Mason Hosts a Familiar Foe with Tulane

Your George Mason Patriots are looking to extend their winning streak to five and make their record 7-3 against the 4-5 Tulane Green Wave, who are currently on a four-game losing streak.

Mason has now played this team three years in a row.

Tulane is coached by Ron Hunter, who was running those Georgia State teams that made the tournament in the mid-late 2010s. He has a career record of 466-353, and a record of 74-79 at Tulane. In the American, Hunter has a 35-53 record.

Tulane has a possible NBA prospect in 6’8 freshman wing Kam Williams, who has drawn comparisons to Trey Murphy III out of UVA with the Pelicans. He was offered by Skinn’s regime, but ultimately chose the Green Wave. The 176^th player being on NBA radars as a freshman is impressive.

Mason faced this team last season, which had Kevin Cross, a G-Leaguer, and Sion James, a solid rotation player for Duke.

Tulane By The Numbers

Tulane is the 232nd ranked team on KenPom. They are an incredibly balanced team, being ranked 226^th on offense, and 225^th on defense.

This is an extremely tall team. They don’t have the high-end height, but a lot of their lineups have three guys at 6’8. The Green Wave’s average height is 6’6.4, 28^th tallest in the country.

Tulane is also an extremely young team, with an average of .81 years of D1 experience, 333^rd most in the country.

Ron Hunter’s Tulane team played at extreme paces the last two seasons, at 11^th and 2^nd, but has toned it down to an average amount this season.

On offense, the Green Wave’s numbers are pretty boring, the only thing that really stands out is that they make 75% of their free throws, but I think that is more of a product of them taking a lot of threes, so guys who score close to the basket (bigs) are taking less shots at the line.

Tulane does get a lot of their points from behind the arc, as they shoot 33.8% from three, 146^th, take 43.3% of their shots from back there, 99^th, and get 35.8% of their points from the long ball. If you can stop the three, you can stop Tulane.

You cannot be that blue at the rim and expect the offense to run well.

The Green Wave have some shooters, with Kaleb Banks at 40.6%, the aforementioned Kam Williams at 39.6%, Mari Jordan at 38.5%, and Asher Woods at 36%.

Banks is listed at the 4 and 5 on KenPom, so this game will probably more Haynes-heavy, unless Skinn thinks they can use Emejuru as more of an advantage than Tulane will be able to create on the other end. The stretch big also has a crazy low turnover rate of 2.6%, 10^th lowest in the country.

That is the type of number you expect to see from a catch-and-shoot wing, not a guy who is supposed to be a big. To be fair, he is more of a big wing than a center.

Rowan Brumbaugh, their PG, has a 33.9% assist rate, which is 51^st in the country.

On defense, it is more interesting. The Green wave allow an eFG of only 46.7%, which is 65^th in the country. Their big downside is defensive rebounding, with opponents grabbing 30.8% of offensive board opportunities, which is 220^th; so bad, but it should not awful.

I think that board number might be pretty high because teams take so many threes, with 44.7% of opponents’ shots coming from back there. They go in at a pretty average rate, 32.7%. Teams get 37.8% of their points from beyond the arc, which is 29^th highest. If Mason can hit their threes, they win.

Tulane’s biggest bright spot is interior defense, with them only allowing 44.8% of twos to go in, 38^th in the country, and having a block rate of 17.5%, 5^th highest. Opponents only get 42.6% of their points from two, which is 330^th.

It is ok to be blue at the rim here. The only reason their defense is rated so low is because of their very weak strength of schedule, as the metrics actually look pretty decent. Imagine Mason’s schedule if they did not play Marquette or Duke.

Percy Daniels, Tulane’s biggest player, has a block rate of 11.7%, which puts him above Loyola’s Miles Rubin, who has a decent chance to win A10 DPOY. He doesn’t play too much, only 10.7 MPG.

Tulane Scouting Report (1^st Half vs. Furman)

I picked this game since it was the best team they played, was a road game, and was near the projected pace of their game against Mason.

Tulane wore black uniforms with numbers that were very hard to make out, so it was tough to see individual player tendencies.

On offense, Kam Williams has a quick release.

Their PG, Rowan Brumbaugh, is pretty shifty with the ball in his hands, but will occasionally take awful contested threes.

The team is looking for threes since they do not have an inside presence.

On defense, Tulane played a lot of matchup zone. In that zone, they would lose guys on dribble hand-offs.

They give up a ton of good threes, and struggled when their opponent moves the ball a lot. The perimeter guys help inside so incredibly often, leaving guys open on the perimeter.

The Green Wave use their fouls at the end of the half to stall their opponent’s final possession.

Kaleb Banks can get taken advantage of in the post. Percy Daniels is a good rim help defender. Tyler Ringgold is a good on-ball defender.

What Does This Mean For Mason?

Tulane essentially plays a lot of the game with their version of Woody Newton at center, so Mason should be able to dominate with either of the post bigs. I do see a world where Skinn has to match the lineup and put Woody at the 5.

I think Mason wins this game 75-60. I think that the lack of a true big man will let Jalen Haynes and Gio Emejuru eat all day.