Woo hoo!
Your George Mason Patriots will be giving you the first live look at the team with an exhibition against D3 St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
About St. Mary’s
The St. Mary’s Seahawks are coached by ’97 alum Chris Harney, who is going into his 20th season, and has a record of 292-200. Harney is also the school’s assistant athletic director, which puts into scale the difference between D1 and D3 sports.
Jake Koverman, a 6’5 wing, was a scholarship player at High Point for two seasons, but had very limited playing time. It sounds like Koverman had a major knee injury that he has had trouble recovering from.
Ademola “AD” Oladipo, a 6’3 forward, had offers from Navy and Alabama A&M, and took an official visit to Fairleigh Dickinson. He committed to Alabama A&M, and it seems like he redshirted and then transferred down to D3 to get playing time.
Luke Adgei, a 6’7 forward, has a brother who played at Loyola Chicago, and then was a part time starter at Longwood.
You may notice the information section for St. Mary’s is pretty short, and that is because the score of this game only really matters if Mason loses. You’re looking more for the rotation and how the players interact with each other on the court, rather than looking for the Patriots to win by 57.
What to Watch For?
Lineups
From my perspective, the contested lineup spots are point guard, the four position, and maybe center? I am pretty confident that Jared Billups and Darius Maddox have locked up the 2 and 3 spots.
At the one, we should look to see whether KD Johnson or Jeremiah Quigley is given the point guard duties. Along with that, we need to look at what offensive responsibilities Johnson is given, even outside of running point.
At the four, it’s probably between Zach Anderson and Woody Newton. I say probably since there’s that 1% chance we randomly see Haynes at the four with Emejuru at the five. Woody and Anderson are pretty different players, with Anderson being a scoring-focused stretch four, and Woody being an everything big wing. If you want offense at the four, you play Anderson. If you want defense, you play Newton.
At the five, it is possible we see Emejuru over Haynes, but I think that is pretty unlikely. Haynes was penciled in as the starter when the roster was finalized, but Emejuru seems to have had an awesome offseason.
I think we see a lineup of Johnson, Billups, Maddox, Anderson, and Haynes. The major question of this lineup is if Johnson and Billups can co-exist at the one and two, since both of them seem to be minus shooters until they prove otherwise. If not, you could see Quigley at the one, or Brayden O’Connor at the two.
That’s the great thing about this team, it feels like there are nine guys who could start and it wouldn’t be a problem. Some AWESOME players are going to have to come off the bench.
Style
We should also look for the pace of play. We heard a lot about the fast pace we were going to get last season, but the team ended up having 63.8 possessions per game, 344th in the country. I think it will be faster, since KD Johnson, Jeremiah Quigley, and Justin Begg, especially Johnson and Begg, seem like more run and gun guys than Ronald Polite was.
Along with pace, we should watch for how much Tony Skinn presses. With a veteran guard rotation of Johnson, Quigley, Billups, and O’Connor, it seems like you could do it whenever you want and be relentless. This team has more depth than last year, and if you only count guys near their floor, there are at least nine guys who can play meaningful minutes on this team.
Another thing we should be looking for is how good of help defenders Haynes and Emejuru are. Whether the shot misses or not isn’t important, I am more looking for whether they get to their spots on time or not.
Young Guys
Hopefully we will get to see some of Austin Ball, Justin Begg, Bryson Cokley, and Stas Sivka.
Ball was getting into the rotation more once Keyshawn Hall was not playing, since somebody had to take the bench role with Woody getting the start. The problem is that if the team is willing to play Brayden O’Connor at the three, the lineup gets pretty tough to crack for Ball. Unless he becomes an plus shooter, it is going to be hard to fit him in. If the team is pressing a lot and needs more bodies, I could see Mountain Mamba getting in the game that way.
I think the only way that Begg gets major playing time is if KD Johnson isn’t able to play point guard effectively. Otherwise, it’s tough for a freshman PG slotted in as the 3rd at his position to get in much, especially since he’s under 6’0, which makes it much harder to play the 2.
Bryson Cokley could be a glue guy down the line, but there’s just so many guys ahead of him. I like his chances of playing solid minutes next year, since you replace Jared Billups with a freshman Devin Booker, but it is going to be tough to crack it this season.
Stas Sivka is fun, but I think we only see him when both of the other bigs are in big foul trouble. He is definitely a project to monitor though, as there is a pretty high ceiling with him.
Conclusion
Overall, don’t take too much stock into this game if someone random scores a lot of points, as that can tend to happen. Treat it like NBA Summer League, where you’re looking for guys to be mentally on time.
Get excited for the first organized game with the new team, Mason Nation.
