Your George Mason Patriots are taking on a local team in the 8-4 Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers to end out-of-conference play.
The Mount is coming off a victory at Miami, which is a bit worrying, even if Mason is considerably better than Larranaga’s team.
There could be some familiarity with the players here, as Jeremiah Quigley, Jared Billups, and Gio Emejuru all previously played in the MAAC.
Mount St. Mary’s is coached by Donny Lind, who is in his first season as their coach. He started his career as a video coordinator for VCU, was a Mount St. Mary’s assistant from 2013 to 2016, and got his head coaching chance due to his last stop, which was UNC Greensboro.
I am pretty familiar with a decent bit of the Mountaineers, as they played at Kenner League. Forwards Terrell Ard, Dola Adebayo, center Jedy Cordilia, and guard Xavier Lipscomb are the names that stuck out to me. If Kenner did All-League teams, Adebayo would have been in contention, based on the games that I saw.
Mount St. Mary’s By The Numbers
Mount St. Mary’s is the 235th ranked team in the country, with the 284th offense and 176th defense.
They play at a slightly above average pace at 69.3 possessions per game.
On offense, the Mountaineers not only do not make their shots, with an eFG of 48.7%, 247th, but they also don’t take too many shots, with a 20.9% turnover rate, which is 334th lowest. On the bright side, the Mount has an above average offensive rebound and free throw rate at 32% and 36.3 foul shots per 100 shots.
Something kind of random is that they have a 57.9% assist rate, which is 67th. That generally lines up with three point take rate, but the Mountaineers are only 224th in that. Are we going to see some backdoor cut actions?
This is pretty well balanced. It seems like they’re really good from straight on three, but stink from the wings. Maybe Mason plays more of a no-middle scheme.
Their formerly starting point guard, Dallas Hobbs, has missed their last three games, so he may be missing this one as well. This seems like it could be a big problem for them, as Hobbs was their leading scorer and .1 behind the team leader in assists, but they beat Miami without him, so who knows.
Shooting may be a problem, as they only have one truly plus shooter, with the Carmelo Pacheco hitting 44.2% of his threes on the highest volume on the team. The maybe inactive Hobbs hit 34.8%, Dola Adebayo 33.3%, Arlandus Keyes 18.5% on 27 shots, Xavier Lipscomb 33.3%, and Abdou Khadre Kebe 28.6%.
Since Hobbs’ injury, freshman Javon Ervin has turned into the primary option. He has an eFG of 40.8% on the season, which has lowered ever since the increase in volume.
On defense, the Mount’s biggest strength is their three-point defense, which is 33rd in the country at 28.7%. The problem is that it seems like the deep defense is at the cost of the interior, as teams are hitting 53.9% of their twos.
Overall, they are definitely better on the defensive end, with a better-than-average eFG% given up at 49.7, and similar for free throw rate. Nothing really sticks out besides the interior defense.
It looks like teams take a decent bit more shots on the right side of the court, with the right side of the paint being much more efficient than the left. They really handle the corners well, but I imagine that has something to do with how red the right side of the paint is.
Mount St. Mary’s Scouting Report (First Half vs. Miami)
This ended up being Coach L’s last game as Miami’s HC, and probably his final game as an NCAA D1 coach.
On offense, the Mountaineers would rather have an ok shot at the rim than an open three.
It was not uncommon for there to be a miscommunication where the guy in the corner does something that the ball-handler was not expecting.
Miami went into a 2-3 zone and the Mount turned it over. For some reason, Miami did not get into it for the rest of the half. No comment.
Dribbling in traffic is not a recipe for success for Mount St. Mary’s.
Javon Ervin, 23, is more of a shot taker than shot taker. He passes fine on most possessions but can get tunnel vision.
Jedy Cordilia, 14, can get pretty crafty in the post, but has trouble finishing plays.
Carmelo Pacheco, 1, is a problem in the drive-and-kick game. Mason should not help off of him in any half-court situation.
Terrell Ard, 13, has trouble when he gets doubled. He does have a pretty nice push shot.
Xavier Lipscomb, 45, is a bit of a loose cannon on offense. He can take some bad shots and throw some wild passes. The biggest problem is that Lipscomb is a jump-passer, which means the pass is either going to the guy he had pre-determined, less accurately than he would like, or it is a guaranteed turnover. On the bright side, Xavier can penetrate the defense and kick it out pretty well.
I had everything besides the jump-passing in Lipscomb’s paragraph as tagged with #15, but I found out while writing that there is no 15, so I hope I mixed up 15 and 45. I apologize if there is some dude who wore 15 that caused me to slander Xavier.
Dola Adebayo, 4, occasionally plays that off-the-dribble face-up post game that Haynes tries. He creates some space with it, but not to the degree that Mason’s big can.
Abdou Khadre Kebe, 9, can get UP, and is a lob threat.
On defense, Lind has his guys playing a lot of matchup zone. It is a little more zone-y than most matchup zones sometimes, being more zone than matchup.
Mount St. Mary’s presses a decent bit. Sometimes, they’ll change from a man to a zone look between the inbound and opponent getting the ball across half-court.
The Mountaineers forced an awful inbounds pass that turned into a turnover with their half-court coverage. Every inbounds pass, on both ends, is a struggle with them.
The Mount does like to play in an aggressive manner though, doubling the ball when the handler is trapped in the corner. Guys will fly to the ball if a pass is lobbed. Sometimes the doubling is a bit reckless, leaving a guy so open in the corner that he can either take a wide open three or cut inside for a layup.
Repeating curls can eventually get a guy open against Mount St. Mary’s matchup zone. There are especially problems when the ballhandler gets near another problem, as they are more likely to have miscommunications and leave one of the two wide open.
Mount players sometimes fight each other for rebounds and end up losing it. If the defense gives up the offensive rebound, it is pretty easy for a shooter to end up wide open. They can also lose shooters in transition.
There is a decent amount of activity in the passing lanes.
Cordilia is a decent post defender, but didn’t impress me as a help defender.
Adebayo is a pretty good perimeter defender for a big, which lines up with his name. I do not believe that they are related.
What Does This Mean for Mason?
I’m a bit more worried about the game than I was before I did the scouting section. What they do lines up a decent bit with what Mason has struggled against this season. I think that Mason’s bigs will be able to instantly counter any worries I had, although Dola Adebayo does seem to be good at similar things Haynes is good at.
I predict a 70-58 victory for Mason. The offense plays decent, but the defense really shines, which is how the average Mason game goes this year.
Next up, Davidson. Conference play is here.
