Game 13: Prairie View A&M University, Thursday, December 22nd, NOON, NO TV

[Pablo]

1. Ryan Kish ‏@gmuhoops 4h4 hours ago
   Nine straight wins and another double-double for Marquise Moore #GetPatriotic #Burnyourboats (photo by @Bill_DC )
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Ryan Kish Retweeted
Bill Bride ‏@Bill_DC 8h8 hours ago
This @Slimm_4 to @quise_22 in the 2nd half got the house jumping. @gmuhoops

Bill Bride ‏@Bill_DC 4h4 hours ago
Kid's Day @ a great way to celebrate 9 wins in a row by @MasonMBB Congrats Patriots! See you 12/30 as @gmuhoops take on vcu #MasonNation

 

[GMUgemini]

Two years ago we'd of dribbled it off our foot and the other team would pick it up and go down for 2.

Two years ago that's what our offense looked like on every possession.

 

[Petey Buckets]

Fun game. I thought some of our offensive struggles were rust and some were PVAMU's gameplan - they clearly wanted to swarm the paint and keep us shooting from outside. Every time Jalen touched the ball he had at least two, sometimes three, PVAMU guys all over him. We played into it for the first few minutes, but then the ball started moving better and driving lanes opened up as a result.

- Marquise and Otis did all the heavy lifting today. They combined for 43 points, 20 rebounds, 9 assists, 4 blocks, and 3 steals. The rest of the team combined had 32 points, 39 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 blocks, and 1 steal. Hope it's just rust because we'll have a hell of a time against vcu if two guys have to carry that much of the load.

- Marquise's stat line of 20 points, 17 rebounds, 4 blocks and 3 assists looks like a line you'd expect out of Andre Drummond. No matter how this season goes I'm going to cherish watching a guard do what he's able to do.

- Otis's touch in the mid-range game is really fantastic. Nitpicking, but his decision-making on fast breaks is really questionable. He usually puts his head down, drives into multiple defenders, and takes a wild shot. He's been missing shooters since he's not even looking for them, and he'll try to run it in himself even when he doesn't have numbers. He's been doing this all season and I'm really surprised Dave seems ok with it.

- PVAMU only had one real player, Hamilton, and we had a lot of trouble with him. Jaire couldn't stay with him when he was running through screens. Boyd had position on him and Hamilton hit a three over his head anyway. We seem to struggle defending long, lanky shooters, and that will probably hurt us in A-10 play.

- We need Temara back yesterday (get it?). Relvao won't be able to get it done against A-10 competition, particularly not vcu. We could get away with Relvao/Danny for a couple minutes against the PVAMU's of the world, but the non-Jalen minutes will get ugly in the A-10 if Temara's not back.

We knew PVAMU sucked, so it's nice to see we took care of business. Can't wait to see how we stack up against vcu.

 

[psyclone]

Fun game. I thought some of our offensive struggles were rust and some were PVAMU's gameplan - they clearly wanted to swarm the paint and keep us shooting from outside. Every time Jalen touched the ball he had at least two, sometimes three, PVAMU guys all over him. We played into it for the first few minutes, but then the ball started moving better and driving lanes opened up as a result.

- Marquise and Otis did all the heavy lifting today. They combined for 43 points, 20 rebounds, 9 assists, 4 blocks, and 3 steals. The rest of the team combined had 32 points, 39 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 blocks, and 1 steal. Hope it's just rust because we'll have a hell of a time against vcu if two guys have to carry that much of the load.

- Marquise's stat line of 20 points, 17 rebounds, 4 blocks and 3 assists looks like a line you'd expect out of Andre Drummond. No matter how this season goes I'm going to cherish watching a guard do what he's able to do.

- Otis's touch in the mid-range game is really fantastic. Nitpicking, but his decision-making on fast breaks is really questionable. He usually puts his head down, drives into multiple defenders, and takes a wild shot. He's been missing shooters since he's not even looking for them, and he'll try to run it in himself even when he doesn't have numbers. He's been doing this all season and I'm really surprised Dave seems ok with it.

- PVAMU only had one real player, Hamilton, and we had a lot of trouble with him. Jaire couldn't stay with him when he was running through screens. Boyd had position on him and Hamilton hit a three over his head anyway. We seem to struggle defending long, lanky shooters, and that will probably hurt us in A-10 play.

- We need Temara back yesterday (get it?). Relvao won't be able to get it done against A-10 competition, particularly not vcu. We could get away with Relvao/Danny for a couple minutes against the PVAMU's of the world, but the non-Jalen minutes will get ugly in the A-10 if Temara's not back.

We knew PVAMU sucked, so it's nice to see we took care of business. Can't wait to see how we stack up against vcu.

Quality analysis, as usual, Petey. Re your comments on Otis: Coach did pull him when he tried to dunk off of a break-away steal and really gave him a stare-down as he headed for the bench.

I too worry about our back-ups to Jalen. For example, Ali-Cox for vcu can be a handful and likely to draw some fouls on Jalen. Daniel is a bit of project and seems to be at a loss when he gets the ball on offense. Not to say that he can't develop more (I seem to remember he's not been playing basketball all that long), but it's really too much to expect significant contributions from him this year. Abrams has sufficient length but isn't getting minutes as a back up at the 5.

 

[mkaufman1]

Quality analysis, as usual, Petey. Re your comments on Otis: Coach did pull him when he tried to dunk off of a break-away steal and really gave him a stare-down as he headed for the bench.

I too worry about our back-ups to Jalen. For example, Ali-Cox for vcu can be a handful and likely to draw some fouls on Jalen. Daniel is a bit of project and seems to be at a loss when he gets the ball on offense. Not to say that he can't develop more (I seem to remember he's not been playing basketball all that long), but it's really too much to expect significant contributions from him this year. Abrams has sufficient length but isn't getting minutes as a back up at the 5.

It raises a good point about a defense in the post, however, I think Mason has developed a scheme where they double team the post and then rotate out which is more of a defensive scheme than what they practiced last year. Also, if you remember last year vcu was frustrated in the post against Shevon Marko and Jalen. I suspect that Paulsen will have a good game plan ready to go against vcu especially against Cox.

 

[psyclone]

It raises a good point about a defense in the post, however, I think Mason has developed a scheme where they double team the post and then rotate out which is more of a defensive scheme than what they practiced last year. Also, if you remember last year vcu was frustrated in the post against Shevon Marko and Jalen. I suspect that Paulsen will have a good game plan ready to go against vcu especially against Cox.

True.....we've done a good job this year about doubling the post then recovering well when that player passes out to the perimeter. Perhaps that will give Jalen enough help so he can avoid foul trouble.

 

[gmujim92]

Teams that are patient against us can get wide-open perimeter shots because we have to aggressively double the post to compensate for the lack of bulk.

We're going to have nights where the opponent can't miss, but I still prefer to play the percentages -- force them to beat you from 20 feet instead of 4 feet and in.

The biggest thing we have to do defensively in conference play is shut down dribble penetration. If we can do that with consistency, we're gonna win a lot of games because we can score plenty.

 

[Pablo]

IMO, Kids Day has been a success and warrants being held annually here:

Bill Bride ‏@Bill_DC 20h20 hours ago
I enjoyed the afternoon @MasonMBB today. Great to leave the office for some hoops & saw a lot of kids having fun as well.