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

[PointGuard]

Game #30: Mar. 4, 2020; Albany Great Danes (16-14, 10-6) vs New Hampshire Wildcats (17-12, 9-7)

We beat Albany on our court, they won on their court. Neither game was close. Albany’s Paul Kirkland is scoring 17.9 ppg but is getting good support from Jason Avery (11.5 ppg) and Larry LaFlem (11.4 ppg).

The game went back and forth in the first 8 minutes, but then we cooled off the Great Danes and went ahead 22-13 with 10 minutes to play in the half. But we couldn’t hold the lead and the half ended with the score tied 33-33. Bobby Havens topped our scoring with 12 points.

We played well in the 2nd half until late in the game when the refs took us out of the game by calling a fouls against us nearly every Albany possession. So, ultimately we were not able to put a leash on the Great Danes.

Final Score: Albany-76, New Hampshire-65. New Hampshire season record: 17-13.

Scoring leaders: Havens-27, Strickland-11, Kresse-8.

Rebound leaders: Kresse-9, Babul-8.

Assist leaders: Neubauer-4, Strickland-3.

Player of the Game: Albany’s SG Paul Kirkland-16 pts, 5 reb, 2 assists.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: SG Bobby Havens-27 pts, 3 reb, 1 assist.

Other notes: We hit 46% of our shots, Albany hit just 37% of theirs. Albany out-rebounded us 39-33 plus had a 16-9 turnover advantage. But the big difference in the game was that they went to the line 14 more times and scored 10 more points at the line than us. Gotta give Albany credit…after a disastrous start of the season, they came on at the end of the year when it counted.

Is it disappointing not to get into the NCAA Tournament (or likely any other post-season tournament)? Yes, but we really didn’t play well enough all year long to deserve it. Just a lack of consistency.

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Bobby Havens was named a Finalist for the Norton Award! So that helped salve some of the pain of not making it to a tournament.

[PointGuard]

Here's how the players did this year:



Vernard Strickland and Heinrich Neubauer split time at PG. Their combined stats were very good...about 16 ppg and 7.5 apg with good A/TO ratios. Strickland was the stronger defender, but Neubauer's shooting percentage was much better.

Bobby Havens was our go-to-guy at SG. His shooting percentages for FG and 3's as well as his A/TO ratio weren't as good as I would have liked to see, though.

Byron Windlan got stronger at SF as the year progressed. He hit 45% of his FG attempts and 50% of his 3's. Brad Reid had some good games coming off the bench, but was inconsistent.

No one played strongly at PF. Jake Watson and Chris Babul split starts, with Babul playing slightly better, although Watson had a much better shooting percentage. Kory Finley scored well in limited court time and showed promise for next year.

Andrew Kresse improved at C as the season went on, both offensively and on the boards.

[PointGuard]

Here's the team stats for the 2019-2020 season:

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Here's the Top 10 in the final Media Poll:

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The Roadrunners (my first head coaching job) finished with a 15-14 record this season, but were 11-3 in Great West play, finishing atop the conference. They lost in the 2nd round of the conference tournament though. Harold Masters scored 13.2 ppg to lead their scoring. That ended their season since they were not selected for the CBI or NIT Tournaments.

[PointGuard]

#1 seeds: North Carolina, Utah, Florida, Duke

Albany is the #15 seed in the Kansas City Regional and will play #2 seed Louisville.

No America East teams were selected for either the CBI or NIT Tournaments.

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(15 seed) Albany (17-14) vs (2 seed) #7 Louisville (24-7)—[Albany gave Louisville a run for their money in the first half, and trailed just 40-35 at the half. But the Great Danes couldn’t keep up in the 2nd half as Louisville out-shot them 44% to 37% and held a 16-10 turnover advantage. Collin Lewis scored 14 points for Louisville. Jason Avery was Albany’s leading scorer with 20 points and Doug Craig hauled down 10 rebounds. Final Score: Louisville-75, Albany-58.]

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CBI Championship: SE Louisiana-90, Fairfield-86

NIT Championship: Ball State-72, Central Florida-63

NCAA Semifinals:
Maryland-67, Louisville-60
Duke-59, Syracuse-54

NCAA Championship: Duke-71, Maryland-61

[PointGuard]

We passed up several highly rated JuCo players we had been recruiting to go after two lower-rated (but talented) high school players for our final two scholarships, since I want to get more 4-year players at New Hampshire. In late March, both accepted our scholarship offers.

These are our 4 incoming recruits next year:

PG Chezley Trotman, 6-1 HS Sr, Wolfeboro, NH, 3.1 GPA (1050 SAT). 17.0 ppg, 3.8 apg, 5.2 rpg, 2.1 spg, 1.9 bpg this year. A very good scorer with a nice outside shot; very good passer and ball handler; weak rebounder; very athletic; doesn’t have many problems with injuries; hard worker. Who could pass on a guy named “Chezley”? Ranked #163 nationally. Overall rating: C.

C Clay Houston, 6-8 HS Sr, Cresskill, NJ, 3.0 GPA (1020 SAT). 16.4 ppg, 3.2 apg, 5.6 rpg, 1.6 spg, 3.7 bpg this year. Strong scorer and inside shooter; very good rebounder; Strong defender and shot blocker; very athletic; hard worker; rarely missed practices; in the Top 5 at the Big Apple Showcase. Ranked #180 in the nation. Overall rating: B.
Those two go along with the two who we signed earlier this season:

PF Travis Stone, 6-7 JC So, Green Cove Springs, FL, 2.1 GPA. 18.3 ppg, 4.3 apg, 10.3 rpg, 2.5 spg, 3.5 bpg this season. Excellent scorer who is dangerous inside; great rebounder; very good defensively and shot blocker; good passer; weak athletically; hard worker; rarely missed practices. Ranked #27 nationally. Overall rating: A.

SF DeVante Smith, 6-8 HS Sr, Burlington, NC, 3.0 GPA (1030 SAT). 15.3 ppg, 2.4 apg, 4.5 rpg, 1.2 spg, 1.4 bpg. Very good scorer with decent inside and outside shooting; very weak rebounder; good defender; hard worker; in the Top 25 at the Big Apple Showcase; ranking dropped as season progressed. Ranked #424 in the country. Overall rating: B.

This was a good recruiting year. These 4 players plus the two players who transferred in last year should strengthen our team, even though we are losing Bobby Havens, Vernard Strickland, and 4 other seniors.