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

[PointGuard]

Albany...................11-0.....RPI: 34
New Hampshire.....7-4.....RPI: 23
Maine......................6-5.....RPI: 141
UMBC......................6-5.....RPI: 206
Binghamton.............5-6.....RPI: 148
Boston....................3-8.....RPI: 288
Stony Brook.............2-9.....RPI: 332
Vermont..................2-9.....RPI: 345
Hartford.................2-10.....RPI: 338

[PointGuard]

Here's the Wildcats' player stats after completion of their Pre-Conference Schedule:

[PointGuard]

Here are the Wildcats' team stats after completion of the Pre-Conference schedule:

[PointGuard]

Here's the Top 10 Teams in the Media Poll as of Dec. 25, 2018:

[PointGuard]

Game #12: Dec. 26, 2018; Binghamton Bearcats (5-6, 0-0) at New Hampshire Wildcats (7-4,0-0)

The Bearcats beat #18 Tulane and lost to #12 Gonzaga this year. Binghamton runs their offense with a lot of offensive freedom. Their primary defense is a man-to-man. The top scorer for Binghamton is SG Jared Jensen with 14.2 ppg.

Binghamton hit 9 of their first 10 FG’s and first 4 FT’s to take a 23-11 lead. By the end of the half we had cut their lead to 37-34 even though we hit just 36% of our shots while Binghamton dropped in 70% of theirs. Bobby Havens scored 15 points.

We finally got our first lead at 53-51 with 10 minutes to play. We held the Bearcats to just 2 points over the next 6 minutes of play and increased our lead to 10 points. We held that lead until the end of the game.

Final Score: New Hampshire-72, Binghamton-61. New Hampshire season record: 8-4; American East record: 1-0 (1st place tie).

Scoring leaders: Havens-31, Kamara-12, Augustus-9.

Rebound leaders: Kresse-6, Kamara-5.

Assist leaders: Augustus-3, Strickland-3.

Player of the Game: SG Bobby Havens-31 pts, 3 reb, 1 steal.

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

Other notes: Binghamton finished the game by hitting 50% of their shots. We shot better in the 2nd half to finish with 42% shooting (but we hit 43% of our 3’s). We out-rebounded the Bearcats 29-26 and had a 17-13 turnover advantage.

[PointGuard]

Game #13: Dec. 29, 2018; New Hampshire Wildcats (8-4, 1-0) at Hartford Hawks (3-10, 1-0)

Hartford’s offense has been weak thus far this year. None of their players are averaging in double figures.

The lead went back and forth early in the game, but we simply fell apart in the latter portion of the first half. We allowed Hartford to hit 53% of their shots, turned the ball over 11 times and were out-rebounded 19-12. We left the court trailing 37-28. Our leading scorer was Bobby Hayes who had 17 points.

We played as badly in the 2nd half as we had in the 1st half and never were in the ballgame.

Final Score: Hartford-64, New Hampshire-54. New Hampshire season record: 8-5; American East record: 1-1 (4th place tie).

Scoring leaders: Havens-29, Kresse-8.

Rebound leaders: Kresse-6.

Assist leaders: Augustus-5, Strickland-4.

Player of the Game: Hartford’s C Matt Moreland-15 pts, 4 reb, 2 assists, 2 steals.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: SG Bobby Havens-29 pts, 4 reb, 2 assists, 2 steals.

Other notes: Our shooting was OK (46%), but our defense was horrible (allowing Hartford to hit 48% of their shots). We were exceptionally careless with the ball, turning it over 21 times. Hartford wasn’t much better with 19 turnovers. We got blitzed on the boards, 36-22 (allowing the Hawks to pull down 12 offensive rebounds).

Bobby Havens was named the America East Player of the Week for the fourth time this year.

[PointGuard]

Game #14: Jan. 2, 2019; Maine Black Bears (6-6, 0-1) at New Hampshire Wildcats (8-5, 1-1)

Maine runs a fast-paced offense and a man-to-man defense. SG Reggie Howard is averaging 16.9 ppg.

Early in the game we pulled ahead and then held onto the lead throughout the 1st half. We had a 21-15 rebounding advantage and 9-6 turnover advantage. At the half we led 38-29. Our leading scorer was Bobby Havens with 13 points.

We ran away with the game in the 2nd half.

Final Score: New Hampshire-92, Maine-69. New Hampshire season record: 9-5; American East record: 2-1 (2nd place tie).

Scoring leaders: Havens-25, Kresse-19, Augustus-8.

Rebound leaders: Kresse-10, Havens-8, L. Smith-7, Strickland-5.

Assist leaders: Kamara-3, Strickland-3.

Player of the Game: SG Bobby Havens-25 pts, 8 reb, 1 assist, 1 steal.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: C Andrew Kresse-19 pts, 10 reb, 2 assists, 1 steal.

Other notes: We dropped in 49% of our shots, out-rebounded the Black Bears 37-29, and forced Maine to make 16 turnovers while we made just 9. Maine’s Reggie Howard hit 7 of 15 threes to score a total of 21 points.

Albany is leading the America East Association with a 4-0 record and they have a season record of 15-0. They are now ranked #20 in the Media Poll, #21 in the Coaches Poll, and their RPI is 24th best in the country. Our RPI is now 43rd highest.

[JMD]

You better watch out for the Danes.

[PointGuard]

Yeah, the Great Danes are true Big Dogs this year.

(sorry, couldn't resist such an easy one)

[PointGuard]

Game #15: Jan. 9, 2019; New Hampshire Wildcats (9-5, 2-1) at #20 Albany Great Danes (15-0, 4-0)

Albany has been on fire this year.

The flu limited Andrew Kresse, William Kamara, and Nate Augustus to very limited time on the court and they weren’t effective. I also came down with the flu after they did, so missed this game. Just as well since Albany completely stomped us. We trailed 43-28 at the half and it was all downhill from there.

Final Score: Albany-85, New Hampshire-52. New Hampshire season record: 9-6; American East record: 2-2 (3rd place tie).

Scoring leaders: Havens-13, Strickland-12, Beck-8.

Rebound leaders: Beck-9.

Assist leaders: Strickland-6, Augustus-3.

Player of the Game: Albany’s PG Todd Holbrook-22 pts, 9 reb, 9 assists.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: C Adrian Beck-8 pts, 9 reb.

Other notes: Albany was impressive and Todd Holbrook came very near to having a triple double. SG Paul Kirkland scored 24 points for Albany.