George Mason Basketball Weekly Rundown – At the Top of the A10

Welcome back to the weekly rundown! After a month-long hiatus we’ve got a few fun games to talk about, as our beloved Patriots have turned a corner and are alone at the top of the A10 standings (kind of on a technicality, but I’ll take it!). For today’s column I’m just going to go line by line through a bunch of things that have played a part in the turnaround. Per usual this post is all numbers, observations, and a lot of other things I find interesting.

Justin Kier’s ascendance

In the seven games prior to St. Bonaventure, Kier averaged 17.4 points, 7.3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2.3 steals on 54% shooting. He shot 11-27 from 3 during that span (41%) which helps Mason’s spacing immensely. The team’s three-point shooting has improved recently (more on that in a moment) and Kier finding his stroke is a big reason why. Kier is blossoming into his own version of a guard that outrebounds his size, which is becoming a staple of the Dave Paulsen era. He’s scoring at all three levels – in addition to the three-point shooting, he’s hitting over 50% of two-point jumpers and he’s getting to the rim as well. His mid-range game is his bread and butter, but the deep ball gives him (and the offense) an extra dimension.

After adding 15 points and 14 rebounds against Bonaventure, he’s now tied with Otis Livingston as the team’s leading scorer on the season.

Javon Greene, Defensive Stopper

The coaching staff trusts Javon with tough defensive assignments and he’s responded in a big way. He spent most of the St. Joe’s game on Charlie Brown, a preseason All-A10 player and an NBA prospect according to some. Brown scored 17 points on only 5-13 shooting (including 1-6 from 3) and grabbed 4 rebounds, all below his season average. Javon also filled up the box score with 7 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, and a block. Against St. Bonaventure, Javon drew the assignment on Courtney Stockard, another guy who will have options to play professionally after the season. Stockard scored 16 points on 6-14 shooting and grabbed 5 rebounds. Combined, Javon held two of the best players in the A10 to 33 points on 27 shots – that’s fantastic.

There’s a good chance he draws Kellan Grady on Wednesday against Davidson, another NBA prospect and the frontrunner for A10 Player of the Year. How he fares will tell us a lot about Mason’s ability to compete with the A10 heavyweights.

Sixth Man Ian Boyd and the Shooting Infusion

Mason was shooting 31.6% from deep on the season before the Navy game. If you removed the random 14-23 performance in the loss to Georgia State, that number dropped below 30%. I wrote in here about my concern that Mason was just a bad shooting team and we’d have to live with it.

Suddenly, Mason is shooting 42% from three over the last four games. In addition to Kier, Ian Boyd has also found his stroke, hitting 9 of 19 from deep in his last three. That includes the four-point play that started the avalanche against St. Joe’s, the halftime buzzer-beater against St. Bonaventure, and a big second half 3 to stretch Mason’s lead from 6 to 9. Mason’s ability to bring shooting off the bench makes the team stronger.

One last note here – Bonaventure deployed a 2-3 zone in the second half that flummoxed Mason for a few possessions, until threes by Jamal Hartwell, Otis, and Javon knocked them out of it. Mason being able to shoot a team out of zone is a great development.

Paint Defense and the Frontcourt Rotation

Earlier in the season I used this space to whine about how poorly Mason defended the paint. I had all sorts of numbers that showed they were terrible – 72.4% opponent field goal percentage at the rim, 13^th worst in the entire country, and allowing opponents to get almost 38% of their shots at the rim. Those numbers have turned around in a big way – Mason still isn’t great at defending the rim (66.1% on the season), but they are keeping opponents out from getting there in the first place. Only 30% of opponent shots come at the rim – that’s now the 48^th best mark in the country, a remarkable improvement.

I’m sure there are schematic reasons for this that I’m not qualified to opine on, but Greg Calixte getting big minutes helps as well. The frontcourt rotation is now largely Jarred Reuter and Greg splitting minutes at the 5 depending on matchup. Reuter didn’t match up as well against St. Joe’s bigs who can step out and shoot, and Calixte got the bulk of the minutes. St. Joe’s scored only 18 points in the paint. Against Bonaventure they had 19 minutes apiece, both scoring 8 points, while Greg grabbed 9 rebounds and Reuter grabbed 5.

Greg’s minutes have been steadily increasing all season, and he’s now averaging 18 minutes per game over the last seven. He’s also shooting a crazy efficient 76.5% on the season.

Closing Salvo

Two games into conference play and Mason has already put us through an emotional rollercoaster this season. Preseason dreams of an at-large bid turned to despair, and now we have visions of winning the A10. This team responded in a tight game on the road against St. Joe’s, and they took punch after punch from St. Bonaventure before putting the game away. Before that, they rallied to finish +19 in the second half against Kansas State, falling just short of a big upset victory. They are now +56 in the second half of the last three games and are showing signs of a good team that slowly chokes the life out of opponents.

I love everything I saw from this week and remain cautiously optimistic that this team has turned a corner. We’ll find out for sure against Davidson on Wednesday.

This post was edited to correctly reflect Mason’s three-point shooting percentage prior to the Navy game.