Game Thread: Mason (11-2) vs. VCU (10-3), Sunday, January 5th, 12:00 PM

Mason LOOKS smaller, thought the same thing against TCU. Men against boys

A quick search shows the following from 3 over the past 5 years:
15 - 16 .292
16 - 17 .336
17 - 18 .326
18 - 19 .330
19 - 20 .313 according to Mason's stats. .319 according to NCAA stats which puts us 242nd in the nation.
So yeah, it's safe to say teams don't exactly fear our outside game.
I hope Kolek is an answer next year. We all hoped JDS would supply much needed help in that area.
It is funny how Kier and Green both shoot flat footed 1950's style set shots from 3. We haven't had a lights out jump shooter from deep in quite some time.

Careful with that optimism here, most of these boards won't have it.

Here's my quick take:

The Good:

• Turnovers. When's the last time we won the turnover battle against VCU? We almost always made the right pass against their double-teams, just didn't have the bigs to attack after breaking it.
• XJ. Notice both halves once he entered he didn't come out. Loved his attitude and willingness to push against them. He will have plenty of success against VCU in his career.
• The crowd. Sunday in early January at noon, that was a nice turnout. Yes, VCU fans helped, but still a great showing

The Bad:

• How healthy is Kier? He's established himself as a slasher and rim attacker. Can't remember a single time he looked at the paint yesterday. Need the old Kier who gets to the rim with ease.
• The start. Guys made awful decisions early on, including terrible defensive rotations. I get their hyped, but need to focus better out of the gate.
• We need our bigs to be more of a threat. We had so many 3 on 2 opportunities with the ball at the high post in a bigs hands, and almost always wound up resetting our offense with 15 seconds on the clock. Foul trouble on Jordan and AJ didn't help matters.

When VCU shoots 18/18 at the stripe, makes 3's and Silva cleans up inside like he did, they're tough to beat. Lot to like from our guys though, if that's still allowed.

DP's comment about XJ being "the most calm and composed" player on the team is telling. Given Jamal's shooting woes and lack of size I would love to see XJ start from now on. Start Kier instead of Greene. Shake it up a bit.

yes you're definitely allowed to be positive. Agree on all your GOOD points (maybe 2 or 3-1 VCU to Mason fans though which doesn't help)

"We need our bigs to be more of a threat. We had so many 3 on 2 opportunities with the ball at the high post in a bigs hands, and almost always wound up resetting our offense with 15 seconds on the clock. Foul trouble on Jordan and AJ didn't help matters." PREACH to this one. Doesn't help having AJ at 5 where he doesn't belong or on the bench (which both are what he was yesterday 99% of the time). We need a 5 with some ball skills pronto but one of those doesn't fall out of trees.

One frustration for me is how little Calixte has improved offensively over his career. I don't know that he's any better now than he was a freshman. Time will tell if Oduro develops, he has shown flashes of potential. Malik Henry had better be the real deal and ready to step in day one if we're going to have a chance next year. I'm gun shy with DP's assessment of players though.

We all knew vcu was the better team and they won. Time to get over this loss and move on to the next game Wednesday.

start the game thread sir! Osun and Kyle Lofton come into town with a finally healthy Bona squad!!! Big game big players lets go Mason!

a little off topic, but did anyone see Xavier Johnson's basketball shoes yesterday? they were George Mason shoes. I want me some.

That's what is beyond frustrating! We know VCU is better, and DP seems OK with it.

Oduro actually has the potential to become a really good back to the basket big. That reverse layup in Silva in the first half was a thing of beauty. He just stepped out of bounds..

He is learning quick. He sets really good picks. He gets the ball on the high post and makes the correct decision every time; he understands how look over the defense, when to hand off the ball, when to keep the ball on contested hand off, find back door cutters.

He has a mid range jumper. He can receive the ball in the low post and make a reverse layup or a jump hook.

Defensively, he knows how lay his body on another big and use his leverage to push them out position.

At 6'9, 240 - that is good. Especially for guy who only been playing since 9th grade.

Exactly. DP takes a couple swigs of his DMD and shrugs his shoulders.

There was a reason no one else was recruiting Calixte or Oduro....

Also, how many "big men" have really improved under DP? It's one thing if you bring in a guy and can develop him but I really can't name one big man that has improved under DP/staff. Love the kids heart and will never speak negatively about them but the way the team is constructed, it is going to be hard to compete with the big boys in the A10 and power conferences. This year we have beat the teams we should (struggled against a few) and really didn't even compete against the other ones. I know others have said it but it looks like men against boys when we play the likes of VCU, UMD, TCU.

I think the graphic yesterday said we are in the 280s nationally (out of 351 Division I teams) in experience.

And that’s even a bit misleading because Kier has been hobbled/inactive and Boyd is redshirting. Those are our two seniors.

As for the junior class, Mar has been mostly invisible and Calixte is backing up a true freshman ... enough said on that one.

Greene and AJ are the only upperclassmen who have consistently produced on both ends of the floor this season.

I’d like very much to see what we could do if we ever had a veteran team. It feels like forever.

But but but....the A10 is guard heavy, big men don’t matter! Remember that narrative? We were switching over to small ball and everyone from here to Twitter mocked us with #size comments. Now we’re too small? We’ve always been too small. It’s not just our big men who have struggled to develop, its guards and forwards too. This staff has done plenty right, but I wouldn’t say player development is high on the list.

No one wants to dog these young men, but even if you do...it still all falls on the coach for roster management. Why this conversation keeps coming up after playing good teams is because it feels like boys (us) vs men. Silva dominated everything we threw at him, 26 points in 27 minutes.

Concerns of player development and roster management have been here from the start, it doesn’t mean DP is a horrible coach and we don’t need to constantly compare him to Hewitt. It’s game one of conference play, if you trusted DP up to this point, there’s no reason to stop now.

Do you have an inside scoop regarding Boyd? has the redshirt been confirmed?

He’s definitely not playing this season. They announced that before the first game.

It's not just size, our bigs suck and our guards can't shoot.

The guys who have made it to their senior seasons at Mason under DP have been pretty well developed — Shevon, Marquise, Jalen all thrived while playing for him and for all of his struggles Otis had his moments. Even Marko was decent.

We just haven’t had many guys make it to the finish line. It’s kind of incredible how many have either left or gotten hurt and didn’t play here as seniors.

That’s usually when they are at their best from a strength perspective and we are definitely missing out.