Game Thread: Mason (11-1) vs. TCU (8-3), Monday, Dec. 30th, 9:00 PM

[jessej]

TCU lost to Xavier on Sunday, Dec 22 to go 8-3 on the season

TCU Schedule is here https://gofrogs.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule/2019-20
TCU Roster is here https://gofrogs.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster
TCU 2019-20 Stats - as of 12/14 are here https://gofrogs.com/documents/2019/11/9/Combined_Stats.pdf

The schedule online has it on MASN at 9pm.
https://gomason.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule

KenPom Rankings as of 12/25
113 GMU 4.49
67 TCU 11.60

RPI rankings as of 12/27
42 Geo Mason (11-1) 0.604
148 TX Christian (7-3) 0.511

Net Rankings as of 12/25
73 George Mason
100 TCU

Thru 12/14
Desmond Bane is their Leading Scorer with 16.1 PPG
also leads team in total steals with 17

Kevin Samuel leads team in total blocks with 24

Edric Dennis leads team in both total assist (38) and turnovers (21)

Jaire Grayer has started 9 of 10 games, averages 25.7 mins/game (4th on team), leads the team in 3pt % (.512) and is 3rd in total rebounding (5.2 per game)

 

[Walter]

Often a transfer will go off on his old team. Need to prevent that from happening.

 

[Patriotsince81]

GMU trails by 1 with 17 seconds to go. Jordan Miller scores on a tip in with 5.2 seconds left. GMU leads 65 - 64. TCU inbounds and pushes the ball up court. The pass goes to Grayer in the corner for a potential game winning 3 with .7 seconds left. AJ leaves his man, sprints to the corner and blocks Grayer's shot to seal the victory! We enter A10 play with a record of 12 - 1.

 

[mkaufman1]

Super hard to predict this one because we dont know how good Mason really is, and I can’t tell how good TCU is based on their out of conference competition.

If Grayer hits 51% from 3, that’s going to be a pain and its crucial that they dont let him get open looks or comfortable. Going to be weird seeing him on the opposing team. I know when Arledge played against Mason he didnt have the best game so I’m hoping the same goes for Grayer.

That said I have a good feeling about this one. Its a win win situation, a nice paycheck for a competitive game, and a chance to spruce some metrics and get a good win.

All that said, I think Mason is going to take this one and put the A10 on notice. I wouldn’t be shocked if they lost, but I think they are going to have a good chance to take this one.

Mason 72
TCU 65

 

[GMUgemini]

GMU trails by 1 with 17 seconds to go. Jordan Miller scores on a tip in with 5.2 seconds left. GMU leads 65 - 64. TCU inbounds and pushes the ball up court. The pass goes to Grayer in the corner for a potential game winning 3 with .7 seconds left. AJ leaves his man, sprints to the corner and blocks Grayer's shot to seal the victory! We enter A10 play with a record of 12 - 1.

Solid prediction and would be a fantastic ending.

 

[Quentin Daniels]

GMU trails by 1 with 17 seconds to go. Jordan Miller scores on a tip in with 5.2 seconds left. GMU leads 65 - 64. TCU inbounds and pushes the ball up court. The pass goes to Grayer in the corner for a potential game winning 3 with .7 seconds left. AJ leaves his man, sprints to the corner and blocks Grayer's shot to seal the victory! We enter A10 play with a record of 12 - 1.

Same scenario, but Grayer hits the gamewinner. DJ3 and a few others cream their britches and pull a hamstring racing to their keyboards to see who can be the first to type a celebratory "Told you so!" after so much early season frustration.

 

[JimP]

Super hard to predict this one because we dont know how good Mason really is, and I can’t tell how good TCU is based on their out of conference competition.

If Grayer hits 51% from 3, that’s going to be a pain and its crucial that they dont let him get open looks or comfortable. Going to be weird seeing him on the opposing team. I know when Arledge played against Mason he didnt have the best game so I’m hoping the same goes for Grayer.

That said I have a good feeling about this one. Its a win win situation, a nice paycheck for a competitive game, and a chance to spruce some metrics and get a good win.

All that said, I think Mason is going to take this one and put the A10 on notice. I wouldn’t be shocked if they lost, but I think they are going to have a good chance to take this one.

Mason 72
TCU 65

Xavier did a good job making sure Grayer did not get many good looks at the basket. Grayer was good about not forcing the issue and did hit a couple of late threes. Hopefully Mason can hold him in check too.

 

[JPgmuswim]

I think Grayer will be a non factor, he’ll hit 2-3 3’s and not do much else. I’d love for us to shut him out and his father up.

Seems like this team starts off games slow and has made good 2nd half adjustments. Does anyone have any idea what our turnover splits are for 1st vs the 2nd half of games?

Easy to say but this team needs to start playing a full 40 minute game. It hasn’t cost us yet but it will in conference play.

 

[Patriotsince81]

Does anyone have any idea what our turnover splits are for 1st vs the 2nd half of games?

Don't know about the season but last time out against UMBC we had 10 in the first half and only 3 in the second. We're now - 1 on the season for the first half and +80 for the second half.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.si...orts.com/documents/2019/11/6/Season_Stats.pdf

 

[GMUgemini]

I think Grayer will be a non factor, he’ll hit 2-3 3’s and not do much else. I’d love for us to shut him out and his father up.

Seems like this team starts off games slow and has made good 2nd half adjustments. Does anyone have any idea what our turnover splits are for 1st vs the 2nd half of games?

Easy to say but this team needs to start playing a full 40 minute game. It hasn’t cost us yet but it will in conference play.

If Grayer hits 3 3s I think we are in trouble. We want him to go 1-3 or 2-6 or something like that.

 

[GreenLantern]

Us - 74
Them - 70
OT

 

[Mason2005]

Grayer the Traitor!

 

[mkaufman1]

Xavier did a good job making sure Grayer did not get many good looks at the basket. Grayer was good about not forcing the issue and did hit a couple of late threes. Hopefully Mason can hold him in check too.

I suspect Javon will cover him out on the wing.

 

[mkaufman1]

I think Grayer will be a non factor, he’ll hit 2-3 3’s and not do much else. I’d love for us to shut him out and his father up.

Seems like this team starts off games slow and has made good 2nd half adjustments. Does anyone have any idea what our turnover splits are for 1st vs the 2nd half of games?

Easy to say but this team needs to start playing a full 40 minute game. It hasn’t cost us yet but it will in conference play.

mason started last game on a 9-0 run, so they didn’t start that slow.

 

[Five Two]

Curious to know what came first, this game being scheduled (agreed to by the teams, not being announced to the public) or Grayer's decision to transfer there. Typically, schools in our position dont want to play a game the season immediately after one of their players transfers to the opponent's school

 

[Cedric Dempsey]

Guarantee they wouldn’t have scheduled it knowingly. Why would they?

 

[Quentin Daniels]

Guarantee they wouldn’t have scheduled it knowingly. Why would they?

Believe you're right. In fact, I could easily imagine it was part of the sales pitch to sign w/TCU, get a chance to go up against your old team. Also, Grayer's transfer was announced on May 28th and have to think the game was scheduled further out than 5 months from the start of the season.

 

[Quentin Daniels]

Grayer the Traitor!

Better as Trayter.

 

[mkaufman1]

Believe you're right. In fact, I could easily imagine it was part of the sales pitch to sign w/TCU, get a chance to go up against your old team. Also, Grayer's transfer was announced on May 28th and have to think the game was scheduled further out than 5 months from the start of the season.

I have no insight into the answer, but all I can say is that it could have been agreed to after (it might have been in principal prior to him committing or something). Games can be scheduled all the way through the summer.

That said since it was a buy game and the money was probably flipped for home games, it might have been scheduled early. For mere comparison, Longwood was scheduled back very early.

Just hypothesizing and thinking out loud like we all are.

 

[GMU1983]

Is it a home and home game or just a buy game for TCU?