Mason Looks to Continue the Winning Streak at Loyola Chicago

By Palmer Johnson

Your George Mason Patriots look to improve to 19-8 and 8-6 in conference play against a tough 19-7 and 11-2 Loyola Chicago Ramblers squad on the road. Mason is currently on a three-game winning streak, if it gets to four…watch out.

The last time these two teams played was just a couple of weeks ago in EagleBank, where unfortunately the Ramblers took the win.

LoyChi is tied for the best record in the A10, but Richmond has the head-to-head matchup tiebreaker.

Mason has already played Loyola Chicago this season, so there is a deeper scouting report on them here, and I will try not to repeat things I have said in the previous article.

The Ramblers are currently on a six-game winning streak. Stop it at six.

Loyola Chicago By The Numbers

In conference play, Loyola Chicago has had the 8^th best offense at 105.5 points per 100 possessions, and 2^nd best defense at 98 per 100.

LoyChi runs a deep rotation, with them running ten deep in conference play and 49^th in the country in bench minutes throughout the season at 37.5%.

Valentine has the Ramblers playing pretty fast, at 69.8 possessions per game, 3^rd in the conference. This might be too fast, as they lead the conference in turnover percentage at 18.6%.

LoyChi may turn it over a lot, but when they don’t, they’re efficient, with the second highest eFG in the conference at 52.7%. They’ve been shooting twos at a 52.4% rate, 3^rd, and threes at 35.4%, 6^th.

As you may expect with a team like this, they get a lot of catch and shoot/drive opportunities, with 61.8% of their shots being assisted, 1^st in the conference.

Loyola Chicago is pretty well rounded with their scoring, being ranked 8^th, 8^th, and 10^th from two, three, and free throw point share.

There’s Adelekun in the right side of the paint. Them being such good from the corners does not pair well with Mason running a decent bit of 1-3-1 zone.

The offense is still running through Phillip Alston, with him having the highest possession percentage and second highest shot percentage, but he still has a true shooting percentage well below 50. Dame Adelekun, still coming off the bench, has taken a much bigger role in the offense during conference play, leading the team in shot percentage.

Same as their offense, the Ramblers are 2nd in eFG, this time on defense, at 46.7%. They excel at two point defense, with opponents shooting only 44.1%, that’s first in the conference. This is coupled by their 12.7% block rate, which is also first.

The Ramblers’ defense is just so good at everything except straight-on and right-wing threes. Someone is going to have to step it up like Okojie and Hall did last game.

Loyola Chicago Scouting Report (First Half vs. Saint Joseph’s)

If you haven’t read the article I linked above, I did what I believe to be my best preview article for the first LoyChi game, which was mostly based on the scouting part. It’s probably best to give that a read.

On offense, the Ramblers still love their cross-court passes, which explains some of their turnovers. Des Watson made two unreal passes, one corner-to-corner and one needle-threader pass to an open Rubin under the basket. It is kind of odd how often Loyola Chicago throws the ball away, often on not particularly rewarding passes. I’d get it if you missed a cross court pass to a wide-open guy in the corner or missed a small window to a cutter with a clear paint, but they’re missing on passes to Rubin on the perimeter or entry passes to Alston with a big defender between him and the basket.

LoyChi will clear the paint wide open, bring their post man, usually Adelekun, halfway between the paint and arc, and then throw a long-ish fade route to the basket, and centers just cannot handle it. It happened relentlessly throughout the last ten minutes of the first half, and it worked much more than it failed. This could be a Malik Henry strength.

Joe’s went into a 2-3 zone out of a Rambler timeout, they ended up getting a shot clock violation.

Jalen Quinn had Christ Essandoko on the perimeter and couldn’t get past him. I couldn’t tell whether it was Essandoko being a freak or Quinn being slow with the ball in his hands.

Sheldon Edwards is still taking his contested threes, and they’re kind of going in.

Not to bully Alston, but it feels like possessions go downhill once he gets the ball and takes a dribble.

Rashir Fleming couldn’t handle Adelekun in the post, this wasn’t an Amari Kelly exclusive thing.

Des Watson is kind of a good post player. I did not expect that. He got a rebound, and happened to be in the post position on a big when he got it, then did a spin and got around his man, but missed the open shot.

On the other end, Miles Rubin got lost off the tip, but made an insane recovery to force an Essandoko miss. I can’t imagine what he’s going to be defensively after his sophomore leap.

Early on, the Ramblers’ aggressive defense was making the Hawks’ offense look discombobulated.

Loyola Chicago’s defense let up their first points of the game after six minutes, something went wrong somewhere, even though it was clearly designed how it was executed. Patrick Mwamba was on Erik Reynolds on the perimeter, and Braden Norris was covering Rashir Fleming. To be fair to Valentine, Mwamba was kind of locking down Reynolds throughout the half, but it doesn’t make sense to lock down one guy if you’re going to give up a post touch with your 6’4 guard covering a forward. It makes sense to do that when you can have bigs on their bigs.

When Mwamba wasn’t in the game, Sheldon Edwards was getting lost trying to follow Erik Reynolds off the ball. At times, I had to rewind it to make sure he was the one who was assigned to him.

Cam Brown blew right past Quinn, this could be something to look for if he’s covering Okojie or Billups.

Xzayvier Brown was getting locked up for most of the half, but then scored 8 on the last three possessions of the half. If he was going inside, it was a rough time, but if he was on the perimeter, he had his choice of shots.

What Does This Mean for Mason?

Skinn has had plenty of time to figure out how to deal with Dame Adelekun, whether it’s Amari Kelly changing his technique, putting Malik Henry on him, or sending help in a different way, he is the type of coach who will try something different.

I know Adelekun’s numbers didn’t look crazy, but his gravity won the Ramblers that game.

I’m not sure there’s anyone else on Loyola Chicago who we saw consistently beat their man one-on-one against Mason. Sheldon Edwards had his 27-point outburst, wasn’t really winning one-on-one, he was hitting tough shots that you can’t blame the defense for, or he got helped off of. He didn’t really break down his defender or anything.

Prediction: Mason wins 71-66. I think Skinn has more to work with on film than Valentine does, and even though it’s a road game, I think there’s a decent chance they pull this one out. If Skinn was able to gameplan for Holmes, you’d think he’d be able to do so for Adelekun, especially after playing him already.

Unfortunately, since the squad just played a super emotional game, there’s always the chance of throwing the stinker. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.

If Mason wins this game, the outlook on the season is unreal compared to right after the last Loyola Chicago game.