Hello Mason Nation! All the chalk talk this week is from the Davidson game. If I can find a recording of homecoming, that game might find its way onto next week’s breakdown. Let’s get to some stats and notes first.
- The bench scored 14 points combined in the St. Louis, La Salle, and Davidson games, in which Karmari Newman was suspended and Ian Boyd was suspended for two of the three. The starters scored 231 points in that stretch, or about 94% of our total scoring.
- The bench was good for 9 points between Karmari and Troy Temara against Fordham. This will hopefully get a little better now that Boyd’s suspension is over and we’re back to full strength, but the lack of bench production really lowers this team’s ceiling. We’ll need more productive and consistent bench contributions if we’re going to make a run in the A10 tournament.
- Consistent with the theme of the starters carrying a huge load, Otis Livingston and Jaire Grayer averaged 39 minutes per game in the four games between St. Louis and Fordham.
- Last week I asked if the three point defense was slipping. This week, we combined to allow 16-55 from deep, or 29.1%. Davidson and Fordham aren’t great three point shooting teams, but we still held both of them below their season averages.
- Mason gave up 5, 5, and 6 offensive rebounds against La Salle, Davidson, and Fordham, while corralling 28 offensive rebounds themselves in those three games. That’s a welcome trend, and one that might not hold up against the bigger teams in the A10, but it’s positive progress nonetheless.
- VCU shot 50% from the field against Mason to open A10 play. In the 11 games since, no team has shot better than 46.6%. Mason is holding opponents to 43.1% shooting in conference, which isn’t bad, but is only good for 8th in the A10.
- The schedule is about to get a whole lot harder. Richmond, Rhode Island, and Dayton are a combined 27-9 in conference. Mason then gets to go to George Washington, who proved a bad matchup in the first game, before getting A10 bottom-feeder Duquesne, before ending the season against 1st place VCU. A 1-5 ending to the conference season isn’t out of the question.
Chalk Talk
Davidson had an interesting strategy for defending Marquise, and it was effective. On most possessions one of their bigs was assigned to him, but when Marquise was off the ball, that big would stay in the paint to clog spacing. Teams have done that with Marquise’s defender before, but usually that means an extra guard playing rover, not a big. Davidson’s Peyton Aldridge and Will Magarity, 6’8” and 6’11” respectively, took turns guarding Marquise but playing well off him. In this clip you can see Aldridge is assigned to Marquise. Marquise gets the ball above the arc. Aldridge, planted in the paint, flashes out to guard him, but still doesn’t come out past the elbow. Marquise shoots and hits the three.
Here’s a play from the second half where Magarity (22) is assigned to Marquise. Magarity totally leaves him alone at the top of the key and doubles Jalen instead. Marquise spends most of this play with his defender at least 15 feet off him, and the double team causes Jalen to turn the ball over. Remember this because it will be important later.
Before we get much further let’s check in on Temara and Relvao. Here, Temara hedges a ball screen set by Davidson’s Magarity. Jaire is supposed to check Magarity when he slips to the post. However, Jaire drifts off to guard Aldridge (a very good three point shooter), Kier is supposed to slide over but is late, and Temara doesn’t get back in time. The result is an easy dunk for Magarity and everyone looking at each other wondering what happened. It’s tough to assign blame here since our scheme leaves this sort of thing open if the rotations aren’t tight.
Relvao gave us some very solid minutes off the bench after Jalen got his second foul. This play is very similar to the one above, but it’s a little slower developing for Davidson, in part because Relvao forces Gibbs so high off the arc, and that allows Relvao to recover and block the shot. Relvao defending like this makes the minutes Jalen is on the bench a lot less scary.
Here’s a play that shows how teams are starting to attack our very predictable defensive rotations. Magarity sets a ball screen for Gibbs. Relvao hedges, as is tradition. Otis leaves his man to check Magarity, who slips to the post. With Kam and Relvao occupied on Gibbs and Otis in the post, Pritchett (#20) gets a wide open three from the wing. Luckily, he clanks it.
This is worth mentioning because it’s illustrative of how good teams can take advantage of our constant hedging on ball screens. Gibbs has two good options here – Magarity is a foot taller than Otis, who’s guarding him in the post, and Pritchett is about as open as he can be in a halfcourt set. This play works out in Mason’s favor, but there will be plenty more like it where it burns us.
Jalen was Mason’s best player in this game. We’ll get to the good Jalen stuff in a minute but first I feel obligated to mention a tendency of his that I’ve noticed. He anticipates ball screens and teams take advantage of him for it. Here, he steps away from the basket to hedge on Gibbs, anticipating a ball screen that never happens. Magarity zooms to the basket for an easy layup. The same thing happened on Mount St. Mary’s game-winning dunk earlier this season.
Alright, now we’ll get to the fun stuff. One of the smart things about Davidson guarding Marquise with a big was that it left Jack Gibbs to guard Otis. Otis struggled (5-14 shooting), which is no shame. Gibbs is a senior and a very good defender. That’s why I loved this play from Jaire and Otis. Jaire motions Otis over, gives him a quick pass, and sets a hard screen on Gibbs to create separation. Otis gets as much daylight as he’s seen all day and hits the long pullup two. This play looks like it might have been improvised, which makes it that much cooler:
Marquise and Jalen ran a really pretty low ball screen just before that. Jalen screens for Marquise, Jalen’s defender hedges, Jalen pins both of them above him, turns, and catches a great entry pass from Marquise. Caught out of position, Magarity commits the foul while giving up the basket.
One play that kind of flew under the radar in this game was Jaire’s steal and layup that tied the game after Davidson went on a run to take a lead. The camera cut away during the steal so you can’t see it, but let me assure you that gigantic stones are required to pull this off:
Jalen had 23 points on 13 shots, mostly because he would get isolated on the baseline, and Davidson didn’t have anyone who can cover him 1 on 1. Marquise’s defender was watching for cutters and would only slide over when Jalen got into the paint, at which point it was already too late on several occasions. I’m going to take a few gifs off from explaining and just let you guys enjoy Jalen taking Magarity and Aldridge to the torture chamber:
Finally, here’s where Mason really made Davidson pay for their strategy to defend Marquise. Up a bucket with just over a minute left, Davidson sticks to the game plan and doubles Jalen in the paint, taking the risk of leaving Marquise open. Jalen finds Marquise, no defenders try hard to contest, and Marquise drills a three. There’s your ballgame:
Davidson’s strategy largely worked. Marquise was 2 of 4 from three and 3 of 11 inside the arc, where he couldn’t find much space. Gibbs held Otis to 5-14 shooting. Mason needed Jenkins to be a monster in this game, and he came through. Along with Jaire’s quietly efficient 12 points on 7 shots, it was enough to get past a solid Davidson team on the road.
Until next week, Mason fans. Go Patriots!