Game Thread: Long Island University (0-2) at Mason (2-0), Wednesday, November 13th, 7 PM (ESPN+)

[Falco]

sloppiness can be excused the first month or two of a season. If it continued in January I would understand your gripe. For all of the sloppiness, followed with dazzling plays. patience my friend....patience.

Friend?!? Lol jk.
All kidding aside, I’m cautiously optimistic this season. The team is well balanced with their senior leader on the bench.

 

[Quentin Daniels]

For all the talk of LIU as the equivalent of the Washington Generals, let me point out that they are picked to win their conference this year and go to the NCAA tournament. They return all 5 of their players in terms of minutes played, four seniors and a junior that finished last season at 5-2.

They also played Rhode Island, picked to finish four spots ahead of us, in their first game losing by 11. Put a healthy Kier in the lineup and I'll take odds that's worth close to 5 points.

Now I'm not saying they're Kentucky, a program that would never lose a.......oh wait.......

 

[phoenix-arizona]

For a second I thought you meant the USFL team with Herschel Walker and was confused.

 

[PoorManProfit]

Playing to the level of their completion. Reoccurring theme under DP

100% true fact.

 

[Herndon]

Also, yeah, Mar rattled out a lot of shots last night, but he didn't look not confident out there, in fact I'd say he looked pretty damned confident. One thing he does that I wish the other players would do move often is make really good choices off the ball about where to find space in the defense and present himself for a pass. He also made some good passes against LIU's zone in the first half that could have been assists if the shots fell. He also only took one bad shot the entire game (when the shot clock was winding down and he failed to notice until the last second). He's got to work harder on the glass. He's got to make more of the shots he does take, but with the way he's playing I don't have a problem giving him the minutes he's getting (especially if Calixte keeps getting over the back fouls and having to sit on the bench).

You know, I think I can see a future for Mar, where he's versatile bench defender who does enough smart things on offense to not be unplayable. If his shot ever reaches "average", then he could be a REALLY valuable guy, but at the moment there's at least a place for him.

FWIW, I've always thought of greene as a little bit of a Lou Williams type, so I could envision him feasting on second units.

 

[Quentin Daniels]

For a second I thought you meant the USFL team with Herschel Walker and was confused.

Good catch. Fixed.

Thanks.

 

[gmutom]

FWIW, I've always thought of greene as a little bit of a Lou Williams type, so I could envision him feasting on second units.

Greene also has a tendency to pick up quick fouls and therefore sit a good amount of the first half anyway, so maybe coming off the bench will allow him to ease into the game and not have to play so cautiously.

 

[Cedric Dempsey]

kid improved a heck ton over the summer and I commend him on that.. deserved more than 6 mins last night... that was flabbergasting... Flowers started playing well when we went tiny


They had 3 starters that were Hartwell sized and only Jordan and XJ in the second seemed to take advantage of that. I don't understand heaving up bad threes versus driving against a small and not that great opponent

You torched that young 18 year old (Oduro) terribly, as well as publicly, long before he ever arrived. His name was hammered while you remained anonymous. Your credibility went out the window with the tripe you laid on him.

 

[p8triotfan4life]

You torched that young 18 year old (Oduro) terribly, as well as publicly, long before he ever arrived. His name was hammered while you remained anonymous. Your credibility went out the window with the tripe you laid on him.

KABOOM. He's hammered my 22-win prediction to my face as well. I'm laughing back at him today.

 

[By George.]

There have been a few in the DP era.

Sure but if you expect it, the a turkey won’t taste as good.

 

[GMU1983]

There have been a few in the DP era. But to expect a blowout early in the season without two guys who were probably going to feature heavily in the rotation (including your best player) is probably hubris. LIU didn't get blown out by URI and Clark didn't even play in that game. We were actually missing three players last night, but Dady is still a major work in progress, so not sure how many minutes he would have actually gotten.

Also, please don't tell me anyone wanted Oduro or Calixte guarding Flowers on the perimeter when LIU was going small and 5-out. Also, in a close game late, you're going to want your best FT shooters on the floor and I'd trust the guys out there last night to knock down their FTs over either Oduro or Calixte right now (Oduro's shot looks pretty good to me, though).

Also, yeah, Mar rattled out a lot of shots last night, but he didn't look not confident out there, in fact I'd say he looked pretty damned confident. One thing he does that I wish the other players would do move often is make really good choices off the ball about where to find space in the defense and present himself for a pass. He also made some good passes against LIU's zone in the first half that could have been assists if the shots fell. He also only took one bad shot the entire game (when the shot clock was winding down and he failed to notice until the last second). He's got to work harder on the glass. He's got to make more of the shots he does take, but with the way he's playing I don't have a problem giving him the minutes he's getting (especially if Calixte keeps getting over the back fouls and having to sit on the bench).

He front rimmed every shot except for the two bunnies he made

 

[GMUgemini]

He front rimmed every shot except for the two bunnies he made

So? Again, you want Calixte guarding flowers in a five man set where AJ would have to guard Clark 22 feet from the basket?

I think it’s interesting that on a night where we scored 80 points, we are complaining about Goanar going 2-9 from the floor.

 

[psyclone]

He front rimmed every shot except for the two bunnies he made

I'm not sure of how you're defining "bunnies". I've always considered them as lay-ups. Certainly his second and most crucial "make" last night was at least a medium-long 2. Although he was wide open, I'm sure I wasn't the only fan holding their breath when he took it. It was a key basket at that point in the game as LIU was scrambling to continue to threaten to steal a win.

I agree with the obvious point that we can really use him to return to his freshman form for maximum contributions to the team. Opponents are giving him lots of room and will continue to do so until he burns them on a regular basis. There are times he is so open that you're moved to say "take the shot". But more often than not, he passes it up.

That said, he is a much better defender on perimeter big guys than either Greg or Josh. We need to remember that going into this game, LIU was 3d in the country for % of points that are 3-pointers. As it turned out, we must have defended the 3 well against them, as LIU is now 42d on that stat. Granted, we did give up a fair number of easy 2s. But we avoided a string of momentum producing 3s.

We didn't cover, winning only by 6 and Kenpom now has us as 157, 2 rankings worse than we were going into the game. And although we only committed 10 turnovers in the game, 3-4 of them were just after we secured a defensive rebound that led to a quick LIU layup. Would have covered if we "only" committed 1-2 of them. We can write that off to having freshman-sophomore ball-handlers at this point in the year, but clearly we can't continue to turn it over on the defensive end of the court.

 

[Patriotsince81]

I think people are concerned about Goanar in general. As a freshman he averaged 10.9 ppg on 43.1% shooting, 35.7% from 3. As a sophomore he averaged 3.1 ppg on 28.4% shooting, 23.9% from 3. Three games into this year he is averaging 2 ppg on 21.4% shooting, 0% from 3. I'm pretty sure we are all mystified by his regression over time.

 

[Falco]

Well I haven’t seen Mar Get called for traveling yet, so that’s a plus.

 

[Patriot Lawdog]

From my perspective, Mar putting up 9 shots is great. I don't care if only 2 went in. The talent is there. I'm convinced it's a confidence issue. I refuse to believe that the freshmen I score 20+ and then make 3 FTs with time expired to send a game into OT just vanished into thin air. I still believe something is going to click and he will return to his previous form.

 

[Falco]

Could someone direct me to the post game presser

 

[psyclone]

Could someone direct me to the post game presser

Here you go https://www.facebook.com/MasonAthletics/videos/460492944572292/

I've found that if you google "facebook Mason Athletics videos" without a specific number will get you to the page that has the presser after each home game.

 

[ephoops]

https://twitter.com/ByGeorgeGMU/status/1194806797502164992

It's my understanding that this is not the first time that Hartwell has done this after a game.

 

[FreeGunston12]

For all the talk of LIU as the equivalent of the Washington Generals, let me point out that they are picked to win their conference this year and go to the NCAA tournament. They return all 5 of their players in terms of minutes played, four seniors and a junior that finished last season at 5-2.

They also played Rhode Island, picked to finish four spots ahead of us, in their first game losing by 11. Put a healthy Kier in the lineup and I'll take odds that's worth close to 5 points.

Now I'm not saying they're Kentucky, a program that would never lose a.......oh wait.......

If that team wins a conference title, I’ll cut my left nut off and never talk basketball ever again. They played awful. The game before, they gave up 51 points to a player on UMass Lowell.

Still, they probably would’ve beat us if they didn’t shoot like crap. And give me a break with the triangle and 2 making offense hard for us, DP. There’s a reason no one plays that defense ever.