Game 24: AT Fordham University, Wednesday, February 7, 7 PM, Atlantic 10 Network

[Washingtonian]

Fordham has a 7-15/2-8 in the A-10 record after losing at St. Louis last night by a score of 73-50.

It looks like you can watch this game for free here: http://www.atlantic10.com/liveEvent...=799986&SPID=136228&DB_LANG=C&db_oem_id=31600

The stats are here: http://static.fordhamsports.com/custompages/stats/mbb/2017-18/teamcume.htm

Last season's box score from Fairfax is here: http://gomason.com/boxscore.aspx?id=6835&path=mbball

Will Tavares is averaging 14.1 PPG/5.1 RPG, Prokop Slanina is averaging 11.8 PPG/5.3 RPG, Joseph Chartouny is averaging 11.1 PPG/5.5 RPG (got 21 points and 8 rebounds in last season's game). Chris Sengfelder transferred to Boise State in the off season.

Fordham's roster is here: https://fordhamsports.com/roster.aspx?path=mbball

Discuss.

 

[Patriotsince81]

Any word on Jaire's status?

At the beginning of the year I had this down as a win since we broke the curse last year. I'm sticking with that prediction. Mason wins 79 - 70 if Jaire plays. We win 76 - 75 if he doesn't. We become road warriors over the second half of A10 play.

 

[MASONscott]

Sounded like Jaire was a game time decision at Richmond. He played through pain in the last two games, warmed up at Richmond and they decided to hold him out. Dave implied he was day to day and was happy he got the rest. Wouldn’t be surprised if he plays.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[GMUgemini]

I haven't watched Fordham play this year, but if they run the same style of defense as last year, their insane defense could provide some problems for the freshmen. If we can limit the damage caused by the chaos, we should be fine.

Just don't lose to Fordham guys, please.

 

[gmujim92]

Huge opportunity to build a winning streak — yeah, OK, a 2-gamer — but also get some momentum going into homecoming against GW.

Win these next two and we are back at .500 with at least a chance to win 9 conference games again. Given the chaos in the standings, that might be enough for a decent seed in the tournament.

Lose and we are probably gonna wind up in one of the play-in games.

 

[Leesburg Chankenstank III]

Anyone who sees this game as an automatic win has a short memory. And I sincerely hope our guys are not thinking that either.

We are only 2 games separated from Fordham. Fordham is probably looking to this game as another rare opportunity to get a conference win themselves.

Any win this team gets will be a hard fought scrappy effort. Anything less will end up in a loss.

 

[Jack Strop]

Sengfelder was the dude who gave us fits in games past. Glad he's in potato-country now. Play well Mason. Play well.

 

[Patriot8]

Homecoming game for Calixte. I wonder if JDS will be in attendance.

 

[PoorManProfit]

G Mas 69
Fordham 70

 

[ephoops]

Homecoming game for Calixte. I wonder if JDS will be in attendance.

It's only a 15 minute drive on the Bronx River Parkway from MVHS to the Rose Hill Gym. MVHS plays Scarsdale on Thursday afternoon so you may have some of Calixte's former teammates at the game.

 

[GSII]

It's only a 15 minute drive on the Bronx River Parkway from MVHS to the Rose Hill Gym. MVHS plays Scarsdale on Thursday afternoon so you may have some of Calixte's former teammates at the game.

I would think its almost a sure thing.

 

[GreenLantern]

Us 82
Them 80
OT

 

[Petey Buckets]

I never know where the best place to post the rundown is, so I'm throwing it in here:

http://giantkiller.co/2018/02/05/pe...ge-mason-basketball-weekly-rundown-volume-10/

Teaser:

Otis leads the team in scoring, but it’s how he gets there that’s unique. When you watch Mason play, it’s clear that Otis is the driving creative force, as he’s the only player who can consistently score at all three levels. It also becomes obvious that he’s isolated a lot, and he’s getting buckets as a result of either beating his man off the dribble or hitting tough step-back jumpers. He is generally not the beneficiary of shots that have been created for him, as many players are.

I wanted to dig through numbers to see if there’s anything to the thought that Otis is scoring in isolated sets more often than other comparable players. Using assist rates data from hoop-math.com, it turns out that this is easily quantifiable. In the table below I’ve cherry-picked some other A10 players by size, position, and workload in order to see how Otis’s assisted baskets (total field goals made by a player that were assisted) stacks up against other nominal point-guards or volume scorers. It’s a slim pool so these comparisons aren’t perfect, but I still think they’re illuminating. Check it out:

 

[psyclone]

I never know where the best place to post the rundown is, so I'm throwing it in here:

http://giantkiller.co/2018/02/05/pe...ge-mason-basketball-weekly-rundown-volume-10/

Great stuff as usual!

 

[Leesburg Chankenstank III]

I never know where the best place to post the rundown is, so I'm throwing it in here:

http://giantkiller.co/2018/02/05/pe...ge-mason-basketball-weekly-rundown-volume-10/

Teaser:

Otis leads the team in scoring, but it’s how he gets there that’s unique. When you watch Mason play, it’s clear that Otis is the driving creative force, as he’s the only player who can consistently score at all three levels. It also becomes obvious that he’s isolated a lot, and he’s getting buckets as a result of either beating his man off the dribble or hitting tough step-back jumpers. He is generally not the beneficiary of shots that have been created for him, as many players are.

I wanted to dig through numbers to see if there’s anything to the thought that Otis is scoring in isolated sets more often than other comparable players. Using assist rates data from hoop-math.com, it turns out that this is easily quantifiable. In the table below I’ve cherry-picked some other A10 players by size, position, and workload in order to see how Otis’s assisted baskets (total field goals made by a player that were assisted) stacks up against other nominal point-guards or volume scorers. It’s a slim pool so these comparisons aren’t perfect, but I still think they’re illuminating. Check it out:

Excellent.

 

[TweederGMU]

Need this W


Goodguys 75
Perennial PIG 70

 

[MasonCrew]

This is another one of the "must win" games. As much as we've cheapened the term, I think it's important for the team to come out focused and win the games they should. I can accept the losses to top teams and against teams that exploit our lack of depth and size, but we need to learn how to win games we should.

 

[MasonSAE4]

Does anyone know if they still play that "create 60 turnovers but score 12 points" gameplan?

 

[GMUgemini]

Does anyone know if they still play that "create 60 turnovers but score 12 points" gameplan?

Hard to tell...11 steals against St. Louis, only 3 against UMass.

 

[psyclone]

Hard to tell...11 steals against St. Louis, only 3 against UMass.

According to Kenpom, in-conference, Fordham defensively is first in steal% and 5th in turnover % (vs 14th and 9th respectively for Mason). (Edit: just noticed that for the season against all opponents, Fordham's defense is first in steal % and 36th in turnover %).

On the other hand, offensively Fordham is 14th in both turnover and steal %. (Mason is 8th and 7th on those same statistics).

Edit: Also worth noting: Fordham is 350th in Offensive Rebounding %; we're 207th. In addition, Fordham is 345th in 3 pt %; we're 305th.