Welcome Mason Nation and A10 fans! We’ll be tracking all of today’s A10 tournament action right here, so check back for updates. Today’s banner picture is the look that Pookie Powell had last night to beat UMass that just missed. Godspeed, Pookie.
Day 2 Game 4: Saint Louis vs George Washington
Final: Saint Louis 70, George Washington 63. Tough, tough ending to Yuta Watanabe’s career. He rolled his right ankle going up for a layup and was in agony on the bench for the rest of the game. He got his ankle taped and it looked like he was working with the trainers to try to go back in, but he couldn’t put any weight on it.
Saint Louis scored 44 second half points on 16-24 shooting and 5-10 from three. Totally unexpected turnaround from the team that shot 5-20 in the first half. No Bo Zeigler killed them, as Zeigler still finished +13 for the game, while Steeves finished -15 and Toro finished -12. That’s a crazy split.
Kudos to Saint Louis for putting the clamps on in the second half and hitting a rhythm on offense. They get Davidson tomorrow, who beat them 54-51 in their only matchup this season.
8:00 second half: SLU 51, GW 47
All SLU so far this half, as the second half is the complete opposite of the first. We’ve got pace and SLU hitting a bunch of threes here. SLU has outscored GW 30-15, hitting 4-9 from three and holding the C0lonials to 6-17 shooting. Bo Zeigler, the difference maker in the first half, has only played two minutes in the second as he already has four fouls. He’s a plus 12 and Patrick Steeves, the guy who replaces him, is a minus 13.
14:52 second half: GW 36, SLU 29
Getting chippy! Arnoldo Toro and Hasahn French had to be separated after scrapping for a rebound earlier. No technicals were issued. St. Louis has worked their way back into the game by pounding the ball inside, but it still looks insanely difficult for them to score. Hasahn French has a couple tough buckets in the paint and he’s up to 9 points to lead the Billikens.
Halftime: GW 32, SLU 21
Bo Zeigler kept flying around to end the half. He finishes with 11 points and 7 rebounds, 3 of them offensive. He’s got a plus/minus of +14 in the first half. He’s been fantastic, and he’s masking the fact that Yuta Watanabe (2-5, 6 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block) has been struggling. Saint Louis shot an atrocious 5-20 in that first half. It’s tough to explain how difficult this is to watch.
3:52 first half: GW 26, SLU 18
Bo Zeigler and Arnoldo Toro have been doing damage inside for the Colonials, which is a surprise given how well Saint Louis usually defends the paint. Those two plus Watanabe have 19 of GW’s 26, and GW has 14 second chance points to Saint Louis’s zero. For Saint Louis, Jalen Johnson is the only player with more than one field goal. He’s 2-7 with 8 points.
This game is just as ugly as we feared. SLU needs to finish the half strong, because this team is not built to come back from large deficits.
11:00 first half: GW 14, SLU 9
Being courtside for these games is cool and all, but it’d be cooler if we could go onto the floor and get some shots up during timeouts.
Regarding the game: Saint Louis is a BIG team, and I always forget how big they are until I see them in person again. Even GW is a decently sized team, and St. Louis dwarfs them. Despite being massive, they’re ice cold from the floor right now, shooting only 3-9. GW is 7-13 and has all 14 points from five different players. They’ve already got Bo Zeigler going with an alley-oop, which is important. Zeigler saved their bacon against Fordham last night and GW can struggle to get scoring from their role players.
Pregame: This game will be ugly. GW is 206th in the NCAA in offensive rating while Saint Louis is 240th. SLU is also one of the better defensive teams in the country, while GW is just about average. Neither team shoots threes well at all – GW is 310th in the NCAA at 32.2%, while SLU is even worse (332nd/31.3%). Both teams also sport extremely low 3 point attempt rates, so there’s going to be a lot of ugly basketball in the paint tonight.
Even though this is the 6-11 matchup it could go either way. GW is 6-3 in their last nine games, while SLU is 3-4 in their last seven and is still adjusting to life without Jordan Goodwin.
Day 2 Game 3: Richmond vs Duquesne
Final: Richmond 81, Duquesne 68
Duquesne got within single digits with under three minutes to play, never could get it closer than that. Not much else to say about this one, other than Richmond’s offense is absurdly hot right now. Look at their offensive rating their last three games:
UMass: 132.4
Mason: 134.8
Duquesne: 125.4 as of the time my stats broadcast froze with 2:42 to play
For context, Davidson had the A10’s highest offensive rating on the season at 116.4. Richmond gets St. Bonaventure tomorrow in an A10 tournament game that might be really, really good.
3:36 second half: Richmond 74, Duquesne 58
Richmond’s guards are much faster than Duquesne’s and they blew their doors off here in the second half. Duquesne couldn’t find a lineup that could stop the bleeding. Grant Golden subbed out at 14 minutes and came back around the five minute mark. Richmond was super small with Buckingham, Nathan Cayo, or Nick Sherrod the biggest guy on the floor during that time. Duquesne did not respond in kind and kept one of Verhoeven or Robinson on the floor, which feels like a bad matchup against all that quickness. Not sure how much it mattered since Richmond is still hitting everything.
11:43 second half: Richmond 58, Duquesne 45
Like most teams Richmond faces, Duquesne has a big size advantage. They had Tydus Verhoeven and Jordan Robinson on the floor together for one possession where the ball moved much too quickly and Gilyard canned an open three. I don’t think we’re going to see a lot more of that lineup today. It’s just too big and not fast enough to keep up with Richmond’s guards and ball movement.
Demonte Buckingham finished a tough and-one play at the rim. He’s got 5 this half while Gilyard and Fore have added 5 and 4, respectively. Richmond is 7-11 from the field this half and starting to pull away.
Halftime: Richmond 41, Duquesne 33
Richmond’s lightning quick guards are a problem for Duquesne. Gilyard has 11 and Khwan Fore has 9 at the half. Richmond is 14-23 from the floor and 6-11 from 3, while Duquesne is 12-27/5-10. This has been a really fun game so far – both teams are playing fast and neither is playing a whole lot of defense. Duquesne is going to need to find points outside of Castro-Caneddy and Lewis if they’re going to keep pace in the second half.
2:15 first half: Richmond 38, Duquesne 33
Richmond only has four fastbreak points but it’s clear they want to run run run. This game has an excellent pace to it. Demonte Buckingham has one point, but he’s flying all over the place and has 4 rebounds to go with 4 assists. The Spiders have a really balanced attack here, with four guys between 5-9 points and Jacob Gilyard leading the way with 11.
I missed the first few minutes of the game but it looks like Richmond is relying more on dribble penetration and less high post stuff than they’re used to. Buckingham, along with Freshman Jacob Gilyard, are causing all sorts of trouble when they get into the paint. Rene Castro-Caneddy and Mike Lewis each have 10 for the Dukes.
Day 2 Game 2: The Main Event: Mason vs UMass
STRATEGY UPDATE: Marcus Washington (@MTCwithMook on twitter) asked Otis in the locker room what the defensive plan was on Pipkins’ last attempt to tie. Mason did plan to foul Pipkins over halfcourt, but they didn’t get a chance to execute it before he was called for the push-off. That’s good insight. Mook is also blogging the A10 tournament here: http://www.mtcwithmook.com/2018/03/a10-tournament-day-2-blog-george-mason-vs-umass/
Final: Mason 80, UMass 75
I chose the wrong season to stop sniffing glue.
UMass chose not to foul down two with a 20 second difference between the shot clock and the game clock. They fouled in the course of play and put Goanar on the line for two. He back-rimmed the first and made the second to give Mason a 76-73 lead with 22.8 remaining.
Paulsen rode Javon Greene on Luwane Pipkins down the stretch and he did as well as anyone would have done. Pipkins still finished with an absurd stat line, but he missed his last few shots and pushed off on Greene when he was trying create space for a last-second three to tie. The foul was called and Mason hit both free throws to ice the game.
Otis’s shot wasn’t falling, but he kept driving and seeking out contact. He was 10-10 from the free throw line in the second half and finished with 21 points, 15 in the second half. Gutsy win for Mason against a UMass team that always fights like hell and had a great player go supernova.
4:01 second half: Tied at 71
I haven’t mentioned Goanar Mar yet but he’s been great on the offensive end with 13 points. Otis Livingston joined the party with a three-ball and now it looks like he’s getting into a groove as well. He’s up to 15. The teams are trading buckets and UMass always has an answer when it looks like Mason is about to go on a run. Luwane Pipkins hit an absurd circus shot while being fouled and completed the three-point play out of the under 8 timeout, then hit a 3 coming off a screen. Two more free throws has him at 31 points on the game. UMass has also picked up fullcourt for a few possessions. It didn’t lead to any turnovers but Mason looked surprised nonetheless.
Javon Greene and AJ Wilson are giving Mason really important bench contributions. Javon is 3-4 from 3 with 11 points and AJ has 11 points and 9 rebounds on 4-5 shooting. They’ve been huge since Kier is 3-12, Otis is 3-10, Boyd is 1-5, and Jaire is 1-9.
10:38 second half: UMass 54, Mason 53
Slow starts to both haves might haunt Mason. They hit one of their first 11 and missed a bunch of shots at the rim, only scoring eight points in the first eight minutes before Greene and Kier threes closed the deficit to one. Mason is getting plenty of turnovers and transition opportunities, but Otis and Kier each have three fouls now. AJ Wilson has also grabbed four boards in the second half already. Otis Livingston is still stuck on 6 points and hasn’t been able to get anything going here in the second.
Luwane Pipkins is still cooking for UMass, up to 23 points.
Halftime: Mason 39, UMass 39
Mason absolutely battled to close the half on a 9-0 run, which included a Javon Greene three and a monster putback slam from Greg Calixte to end the half. Mason took 12 more shots than UMass that half thanks to 11 turnovers from the minutemen, but they’re only shooting 12-33. UMass’s hyperefficient 13-21 from the floor and 7-9 from three is keeping them in this. Mason looked cooked earlier but now it’s UMass that looks like they’ll be in trouble if they cool down.
Foul trouble is an issue for both teams. For UMass, CJ Anderson has 3 and Carl Pierre, Malik Hines, and Khalea Turner-Morris all have two. Mason survived without more than two fouls on anyone.
3:41 first half: UMass 35, Mason 27. The half went from “slow start” to “unmitigated disaster” pretty quickly. UMass was 10-13 from the floor at one point. UMass’s Malik Hines got a really stupid technical after spiking the ball on a travelling call. Otis hit both free throws, and Mason closed a 28-14 deficit to 35-27 with Mar going to the line to finish an and-one. The big stories are threes – UMass is 7-8 while Mason is 1-8 – and fouls. Otis, Kier, and AJ all have two for Mason. Paulsen’s playing them anyway because he doesn’t have a choice with a deficit like this.
12:30 first half: UMass 16, Mason 8. Sloppy start for Mason. Multiple turnovers, including a bobbled handoff between AJ Wilson and Kier that led to a UMass breakaway dunk, and shots missed in the paint have Mason down 16-8 early. UMass is 4-5 from three and 6-9 from the field while Mason is 3-13 from the floor. Dave Paulsen takes a timeout after Luwane Pipkins nails his second three. Pipkins and Carl Pierre each have eight, combining for all 16 UMass points so far.
Pregame: As a Mason fan, UMass scares the shit out of me. They’re disciplined, well-coached, have a star point guard who does all their scoring, and they play above their talent level. Despite the seeding disparity, KenPom actually rates UMass as a better team than Mason. These teams are super similar and there’s no reason to think we won’t have a third straight close game here. As coach Matt McCall said in the presser yesterday, they’re going to try and get the ball out of Otis Livingston’s hands as much as possible. Mason will need contributions from the supporting cast to win this one. Look for Goanar Mar and Justin Kier to do some damage.
Day 2 Game 1: Dayton vs VCU
Final: VCU 77, Dayton 72. Dayton was 3-17 from deep but hit two in a row during a crucial stretch that put them up 70-65 with 3:16 left. They proceeded to give up 10 in a row, including an awesome spinning finish in the lane to Johnny Williams. That stretch included Dayton getting shot clock violations on consecutive possessions with under two minutes left and turning the ball over with 34 seconds left and a chance to cut the lead to 1. Quite a meltdown as Dayton battled hard all game but looked totally lost in crunch time.
7:25 second half: VCU 60, Dayton 58. Jalen Crutcher is 2-9 shooting for Dayton and has four fouls, but he’s also got 8 rebounds and 6 assists. Rethinking my earlier prediction of Dayton folding, I’m not sure I trust this VCU team to step on the throat. They’ve had their share of issues closing games too.
Dayton’s had success with Cunningham and Kostas sharing the floor. Kostas is the closest thing to a rim protector Dayton has and he pulls his defender (either Tillman or Santos-Silva) out of the paint. Dayton is getting murdered by poor shooting – they’re 3-17 from three and they’ve been getting good looks. This place is getting really, really loud as VCU turns it on here. Dayton made a crucial mistake with a lane violation after Tillman missed the front end of a 1-and-1. Tillman went back to the line and hit both, but Kostas and Cunningham followed that up with back-to-back and-ones. Final transmission until the end of the game for me.
13:10 second half: VCU 50, Dayton 45. First possession of the half was a post touch for Tillman that he finished with a nice turnaround. Looks like VCU is going to try to get him going here. VCU is also picking up full court to start the half. If you’re not watching the game, things are getting chippy as the refs have let a LOT of contact go on both sides all game. De’Riante Jenkins (VCU) and Jalen Crutcher (Dayton) were issued double-technicals when they started jawing at each other after a Josh-Cunningham and-one.
It’s great that Justin Tillman can shoot threes, but I’d rather have him banging in the post if I’m Mike Rhoades. He’s 3-5 in the paint and 0-3 from deep. That ratio is out of whack. Cunningham has 13 for Dayton, but everyone on VCU is contributing as they’ve got 5 guys between 7-9 points. Dayton needs to find a way to get stops. They can’t keep trading buckets. Feels like a VCU avalanche might be coming.
Halftime: VCU 38, Dayton 33. There is no rim protection on either side in this game. VCU is 10-18 inside the arc and Dayton is 12-24, and both teams are hammering the paint. Josh Cunningham and Trey Landers lead Dayton with 10 points and 9 points, respectively, while VCU has nine guys that have scored already. Dayton went down 9 and looked like they were in some trouble before scoring the last four points to close the half. Justin Tillman has 5 rebounds but just 3 points on 1-5 shooting. We’ll see if Dayton can respond in the second half of what feels like a road game here.
2:52 first half: Some really good back and forth here. VCU has given some token pressure on a couple possessions but is mostly content to let Dayton try to set up halfcourt. Dayton is having no trouble getting into the paint, but they’re not defending the paint particularly well either. What’s really killing them is that they’re 2-11 from three despite getting good looks, and VCU is heating up at 5-12 from deep. VCU is also 10-17 from inside the arc, mostly in the paint, where they’ve been playing bully ball with Tillman, Lane, and Santos-Silva. Dayton doesn’t have rim protection when Kostas isn’t in the game. We go to the U4 with Josh Cunningham picking up one of the worst charge calls I’ve ever seen and VCU leading 36-27.
11:22 first half: Cunningham has a few quick baskets and 8 points already for Dayton. He’s going to be a problem, as Tillman is having all sorts of trouble with him in the post. Dayton keeps missing good looks from 3, but the opportunities will be there. For VCU, De’Riante Jenkins made his first three then took a couple heat-checks before going to the bench for Malik Crowfield, who canned a deep 3 ball as soon as he got in the game. Kostas Antetokounmpo (sp) made an immediate impact for Dayton, throwing down a sweet alley-oop and battling for an offensive rebound in the post. We’ve got some fun action in the early game.
Threes are falling for VCU (4-8) but not Dayton (0-4) as Dayton trails 20-16.
Pregame: Today’s action starts with Dayton taking on VCU in the 8/9 game. Winner advances to play Rhode Island tomorrow. VCU fans are here in droves and this place is much, much louder than it was yesterday.
I’ll be watching the battle in the post between Justin Tillman (VCU) and Josh Cunningham (Dayton), the two best post bigs in the A10. VCU rides Tillman a lot more than Dayton rides Cunningham, but I like them both to get around 20 points today. Dayton runs an extremely efficient offense and can cause problems for VCU from behind the arc, but Dayton also has a tendency to fold on the road when the chips are down. This is definitely a road atmosphere as VCU travels very well, so we’ll see how Dayton responds. I’m guessing this one will be tight going into the second half.
