Game Thread: Naval Academy (0-0) at Mason (0-0), Tuesday, November 5th, 7 PM (ESPN+)

[GMU_DCU]

XJ is going to be a stud...kid can play.

AJ, been waiting to see that for awhile. Loved the effort and kept us in the game late second half.

Hartwell is our new go to guy when we
Need a 3.

Mar.....guess it wasn't just a sophomore slump.

Miller picked his moments but not one of his better games. Early foul trouble probably didn’t help.

Loved the more aggressive zone press defense in the first half. Worked well at generating turnovers. Navy seemed to figure it out in the second half.

That one new blonde Masonette with all the energy....wow

Love the Green Machine....the singing not so much.

 

[MASONscott]

Great seeing everyone tonight. Always the bonus!

We won with some excitement. Some of the young guns (eg XJ) look promising. Boys showed some GRIT when it mattered most.

It was one game and the first game.

Seemed liked DP experimented quite a bit in the 1st half. My expectations are lower this season. So, I’m not making a big deal over this. Seems we historically get scares at this time of the season throughout all tenures anyhow.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Five Two]

Its amazing how we covered that game. Crazy

Really liked how Hartwell carries himself on the court. Very impressed with X.

The Navy coach lost this game. We can't hit an outside shot in the first half against their zone. They come out and play man to begin the 2nd and we go on a run. They switch back to zone and we go cold. We hit some clutch shots, but I would have sat in that zone at the end of regulation and in OT. We clearly proved they couldnt stop us 1-1. Glad they didnt make us prove we can shoot. I have a feeling we are going to see a lot of zones during these buy games at home. UMD and TCU will probably play us straight up man, but I'd be shocked if Longwood doesnt start out in a zone.

Give our guys credit for grinding.

Band was great as always but thought we could have used Baby Shark toward the end of the game.

With all the games on the schedule and with the ACC playing conference games tonight, we got 2 ACC refs. There werent many questionable calls, which was nice.

 

[GMU1983]

Our crowd sucked students sat the whole game

 

[The Great PATSby]

Our crowd sucked students sat the whole game

Not true!!! A bunch of them stood up when the cheerleaders were handing out pizza.

 

[GMUgemini]

Its amazing how we covered that game. Crazy

Really liked how Hartwell carries himself on the court. Very impressed with X.

The Navy coach lost this game. We can't hit an outside shot in the first half against their zone. They come out and play man to begin the 2nd and we go on a run. They switch back to zone and we go cold. We hit some clutch shots, but I would have sat in that zone at the end of regulation and in OT. We clearly proved they couldnt stop us 1-1. Glad they didnt make us prove we can shoot. I have a feeling we are going to see a lot of zones during these buy games at home. UMD and TCU will probably play us straight up man, but I'd be shocked if Longwood doesnt start out in a zone.

Give our guys credit for grinding.

Band was great as always but thought we could have used Baby Shark toward the end of the game.

With all the games on the schedule and with the ACC playing conference games tonight, we got 2 ACC refs. There werent many questionable calls, which was nice.

Looks like they were playing zone in OT, but the top of the zone would collapse on Miller when the ball would swing around to the right or left wing. Looks like they were more worried about Miller getting the ball at the FT line than our shooters getting open for 3, which burned them finally. The third 3 just looks like botched defense, I have no idea what they were trying to do.

 

[psyclone]

......
The Navy coach lost this game. We can't hit an outside shot in the first half against their zone. They come out and play man to begin the 2nd and we go on a run. They switch back to zone and we go cold. We hit some clutch shots, but I would have sat in that zone at the end of regulation and in OT. We clearly proved they couldnt stop us 1-1. Glad they didnt make us prove we can shoot. I have a feeling we are going to see a lot of zones during these buy games at home. UMD and TCU will probably play us straight up man, but I'd be shocked if Longwood doesnt start out in a zone.
.........

My impression was that in overtime Navy started in a zone, but when we hit 3 threes in the first part of the over time that forced them into man-to-man. Hard to stick with a zone when the other team gets hot from outside and starts to pull away.

It's going to be a team that may take a while to get used to their roles. With Kier out, that will add to the adjustments required once he gets back.

But there is some promise of contributions from several players including some of the new guys. XJ really was impressive tonight and wasn't afraid to take it to the basket. Made some strong hustle plays too--I remember one play when he went hard for a free ball and made a great athletic play getting to it before it went out of bounds, whirling in the air to get it back to a teammate. Doesn't play like a freshman.

Time will tell if we can piece this together. And there likely will be long stretches where the offense will disappear. Happened tonight for sure for much of the first half and a good chunk of the second half when we blew a good working lead. But the first 5 minutes of the second half and the entire overtime rescued what could have been a pretty depressing game.

 

[psyclone]

Steve Goff's article on the game:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/spor...-lead-blasts-navy-overtime-win-season-opener/

 

[sleeperpick]

swimom says she sat next to XJ’s mom on Twitter. Better hope no “Misery” antics take place. Stay woke y’all that lady is nuts

 

[By George.]

Postgame recap video with a ton of highlights (All AJ’s dunks!) Interviews with Jamal Hartwell and Brad Edwards and some clips from the presser included.

https://giantkiller.co/2019/11/06/george-mason-vs-navy-post-game-highlights-2019/

We’ve really upped our video game adding shooters on both baselines. Hope y’all enjoy. Provide any feedback you have, yes I know XJ finished with 15 and not 12. LOVE GETTING WINS.

 

[gmujim92]

Having Kier really would’ve helped ease this group into the post-Otis transition (Thanks, Captain Obvious).

Now we have an entire team of guys who are either brand new to college basketball or stepping into much larger roles than they had last season. And we don’t have the one senior who can put everyone else at ease just by his presence on the floor.

It’s going to take some time for them to figure out how all the puzzle pieces fit together, so I’m glad the early schedule is soft. Hopefully it will give them a chance to build confidence and get some Ws before Kier (please God) comes back healthy.

 

[FreeGunston12]

Why the hate for Oduro? I had 0 expectations for him, and he gave some solid minutes. Got 3x the stats as Mar in half the minutes. Boxed out well, communicated well on defense, and ate minutes without fouling. That’s all we should be asking from him at this point.

 

[Washingtonian]

I'm probably going to get some heat for this, but why did Paulsen call timeout with 15 seconds left in regulation? The game is tied, worse case, it goes overtime. Play the possession out, and don't give the opponent time to set something up. I would think part of the practice is these type of scenarios.

 

[gmujim92]

I'm probably going to get some heat for this, but why did Paulsen call timeout with 15 seconds left in regulation? The game is tied, worse case, it goes overtime. Play the possession out, and don't give the opponent time to set something up. I would think part of the practice is these type of scenarios.

I guarantee if Kier was on the floor DP wouldn’t have taken the TO.

 

[Mason2005]

Game 1 wasn't as pretty as we wanted but we start off 1-0. Check out GK's post game recap video. Bryan interviews Hartwell and Brad Edwards. Enjoy! We appreciate the support from these boards.

https://giantkiller.co/2019/11/06/george-mason-vs-navy-post-game-highlights-2019/

 

[p8triotfan4life]

it's a concept calling balanced scoring. Greene will probably put up 15-17 PPG while Kier is out.

Wilson, Miller, Mar will score 8-12 PPG between the three of them.

Hartwell will get 10 PPG.

Calixte and JDS will get 4-6 PPG.

anything else will be gravy.

If you tally up the low end of those realistic averages that puts us at 65 PPG.

looks like I was pretty spot on with my assessment of where the scoring was coming from. I guess I gave too much credit to Goanar Mar, and underestimated Xavier Johnson.

Go Mar needs to regain his freshman confidence and shooting stroke.

 

[Falco]

I'm probably going to get some heat for this, but why did Paulsen call timeout with 15 seconds left in regulation? The game is tied, worse case, it goes overtime. Play the possession out, and don't give the opponent time to set something up. I would think part of the practice is these type of scenarios.

Young team

 

[GMU1983]

https://navysports.com/news/2019/11...ads-to-overtime-loss-for-mens-basketball.aspx

 

[GSII]

I'm probably going to get some heat for this, but why did Paulsen call timeout with 15 seconds left in regulation? The game is tied, worse case, it goes overtime. Play the possession out, and don't give the opponent time to set something up. I would think part of the practice is these type of scenarios.

Probably same reason he called Timeout at end of 1st half and we got a backdoor cut from X via a beautiful pass from Mar.

 

[By George.]

I'm probably going to get some heat for this, but why did Paulsen call timeout with 15 seconds left in regulation? The game is tied, worse case, it goes overtime. Play the possession out, and don't give the opponent time to set something up. I would think part of the practice is these type of scenarios.

Called a timeout and executed a play perfectly before halftime, this young team will need practice with set play execution. Didn’t disagree with the timeout. Looked like we were trying to go to AJ down low but he was blanketed.