Game 1: Lafayette College, Friday, November 10th, 7 PM, NO TV

[psyclone]

Interesting fact from Mason SID:
https://twitter.com/GoMasonSID/status/929355808235716608

I like the comparison....Luke is good company for Mar!!

I think Folarin Campbell missed his first 9 shots or so over his first few games. Although the proximity to the Louisville game makes me fearful that if Goanar continues this trajectory, someone will poach him from us!

 

[sleeperpick]

I like the comparison....Luke is good company for Mar!!

I think Folarin Campbell missed his first 9 shots or so over his first few games. Although the proximity to the Louisville game makes me fearful that if Goanar continues this trajectory, someone will poach him from us!

He already had a very large selection of high major schools and chose us. I think we are good lol

 

[gmujim92]

I don't know. Until Calixte is ready to bang with the big boys inside, I think we are going to lose the rebounding battle most nights.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I don't know how much you can extrapolate from the first game because few teams are going to play 5-out and rely so heavily on the 3-pointer.

Our guys were spread out trying to defend the 3 and were out of position for the long rebounds that come from long shots.

We should rebound better against more conventional offenses even without a real big on the floor.

 

[MasonSAE4]

I don't know how much you can extrapolate from the first game because few teams are going to play 5-out and rely so heavily on the 3-pointer.

Our guys were spread out trying to defend the 3 and were out of position for the long rebounds that come from long shots.

We should rebound better against more conventional offenses even without a real big on the floor.

Concur. Most rebounds we missed were shots that kicked back high and to the arc. Even if you box out correctly, you aren’t grabbing those. Would be more concerned with his three straight misses right under the basket (although from my distant seat it looked like he may have gotten mugged on the last one).

 

[GSII]

Also, we picked up our first foul half way thru the first half. That's a good sign. Or maybe its was due to opponent not attacking the basket.

 

[Quentin Daniels]

Good start for Mar but it's one whole game and 11 points against Lafeyette, a team that went 9-21 last year and lost to Lehigh by 26 and Bucknell by 30 at the end of the season.

Maybe we don't do that thing where we declare him the next George Evans quite yet.

 

[GMUgemini]

I don't know how much you can extrapolate from the first game because few teams are going to play 5-out and rely so heavily on the 3-pointer.

Our guys were spread out trying to defend the 3 and were out of position for the long rebounds that come from long shots.

We should rebound better against more conventional offenses even without a real big on the floor.

I disagree, because we won't have a Jalen Jenkins clearing out space under the basket so our guards can crash the boards (the dude was freakishly strong). We also don't have a Marquise Moore this year. You can already tell what's going to happen against bigger teams who know how to exploit our lack of size. If we're relying on Mar to play 35 minutes at the 5 this year against more traditional offenses and lineups we're going to lose the rebounding battle.

 

[GMUgemini]

Also, we picked up our first foul half way thru the first half. That's a good sign. Or maybe its was due to opponent not attacking the basket.

We were way more athletic than they were. We forced them into a zone, because there was no way they were going to stay in front of our guards in a man-to-man. Fortunately for them, we didn't have a whole lot of experience out there.

Was also pretty fun watching their forwards get stuffed by Grayer or be unable to back down Boyd on the block.

 

[Petey Buckets]

I was happy we were finally doing some things that make sense for a four guard lineup - shooting threes, upping the tempo, and generating turnovers. We didn't do much of any of that last year but it makes a lot of sense with current personnel.

Jim, you're the man, but "we didn't rebound well because they were shooting threes" is some White House Press Secretary caliber spin. It's clear we're going to get worked on the glass by bigger teams. Mar was the biggest guy on the floor for most of the night and that's not how he's designed to function. Hopefully AJ or Calixte emerge in the OOC so we don't have to be so painfully small in A10 play. Ideally we get to a point where we can run a four-guard lineup with Mar playing the 4. Until then, Jaire being our de facto power forward (9 rebounds/3 blocks) is fun but won't cut it against actually big teams.

- Loved seeing Otis get to six assists. I think he can be a 5+ assists per game guy this season if we keep shooting threes and running. A couple bad shots again but we'll live with that since he's our best option to create on his own.

- Also loved seeing Jaire play the role of Marquise and Kier gambling for steals. Rebounds and steals lead to runouts, and this team will need some cheap buckets to be competitive.

- Javon and AJ will be fine. They looked a little nervous. Javon committed a couple charges and missed all three threes he attempted, but I like that he was trying to create. He'll learn. Karmari had a super slow start last season as well.

- Calixte was the one guy that didn't really do anything well and seems like he's furthest away. He recorded two offensive rebounds but I'm pretty sure those were both the result of getting his shot stuffed right back into his hands.

- Goanar was very solid. Probably the first freshman we've had since Luke Hancock who is clearly ready to be an impact player from day one.

Fun win, but this is going to be a long season. Now let's shock Louisville (and me) by stealing one.

Also thought this postgame chat with Kier was pretty cool:

https://twitter.com/ByGeorgeGMU/status/929415664321941509

 

[Herndon]

I was actually shocked that Mar shot that well, because he didn't hit ANYTHING in warm-ups.

I distinctly remember thinking to myself that his shooting ability had been severely overrated. Looks like he's just a gamer.

 

[dr. gunnie]

Good start for Mar but it's one whole game and 11 points against Lafeyette, a team that went 9-21 last year and lost to Lehigh by 26 and Bucknell by 30 at the end of the season.

Maybe we don't do that thing where we declare him the next George Evans quite yet.

I know, right?

The way some were talking about AJ on here, I was expecting a double double from him last night (not really). Same could be said about Calixte and how some said we wouldn’t miss Relvao with him stepping in. The hype machine was in full force... reality was a little different.

This season is going to be a struggle.

 

[Herndon]

I know, right?

The way some were talking about AJ on here, I was expecting a double double from him last night (not really). Same could be said about Calixte and how some said we wouldn’t miss Relvao with him stepping in. The hype machine was in full force... reality was a little different.

This season is going to be a struggle.

Sadly, I agree. It's one game, and lots can change, but aj has the look of a guy who might average in double digits as a senior. He'll defend and rebound, but he's not gonna be a scorer.

 

[GMUgemini]

Sadly, I agree. It's one game, and lots can change, but aj has the look of a guy who might average in double digits as a senior. He'll defend and rebound, but he's not gonna be a scorer.

If he can defend and rebound this year, that's all we will really need from him.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Falco]

Anyone have a recording of the game I can watch? I was hoping I could watch the replay on a10 network but no luck...

 

[sleeperpick]

I know, right?

The way some were talking about AJ on here, I was expecting a double double from him last night (not really). Same could be said about Calixte and how some said we wouldn’t miss Relvao with him stepping in. The hype machine was in full force... reality was a little different.

This season is going to be a struggle.

We don't miss relvao. I can't believe some of you look at his game and think anything other than "wow this guy sucks"

 

[Quentin Daniels]

We don't miss relvao. I can't believe some of you look at his game and think anything other than "wow this guy sucks"

Not sure who the "we" your referring to is but I can guaranf**kintee that those actually coaching and playing do.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=400989878

 

[sleeperpick]

Not sure who the "we" your referring to is but I can guaranf*ckintee that those actually coaching and playing do.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=400989878

You're the same dude that said kam murrell was a better basketball player than deandre Abrams

 

[Quentin Daniels]

You're the same dude that said kam murrell was a better basketball player than deandre Abrams

You're the same dude that completely made that up. #FakeNews

Search button upper right-hand corner sport. Not that hard.

 

[gmujim92]

Who saw us winning 20 games last season after the opener?

The freshmen, other than Go, were obviously nervous as hell. I don't blame them. But they will all get better.

Just gotta hope we can survive and somehow avoid losing the rest of our games without the almighty Relvao in the middle.

 

[dr. gunnie]

The freshmen, other than Go, were obviously nervous as hell. I don't blame them. But they will all get better.

Well, yeah... I would hope they would get better. The only way they could get worse would be to start making baskets for the other team.

Just gotta hope we can survive and somehow avoid losing the rest of our games without the almighty Relvao in the middle.

Right, because there is no way his line could have possibly been better than this one:

I’m not trying to hate on our players, but the hype machine on every player we sign is out of hand. IT’S NOT OUR PLAYERS FAULT! Every player that leaves sucks, and every player that we sign is going to be first team A10. How about we just dial it down a bit? Mar probably had the least amount of hype from our internet experts over the last month and he’s the one that looked the best.

I get it, we all love Mason and want the best for our team, but sometimes bad things do happen and it’s ok to admit it. 8 scholarship players with 4 of them being freshman is not a good thing, no matter how you try and spin it. Unfortunately, I learned this the hard way after defending Hewitt after the first couple of years!