learn the system was a big bonus for us as well.

While he doesn’t have the skills to play pro ball, he has a great understanding of the game and wants to continue involvement in either college or high school hoops. After a long discussion, I told him I could probably get him on as a graduate assistant for a coaching friend of mine at St. Bonaventure and would be glad to do so if he was accepted as a graduate student there. But I would be very pleased to have him take the same position with us, even though our program isn’t as developed as St. Bonnies is. His smile lit up the room and he said, “Thanks coach, when do I start on your staff?”

[PointGuard]

Alfonso “Shooter” DiFlipoff, creator of the hot blog spot CollegeHoopsScoops, gave me a call and wanted an interview. Although I don’t do many interviews, he caught me in a weak moment… having just pondered my team’s 13-16 record (which while a 6 win improvement over what they had done the year before) hardly compared with CSU Bakersfield (which I left a year earlier) and their Elite 8 performance. And yeah, I had had emptied a few too many Guiness bottles. So, I uncharacteristically said “yes”.

DiFlipoff: Is it true that you got your nickname “QM” because you asked too many questions and your college coach created it as a shortened version of “Question Mark”?

QM: How did you hear that? Do you think that’s really important? Aren’t there other things that you could have started this interview with? And by the way, how did YOU get your nickname, Shooter?

DiFlipoff: [laughing] OK, OK “QM”, I guess I deserved that series of questions from YOU to that question of mine. So maybe a more germane question would be…After so much success at CSU Bakersfield, are you concerned that there are many who are questioning why you weren’t able to turn a bad team into a winner in your first year at New Hampshire?

QM: Hey, there will be those who would be unhappy with the results unless we won the National Championship. So why worry about them? This is a process, a journey, not a jump to an end point.

DiFlipoff: Well, yeah, but your team lost more games that they won. Isn’t that troubling given you’re playing in a weak conference like the America East?

QM: The first year you arrive at a new head coaching job, you have to play with the cards you’re dealt. And actually, I feel those “cards” played pretty well this year. Hell, we had 4 guards who combined to score nearly 40 point per game. And the rest of our team played as well or better than I expected. And if you look back, you will see that even though we were fortunate to get to the NCAA Tournament in my first year at CSU Bakersfield, we only won one more game than we lost the first two years I coached there. Turning a program around takes time.

DiFlipoff: Speaking of CSU Bakersfield, they did pretty darned well to get to the Elite 8 this year, didn’t they?

QM: Yes, I was very excited to watch their games in the NCAA Tournament this year and see the players I recruited and worked with get so far. I’m particularly happy that Scott Richards, who moved up from being my 1st assistant to take over the head coaching job, achieved so much in his first year. I’m not surprised though, since he had a great affinity with all of the players and has tremendous player development skills. He kept on the 2nd and 3rd assistant coaches he’d worked with while on my staff and brought in an excellent 1st assistant who also is a good at developing players and great helping on the bench during games.

DiFlipoff: What are your expectations for New Hampshire this coming year?

QM: I’m very pumped up about taking the next step with this team. We have 14 of the 15 players on our roster returning including 2 players who were ineligible last year due to transfer. Those two players plus the incoming JC player we recruited will definitely be challenging for starting roles, so there could be a major shake up for the team this year. But competition for positions is good. Really what I think it points to is that we will be a much stronger team this coming year. A bigger challenge for us will be getting more fans to our games. Basketball at New Hampshire takes a back seat to hockey…and with good reason. The hockey team has years and years of fantastic success including being NCAA Champs while the basketball program has no history of success. We intend to change that so that New Hampshire fans have TWO rather than one team to avidly follow.

DiFlipoff: You had a player transfer from your team last year. Were you surprised to lose a player?

QM: It was disappointing to have someone transfer before even talking with me, but I fully understand. I would have been his 3rd head coach in his 3 years here at New Hampshire, and I think that he just felt the program was too unsettled. But, I’ve always felt that if players aren’t happy with their situation, they have every right to make the changes that will help them be more satisfied and fulfilled.

DiFlipoff: Who’s going to be your biggest competition in the America East Association this coming year?

QM: Well, that’s hard to say this early. Obviously Albany and Binghamton came out on top of us last year, but right now I think all the teams in our conference are serious competitors for us. We had real difficulty winning on the road against most everyone last year, so that’s something we need to improve upon.

DiFlipoff: QM, you’re now 35 and still single. Any changes expected in that department?

QM: [laughing] I’ve got all I can handle working to improve the Wildcats. Plus, with the hours I put in, right now I feel that most women wouldn’t be willing to accept the little time that remains.

DiFlipoff: Last question…what’s your ultimate coaching goal? What program do you really want to be in charge of in the future?

QM: Are you trying to get me in trouble here, Shooter? I just barely got to New Hampshire. There’s lots to be done here, so I have enough challenges right now to keep me fulfilled for quite a while. Plus my parents and siblings in and near Philadelphia get a chance to see some of our games here, so that’s a plus. And with respect to your question about people wondering why we didn’t win more games, I get plenty of that from my family so obviously I have a lot of work to do right here in Durham, New Hampshire.

[PointGuard]

With a full year of tutoring while he was ineligible due to transferring, Bobby Havens raised his GPA from 1.5 to 2.9. Our other transfer player, Andrew Kresse, has a 4.0 GPA. So both transferees will be playing for us this coming year.

Including Bobby Havens, there are 4 players with GPA’s between 2.5 and 2.9. They will get some additional tutoring assistance this summer. Everyone else’s GPA is above 3.0.

[PointGuard]

We will have 3 scholarships to fill this year. I decide to purchase the basic editions of the Atlantic East and National scouting reports. We also will travel to the Indy Elite Camp and the Big Apple Showcase this summer.

[PointGuard]

SF Ryan Hall has decided to transfer. Even though he started all last year, he never was able to really mesh well with his teammates here. He had a poor personality, and his relationship with the rest of the team was basically zero. Additionally, I’m sure he realized that he possibly was going to be pushed out of a starting role by either Jerod Ryan or one of our guards this year. His departure means we either try to get a transfer player or go after a 4th recruit during the recruiting season.

We contact about 15 transfer players in the first 3 transfer sessions. The first two players to whom we offer a scholarship choose other colleges to attend. Our 3rd offer is accepted:

SF Byron Windlan, 6-7 So, St. Johnsbury, VT, 2.7 GPA, transferred from Western Carolina where in his freshman year he played in 32 games, starting none. His stats: 13.8 mpg, 4.7 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 0.5 apg, 0.4 spg, 42% FG, 94% FT, 36% 3’s.

I believe we got a better player in the one we signed (Windlan) than the one we lost (Hall), but we will have to wait a year to find out. Windlan will join our group of players who are being tutored since until his GPA goes above 3.0. Since he seems to shoot pretty well from beyond the arc, I’d like to see him work on his 3’s this year.

[PointGuard]

Obviously, no New Hampshire players will be drafted, but I'm hopeful that some CSU Bakersfield graduates will be. So let the draft begin....



To my surprise the only Roadrunner selected is Jerry Yearwood, and he goes earlier than many believed he would.

But I thought Jeff Gilbert or Terrence Delk would be picked up in the draft. Looks like they will have to try the free agent route.

And which colleges' players dominated the draft? North Carolina with 7 and Syracuse, UCLA, and Oklahoma State with 6 each. Between those 4 colleges, that's 25 of the 60 players drafted!

[PointGuard]

Six players from CSU Bakersfield participated in the NBA’s Summer League:

SG Jerell Brown—after finishing two seasons of DBL and 4 games with the Chicago Bulls, Jerell was again on the Bulls Summer League team. He started all 5 games averaging 27 mpg, 9.2 ppg, 4.6 rpg, and 1.6 apg. It’s likely he will again be assigned by the Bulls to play in the DBL.

PG Randy Durham—he’s played two years in the DBL. This summer he played in all 5 of the Golden State Summer League team’s games, but didn’t start any of them. He averaged: 18 mpg, 7.0 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 3.1 apg. His future in the pros is highly uncertain.

PG Jerry Yearwood—following graduation, he was drafted by the Denver Nuggets and started all 5 of Denver’s Summer League team’s games, averaging: 18 mpg, 4.0 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 2.8 apg. I suspect he will be assigned by Denver to the DBL for seasoning.

PF Terrence Delk—he left CSU Bakersfield after his junior year which together with the many seniors who graduated will make things tough for the Roadrunners this coming year. He started all 5 summer league games. His averages were: 23 mpg, 6.8 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 0.6 apg. Since he didn’t star in summer league play, I’m guessing he also will be on a DBL team this year.

C Jeff Gilbert—after graduating this year, I was surprised he wasn’t drafted. But the Los Angeles Lakers gave him a look on their Summer League team. He started all five games, averaging: 20 mpg, 4.0 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 1.4 apg. I’m hopeful that he will be picked up by a DBL team.

C Mark Saunders—he also graduated this year, but wasn’t drafted. He played in all 5 games, but never started, for the Atlanta Hawks Summer League team. His averages were: 19 mpg, 3.2 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 0.8 apg. It’s doubtful he will be picked up by a DBL team this year.

[PointGuard]

Basketball at the University of New Hampshire has never drawn many fans and those who have come have mainly sat on their hands, spending more time kibitzing amongst themselves than really watching the game. The place often was like a morgue last year. If we can increase attendance and get fans more into our games, we could create a good home-court advantage since the gym is small.

I tried to get the hockey team to agree to some cross-promotion, but there was no interest since there really wasn’t anything in it for them with their games sold out already.

I cajoled the athletic department (OK, I bought them off with coffee and donuts for a week) into creating some good season and mini-season packages and putting together some promotions for our home games, but ultimately we have to become a consistent winner to stimulate fan enthusiasm.

[PointGuard]

We got most of this year’s players to participate in some summer basketball camps to improve their skills. Our new graduate assistant coach, Chris Faust, hip-hopped around to check on their progress and to keep everyone motivated. His mantra was: “There’s going to be competition for every position this fall. No one is assured of being a starter or getting much playing time. To win a starting nod or get more minutes in games, you need to improve your game as much as possible.”

We held a summer camp for junior high and high school players in New Hampshire. This is the first year anything like that has been done at the University of New Hampshire. Attendance was good, but not great. Seems like maybe New Hampshire boys prefer to have a hockey stick in their hands rather than a basketball.