Game 18: GMU (13-4 / 2-2) at GW (13-3 / 2-1) on Monday, January 15, at 2:00 PM.

[mkaufman1]

What a horrible performance. This team has bottom level talent. Certainly not A10 level. Just another bs year of mediocre play. This team should have never left the CAA.

Terrible hot take.

 

[Patriot Lawdog]

So today was not good....Are we as good as we seemed earlier on in the season, probably not. But I refuse to believe we're as bad as we've seen these past few games. The schedule was not kind in that our worst effort was followed by 2 tough road games. Things might be different if we had gotten one of these games at home. I agree it's time to mix things up. There is also time to turn things around because the only team that scares anyone (us included) is Dayton and I expect a lot of these teams to struggle on the road. We would have lost anyway, but it seems like a ton of contact in this last few games that we're coming out on the wrong end of.

 

[JimP]

Starting to look like GMU's skid isn't a result of bad luck - wanted to believe it was.

 

[tblack33]

Time to start fighting to stay out of the pillow fight.

 

[DRK331]

Mason loses 75-62, drops to 13-5

 

[mkaufman1]

Let’s talk about the game today. Smith center is a house of horrors for our program

Turnovers.
Ball rolling off the rim 150 times during our layups
Defensive lapses
shot selection at times

I saw enough after our 5th turnover in a row to turn it off. Once again we didn’t start the game with urgency and quickly found ourselves down big. We let our offensive woes go into defense.

By the time we figured things out we had to play nearly perfect. That was shot to hell with a few travel calls and turnovers (5 times in a row).

The first half was one of the worst halves I’ve seen mason play in quite a few years. It’s unacceptable quite frankly. The wheels have started to come off. We forgot how to shoot 3s, we forget how to play defense and we don’t always play a solid offensive scheme with ball movement screens and cuts. Everyone knows what Hall and Maddox will do and as soon as those guys move the ball is swatted.

I think I need to take a step back from expectations of a top 4 team. We aren’t playing like it and playing much more like a middle of the road team. It’s very disappointing especially when you lose to 3 local rivals in a week. Whatever.

 

[KAOriginal]

Losing to all 3 geographical and top league rivals? Just bad...

 

[EXpatriot13]

Don’t like Okojie as a starter…yet

Maybe when the losing streak is at 4 games? 5? 6?

I’m not going to single out Polite either, but I do agree with gmutom that we seem to have better movement and become more unpredictable for the defense when Okojie is at the point.

Whether it’s that or something else, Tony and the staff have to make some bigger changes to snap this team out of it.

 

[Patriot Lawdog]

Let’s talk about the game today. Smith center is a house of horrors for our program

Turnovers.
Ball rolling off the rim 150 times during our layups
Defensive lapses
shot selection at times

I saw enough after our 5th turnover in a row to turn it off. Once again we didn’t start the game with urgency and quickly found ourselves down big. We let our offensive woes go into defense.

By the time we figured things out we had to play nearly perfect. That was shot to hell with a few travel calls and turnovers (5 times in a row).

The first half was one of the worst halves I’ve seen mason play in quite a few years. It’s unacceptable quite frankly. The wheels have started to come off. We forgot how to shoot 3s, we forget how to play defense and we don’t always play a solid offensive scheme with ball movement screens and cuts. Everyone knows what Hall and Maddox will do and as soon as those guys move the ball is swatted.

I think I need to take a step back from expectations of a top 4 team. We aren’t playing like it and playing much more like a middle of the road team. It’s very disappointing especially when you lose to 3 local rivals in a week. Whatever.

Well, I really wouldn't feel that bad about things if we had somehow pulled out the vcu game. The home loss is what kills you in this league. You're gonna take your lumps on the road. All of this sucks after the start to the season that we had, but we do have to have a little bit of patience here. Time to go back to the drawing board including trying to jumpstart the offense in the beginning of the game. Might need to start generating more offense from the defensive end.

 

[mkaufman1]

Well, I really wouldn't feel that bad about things if we had somehow pulled out the vcu game. The home loss is what kills you in this league. You're gonna take your lumps on the road. All of this sucks after the start to the season that we had, but we do have to have a little bit of patience here. Time to go back to the drawing board including trying to jumpstart the offense in the beginning of the game. Might need to start generating more offense from the defensive end.

Agreed. And I’m definitely all in on being patient, more just venting frustration. We just need to figure out how to adjust and fast. Not like the next team isn’t going to be ready to exploit our weaknesses.

 

[gmutom]

Don’t like Okojie as a starter…yet

Something has to change, because trotting out the same 5 starters for the first 7 minutes of every game isn't working. Okojie isn't a panacea for all of our ills, but we need some kind of spark to get this offense going.

Hall's great start the first half of the season masked a lot of our deficiencies, and we are being exposed now that teams are justifiably focusing on him.

 

[FlPatriot]

Something has to change, because trotting out the same 5 starters for the first 7 minutes of every game isn't working. Okojie isn't a panacea for all of our ills, but we need some kind of spark to get this offense going.

Hall's great start the first half of the season masked a lot of our deficiencies, and we are being exposed now that teams are justifiably focusing on him.

Don’t disagree, maybe green/gold larranaga style to send a message and see what happens.

Agree on Hall. He needs to get a little tougher mentally and sprinkle in a few tweaks in his game to confuse his defender(s).

 

[EXpatriot13]

All of this sucks after the start to the season that we had, but we do have to have a little bit of patience here.

Patience is probably what I have the least of when it comes to George Mason basketball.

 

[Mason2006Patriot]

Mason fans have been waiting years and years for a good season. How much longer do we have to wait?

 

[mkaufman1]

Patience is probably what I have the least of when it comes to George Mason basketball.

Yeah we’ve all been plenty patient.

That said we have to be patient with another brand new coach. Sadly.

 

[ProfessorCFK]

Mason fans have been waiting years and years for a good season. How much longer do we have to wait?

 

[GMU79]

Let’s talk about the game today. Smith center is a house of horrors for our program

Turnovers.
Ball rolling off the rim 150 times during our layups
Defensive lapses
shot selection at times

I saw enough after our 5th turnover in a row to turn it off. Once again we didn’t start the game with urgency and quickly found ourselves down big. We let our offensive woes go into defense.

By the time we figured things out we had to play nearly perfect. That was shot to hell with a few travel calls and turnovers (5 times in a row).

The first half was one of the worst halves I’ve seen mason play in quite a few years. It’s unacceptable quite frankly. The wheels have started to come off. We forgot how to shoot 3s, we forget how to play defense and we don’t always play a solid offensive scheme with ball movement screens and cuts. Everyone knows what Hall and Maddox will do and as soon as those guys move the ball is swatted.

I think I need to take a step back from expectations of a top 4 team. We aren’t playing like it and playing much more like a middle of the road team. It’s very disappointing especially when you lose to 3 local rivals in a week. Whatever.

This. And to repeat one of your points, we play one on one. No passing, movement, cuts.
Who gets the blame for that? Somebody has to. Coaches? Players not doing what the coaches told them to do?

 

[GMU79]

Patience is probably what I have the least of when it comes to George Mason basketball.

Yes. How many years, now decades, and miscellaneous coaches can you take without pulling your hair out!

 

[mkaufman1]

This. And to repeat one of your points, we play one on one. No passing, movement, cuts.
Who gets the blame for that? Somebody has to. Coaches? Players not doing what the coaches told them to do?

I suspect much like Tony has said, the book is out on Mason. It’s league play and everyone knows what Mason is going to try to do.

Issue is we have thrown any wrinkles to throw off the other teams defense. Or if we have we’ve Blown layup after layup (at least today).

 

[FlPatriot]

Lots of the blown layups were the result of one on one as someone has already pointed out. In addition, no box out in the paint allowing the 5 to swat shots at will. Can’t just let the guy stand there waiting for the guard down the lane.