New Game 18: GMU (9-8 / 5-6) vs St. Bonaventure (10-3 / 8-3) CANCELED due to weather.

Another seemingly last minute change.

St. Bonaventure is currently 10 - 3 on the season and 8 - 3 in A10 play.

The Bonnies won the first game of the year 84-67. Box Score: https://gomason.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2020-21/st-bonaventure/boxscore/10903

History: Including tournament play DP is 1 - 8 against St. Bonaventure.

Wins: Akron, Hofstra, Richmond, St. Joe’s, Fordham, Duquesne (x2), VCU, GMU, LaSalle
Losses: Rhode Island, St. Louis, VCU

Schedule: https://gobonnies.sbu.edu/sports/m-baskbl/2020-21/schedule
Roster: https://gobonnies.sbu.edu/sports/m-baskbl/2020-21/roster
Stats: https://gobonnies.sbu.edu/sports/m-baskbl/2020-21/files/Season_Combined_2-12.pdf

St. Bonaventure is led by Kyle Lofton (15.4 ppg), Jaren Holmes (13.8 ppg & 5.5 reb), Jalen Adaway (12.0 ppg & 6.5 reb), Dominick Welch (11.3 ppg & 6.4 reb), and Osun Osunniyi (10.8 ppg & 9.2 reb). In the first game of the year on 1/30/20 Osunniyi, Lofton, and Welch combined for 60 points. Miller and Kolek paced us with 19 and 17 respectively.

St. Bonaventure averages 71.2 points per game while giving up 63.3. The Bonnies shoot 45.0% from the floor and 32.1% from 3. Opponents are shooting 38.9% from the field and 30.4% from 3. The Bonnies shoot 72.4% from the free throw line. The Bonnies are currently out rebounding by their opponents by 3.0 boards per game. They average 12.0 turnovers per game.

The game is on ESPN+.

My prediction: The beat us easily the first time out and I expect a similar result this time. Bonnies 80 - Patriots 65. We fall to 9 - 9 overall and 5 - 7 in A10 play.

Discuss.

Bonnies are going to wax us again. There might be 20 people in attendance, last minute 2pm Thursday game. Might see if I can swing it and get some decent seats.

Pretty sure the lousy weather predicted for Thursday will kill any crowd in addition to the last minute change. Assuming the Bonnies will be in town Wednesday ensuring the game gets played. Or, are we looking at another St. Joe's where they get stuck on the bus for a day trying to get home?

I hope St. Bonaventure isn’t trying to take a bus home. That would be a nasty bus trip even in decent weather.

Mason beats them and then makes their coach use his coach to give their bus traction.

There goes any chance to reach .500 in conference. Bonnies 2x and Dayton 2x. Ouch.

Old and tired. You do realize that G Mas is TOW now?

Here's the thing, Dayton is 7-6, URI is 7-8...neither one of those teams are juggernauts this year. Bonaventure, too, is vulnerable because they have so little depth. Get Osun in foul trouble, take away easy 3s for Welch, you've got a chance. It's more we are just that bad that we went 0-4 (soon to be 0-5) against them.

We can't guard any of their guards nor their big man. Plus Adaway is a breakout star this year some games too. They may go 6 deep but they have 5 guys better than our top 5 guys

That's why I said it's that we are bad, not that these other teams are just unbeatable. An up and down URI team beat Bonaventure earlier in the season and guess how they did it? Osun fouls out, Welch goes 2-7 from 3. The fact that we can't guard anyone is on us.

Oh yeah - the problem is that Mason can't compete against the top half of the league, rather than they have been dealt a bad hand. The fan in me would like to see the team get a win - more likely against Duquesne. They aren't Towson, but are far from relevancy.

And they're all coming back.

Mitchell went right at Osun... AJ and Oduro fadeaway instead of absorbing contact. I agree with you

Yep there was a clear opportunity for Mason to break into the top half of what is honestly a pretty mediocre league this season. We just aren’t good enough to take it.

Looking at the talent there’s no reason why we shouldn’t have been. Especially with all the pauses and bad come backs. Just no excuse why in what is going to be looked back on as a down year we finished bottom 4 yet again.

Looking at the roster, a couple of things. One, we don't have a difference maker, someone who can take over games when we need them to. I think we all thought AJ was going to be that this year, but he's gone backwards. Without a difference maker, we have to really play perfect team basketball and we just don't...and that's partly because, two, we still don't have a PG and a Center...still holes in the starting lineup there. XJ massively disappointing this year. Polite clearly not ready. Hartwell is just not good enough. And as much as Oduro is decent on the offensive side of the ball, he does the teams no favor being soft on the defensive side and unable to guard more athletic bigs. Calixte, I don't know what happened to him, but he's persona non grata on this team, which leads me to three, it's hard to play a team oriented game when your system seems to be set up to highlight individual play.

Well, on to VCU...

https://gomason.com/news/2021/2/17/thursdays-mens-basketball-game-vs-st-bonaventure-canceled.aspx

LMAO seriously?? Watch it just rain tomorrow.

Mason should of stood it ground and used the weather as leverage. We are a true doormat.