Game 2: GMU (1-0) at #18 Marquette (1-0) on Friday, November 8, at 9:00 PM.

[hoops10]

I thought we had talent in the paint. But after that, wow. Looks like a long season ahead.

 

[JimP]

Got to be disappointed with our bigs. Too many turnovers and too slow defensively.

Haynes has to be smarter.

 

[tblack33]

Don’t really understand the doom and gloom here. Guys just walked into one of the toughest gyms in the country against a top 20 team and held their own for 35 minutes. There’s a lot to like, we are going to be fine. Losses like this pay dividends in conference.

 

[GSII]

Haynes has to be smarter.

and stronger and in better shape. When the announcers are calling your bigs "gassed" thats a red flag for our strength and conditioning team.

 

[JimP]

LI thought we had talent in the paint. But after that, wow. Looks like a long season ahead.

GMU will win 20 games. It'll be a good season - just hope they can make the NIT or NCAA.

 

[GMUgemini]

Well, late game collapse instead…

Was a great game for about 34 minutes (first 4 and last 4 sunk us).

19 TOs not good, even against a top 20 team. KD needs to get out of the doghouse, we need to find a solution at the 4 (Woody and Anderson don’t seem to be doing it for us). Maybe slide O’Connor over to the 2 and move Billups to the 4 and play 4 guards? Don’t know.

Good effort to get back into the game after the disastrous start and hang tough with a Big East team. Hopefully some good lessons in there about playing hard but also smart and in control.

 

[GMUgemini]

and stronger and in better shape. When the announcers are calling your bigs "gassed" thats a red flag for our strength and conditioning team.

I mean, it’s 40 minutes of high pressure basketball guarding a 5 out system. I’d be surprised if the bigs weren’t gassed.

 

[Falco]

Got to be disappointed with our bigs. Too many turnovers and too slow defensively.

Very shocked with the bigs given the hype in the offseason.

 

[GSII]

I mean, it’s 40 minutes of high pressure basketball guarding a 5 out system. I’d be surprised if the bigs weren’t gassed.

Get em on the Jai Lewis regiment then b/c he did it just fine.

 

[JimP]

19 turnovers. Tough environment, but GMU is averaging 18 a game.

 

[Verdad]

19 turnovers. Tough environment, but GMU is averaging 18 a game.

Huge f**king problem and a carry over from last year

 

[Jack Strop]

Shit. Discouraged that the score will not reflect how close the game was. I'd certainly hope this team will be better than .500 in conference.

And the thing is that no one but us and Marquette will ever know how close this game actually was.

Considering Mason was playing against a very cohesive Marquette squad, I think we showed a lot of grit and Tony-Toughness to make it a game for 36 minutes. Moral victory? Considering we are in growth mode, yeah there are some good things that came out of this game. Games like this early in the season build character.

Mason looked a little gassed in the last five minutes. Kinda what happens in those environments. I hope these players can get better conditioned as the season rolls along.

The fighting at the end was the direct result of at least three non-calls by the refs when a Marquette player slapped us around. Our guys literally took it on the chin several times. The kind of ugliness that we saw from Woody is nearly always the refs' fault for not taking charge and letting rough play slide throughout a game.

If Shaka and Marquette have something to say then they can come to Fairfax and tell us all about it.

 

[illayin]

super encouraged by this performance tonight. this was the first real game and they had to go against a top BE team. as mentioned previously, the final score doesn't indicate how close this game was. these guys know who they are and are buying into the system. if they just keep improving, it will be a fun season.

 

[gmutom]

We saw some positives tonight, and overall I thought we played a really good game other than the first and last four minutes.

Tony knows his players better than we do, but Woody (1-9 from the floor) does not deserve the minutes he’s getting and O’Connor needs to be playing off the ball. I’m not sure if KD is still in the doghouse, but he has to be our starting PG.

I’m not sure what is going on with Haynes, but 2 points, 5 rebounds, 4 turnovers and a handful of tumbles to the floor isn’t going to cut it. With he and Gio both struggling, we would have been better served going small.

Hope we build on the positives, learn from the negatives (19 turnovers!), and bounce back with a win against Stony Brook.

 

[EXpatriot13]

Obviously Skinn is still figuring this team out, some lineups/rotations were a little puzzling though.

KD needs to start at point from the jump. OConnor struggles on the ball and to facilitate the offense, that experiment should end. We had that great 10-12 min stretch in the first half where he was playing off and finding space for his shot. It opens things up so much more and you can tell he’s way more comfortable in that role.

Anderson didn’t play the last 14:28 of the game. What’s his role moving forward? Thought we’d see more of him and Maddox together. Woody is a better defender (yikes at the end) but would like to see minutes be closer to 25/10 instead of a near even split.

This team has some really solid pieces though, and the way they played for a good portion of this game should give us confidence for A10 play. Let’s see how they pull it all together during the rest of OOC.

 

[Old Man]

Also keep in mind that Marquette has no transfers on the team, so except for incoming freshman, they have played together for a few years. Shaka has a very cohesive team to work with.

 

[Patriotsince81]

"It's unfortunate because I don't think the score is a reflection of how we played for 35 to 36 minutes of the game," head coach Tony Skinn ('06) said. "Our lack of discipline let them off the hook. They didn't have to guard us, we just played one on one basketball to end the game. We have to be able to learn from those situations. We didn't get sped up for most of the game but we got sped up in the most important part of the game. We just have to be better down the stretch. "

 

[Patriotsince81]

Don’t really understand the doom and gloom here. Guys just walked into one of the toughest gyms in the country against a top 20 team and held their own for 35 minutes. There’s a lot to like, we are going to be fine. Losses like this pay dividends in conference.

Well said. Some things to clean up but we should be fine. If the turnovers continue though I'll be concerned. We'll struggle if we average 18 per game.

 

[DRK331]

Full game here on Youtube

 

[tblack33]

"It's unfortunate because I don't think the score is a reflection of how we played for 35 to 36 minutes of the game," head coach Tony Skinn ('06) said. "Our lack of discipline let them off the hook. They didn't have to guard us, we just played one on one basketball to end the game. We have to be able to learn from those situations. We didn't get sped up for most of the game but we got sped up in the most important part of the game. We just have to be better down the stretch. "

Interesting comments from Tony because IIRC we ended the game with two TOs in our pocket. He could have used those to help with our pace towards the end there. Oh well not the straw that broke the camels back