The Official Season Prediction Thread

[CHRISTOPHER JAMES JOLLAY]

5-6 conference, 13-14 overall wouldn't be surprising, but slightly disappointing.

 

[gmujim92]

NBCSports.com picked us to finish 9th. So I guess I'm not the only one optimistic about our team.

 

[JimP]

It was a serious question.

I was (and still am) wondering if there is something about those programs that makes you think we're going to lose at home to Towson, JMU and Mercer.

As for my optimism, it is rooted in the fact that we have one of the best coaches in the A-10, a senior big man who was an A-10 all-rookie pick, the best young point guard and several other promising kids who will give us backcourt depth in a guards' league.

I'll hang up and listen.

Hope it's different in year two of DP, but I'm not overly confident about a win over Towson after the last two years home opening clunkers. Cornell & Colgate to boot - ouch. Perhaps things will be different after now that GMU's young guards have a year of experience.

 

[Mason2005]

Heyyyyy folks we are going undefeated!!!! You heard it here first.

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

 

[gmujim92]

Do you know anything I don't that will get us a better record? Please share. Do you remember how badly this team shot the ball last season? Add to that losing a nation leading rebounder who masked big problems.

No offense to Shevon, but great rebounder aside, he was a huge hindrance to our offense. His inability to pass out of double teams without turning the ball was a major liability. I expect the offense to flow better without him clogging the paint.

Also, I expect our young guards to shoot the ball better because they've been working their asses off in the gym and it's fairly common for players to make their biggest jump in performance between freshman and sophomore year.

The A-10 is a guard's league and for the first time in a long time, we have depth, versatility and plenty of options in the backcourt.

 

[psyclone]

NBCSports.com picked us to finish 9th. So I guess I'm not the only one optimistic about our team.

Jim got me curious, so I did a search for their A10 preview. Here's the link:
http://collegebasketball.nbcsports....nce-preview-is-it-finally-rhode-islands-time/

 

[Washingtonian]

No one has said this, but I think we will beat someone that no one expects us to in conference. vcu was it last year in Fairfax and we should have beat Davidson at Davidson last season (I was at that game).

 

[GSII]

You gotta look hard, but this team is very different from last year. Boyd, Grayer, Otis will be feared by seasons end. As for replacing Shevon...... MJ had Pippen who had Armstrong. Nobody remembers Cartwright.

 

[sleeperpick]

It was a serious question.

I was (and still am) wondering if there is something about those programs that makes you think we're going to lose at home to Towson, JMU and Mercer.

As for my optimism, it is rooted in the fact that we have one of the best coaches in the A-10, a senior big man who was an A-10 all-rookie pick, the best young point guard and several other promising kids who will give us backcourt depth in a guards' league.

I'll hang up and listen.

Towson has a ton of upperclassmen and on paper they are a lot better than we are... Not sure about the other two teams on your list.

 

[tblack33]

We surprise a few teams, but realistically we are still a year out from making some serious noise. Make it out of the first round of the A10 for the first time ever, just to get nuked from orbit by Dayton. At least two transfers after this year as well, backcourt is too crowded. I expect there will be a couple surprises by the time conference play starts, to include Boyd becoming a starter.

Towson -- L
Lebanon Valley -- W
Mt. St. Mary's -- W
Houston (Gulf Coast Showcase) -- L
Kent St./S. Dakota (Gulf Coast Showcase) -- W
TBD (Gulf Coast Showcase) -- L
James Madison -- W
at Northern Iowa -- L
Mercer -- W
at Penn State -- L
at Penn -- W
Longwood -- W
Prairie View A&M -- W

vcu -- L
UMass --L
at St Bona -- L
at Saint Joe's -- L
Saint Louis -- W
at Richmond -- L
GW -- W
at UMass -- L
at Saint Louis -- W
LaSalle -- L
at Davidson -- L
Fordham -- W
Richmond -- W
Rhode Island -- L
at Dayton -- L
at GW -- L
Duquesne -- W
at vcu -- L

 

[MasonFanatic]

I think this is the year we finally win at Foggy Bottom

 

[Mason2005]

A little recap of yesterday's coaches clinic.

We are still a poor shooting team but defense has good potential. Expect mostly 4 guard lineups. Starters as of right now Jalen/Abrams/Grayer/Moore/Otis. Will be running a small lineup most the time. Very young team and it shows but athleticism prob the best I've seen in any year. My breakout freshman candidate is Kier.

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

 

[psyclone]

A little recap of yesterday's coaches clinic.

We are still a poor shooting team but defense has good potential. Expect mostly 4 guard lineups. Starters as of right now Jalen/Abrams/Grayer/Moore/Otis. Will be running a small lineup most the time. Very young team and it shows but athleticism prob the best I've seen in any year. My breakout freshman candidate is Kier.

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

Thanks for the comment! I'm assuming that this is based on your observations of the players during practice and not Paulsen's comments during the clinic, which is something I wouldn't expect him to do at that time. Is that correct?

 

[Mason2005]

They were Paulsen's comments. Kier is my personal observation. I'm going to keep what he said to that though.

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

 

[psyclone]

I dropped in on Mason Madness tonight. Not much learned as the men's team had a dunk contest with 6 players, 4 of whom were freshman. Boyd, Wilson, Temara, Newman with Grayer and Abram also participating. Each player got 1 minute to make 1 dunk which was then rated by 6 judges (Doc Nix,
Beth Cabrera, Darrell Green and 3 others).

Many very fancy dunks tried (and missed!)--the most popular were the ones where the ball was bounced very high, caught, with the dunk to follow. No one made that sort of dunk.

Temara and Grayer advanced to the finals, tied on their dunks, with Temara winning in a "playoff". Troy's specialty seems to be the between-the-legs dunk which he did smoothly in all 3 rounds.

Let's hope we shoot a higher percentage on regular shots during the season than we did on the dunks tonight!

Any body else go to the event?

 

[Mason2005]

I dropped in on Mason Madness tonight. Not much learned as the men's team had a dunk contest with 6 players, 4 of whom were freshman. Boyd, Wilson, Temara, Newman with Grayer and Abram also participating. Each player got 1 minute to make 1 dunk which was then rated by 6 judges (Doc Nix,
Beth Cabrera, Darrell Green and 3 others).

Many very fancy dunks tried (and missed!)--the most popular were the ones where the ball was bounced very high, caught, with the dunk to follow. No one made that sort of dunk.

Temara and Grayer advanced to the finals, tied on their dunks, with Temara winning in a "playoff". Troy's specialty seems to be the between-the-legs dunk which he did smoothly in all 3 rounds.

Let's hope we shoot a higher percentage on regular shots during the season than we did on the dunks tonight!

Any body else go to the event?

I think you are being a bit too critical, imagine the pressure on the kids. 4 of the 6 dunkers were freshmen seeing a huge crowd for the first time.

Boyd's dunk was very difficult, only a handful of ppl can do that 360 windmill dunk. He ran out of legs after the first two attempts. Also consider how worn out they are from the practices. Newman isn't a dunker. Troy missed a free throw dunk twice but was close, can't hate on that. His dunks after were all amazing. Grayer made amazing dunks after seeing them from Jenkins's insta vids. Wilson and Abrams dunks were good as well. I don't think we've had this athletic of a team in a long time. Let the fun begin!

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

 

[gmujim92]

For the staff to have so significantly upgraded the overall athleticism of our roster in just their first two recruiting classes is both a credit to them and more evidence that Hewitt's recruiting was .

 

[MasonFanatic]

If Troy had hit that FT line dunk, we might have had to replace the EBA roof immediately.

And he really didn't miss by very much.

 

[Washingtonian]

Kenpom has their rankings out, Mason is #171: http://kenpom.com/index.php?y=2017

 

[Falco]

Kenpom has their rankings out, Mason is #171: http://kenpom.com/index.php?y=2017

3 A10 Teams in the top 5
9 A10 Teams in the top 100.

I would love to see a couple in the top 25 by the end of the season.