Mason Hosts Big Local 2025 Guard

Jalen Rougier-Roane, a 6’5 2025 DC guard, is taking an official visit to George Mason. Rougier-Roane plays for Sidwell Friends, which has been extremely, extremely successful in terms of winning during his time there. I don’t think it’s a coincidence.

2025 6’5 Guard Jalen Rougier-Roane out of DC’s Sidwell Friends School is on an official visit to George Mason. It is his first official visit. https://t.co/72KRDfAgym

— George Mason Recruiting (@GMURecruiting) September 20, 2024

I believe he is originally from Maryland, and has Canadian heritage, as Jalen played for Canada’s U18 team, where they ended up getting a bronze medal. He also played for Team Takeover in the Nike EYBL.

Rougier-Roane was an All-MET Honorable Mention for the 2023-24 season.

JRR is unranked on 247, Rivals, and ESPN, and is a 86 rating three-star on On3. I genuinely have no clue how he is possibly unranked on any legitimate site, in the case of 247.

Jalen had an offer from the Kim English staff, which may be why he wasn’t on our radar, as an offer was not re-posted from the Skinn staff.

The DMV guard has offers from Mason, Marquette, Virginia Tech, NJIT, Norfolk State, Providence, Towson, Xavier, Penn State, Temple, George Washington, Vanderbilt and Seton Hall. He has unofficial visits with Virginia, Temple, Virginia Tech, and Xavier. Mason seems to be his first official visit.

Just based on that offer sheet, Jalen is more of a high-major player than a mid-major guy. When you actually watch him, the tape doesn’t disagree.

During his junior season, Rougier-Roane averaged 12.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1.3 blocks per game. He definitely has the look of a guard who will get a lot of boards. In regards to scoring, Jalen shot 49% from the field and 34% from three. If you include his free throws, he averaged 1.3 points per shot.

A wise man once told me that two-point percentage generally translates across levels, and that would be great for JRR, considering he shot 60% from two as a junior with Sidwell. That’s efficiency right there.

Jalen-Rougier Roane is very big for his height, in a good way. See for yourself.

🇨🇦 Jalen Rougier-Roane checks off a lot of boxes.

✅ Knockdown shooter
✅ Scrappy defender
✅ Active hands
✅ Willing passer pic.twitter.com/QechixyReq

— Edilson J. Silva 🇨🇦🏀🇦🇴 (@edilsonbuzz) June 4, 2024

Being good around the rim comes with that size. Not only is he big, but JRR is awesome at making adjustments in the air to get a better shot/angle.

In regard to shooting, the form has gotten a lot better since his freshman year. Rougier-Roane also has a smooth pull-up game, especially from the mid-range.

If there’s unoccupied space in the paint, Jalen has the instincts to cut. He can even play in the dunker spot. The 6’5 guard definitely has the potential to play on or off the ball, as he’s more active off-ball than most.

The Sidwell attendee is a lot better at blocking shots inside than you would think for a guard.

I watched a bit of Rougier-Roane’s game against St. John’s, which has Pitt commit and former Mason priority Omari Witherspoon, to get a feel for this defense and things that don’t show up in stat sheets or highlight videos.

It would have been nice to see him guard Witherspoon every possession, but Jalen was playing more of the three role for Sidwell, Omari the 1 or 2. They did get matched up on Sidwell’s defensive end from time-to-time.

Continuing the size theme, a guy tried to back him down, and JRR forced a turnover. Continuing it further; I can’t find any measurements, but Jalen’s arms look very long.

Rougier-Roane seemed to be their point-of-attack defender, which is very pleasing to see at the high school level, as they trusted him to play offense and defense at his maximum effort levels.

Jalen is disruptive in the passing lanes without going away from his man. He gets between the passer and his man to create tough angles for the ball-handler to pass through.

Not only is JRR aggressive in the lanes, but he can disrupt dribble hand-offs without fouling, which can be incredibly annoying to centers who don’t want to deal with guards swatting at them on the perimeter.

Eventually we got an on-ball matchup against Witherspoon, where Jalen didn’t let him get anything and forced a pass away after seven seconds. He can guard Power 5 talent.

Sidwell had Rougier-Roane guarding bigs on occasion, and they didn’t dominate him.

Areas of Improvement:

JRR shot 34% from three and 63% from the line as a junior. Luckily, the guard does have some EYBL stretches where he shoots over 40% from three on decent volume. The 34% isn’t too concerning, but 63% from the line doesn’t bode well for him ever becoming a true shooter, probably just a guy who can shoot if left open.

Rougier-Roane had a 1 to 1.7 assist to turnover ratio/per game averages, which is something to monitor. I don’t think the turnovers are alarmingly high, but you would want more assists out of a guard.

I could see him being Mason’s version of Loyola Chicago’s Jayden Dawson. It’s probably him wearing 1 and being a bigger guard that makes me compare the two, but I cannot unsee it.

Another comparison I have is an A10 version of college Johnny Davis, a Big 10 Player of the Year winner…who is also a bigger guard wearing 1. My bad. You get the idea though. He kind of has the same pull-up and shot look. Altogether, not an insane athlete, but a guy who’s fluid and uses his athleticism to its maximum potential.

If Jalen Rougier Roane comes to Mason, there would be a lot of competition early on for minutes. I think him being a big 6’5 makes him fine to play the two and three. He would be competing with Brayden O’Connor, Bryson Cokley, and Devin Booker for two minutes as a freshman, and pretty much just with Austin Ball for minutes at the three. This is disregarding any incoming or outgoing transfers, so it will probably not end up this way, but that looks like JRR would have a nice spot as the backup three as a freshman.

In conclusion, Jalen Rougier-Roane is definitely a Power 5 talent, he just might not have the P5 athleticism. This is the type of player that would have me jumping up and down in my dorm room with a commitment, knowing that Mason has a high floor, high ceiling piece on the team.