Mason Opens Up The Tourney With Joe’s

By Palmer Johnson

Your 8-seeded George Mason Patriots are taking on the 9-seeded Saint Joseph’s Hawks in the second round of the A10 Tournament.

Mason played Joe’s earlier in the season in Hawk Hill and lost 75-73. The game was dominated by Xzayvier Brown and Erik Reynolds, as Brown did a little bit of everything, including 16 points off the bench, and Reynolds was scaring Mason to death from three, hitting three of his five attempts and shooting five of seven from the line.

Keyshawn Hall has missed the last three games, and while you would think/hope he is healthy, we thought that for the Richmond game. It seems like he is on track to play, but we won’t know until he steps foot onto the court.

I already wrote an article on Joe’s, here it is.

Saint Joseph’s By The Numbers

Most of these stats are based purely on conference play.

Saint Joseph’s has the 4^th ranked offense, and 11^th ranked defense. The defense played well eaely in the season, but that disappeared as soon as conference play started. The Billy Lange mirage can only last so long.

Lange has these guys playing fast, at 69.4 possessions per game, which is 4^th in the conference. They have the shortest average offensive possession at 17.1 seconds.

Joe’s goes either 8 or 9 deep depending on the game.

By the efficiency metrics, the Hawks are not particularly great at any one thing, but on a volume basis, they take a TON of threes, with 45.4% of their shots being from behind the arc, first in the conference. For context, the A10 as a whole shoots 39.4% of their shots from three, so that’s significantly above average. This is why they’re the High Variance Hawks.

For how much Joe’s shoots the three, they only hit them at a 35% rate, which isn’t bad, but that’s 8^th in the conference.

And everyone takes threes, all of their rotation players except Shawn Simmons and Kaper Klaczek are averaging more than an attempt per game. By efficiency, Christ Essandoko is the top guy, shooting 41.7%, though on only 24 attempts. By volume, the top guy is Erik Reynolds, as expected, with 145 attempts, although he is only making 37.2% of his shots from deep. The best mix between the two is clearly Xzayvier Brown, shooting 41.2% on over 100 attempts. This guy is nuts. And a freshman. Both Cameron Brown and Rasheer Fleming and threats from deep, shooting 34.3 and 34%, but they don’t strike fear into your heart like Reynolds and X. Brown.

A combination of their average, but high volume 3-point percentage with only a 15.4% turnover rate, 4^th, 51.5% two rate, 4^th, and 29.1% offensive rebound rate, yeah it’s 4^th, is how they get to the 4^th ranked offense. This is what I meant by them not being particularly great at anything, but not bad.

Altogether, the Hawks have an eFG of 52%, 6^th in the conference.

Outside of Erik Reynolds at 24.9%, the shot percentage is pretty well balanced, with a lot of guys being near 20%.

They’re so good at hitting the three from the right wing, and the mid-paint. They’re surprisingly bad at the rim. I do respect the lack of mid-ranges.

Defense is where it kind of falls apart. The Hawks have bad three-point defense, with opponents shooting 37.9%, third highest in the conference. At least they’re only taking an average amount, with 40.1% of opponent shots coming from behind the arc.

Saint Joseph’s at least defends the two, as opponents are shooting 49.4%, which is 6^th.

Joe’s rebounds on offense, but doesn’t on defense, giving up a slightly higher 29.2% offensive rebound rate, 12^th.

The Hawks do a decent job at not putting guys at the line, only allowing 29.8 free throw attempts per 100 shots, 4^th lowest. They must foul a lot of guards, as opponents are shooting 77.4% from the line, 2^nd highest.

I have no clue why it looks so similar to the offensive shot chart. Maddox usually sits on the left wing, but I think he can transfer over to the right. The mid-paint seems to be pretty open.

Saint Joseph’s Scouting Report (Second Half vs. Richmond)

I picked this game since it is a recent away game, I used the first half for a Richmond article.

On offense, the Hawks love to use dribble hand-offs to take threes, using the center as a shield. If Mason goes under screens, it could be a long game. Essandoko was called for a moving screen. Since they take three off these, I hope Mason’s guys sprint into them while they’re still moving to draw offensive fouls if they don’t think they can contest the three.

Xzayvier Brown has a similar tendency as all-rookie first team Baraka Okojie, where he’ll get way too deep and either have to get bailed out by a foul, take a bad shot, or make a risky pass. You’ll take the good if that’s the bad about the A10 Rookie of the Year.

When the paint is open, nobody stops Erik Reynolds from getting to the rim. Even if you stay in front of him, he might make a tough shot.

Klaczek will back his guy down if he gets a guard switched onto him.

Essandoko is surprisingly good at rim-running for a guy at 7’ 285.

The Hawks were playing the foul game and got back into it because they kept hitting threes. Eventually they missed and it was over.

On the other end, Essandoko was getting eaten alive by Neal Quinn. At least Fleming is still a great help defender, and is also able to switch onto smaller guys.

Joe’s should have forced a ten-second violation after running a 1-2-2 (or 3-2) press, but if the broadcast clock was right, the Spiders crossed with 19 seconds left and didn’t get called. The Hawks run a lot of 1-2-2, 2-1-2, and 3-2 full-court press. Xzayvier Brown in particular is a freak in the 2-1-2 press. He goes all out, and will make you pay if you make a lazy, soft pass.

Speaking of Xzay Brown, he was doing a great job at keeping Jordan King quiet in that game.

Klaczek was the primary defender for Quinn for a bit, and got destroyed on three straight attempts, giving up two baskets to the center, and then requiring help, and the shooter who was helped off of got a wide open three.

What Does This Mean For Mason?

I think Mason pulls this one out because Woody Newton’s length allows him help inside and then close out a bit faster on three-point shooters. I’m hoping for a bad game from the High Variance Hawks.

Prediction: Mason wins 71-59. The three ball isn’t falling for Joe’s, and Erik Reynolds didn’t have a particularly good game.

Hopefully this is the first conference tourney win of Tony Skinn’s young career. Survive and advance!