Mason Looks to Bounce Back in Richmond

By Palmer Johnson

Your George Mason Patriots look to get back on track on the road against the Richmond Spiders, who are undefeated in conference play and 10-5 overall.

The Spiders are coached by Chris Mooney, who’s been there since the 2005-06 season and recently came back from heart surgery. Good to see he’s able to coach again.

Richmond lost star wing Tyler Burton in the offseason, as he grad transferred to Villanova, but have seemingly replaced him pretty quickly with East Tennessee St. transfer guard Jordan King. King was teammates with Mason forward Jalen Haynes at ETSU.

In out-of-conference play, the trend for the Spiders was winning all the games they were supposed to win, and losing games they were supposed to lose. They didn’t have any major surprises.

Richmond by the Numbers

The Spiders are the 97^th ranked team on KenPom, with the 161^st offense and 49^th defense.

Mooney has his guys playing a pretty slow tempo at 67.5 possessions per game. While their offense is slow, their defensive possessions are 90^th fastest in the country.

Richmond is a pretty old team, with their average D-1 experience being 2.78 years, 22^nd most in the country.

On offense, the Spiders are very efficient shooting the ball as they are top 90 in eFG at 53.3%, 3-pointers at 35.5%, and 2-pointers at 53.3%. Not only are they efficient shooting the ball, they get the opportunity to shoot the ball a lot, having the lowest turnover rate in the country.

I was trying to figure out how they could possibly have just an average offense with such good shooting metrics, the lowest turnover rate in the country, and their strength of schedule not being awful. It’s because Richmond is bottom ten in both offensive rebounding and free throw attempt rate. They only grab 18.8% of offensive rebounds, 360^th in the country, and shoot only 23.1 free throws per 100 shots, 354^th.

The Spiders get most of their points from two, with 54.8% coming from inside the arc, 78^th in the country.

That red near the free throw line could be a spot that Richmond could take advantage of if Mason drops into a zone. Overall, it seems like they’re very good from mid-range as a team.

As mentioned earlier, Jordan King somewhat unexpectedly took over the number one option responsibility after Tyler Burton transferred. It’s unexpected since he came from a lower conference and has increased his volume while also significantly increasing his efficiency. King went from scoring 15.6 on 39.9% from the field and 31.5% from three in the SoCon to 17.7 on 46.2% and 40.4%.

The other main option on offense is their 7-footer, Neal Quinn. Quinn is a super versatile big man that can really do it all, averaging 13.5 points on 56.1% from the field and 30% from three while getting 5.8 rebounds and dishing out 3.8 assists per game.

On defense, Richmond holds opponents to a low eFG of 45.3%, 20^th lowest in the country. Not only do they force a lot of misses, they do not give up offensive rebounds or send teams to the free throw line often. The Spiders give up an offensive rebound rate of only 26.7%, 82^nd in the country, while only allowing 26 free throw attempts per 100 shots, 36^th lowest in the country.

Teams take a lot of threes against the Spiders, with 41.8% of their opponents shots coming from behind the arc, top 60 in the country. Richmond is okay with this, as opponents are only hitting 29.1% of them.

Richmond will likely be the best defense Mason sees during conference play, and the best throughout the entire season against teams not named Tennessee.

I have never seen blue that dark on one of these. The Spiders force teams to take a lot of threes, and don’t let them hit anything from the corner. Unless Keyshawn Hall and Darius Maddox can hit their threes from those red spots past the arc, it’s going to be a rough night.

Richmond Scouting Report (First half vs. St. Bonaventure)

On offense, Jordan King is very willing to take deep threes if he’s open. King is also extremely shifty, I can see why he’s their number one option.

Neal Quinn plays somewhat of a point forward role for Richmond, as he had multiple great passes to backdoor cutters. Quinn really threads the needle on them, but is willing to hold it if he doesn’t think he can hit his guy. He can take threes, as he’s 3/10 on the season, but St. Bonny wasn’t covering him out there. The senior seven-footer is so good at his free throw line push shot.

When Quinn comes out of the game, Mike Walz comes in, and the Spiders try to use Walz the same as they do Quinn, giving him a distribution role.

Freshman PG Mikkel Tyne turned his brain off when St. Bonaventure pressed and threw a pick-six.

Dji Bailey tried to make a no-look pass and threw it out-of-bounds. That seemed out of character for them.

On defense, Isaiah Bigelow got a deflection and steal on the first possession. His arms were up, but he wasn’t looking at the ball. He leans as far as he can into passing lanes, but not enough that he will be super out of position if he misses.

Richmond occasionally played a softish zone full-court press.

Quinn and Walz were doing a great job at keeping Chad Venning in check. Not only was he not taking over the game, but they weren’t fouling him, as Richmond got called for their first foul with 1:34 left in the first half.

The Spiders’ defense forced a nine and a half minute scoring drought from St. Bonaventure.

What Does This Mean for Mason?

Amari Kelly is going to have his hands full with Neal Quinn, as he is one of the bigger guys he will play against all season.

Billups and Maddox should be able to handle Jordan King’s shot-creating ability.

Isaiah Bigelow could be a tough matchup on both ends for Keyshawn Hall. Polite and Okojie will have to make sure they don’t pass it directly over Bigelow’s head, as he may reflect it without looking.

Prediction: Mason wins 61-56. This game is a rock fight, similar to the VCU game, but Mason isn’t as cold from three.

Mason really needs this win, you can’t lose two in a row this early. It will be tough though.