Your George Mason Patriots have three visitors, Dola Adebayo, Masai Troutman, and Elijah Strong, who have or will be visiting Fairfax.
Dola Adebayo
Dola Adebayo visited Mason on March 31st.
Adebayo is a 6’8 big wing/forward who was at Mount St. Mary’s for four seasons, redshirting as a true freshman, and is an Ocala, Florida native. As a grad transfer, Adebayo should have two seasons of eligibility, but will have at least one.
Dola, no relation to Bam, made the 2024-25 All-MAAC Second Team, and earned MAAC Tournament MVP honors.
The Mount St. Mary’s transfer averaged 13.2 points, 6.9 rebounds, 1 assist, 1.1 blocks, and .9 steals on 51.5% from the field, 30.6% from three, 73.8% from the line, with an eFG% of 54.7%, and a True Shooting of 58.1%.
According to College Basketball Scouting on YouTube, Dola shot 62% at the rim, with 48% of his shots coming from there.
The shooting from deep is good enough that you will generally have to cover him out there, and should provide some decent spacing opportunities.
As you can tell by his rebounding total, Adebayo is a pretty good rebounder, with offensive and rebounding percentages of 8.4% and 18.1%. During conference play, he was the 11th and 15th best rebounder.
Against Mason in late December, Dola scored 13 and grabbed 7 boards. Mason was a top tier A10 team, so that looks good for how he would perform in the conference.
Last summer, I was a journalist and statistician for Kenner League, a DC Pro-Am summer league, and if there were all-league teams, Adebayo would have made it.
Right before I published this article, he committed. It’ll be up soon.
Masai Troutman
Masai Troutman visited Mason on April 1st.
Troutman, a Frederick, Maryland native, is a 6’6 wing out of Northeastern, spending three seasons there. With that, he should have one season of eligibility.
In 13 games last season, Masai averaged 13.5 points, 1.7 rebounds, and .8 assists on 43.5% from the field, 39.6% from three, 80% from the line, with an eFG% of 51.7% and a True Shooting of 59%.
In two games against A10 opponents, La Salle and UMass, the Mason visitor averaged 17.5 points on 45.8% from the field and 45.5% from three.
It was not a large sample size, but Troutman drew 6.4 fouls per 40. This could be an outlier, but he averaged 5.1 per 40 as a freshman, so maybe not.
The Northeastern transfer looks to be an average A10 athlete, and I could imagine him hitting threes and attacking closeouts in green and gold next season.
Elijah Strong
Strong will be visiting Mason on April 11th and 12th.
Long time followers of recruiting will know this name, as he was a Kim English target during his last season in Fairfax.
Elijah Strong is a 6’8 forward out of Charlotte, North Carolina, who was on a great Myers Park team. He spent two seasons at Boston College, and should have two season of eligibility left.
Strong shared a Boston College frontcourt with former St. Bonaventure big Chad Venning.
The Boston College transfer was the 240th player in the class of 2023 per 247 Composite.
In his sophomore season, Elijah averaged 9.6 points, 4.1 rebounds, and .9 assists on 45.2% from the field, 36.2% from three, and 62.9% from the line, with an eFG% of 51.2% and a True Shooting of 53.2%.
The shooting seems real, as it was 69 attempts, so it is not a small sample size. That’s 2.6 attempts per game for him.
I am not saying they will have the same impact, but Darius Maddox’s and Strong’s scoring stats do not look dissimilar in the ACC.
Elijah is good both in the post and on the perimeter, and would likely be a very good post player in the A10.
Strong is not the most explosive athlete, but he moves pretty smoothly.
Conclusion
Getting two of these three would be pretty good for Mason, as I think all of them could be starters.
