I expected Okojie to start by conference play, but I understand it's challenging to entrust the reins to a true freshman. Plus Polite still has his moments, especially playing off the ball at the moment.
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Game 19: GMU (13-5 / 2-3) vs St. Bonaventure (11-5 / 2-2) on Saturday, January 20, at 2:00 PM.
- Thread starter Patriotsince81
- Start date
You must have been sitting somewhere where there weren't Bonnies' fans. I'm in section 102 behind the visitor's bench and there was a significant contingent of fans rooting for the Bonnies and believe me, they were LOUD and animated during our collapse. Don't know what it sounded like on tv.
Fortunately, the game turned our way and they had less to shout about except for berating the refs a few times.'
Watching the second half right now and you can definitely hear the Bonnie fans cheering.
Makes a lot of sense. Ronnie's solid from deep and pretty damn good in the mid-range. Baraka's going to be a very, very good one. Haven't seen a Mason guard pick a defender clean twice in one game since Nate Langley did it in the 90s.
Hat tip to Billups today. Shut down Pride and was aggressive on the offensive side.
And another hat tip to Ball. Gave us a much-needed lift and a sign to come. Won't be long before he starts dropping 2-3 3s per game without breaking a sweat.
Lastly, Darius Maddox with the confidence boost. Let's hope he's turned the corner and regains his form. We need him to bounceback. And Wood hit a key jump shot when we needed it the most.
I think we can, with this defensive effort, go 5-1 over the next 6 games. We'll see.
Agreed. We are a much tougher team to defend when Newton was hitting his shots.
His one bucket came from a drive; and he also had a good move to the basket in the first half that drew a foul. Would like to see him look for that more. Play inside-out and I bet his 3s will start to fall again.
Sounds serious, maybe you should talk to your doctor about that.
Bonnie fans were loud but in a weird way I think it kinda helped get our crowd going having a foil. Good atmosphere yesterday.
Where's the party?
Sixth Man
Our seats are adjacent to the visiting team section. They got pretty loud when the Bonnies took the lead in the second half. Evans' dad wouldn't stay in his seat and kept walking up and down the ailse yelling and high fiving other Bonnie fans, or standing in the portal yelling. Luckily our comeback shut him and that section down.
Great games by Baraka and Maddox and Billups. Solid games by Kelly and Keyshawn. Agree it's time for Baraka to have the point. I'm concerned about Woody. He has really lost all confidence. He passes up open shots, makes tentative passes, etc. Really needs a confidence boost. Ball is a shooter on a team that hasn't shot well recently, let him play more too.
Haven't heard anyone comment on the turnover on the botched inbound pass by Keyshawn. I don't know how that happens, and his reaction should have gotten him a quicker trip to the bench. Tony should be telling his team that a toss to the far end of the court is better than holding on to the ball through the clock. Things were looking pretty bleak when that happened.
A good win against a good team. We really needed that.
Said during the game and am even more convinced now: Okojie has to be the starting PG going forward.
Yes freshman PGs will be up and down and have games where they appear to have forgotten how to play, but our senior is good for 2-3 careless turnovers every game so that’s less of an issue for me. Not an at-large team either — we have the luxury of letting him learn from his mistakes.
More important, I love the edge Baraka plays with. He’s in attack mode on both ends of the floor. Been a good while since we had a PG with the physical gifts and aggressive mentality to match.
Not sure if it’s all the leg/hip injuries or whatever, but RP is physically a shell of the player who routinely threw down alley-oops in HS. He plays very passively now and never was a great defender … he still obviously has a major role to play on this team, but it feels like time to pass the torch to the young guy and let him run with it.
Yes freshman PGs will be up and down and have games where they appear to have forgotten how to play, but our senior is good for 2-3 careless turnovers every game so that’s less of an issue for me. Not an at-large team either — we have the luxury of letting him learn from his mistakes.
More important, I love the edge Baraka plays with. He’s in attack mode on both ends of the floor. Been a good while since we had a PG with the physical gifts and aggressive mentality to match.
Not sure if it’s all the leg/hip injuries or whatever, but RP is physically a shell of the player who routinely threw down alley-oops in HS. He plays very passively now and never was a great defender … he still obviously has a major role to play on this team, but it feels like time to pass the torch to the young guy and let him run with it.
My only concern is if you start Okojie and Billups together you’ve got 2 perimeter players who can basically sag off of because one is a 20% 3-point shooter and the other is a 7% 3-point shooter.
I mean I suppose you can start the game on pressure defense and try to get a bunch of turnovers and some transition buckets and then bring in Polite after the first media timeout.
but I think we should just stick with what we’ve been doing. Same starting 5 and if Polite is having one of his games where he’s on ride him and if he’s not on, bring in Okojie and Wood and give Polite fewer minutes (he played just 16 against St. Bonaventure).
I get what you’re saying and it’s a good point, but the energy on the floor is just different when Baraka is in the game. Saturday was much better in that regard but getting off to sluggish starts has been a problem in A-10 play.
Yes, Ronnie played 16 minutes
. Something is going on with his legs or hips. Strictly from my observations, Ronnie appeara to be running in sand while carrying his hips really low. He has an entire week to rest up and possibly get treatment if he is indeed hurting. When Ronnie is 100% then he clearly is our better PG. Hopefully, he'll have more to give next week.This is a never ending debate with really no right or wrong answer.
For me, I think you have to give Ronny the benefit of the doubt at this point to start the game. Yes, the offense is better with Baraka, but give Ronny the chance to see if he's on or what.
While I know it sacrifices defense, I would start Baraka and Ronny in the backcourt, so that you could have either of them play point, or just have Ronny off the ball from the get go. Billups would be an excellent 6th man but I get that we don't want to sacrifice defense from the get go.
Its a good problem to have, and I suspect we'll have more games like Saturday where Baraka just plays more point because its not the best match up for Ronny. There will be other games where Ronny plays closer to his average in minutes and plays off ball or more point. Everything will be based on what hes doing on the court to help the team win.
I don't think Okojie and Billups is the right combination because you are sacrificing any deep threat and a lot of scoring. You need some combination with Ronny for scoring.
All in all, I'm just so happy that Ronny can breathe when he has off games/bad matchups, doesn't have to run 35 minutes of point every game, and generally doesn't have to be the reason why we win or lose every single time.
For me, I think you have to give Ronny the benefit of the doubt at this point to start the game. Yes, the offense is better with Baraka, but give Ronny the chance to see if he's on or what.
While I know it sacrifices defense, I would start Baraka and Ronny in the backcourt, so that you could have either of them play point, or just have Ronny off the ball from the get go. Billups would be an excellent 6th man but I get that we don't want to sacrifice defense from the get go.
Its a good problem to have, and I suspect we'll have more games like Saturday where Baraka just plays more point because its not the best match up for Ronny. There will be other games where Ronny plays closer to his average in minutes and plays off ball or more point. Everything will be based on what hes doing on the court to help the team win.
I don't think Okojie and Billups is the right combination because you are sacrificing any deep threat and a lot of scoring. You need some combination with Ronny for scoring.
All in all, I'm just so happy that Ronny can breathe when he has off games/bad matchups, doesn't have to run 35 minutes of point every game, and generally doesn't have to be the reason why we win or lose every single time.
I love that Ronnie stuck with Mason throughout all the coaching changes. He is a true GMU Patriot.
I listen to both sides and agree with both.
Just hoping Tony keeps a very close tab on the flow of the games and knows when to make changes for the better. Got to be a very tough job, especially for a brand new head coach.
Completely agree. There is nobody who has been more loyal to Mason than Ronny and Malik considering the changes that have occurred over their time with Mason. That is unheard of in this day and age.
Also agree that Tony has adjusted very very nicely when needed. We adjusted on Saturday when Bonaventure came at us with their run and locked down defensively. He has been very impressive in such a short time as coach and thats a testament to him and his staff. I still think Curran has a lot to do with our success, but I can't discredit the rest of the staff either.
I was just thinking about it and mentioned it to another friend on text, but I no longer question if we have the "talent" or "belong" in the A10 like I used to. That really changed in my opinion once we hired Kim. Tony has picked up the torch and continued to build on the base that was set by both Paulsen and English.
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Just watch the first minute of this video - he shows incredible bounce and even hits his head on the backboard at the 1:10 mark
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