Game 13: La Salle University, Saturday, Jan 3rd, 7 PM, NO TV

[psyclone]

Box Score: http://www.gomason.com/pdf9/3081312.pdf?DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=25200

......., we held La Salle's leading scorer to 2 points.

Yeah--I read where he was averaging well over 20+ over the last 5 games. Made a 2 pointer early in the game, but got a couple of fouls in the first half that sent him to the bench. Never was a factor in the second half as the shots he did take missed badly.

The La Salle boards were complaining more about their defensive performance than they were about his lack of production.

 

[99 Patriot]

This is sort of what I said the other week, we're not that bad. To beat a decent team with 8 scholarship players dressed is pretty impressive. Awful start as it's as though we didn't know Wright was left handed (guy only really had one move) or that they'd overplay everything on the perimeter, but we did adjust well and eventually shut him down and make them pay.

Props to Edwards for his overall floor game and to Jenkins for coming strong out of halftime.

 

[MASONscott]

Caught the game on the A10 network last night.

The last five or six games have been the best team play I've seen from a Hewitt team. We seem to have a very active ball screen offense that has nice continuity and frequent basket cuts. The ability to utilize our bigs in Thompson, Jenkins and Porter is awesome. We really needed that last year.

The Pearson era was all about getting him the ball. Then we had Sherrod and Allen running the show. But, we never had balance. The recent balance and ball movement is a welcomed sight.

So great to see Corey playing at his current level. He is a SCRAPPY senior guard that is easy to cheer for.

I was expecting very little this season - so far this has exceeded expectations. I still expect the top of the A10 to treat us the way OU did Wednesday - yet the games have been very watchable. At least, this team has a chance to win when they step on the court.

 

[MasonCrew]

I've been as pleasantly surprised as everyone. After the tournament in PR, I was ready to kill myself. Now I'm just drinking a lot to medicate. How big has Jackson been. What a great find.

 

[patriotchild]

Nice to see balance and something resembling organized offense in this game. Glad my prediction of 4 wins was way off.

We have the talent and potential to win, which we can give credit to Hewitt for recruiting. Better x and o's and we are a top team in the league, which we can blame Hewitt for.

Consequently, the fear of winning enough and keeping Hewitt is very real.

Consider me an extremely conflicted fan the rest of the year. I want us to win, but I do really?

Does a top half finish in the A10 save Hewitt?

 

[gmujim92]

We have the talent and potential to win, which we can give credit to Hewitt for recruiting. Better x and o's and we are a top team in the league, which we can blame Hewitt for.

Consequently, the fear of winning enough and keeping Hewitt is very real.

Consider me an extremely conflicted fan the rest of the year. I want us to win, but I do really?

Pretty sure a lot of us are right there with you.

I can't help but want us to win, but I'd be lying if I said that there aren't some seriously mixed emotions involved.

Just gotta enjoy the Ws when they come, I guess. Beats the heck out of losing.

 

[GMUgemini]

Does a top half finish in the A10 save Hewitt?

Probably, but a top half finish is unlikely.

At the top who will definitely finish ahead of us you've got:

vcu
GW
Dayton
Davidson
URI
St. Joes
UMass

In the mid with us are probably:

La Salle
Richmond
St. Bonnie

Teams I think we finish ahead most likely:

Fordham
Duquesne
St. Louis

So I think best case we finish 8 or worst case probably 11.

If 8th is good enough to save his job, he needs to prove he can beat some top half teams and at least one top 4 team at home.

 

[Harry]

Box Score: http://www.gomason.com/pdf9/3081312.pdf?DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=25200

...we held La Salle's leading scorer to 2 points.

Not to be too much of a wet blanket, but Price's shot was off. Kind of like Patrick at OU...

 

[gmujim92]

Probably, but a top half finish is unlikely.

At the top who will definitely finish ahead of us you've got:

vcu
GW
Dayton
Davidson
URI
St. Joes
UMass

In the mid with us are probably:

La Salle
Richmond
St. Bonnie

Teams I think we finish ahead most likely:

Fordham
Duquesne
St. Louis

So I think best case we finish 8 or worst case probably 11.

If 8th is good enough to save his job, he needs to prove he can beat some top half teams and at least one top 4 team at home.

Not to be disagreeable, but neither St. Joe's nor UMass can possibly be considered at this point a lock to finish ahead of us.

St. Joe's is not good. UMass got off to a strong start but has struggled big-time over the past month. I think Bona is probably better than both of them.

There are several A-10 teams stuck in a mosh pit in the middle and we're one of them: Mason, St. Joe's, UMass, Richmond, LaSalle, Bona, even SLU and Duquesne. None of them are really much better than any of the others.

Not saying it's likely to happen, but I could see a scenario in which we finish 6th behind vcu, GW, Dayton, URI and Davidson.

Would that be enough to save Hewitt? Who knows?

 

[wijg]

I am in the conflicted group. Obviously great to see Mason doing well, but I also know what could be in our long term future if the team wins too many games this year to save Hewitt. As others, I could see us finishing in the top half if we continue the way we have been playing.

On the other hand, Moore and Royal (if I haven't missed something) could both be back soon, and then Hewitt has more options and he could possibly start screwing things up again.

 

[GMUgemini]

I am in the conflicted group. Obviously great to see Mason doing well, but I also know what could be in our long term future if the team wins too many games this year to save Hewitt. As others, I could see us finishing in the top half if we continue the way we have been playing.

On the other hand, Moore and Royal (if I haven't missed something) could both be back soon, and then Hewitt has more options and he could possibly start screwing things up again.

I think Royal might definitely throw a wrench into the plans. The Jenkins/Marko at the 4 and Thompson/Porter at the 5 combos have been working out well for us. Throwing another power forward into the mix might really mess up the front court's rotation/chemistry.

I think we need Moore back for the long haul.

 

[Walter]

Many years ago I worked for a company where one guy did a really good job negotiating his salary. Good for him. Except when the company started having financial problems and there was a layoff, he was let go because his performance wasn't necessarily any worse than anyone else but he was paid a lot more. His high salary and average performance meant he was the first to go. Made sense at the time. Still makes sense today to me.

 

[Walter]

With Hewitt, I wouldn't be surprised if Royal didn't start as soon as he is ready to play. Sometimes Hewitt gets fixated on a player and he gets major minutes when it is obvious to all that he does not deserve the minutes. Not saying Royal doesn't deserve some court time, I have no idea.

 

[GMUgemini]

With Hewitt, I wouldn't be surprised if Royal didn't start as soon as he is ready to play. Sometimes Hewitt gets fixated on a player and he gets major minutes when it is obvious to all that he does not deserve the minutes. Not saying Royal doesn't deserve some court time, I have no idea.

Royal was only averaging about 14 minutes per game before he got injured, so I doubt he'll start. What we don't want Hewitt to do is go back to using Marko and Jenkins together just so he can find Royal minutes.

 

[mkaufman1]

I wouldn't hold my breath on Royal taking major minutes right off the bat. Coming off an injury, and sitting out a year, I have to think hes going to take some time to get back. Its nice to have the depth, but I can't see him just taking tons of minutes off the bat.

Then again it is Hewitt...

 

[KAOriginal]

When deciding who will finish ahead or behind us...remember 1 very big thing.

It's not how we or the other teams play now.....it's who gets better as the season progresses.

That was a hallmark of our previous coach, yet I cant say I have seen such with ours.

So while some of the teams in the A-10 maybe playing dead now, some of these teams have decent coaches who will get their sh*t together down the stretch.

The question is will ours hold this team together and keep them in the right direction...or will they have a few crucial games AWOL like we have seen....?

 

[psyclone]

Not to be disagreeable, but neither St. Joe's nor UMass can possibly be considered at this point a lock to finish ahead of us.

St. Joe's is not good. UMass got off to a strong start but has struggled big-time over the past month. I think Bona is probably better than both of them.

There are several A-10 teams stuck in a mosh pit in the middle and we're one of them: Mason, St. Joe's, UMass, Richmond, LaSalle, Bona, even SLU and Duquesne. None of them are really much better than any of the others.

Not saying it's likely to happen, but I could see a scenario in which we finish 6th behind vcu, GW, Dayton, URI and Davidson.

.......

In the last 5 games against Div 1 opponents (from the N Iowa game through La Salle) we've beaten the vegasinsider spread and have been more than 10 pts better than the sagarin (computer driven) spread, with the exception of the Oklahoma game when we were only 2 pts better than the spread predicted.

Looking forward for the sagarin/rpiforecast spreads, we are more than 10 pt underdogs:
-against vcu both at home and away
-in away games against GW, Davidson, and Dayton.

Also we're 6-10 pt underdogs :
-in away games against Richmond, St B. and
-in home games against URI, Davidson, and GW

Let's hope our current trajectory continues and it's not just a momentary blip!