Game Thread: Mason (7-1) vs. New Mexico State (4-3), Wednesday, Nov. 27th, 7:30 PM (Cayman Islands)
- Thread starter p8triotfan4life
- Start date
This is a very tight group with great chemistry. I don’t see AJ passing up a chance to be a senior co-captain and play a starring role in his final college season with a team that could be one of the best in the A-10.
Weird injury report, Calixte is limping in this video of us winning the game, but he’s moving around pretty good otherwise. Hopefully that means he’s back sooner rather than later.
https://twitter.com/MasonMBB/status/1199874303359107073?s=20
https://twitter.com/MasonMBB/status/1199874303359107073?s=20
I think he sees what Grayer did. And it isnt much more than a lateral move compared to what brewing in Fairfax.
This is a premature comment, wait until we beat TCU
Quentin Daniels
Hall of Famer
FreeGunston12
All-American
Don’t know who pissed in your cornflakes lately, but I’m actually going to defend DJ3 here. He’s been pretty positive lately. I think he just doesn’t want to jinx the game.
Can we all stop attacking each other now? Let people have their doubts. Let people be overly excited and optimistic. Talk basketball - what you see, what you like, and what you don’t.
As for me, I asked for a schedule like this. I like piling up the wins and say to hell with strength of schedule. It’s good to have a bit of a buzz around the program, even though I think we aren’t in for a top 4 finish in the A-10 this year. There’s also something to be said for building confidence and getting used to winning. The second half of that game was the best basketball I’ve seen us play under Paulsen. I don’t think we turn that one around, if we hadn’t built our confidence through the first few games. But here we are: our guys expect to win. Soon, our students and fans will too. It does feel like a culture shift, and I’m all for it!
Quentin Daniels
Hall of Famer
I agree with your broader point, but when you go out of your way to be an obnoxious, douchey troll when the team is down, some posters aren’t going to just automatically welcome you onto the bandwagon when the team starts winning.
Maybe Pablo can consult with the board's administrators and develop a nice bar chart that shows the numbers of active members on this forum. I'll bet it would resemble an escalator moving left to right into the basement. As I recall, Masonhoops used to have A LOT more contributors.
It seems that the attitude on this forum has chased many away. I come on here for entertainment (and, BOY-OH-BOY, isn't it ever?). Yeah, sometimes I make negative comments regarding some of the contributors. But, to those same members, I will call them out with praise when well thought, positive statements are made. I'm not saying that we all must drink fruit-punch-flavored Kool Aid and smile, smile, smile. However, good natured ribbing along with meaningful comments have their merits over nasty personal attacks.
It seems that the attitude on this forum has chased many away. I come on here for entertainment (and, BOY-OH-BOY, isn't it ever?). Yeah, sometimes I make negative comments regarding some of the contributors. But, to those same members, I will call them out with praise when well thought, positive statements are made. I'm not saying that we all must drink fruit-punch-flavored Kool Aid and smile, smile, smile. However, good natured ribbing along with meaningful comments have their merits over nasty personal attacks.
Sorry for being a troll. I went overboard when people corrected my grammar.
QD is doing the exact same thing I did last season. Going out of your way to prove a point. It’s obnoxious, but I get where he is coming from.
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I feel like we’ve always been this way going back to the CAAZone days. The difference is we were largely a winning program then and so the whole this team sucks line was mitigated because we obviously never sucked (although PMP was still calling players limited back then). But the goodwill Coach L had with the fans was destroyed by Hewitt and Paulsen hasn’t really done anything for us to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Also, 10 years ago, there was literally no other place you could go to read about or talk about Mason Basketball and now there are a few blogs and sites dedicated to it so there is no exclusive content.
Also, also, don’t discount the camaraderie developed when your site is also dedicated to the entire conference (we’ll always unite to hate on JMU, ODU, vcu etc.). We don’t have that here.
Quentin Daniels
Hall of Famer
So am I.
Got around to rewatching this today and saw a few things I wanted to note, most of them really fun:
- Hartwell hit a couple ONIONS 3s in the second half. One was to take the lead for the first time from well beyond NBA range (seriously, he was behind some volleyball lines on the court). The other re-tied the game later on. That was off a steal from the press - he gathered the ball and found himself wide open even though Mason had numbers, and drilled it. He did something similar against Maryland. Love having a shooter with huevos on a team full of nice guys.
- Great scouting and coaching moment with about a minute left to go and Mason playing defense protecting a lead. One of their bigs set a ball screen for Buchanan at the top of the key, but instead of having someone stick to the guard, Hartwell and AJ both dropped way the hell off and sagged to the paint to prevent the ball from getting into the middle. I looked it up and Buchanan was 0-6 from 3 to that point in the season. Clearly a well-executed plan of attack for defending that action in crunch time. The possession ended with no points.
- Goanar somehow played 21 minutes and didn't log a rebound, steal, block, or assist. He did have 6 points on 3-6 shooting, all mid-range pullups over smaller defenders. I love that he's looking for his shot a little more but he can't be a zero everywhere else
- Jordan has been picking up a lot of bad fouls recently. Had 4 in this game and followed it up with 3 against Jacksonville State. Not usually an issue for him so I hope it's just an aberration.
- Some great wrinkles in the 1-2-2 press in the second half. We don't always try to trap the ballhandler or the first pass, or jump the second pass (usually the one that goes across the court sideline to sideline) but we did alittle bit of all three to aid in the comeback. Even when the press doesn't generate a turnover it's really effective at forcing opponents deep in the shot clock, as I counted a fair amount of possessions where NMSU didn't get the ball inside the arc until under 15 seconds.
- The baseball pass from XJ to AJ that led to the dunk at the end of the first half was pure sex. This team is so much better at stealing easy buckets than any Mason team in a long time.
- Hartwell hit a couple ONIONS 3s in the second half. One was to take the lead for the first time from well beyond NBA range (seriously, he was behind some volleyball lines on the court). The other re-tied the game later on. That was off a steal from the press - he gathered the ball and found himself wide open even though Mason had numbers, and drilled it. He did something similar against Maryland. Love having a shooter with huevos on a team full of nice guys.
- Great scouting and coaching moment with about a minute left to go and Mason playing defense protecting a lead. One of their bigs set a ball screen for Buchanan at the top of the key, but instead of having someone stick to the guard, Hartwell and AJ both dropped way the hell off and sagged to the paint to prevent the ball from getting into the middle. I looked it up and Buchanan was 0-6 from 3 to that point in the season. Clearly a well-executed plan of attack for defending that action in crunch time. The possession ended with no points.
- Goanar somehow played 21 minutes and didn't log a rebound, steal, block, or assist. He did have 6 points on 3-6 shooting, all mid-range pullups over smaller defenders. I love that he's looking for his shot a little more but he can't be a zero everywhere else
- Jordan has been picking up a lot of bad fouls recently. Had 4 in this game and followed it up with 3 against Jacksonville State. Not usually an issue for him so I hope it's just an aberration.
- Some great wrinkles in the 1-2-2 press in the second half. We don't always try to trap the ballhandler or the first pass, or jump the second pass (usually the one that goes across the court sideline to sideline) but we did alittle bit of all three to aid in the comeback. Even when the press doesn't generate a turnover it's really effective at forcing opponents deep in the shot clock, as I counted a fair amount of possessions where NMSU didn't get the ball inside the arc until under 15 seconds.
- The baseball pass from XJ to AJ that led to the dunk at the end of the first half was pure sex. This team is so much better at stealing easy buckets than any Mason team in a long time.
Weird scheduling quirk for New Mexico State. They will play both New Mexico and UTEP twice this year, both at home and on the road. Neither UNM or UTEP is in the WAC. I'm not sure I've seen a team schedule a non-conference home-and-home for the same season, let alone do it twice.
Not a bad strategy if you are having difficulty filling out a schedule.
Not a bad strategy if you are having difficulty filling out a schedule.
Yeah, this is becoming a little concerning, and it's not just about the final amount of fouls he ends up getting. I can think of several games in which he has picked up two quick fouls in the first half and subsequently had to sit out more than 10 minutes. He's without question our most versatile player, and it's only doing our opponents a huge favor when our biggest match-up problem is sitting on the bench.
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Certainly this tactic is to save money first and play quality opponents second. NMSU, UTEP, and UNM travel some loooong distances to play conference games.
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