OOC Opponents Tracker

[Leesburg Chankenstank III]

To kill time in between games, might as well track our OOC opponents' performance through out the year. We've had this thread in years past but I haven't seen one this season. As of 3PM today: Does not include today's games.

 

[GMUYoda]

Thanks for making this thread Leesburg.

James Madison (5-4) lost tonight to Radford (3-4) by the score of 94-71
Loyola (MD) (5-4) beat Delaware State (1-9) by the score of 84-76
Longwood (4-5) lost to North Carolina A&T (3-6) by the score of 52-41
Nebraska (4-4) lost to Georgia Tech (4-2) by the score of 73-56
#3 Maryland (9-0) beat Notre Dame (6-2) by the score of 72-51

 

[Jack Strop]

Thanks for making this thread Leesburg.

James Madison (5-4) lost tonight to Radford (3-4) by the score of 94-71
Loyola (MD) (5-4) beat Delaware State (1-9) by the score of 84-76
Longwood (4-5) lost to North Carolina A&T (3-6) by the score of 52-41
Nebraska (4-4) lost to Georgia Tech (4-2) by the score of 73-56
#3 Maryland (9-0) beat Notre Dame (6-2) by the score of 72-51

Sooooo, the bottom line is we still don't know what we've got for a team.

 

[GMUgemini]

Sooooo, the bottom line is we still don't know what we've got for a team.

Well, we have one top 100 win (NM St.), two mediocre wins (Nebraska, ODU), a few indeterminate wins (Loyola, LIU), a few true cupcakes and then the one loss to a top 5 team in the country.

We’ll know what we’ve got when we play TCU and vcu back-to-back. Until then, no reason to bother worrying about it.

 

[GSII]

Dont over think it fellas. We got a team that is medicore in this years A10. Around 6-9 finish with a slight chance for a 5th seed. Control your expectations. The grind and physicality of this years conf play is gonna wear us out by late Feb.

 

[tblack33]

Dont over think it fellas. We got a team that is medicore in this years A10. Around 6-9 finish with a slight chance for a 5th seed. Control your expectations. The grind and physicality of this years conf play is gonna wear us out by late Feb.

^Agreed on that, but in the meantime it is at least fun to dream I guess? Been awhile since anyone on here has even been curious about our RPI/NET because we didn't need to be. I'm gonna enjoy the rest of December while we can.

 

[MasonSAE4]

Dont over think it fellas. We got a team that is medicore in this years A10. Around 6-9 finish with a slight chance for a 5th seed. Control your expectations. The grind and physicality of this years conf play is gonna wear us out by late Feb.

Yah I mean I'm with you for the most part, but you never know who in the A10 takes a dive for no apparent reason. SLU way underperformed last year, and St. Joes absolutely took a shit on themselves after being picked fourth, so you never know. I'd be pretty pleased with finishing fifth and not having any games like vcu last year where we get shat on. If we're in every game and we go into the A10 tournament knowing we can hang with anyone, I'd be happy.

 

[GMUgemini]

Yah I mean I'm with you for the most part, but you never know who in the A10 takes a dive for no apparent reason. SLU way underperformed last year, and St. Joes absolutely took a shit on themselves after being picked fourth, so you never know. I'd be pretty pleased with finishing fifth and not having any games like vcu last year where we get shat on. If we're in every game and we go into the A10 tournament knowing we can hang with anyone, I'd be happy.

Davidson doesn't look all that great. That's a tough game on the road, but if Mason pulls that one out, could be huge for tiebreakers.

Duquesne plays with fire with their pinball machine defense, another road opportunity.

The other top four candidates (URI, SLU, and Richmond), we get SLU and URI at home with no return game, which are big tiebreaker opportunities there; a split with Richmond would be a good thing.

The real question is do we getting tripped up by teams like UMass (at home), La Salle (away game), St. Bonaventure (at home) or on the road to St. Joes, GW, or that last game of the season at Fordham (ugh -- final conference games in the A-10 have not been our friend lately when it comes to seeding).

There usually isn't that much space between finishing 4th and finishing 8th in the A-10. It's going to be about winning at home and putting enough road victories together. We have enough good players to finish top 4, we have enough question marks to finish 8th.

 

[patriotchild]

Minus vcu, Dayton and arguably URI there are a lot of questions the rest of the way. I think the biggest questions going into conference play are around the Bonnies because of injury and Davidson’s play thus far.

Those teams look like they could slip and open the door for us to entertain the idea of a 4-6. If they don’t, then it’s pretty safe to say we’ll be in the 7-10 range.

this season has always been about our conference play for me. If we don’t finish 9-9 or better I’m considering it as a sign that our program still has a lot of work to do to be competitive, even if we have 20 overall wins.

 

[gmubrian]

...The grind and physicality of this years conf play is gonna wear us out by late Feb.

That has really seemed to be the case in past years under Paulsen. I think that has had a lot to do with players overachieving their natural abilities through hustle due to the recruiting difficulties.

It feels like we have a little more natural ability and size this year and seems to looking up with some of the upcoming recruits. I am hopeful that we don't have the end of year drop off as much as we have seemed to have in recent years.

 

[Leesburg Chankenstank III]

Updated numbers:

Our average OOC RPI is 10 spots worse than last time
Our average OOC Kenpom is 3 spots worse

 

[Mason32]

Updated numbers:

Our average OOC RPI is 10 spots lower than last time
Our average OOC Kenpom is 3 spots lower

View attachment 813

That's nice but there's TWO road games on that list, really hurts and I don't think it helps us going into A-10 play

 

[Leesburg Chankenstank III]

That's nice but there's TWO road games on that list, really hurts and I don't think it helps us going into A-10 play

Agree but if we go into A10 play 11-2, I'll be even more excited than I am now. If we go into A10 play 12-1 while beating TCU on the road, I'll be ecstatic no matter what the numbers say.

A win at TCU will be the gift that keeps on giving RPI and Kenpom wise as the season progresses. Then again, a loss against UMBC will be the exact opposite.

Regardless, watching Mason Basketball feels like the PPH (Pre Paul Hewitt) days for me again.

 

[KAOriginal]

I say strategically...sometimes you have to throw that crap out the door and schedule what your team needs.

Is it questionable to have so many home games against low end teams? YEP.

But this team is still very young with limited senior leadership. This schedule has allowed them to learn to play together and trust each other. Now when the schedule gets harder, all of that works in their favor.

Let playing harder teams in the A10 be the test, not the training ground.

 

[Falco]

I say strategically...sometimes you have to throw that crap out the door and schedule what your team needs.

Is it questionable to have so many home games against low end teams? YEP.

But this team is still very young with limited senior leadership. This schedule has allowed them to learn to play together and trust each other. Now when the schedule gets harder, all of that works in their favor.

Let playing harder teams in the A10 be the test, not the training ground.

I agree with the majority of what your wrote. But this is year 5 under Paulsen. This is not a young team. I would have thought the team had more confidence to schedule a tougher OOC.

Kier- Senior, AJ- Redshirt Junior- so basically a senior, Gonar Mar- Junior, Green-Junior
Calixte- Junior.

But heck we are 10-1! Mason did what they were supposed to do so far.

 

[Mason2005]

vcu does the same schedule as us this season every year. They play a majority of their OCC at home vs cupcakes. The only diff is they get invited to legit early season tournaments and their coaches keep leaving so they have to play them in a home/home series. Then they play a few big boys away like we did with umd and then tcu. Their occ tracking for this season.

Out of Conference Opponents
St. Francis (PA) (5-4)…. Lost to vcu 72-58
North Texas (4-6).... Lost to vcu 59-56
#23 LSU (7-2)…. Lost to vcu 84-82
Jacksonville State (2-6)…. Lost to vcu 93-65
Florida Gulf Coast (2-10).... Lost to vcu 78-48
Alabama State (1-6).... Lost to vcu 78-62
Purdue- (6-3)…. Emerald Coast Classic*.... Beat vcu 59-56
#17 Tennessee (7-1)…. Beat vcu 72-69
Old Dominion (3-7).... Lost to vcu 69-57
Missouri State (5-5)
@ College of Charleston (5-4)
@ Wichita State (8-1)
Loyola (MD) (6-4)

 

[KAOriginal]

I agree with the majority of what your wrote. But this is year 5 under Paulsen. This is not a young team. I would have thought the team had more confidence to schedule a tougher OOC.

Kier- Senior, AJ- Redshirt Junior- so basically a senior, Gonar Mar- Junior, Green-Junior
Calixte- Junior.

But heck we are 10-1! Mason did what they were supposed to do so far.

Young was probably the wrong word since that's a bit of my perception. Kier, Green and Miller (late season) really logged minutes last year. Probably because I am not there to see games it doesn't feel like a veteran team.

What we feel and what the coach sees are two different things. So despite year 5, DP may have felt this was not the year. Effectively I wouldnt count year 1 as 1) it was a dumpster fire 2) most of the players didn't stick around 3) of those that did..they're gone.

Taking over this program, it's like someone handed DP a dead baby in a room full of toddlers and said "fix this" and we're wondering why it can't run around the house like other kids 4 years later.

 

[psyclone]

According to Kenpom, Mason is 279th in Experience.

 

[Leesburg Chankenstank III]

In 11 games so far, the team has has 6 different leading scorers.

 

[psyclone]

Nebraska, a 16 pt underdog on the road at Indiana (9-1) is holding their own. Up 1 with the under 4 TO in the first half.

Now on the Big 10 Network.