Game 17: GMU (10-6 / 2-1) at St. Louis (10-6 / 2-1) on Wednesday, January 11, at 8:00 PM.

[Petey Buckets]

I'm not trying to constantly be a downer but did anyone really watch the first 38 mins thinking "wow we're killing it!"? Like Oduro certainly had his moments and we had flashes but the whole time I was thinking "man, both these teams are trying to lose". It's nice we were in it until the end I wasn't exactly overawed by anything.

Yes actually. The offense isn't pretty and looks much too effortful most of the time, but the defensive effort was fantastic. They scored nine points on their last four possessions, which means to that point we had held them to 54 points on 64 possessions. We were out on shooters, we were tough in the paint, and Josh was even blocking shots and forcing turnovers again. Similar to the ODU game, the team showed some chest to take a late lead on the road. Then they showed some a** to squander it all away.

The team needs a road breakthrough in the worst way and yes I really thought this was going to be it on the strength of the excellent defensive effort for 37 minutes and 45 seconds.

 

[gmubrian]

No of course I don't begrudge anyone at being hyped for the possibility of a win. What I'm saying is it isn't like we were lighting the world on fire and then with two mins decided "we are the worst team to ever play the game." I'm just saying the first 38 didn't make me feel any better going forward in our season than I felt going into the game. I was just pleasantly surprised SLU was also having an off night and we had a chance to win.

Isn't it possible that SLU had "an off night" because our defense played well. I am no expert, but, I felt like our players did a great job staying in front of their man and executing our defensive schemes as I understand them. I think they should get Kudos for that. If they had done it for just two more minutes, we would have had at least a 4 point win, even if our offense went 0 fer in the final 2 minutes.

The "off night" description of other teams is a trigger for me. Almost every team we beat during our final four run had an "off night" according to their fan base. Isn't it possible we just had a good defense that caused those off nights for our opponents...

 

[mkaufman1]

Isn't it possible that SLU had "an off night" because our defense played well. I am no expert, but, I felt like our players did a great job staying in front of their man and executing our defensive schemes as I understand them. I think they should get Kudos for that. If they had done it for just two more minutes, we would have had at least a 4 point win, even if our offense went 0 fer in the final 2 minutes.

The "off night" description of other teams is a trigger for me. Almost every team we beat during our final four run had an "off night" according to their fan base. Isn't it possible we just had a good defense that caused those off nights for our opponents...

Agree with the staying in front of the man part 100%. Our guards were much quicker through their movement and screens throughout the game than I’ve seen in the past. I was very impressed with it. Justyn especially helped.

Like others said, I saw 38 minutes of really excellent defense. In the second half, it turned into some easy buckets which I loved seeing as well.

 

[dr. gunnie]

I guess maybe I didn't think, wow, we're killing it... but I was thinking, "wow, Josh is finally carrying this team on his back on the road against one of the top teams in the conference. This is what I've been waiting to see for the last 16 games. And we are playing solid defense... on the road, against a top 2 team in the conference."

I can't think of any point in the game where I thought "man, both these teams are trying to lose".

 

[GSII]

I feel like game changed when Oduro was called for a charge. After a nice trap by Josh to force a Yuri errant pass which Cooper intercepted, we were running 3 on 2. But for some reason Cooper passed it to JO who was already too deep. Had Cooper gone all the way to the rim and missed, JO was right there to clean it up. Giving JO the ball in that spot was dumb. Or, he could of also backed it out. I think Cooper is allergic to driving to the rim on a fast break. Fast breaks aren't part of our game, so maybe that's why it was botched. So why call a trap with JO in it? Young Coach doing young Coach stuff.

 

[NewPatriot]

1's

Whether we are "close" or not is TBD. It will be shown in the next few games whether this was simply a combination of SLU playing bad and some beneficial refereeing or true improvement. I'm on the fence. Playing good defense for 38 minutes doesn't cut it unless you want a lot of close losses because it's not like we're gonna be up 15 with 2 minutes left in a lot of games.

Mason's undefeated at home; every loss is on the road.. so they need to learn how to win on the road....here's the low bar to the post season

If Mason can hold serve at home then beat URI, Loyola and GW...then Mason is 12-6..that may be enough to get a top 4 seed, an the double bye on Friday in Brooklyn..from there...the Pat's would have probably get thru a combination of Dayton, SLU and vcu for the automatic..

Difficult but doable.

 

[psyclone]

Yuri Collins not playing today against GW....illness.

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