Mason Loses a Heartbreaker to Central Michigan

George Mason’s win probability was 96.3% with 33 seconds left.

I don’t care if it was a lucky play to end the game, Mason should not have been in position to let a team nearly 150 spots lower than them on KenPom win, even if it took a crazy final 15 seconds.

Mason lost to the Central Michigan Chippewas on a last-second three, making the score 70 to 69.

KD Johnson had a very mixed game. He only took one shot, but went 10-13 from the line and grabbed seven boards. The problem is that Johnson had five turnovers compared to two assists. A .4 assist-turnover ratio is not going to get it done. KD also got himself a technical foul, which has been too common in this young season.

Jared Billups may have made the killer mistake, but he was easily the player of the game, scoring 13 points on 4-9 shooting, hitting five of his nine free throws, and added nine rebound while playing great defense as always.

I would also like to shout out Woody Newton, who made a great play as a pseudo-center. This is the first time he’s hit multiple threes in a game, and only took four.

Darius Maddox was Darius Maddox, scoring 15 on 13 shots.

The team overall struggled against the zone defense that they were playing against, which is somewhat surprising, since they ruined Stony Brook’s zone with Zach Anderson going crazy from three. Anderson only took one three and was generally setting up near the free throw line during the zone.

Another thing that was odd was that Mason fouled out two of CMU’s bigs, and were not really able to take advantage.

I really think this is the low point of the season, and I hope I am right. If it is not the low point, this team is a lot worse than any of us think. I really thought “at least the wake-up call comes with a win” the entire second half.

I’ve expected a change in the starting lineup after every game, so at this point, there is no point in making any comments until a change happens.

Next up, East Carolina. Don’t let them paint that game purple.