Game 6: GMU (4-1) vs Washington (2-2) on Monday, November 22, at 9:30 PM.

[EXpatriot13]

Another close loss in a game we absolutely didn’t deserve to win. The turnovers are BRUTAL.

 

[mkaufman1]

Little worried about the turnovers. Continuing to be an issue. Lot of run for hartwell tonight, will he even play tomorrow? Schwartz was a non factor again.

 

[FreeGunston12]

Turnovers are the story of this game. If we don't turn the ball over with sloppy passes and give them easy fast break dunks/lay-ups, we win this game. Very simple.

Don't discount the poor defense either. We only lost the turnover battle by 3, and most of our really bad ones came from the bench (Although a couple from Schwartz too). Giving up 6 straight possessions with points down the stretch is where we lost it IMO.

 

[sleeperpick]

We have 4 high level talented players, a couple retreads that aren’t great, and 2 project players (Malik and Blake). I’m staying super excited for CKE to have his own guys to really see what they do. This season is gravy and Hartwell and apparently XJ again are not cutting it at PG. they are so so bad

 

[gmutom]

The 14 turnovers were bad, but it was the type of turnovers that killed us. We had so many lazy passes that led to uncontested layups. Just can’t hand a team so many easy buckets in a close game like that and expect to win.

 

[GMUgemini]

Don't discount the poor defense either. We only lost the turnover battle by 3, and most of our really bad ones came from the bench (Although a couple from Schwartz too). Giving up 6 straight possessions with points down the stretch is where we lost it IMO.

A lot of small stuff—not securing rebounds in the second half (the one where Schwartz was all alone and just went huh? Was probably the worst). Oduro missing 2 FTs in a row at the worst possible time. A couple of just dumb turnovers where the players either were trying dumb passes or got caught second guessing themselves.

Sleeper is right, we have zero bench right now. XJ as our fifth starter is a bit of a weak link.

Given that Gray was out there tonight instead of Frazier even after Schwartz fouled out I’m going to guess Frazier had a setback because Gray did nothing to suggest he earned those minutes.

 

[He15man]

Don't discount the poor defense either. We only lost the turnover battle by 3, and most of our really bad ones came from the bench (Although a couple from Schwartz too). Giving up 6 straight possessions with points down the stretch is where we lost it IMO.

It was a lot more than just the turnover margin. We might have only had 3 more turnovers, but they got 16 points off ours, whereas we only 6. At least I'm pretty sure that's what I heard the announcers say; i can't find the detailed box score to fact check. But those 10 points made all the difference. Not just the turnovers themselves.

 

[JimP]

Like the man said many, many, many, many, many, many times - CATOSTROPHIC TO's.

 

[Leesburg Chankenstank III]

1. Turnovers killed us. I’m confident it will get resolved.
2. Played terribly again but still a one possession game. But not sure how many more times that will be a consolation.
3. All Mason had to do was be average tonight and we win.


It’s only been 6 games but so far it seems when we play well, we blow teams away and/or compete with anyone. When we play terribly we can still win. When we play average ….. well don’t know just yet. It’s been feast or famine so far.

 

[EXpatriot13]

New drinking game at the next home game: one beer for every turnover we have. will we make it out of EagleBank alive?

 

[Earl the Squirrel]

A lot of small stuff—not securing rebounds in the second half (the one where Schwartz was all alone and just went huh? Was probably the worst). Oduro missing 2 FTs in a row at the worst possible time. A couple of just dumb turnovers where the players either were trying dumb passes or got caught second guessing themselves.

Sleeper is right, we have zero bench right now. XJ as our fifth starter is a bit of a weak link.

Given that Gray was out there tonight instead of Frazier even after Schwartz fouled out I’m going to guess Frazier had a setback because Gray did nothing to suggest he earned those min

 

[JimP]

It was a lot more than just the turnover margin. We might have only had 3 more turnovers, but they got 16 points off ours, whereas we only 6. At least I'm pretty sure that's what I heard the announcers say; i can't find the detailed box score to fact check. But those 10 points made all the difference. Not just the turnovers themselves.

But our TO's were catostrophic.

 

[He15man]

But our TO's were catostrophic.

100% my point.

 

[He15man]

New drinking game at the next home game: one beer for every turnover we have. will we make it out of EagleBank alive?

The results of said-drinking game will inevitably be.... catastrophic...

 

[phoenix-arizona]

Talk about a drinking game. If it is the same announcers tomorrow and Wednesday we might all be dead from alcohol poisonings.

 

[FreeGunston12]

It was a lot more than just the turnover margin. We might have only had 3 more turnovers, but they got 16 points off ours, whereas we only 6. At least I'm pretty sure that's what I heard the announcers say; i can't find the detailed box score to fact check. But those 10 points made all the difference. Not just the turnovers themselves.

Yes. But from pure recall, I think the bad ones were from the bench and Schwartz. Definitely something that needs to be fixed. And the only game we've had less so far was Maryland.

 

[tblack33]

New drinking game at the next home game: one beer for every turnover we have. will we make it out of EagleBank alive?

We will single handedly find the next construction project with the concessions income.

 

[He15man]

Yes. But from pure recall, I think the bad ones were from the bench and Schwartz. Definitely something that needs to be fixed. And the only game we've had less so far was Maryland.

I agree. out of our starting 5, Schwartz was the chief offender without a doubt. He just didn't have good court vision tonight. His one pass to Hartwell (I think) at the top of the key with a defender literally 2 feet away waiting to pick it off nearly made me pull my hair out. Just terrible.

But while this sucks and I would have loved to get the win against a Pac12 team, i'd be more pissed off if it was against a conference opponent. KE and the guys have their work cut out for them in getting this team to stop playing out control and recklessly with the ball. But i have every faith they'll figure it out.

 

[Petey Buckets]

When KE got here and we fired up the GMU Recruiting twitter handle again, I thought to myself, "huh, looks like we're offering every high school PG in the DMV with a pulse. That's weird." Now I don't think it's that weird.

This should have been an easy win either without all the live ball turnovers, or if Schwartz doesn't play like he has mono. Still a high ceiling on this team but YIKES the flaws are bad.

 

[Earl the Squirrel]

My fever has broken. Coming into this game I really thought the problems that have plagued us would be be corrected; that we could overcome our basic short-comings - that if only Otis Frazier got more run we would be fine (which I now see as the product of purely delusional thinking).

I have to come to terms with who this team is:

1. A good starting 5 with questions at the point (XJ has been good to this point so I'm going to give him a pass tonight)
2. As others have said...little to no bench.
3. We're a sloppy and careless team

I'm sure the staff has been pulling their hair out to try and get these guys to be sharper with the ball but we're 6 games in and we are seeing no signs of this problem abating. Who's to say they be any better over the next 6 games?

Once Frazier and Polite get healthy we can re-assess. Unti then, this is a team that will win more games than it loses and will beat some very good teams, but also give up some head-scratchers.