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

[PointGuard]

Game #19: Jan. 24, 2021; Stony Brook Sea Wolves (9-9, 3-4) at New Hampshire Wildcats (15-3, 7-0)

Offensively Stony Brook is led by SG Brad Wright, who is averaging 16.6 ppg.

Andrew Kresse is starting his 2nd straight game at center and Heinrich Neubauer will start in place of injured PG Kueth Kirtz.

We put together solid rebounding along with good shooting to build a 23-11 lead in the first 8 minutes of play. We dominated the board 25-10 for the half which allowed us to take a 34-25 lead to the locker room. Byron Windlan was our leading scorer with 7 points.

We gradually increased our lead throughout the 2nd half and were never seriously challenged.

Final Score: New Hampshire-74, Stony Brook-52. New Hampshire season record: 16-3; American East record: 8-0 (1st place).

Scoring leaders: Stone-15, Neubauer-12, Kresse-9.

Rebound leaders: Stone-10, Houston-9, Kresse-7, Howard-6, Windlan-5.

Assist leaders: Smith-4, Howard-3.

Player of the Game: PF Travis Stone-15 pts, 10-reb, 3 assists.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: C Andrew Kresse-9 pts, 7 reb, 1 assist, 2 steals.

Other notes: We hit 45% of our shots while holding Stony Brook’s shooting to 36%. We totally dominated the boards 45-26. We scored 36 points in the paint. Stony Brook’s Brad Wright dropped in 18 points.

[PointGuard]

Game #20: Jan. 27, 2021; Maine Black Bears (7-12, 2-6) at New Hampshire Wildcats (16-3, 8-0)

We beat Maine 83-70 on the Black Bears’ home court earlier this season. SF Imari Andrews is averaging 14.7 ppg and scored 27 points against us in the prior game.

The first half was sloppily played by both teams. We turned the ball over 10 times and Maine had 13 turnovers. We shot 41% and Maine shot 43%. We held an 18-12 rebounding advantage. DeVante Smith and Andrew Kresse each scored 6 points.

We opened a 20 point lead midway through the 2nd half and played our bench extensively.

Final Score: New Hampshire-72, Maine-51. New Hampshire season record: 17-3; American East record: 9-0 (1st place).

Scoring leaders: Howard-19, Smith-15, Kresse-11, Houston-8.

Rebound leaders: Stone-8, Kresse-7, Smith-5.

Assist leaders: Kritz-8, House-3, Windlan-3.

Player of the Game: SG Albert Howard-19 pts, 1 reb, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: SF DeVante Smith-15 pts, 5 reb, 2 steals.

Other notes: We sank 47% of our FG attempts (and 43% of our 3’s). We held Maine’s shooting to 39%. We out-rebounded the Black Bears 35-28 and held a 23-16 turnover advantage. DeVante Smith had another good game coming off the bench. We held Amari Andrews to 2 points.

[PointGuard]

Game #21: Jan. 31, 2021; New Hampshire Wildcats (17-3, 9-0) at Albany Great Danes (11-9, 6-3)

The Great Danes had been hounding us in the conference standings, but they’ve lost 2 of their last 3 games and are now tied with Boston for 2nd place, 3 games behind us. We were able to take the bark out of them in our first meeting this season, winning 67-57. But that was on our court, and now that we’re playing in their back yard, it could be a different tail (errr, tale), or as some would say, a coat of a different color. It gives me paws (errr, pause) since I suspect they are still growling about that loss and have a bone to pick with us, so they will be intent upon biting us in the hind quarters. I therefore expect a ruff (errr, rough) game unless we can keep them on a short leash. [This has been brought to you by Puns Unlimited Productions (PUP), a subsidiary of the Pointguard's Humor Machine.]

I’m still surprised they are not starting Paul Kirkland, who scored 17.8 ppg last year and was a 1st Team All-Conference player. This year he’s been their 6th man and has scored 9.8 ppg in the 16.4 mpg he’s been on the floor.

I guess Michael Jenkins, Albany’s coach, sensed my unease about Paul Kirkland, because he started tonight. In the first minute of play we took a 5-0 lead. The refs then decided to even things up and called 6 fouls against us in the next 5 minutes. That allowed Albany to get back into the game. Our shooting eyes deserted us late in the half and we left the court at halftime trailing 34-30. We connected on just 36% of our shots, while Albany made 50% of theirs. Clay Houston was our leading scorer with 10 points.

We finally got a 5-point lead back midway through the 2nd half, only to have the refs begin whistling us repeatedly. The lead flip-flopped the remainder of the game. Kueth Kirtz hit a jumper from the free throw line to give us a 2 point lead with 50 seconds to go. The Great Danes worked the ball all around and Paul Kirkland hit a 3 with 22 seconds on the clock to give them a 65-64 lead. After a time out, our pick and roll worked to perfection as Albert Howard got freed up for a 12 foot jumper that rattled home to put us up 66-65 with 12 seconds left. Albany just barely beat our press forcing Paul Kirkland to quickly launch a long 3 that just barely missed. We had muzzled the Great Danes.

Final Score: New Hampshire-66, Albany-65. New Hampshire season record: 18-3; American East record: 10-0 (1st place).

Scoring leaders: Kirtz-21, Houston-10, Kresse-10, Neubauer-8.

Rebound leaders: Kresse-14, Stone-6, Houston-5

Player of the Game: PG Kueth Kirtz-21 pts, 3 reb, 7 assists, 1 block.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: C Andrew Kresse-10 pts, 14 reb, 1 block.

Other notes: Albany went to the line 11 more times and scored 8 more points at the free throw line than we did. But we controlled the boards 41-30 and put up 70 FT attempts, hitting 40% of them. Albany hit 44%, but only took 55 shots. We needed every bit of our rebounding and shot advantage to escape with a win. Another big double-double for Andrew Kresse (10 points and 14 rebounds), justifying his return to the starting lineup. We have many more of these kind of close games, and I’m gonna have to start taking heart medications.

[CoachC]

Lookin' mighty mighty!

[Wayne23]

Kickin' butts!

[PointGuard]

Two players from my days at CSU Bakersfield are playing the DBL this year:

SG Jerell Brown is a starter for the Austin Toros (14-9, 2nd place in the Southwest Division). Jerell has started all 23 games. He is averaging: 35.3 mpg, 14.4 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 2.7 apg, 1.6 spg. He is hitting 48% of his FG attempts and 82% of his FT attempts but just 29% of his 3’s. He has a .953 STP% and a 16.3 EFF rating (2nd highest on the team). He’s 2nd highest on the team in ppg, rpg, and apg, and tops on the team in spg. He’s scored in double figures in all but 3 of the 23 games.

PG Randy Durham is a sub for the Springfield Armor (16-9, 1st place in the West Division). Randy has got into just 4 games and only one where he got significant minutes. He is averaging: 7.0 mpg, 2.8 ppg, 0.0 rpg, and 0.0 apg.

[PointGuard]

Game #22: Feb. 3, 2021; Hartford Hawks (6-15, 4-6) at New Hampshire Wildcats (18-3, 10-0)

We barely got by Hartford, 78-74, when playing them on their court earlier this year. They have 3 players averaging in double figures, PG Mike Korn (14.3 ppg), SF Dalron Henry (10.9 ppg), and C Tony Rollerson (10.1 ppg).

We have our biggest fan turnout of the season now as people are finally realizing we’re playing some good basketball.

Kueth Kirtz was charged with his 2nd foul 2-1/4 minutes after the game began. His replacement, Heinrich Neubauer picked up foul #2 at the 13:32 mark. We just couldn’t get untracked and trailed throughout most of the 1st half, but went to the locker room ahead 35-32. Albert Howard’s 7 points were high for us.

We had god-awful shooting and rebounding in the 2nd half and led by just one point with 5 minutes to play. It wasn’t until the last few minutes that we turned it on and drew away a little.

Final Score: New Hampshire-71, Hartford-63. New Hampshire season record: 19-3; American East record: 11-0 (1st place).

Scoring leaders: Kirtz-14, Stone-11, Houston-10, Neubauer-10, Howard-9

Rebound leaders: Houston-8, Stone-7, Windlan-5, Howard-5.

Assist leaders: Howard-3, Archie-3.

Player of the Game: C Clay Houston-10 pts, 8 reb, 2 assists, 4 steals.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: PG Kueth Kirtz-14 pts, 4 reb, 1 steal.

Other notes: Even by hitting some shots late in the game, we still only hit 41% of our FG attempts. Hartford wasn’t much better with 43% of their shots finding the silk. The main difference in the game was that the Hawks turned the ball over 18 times while we had just 12 turnovers. I was very disappointed in our play…a case of playing down to the opposition.

Unfortunately, I doubt our new fans were very impressed with the quality of play tonight.

We cracked into the Media Poll and Coaches Poll, both at #24. This is the first time a New Hampshire BASKETBALL team has been ranked in the Top 25.

Our RPI is now 16th best in the country.

[PointGuard]

After 22 games,here’s the stats for our primary players:

PG:

Kueth Kirtz—25.4 mpg, 11.2 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 4.1 apg

Heinrich Neubauer—18.4 mpg, 8.1 ppg, 2.1 rpg, 2.3 apg

SG:

Albert Howard—25.6 mpg, 10.8 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 2.0 apg

SF:

Byron Windlan—27.1 mpg, 10.5 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 1.5 apg

DeVante Smith—12.3 mpg, 6.1 ppg, 1.6 rpg, 0.7 apg

PF:

Travis Stone—25.5 mpg, 9.0 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 0.7 apg

C:

Clay Houston—24.9 mpg, 8.5 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 0.9 apg

Andrew Kresse—19.7 mpg, 6.6 ppg, 6.8 rpg, 0.9 apg

No standouts, but a good solid core of 8 players

As a team, we’re scoring 73.8 ppg and giving up 63.7 ppg. Our strengths are blocks, steals, turnovers, rebounding, free throw shooting, and efficiency (Pts/100 possessions). Our shooting from the field leaves something to be desired since we have rather low FG% and 3PT%, though.

[PointGuard]

Game #23: Feb. 7, 2021; #24 New Hampshire Wildcats (19-3, 11-0) at UMBC Retrievers (9-12, 5-5)

The Retrievers SG Mike Woollum is averaging 17.6 ppg. We beat UMBC on our court 84-59 earlier this year.

UMBC hit 7 of their first 10 shots (including 5 of 8 from 3 point distance) and took a 20-9 lead 8 minutes into the game. We fell behind by 14 before getting our act together and hitting some shots. By the end of the half, we had cut the Retrievers lead to 38-35. They had 7 more shots and points at the free throw line than us. Byron Windlan and Kueth Kirtz each had scored 7 points for us. UMBC’s Mike Woollum hit 6 of 8 from beyond the arc accounting for all of his 18 points.

We tied the game at 44-44 with 17 minutes to play. We then fell behind by 9 points with 6 minutes remaining as UMBC hit their shots and we didn’t and the refs continued to parade Retrievers to the line. When down by that much there is no way to win if you miss almost all of your shots and that’s exactly what we did.

Final Score: UMBC-76, New Hampshire-66. New Hampshire season record: 19-4; American East record: 11-1 (1st place).

Scoring leaders: Kirtz-16, Howard-14, Kresse-8.

Rebound leaders: Kesse-7, Houston-5, Howard-5.

Assist leaders: Neubauer-5, Kirtz-3.

Player of the Game: UMBC’s SG Mike Woollum-24 pts, 4 reb, 4 assists, 1 steal.

Coach’s Pat on the Back Award: SG Albert Howard-14 pts, 5 reb, 2 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks.

Other notes: We only hit 38% of our FT attempts (and 22% of our 3’s) while UMBC was popping in 44% of their FG’s (and 39% of their 3’s). The refs sent the Retrievers to the free throw line 14 more times where they made 10 more points than us (and we lost by 10 points).

The loss brought out frustrations on the part of our team. Brad Reid mouthed off after the game about how we were favoring Byron Windlan and that he (Brad) should be playing. But in reality it’s his lack of production when we have had him in the game that has relevated him to play behind not only Byron but also DeVante Smith.

[PointGuard]

Returning to Durham, NH after the game, I headed home and found that someone had broken into my home in my absence. The place was a mess since the thief (or thieves) rummaged through most everything trying to find valuables. I don’t really have much in the way of “valuables”, so the thieves settled on taking anything they could find that was electronic…my TV, computers, sound system, etc. All fairly easily replaceable and covered by insurance. But it upset me since I had files related to our team, plays, opponents, etc. as well as bank and investment records on the computers and that’s now compromised. More of a pain in the ass than anything else.

After calling the police and my insurance company and watching the police go through my home looking for evidence, I spent the next day trying to clean up my house. It all put me in a pretty bad mood, which I have to admit I took out on the team through a very demanding practice late that day.

When I got back to the college, I heard about Brad Reid’s absurd comments and pulled him into my office to talk with him. He did himself no favors when he responded by going after the other players, so I read him the riot act. His attitude earned him a week-long suspension, meaning he will miss our next 2 games.