The Season is Here! Mason Opens up Against NC Central

The season is finally here. Mason will be playing their season opener at home against North Carolina Central.

This preview will be less detailed than the future ones will be, as I pretty much have their coach and roster to go off of. I tried my best to see if they played an exhibition or scrimmage, but could not find anything.

The Eagles are coached by their third all-time leading scorer in LeVelle Moton and are in the MEAC, which is comprised of HBCUs. Moton has a record of 257-175, making the NCAA tournament four times since he started there in the 2009-10 season. The alum coach has a record of 138-55 in conference, giving him a .715 winning percentage. That is great.

They haven’t been great recently, but the Hawks went on a pretty crazy run from 2013 to 2020, with all of their tournament appearances coming in this stretch, and having back-to-back-to-back years of going 15-1 or better, with only one of those being a tournament appearance.

KenPom has NC Central as the 255^th ranked team, with the 261^st offense and 240^th defense. This is pretty much guaranteed to be a Q4 game, even if they win their conference.

It is not impossible that they win their conference, as they are projected to finish third.

Moton teams have generally played slow, with his fastest team ever playing at 67.7 possessions per game, and his slowest being at 59.4. Last season, they were at 66.7, 240^th in the country. KenPom projects them to have 70.4 per game, which I don’t think is accurate, since they generally don’t know how to project outside the middle 100.

Players to Watch

6’5 Keishon Porter seems to be a low-volume high efficiency guy, scoring 8.9 points on 56.7% from the field, 39.5% from three, and 62.2% eFG. He only shoots 62.4% from the line, which is a bit odd for such a good shooter, even if his threes are only on  .5 makes a game. Him and Josh Smith are probably their best shooters, with Smith shooting at a 43.6% clip, both at 1.4 attempts per game. Not high volume, but they don’t have anyone plus-shooters who shoot with volume.

6’0 Dionte Johnson might be a starter, as he played his previous two seasons at UMES, another MEAC school, and started 27/28 last season. This guy must be defensive-focused, as he averaged 6.4 points on 44.9% eFG and stayed in the starting lineup.

6’3 Aquan Smart is a bit of a wild card, as he started out at Maryland, then went to FIU after a year, and then went to Southeast Missouri State for two seasons, and ended up here. He was a high-end three-star on 247 back then, so there might be some potential there still. Even though Smart started a lot, last season didn’t go too well, as he scored 8.3 points on 37.4% eFG, which is not going to cut it.

6’4 Timmy Adedire is looking to spend his entire four-year career with the Hawks, so shoutout to him. He started four games last season and played in 27 after only playing in 14 games through his first two seasons. Adedire averaged 5.6 points and 4.2 rebounds on 47.3% from the field, 25.8% from three, and an eFG of 50.9%. If he can get that three ball to go in, you’ve got yourself a player there.

6’9 Perry Smith was a part time starter for NC Central after playing his freshman season at Vermont. The season went pretty well, with him averaging 5.2 points and 4.2 rebounds on 62.3% from the field. This guy is probably their starting center.

6’5 Floyd Rideau Jr. had his best season of his career at MEAC school South Carolina State as a freshman, and then went on to play three season at USC Upstate, where his stats took a dip. I could see Rideau being pretty good back in the MEAC so many years later.

Lastly, 6’4 Po’Boigh King seems to be this team’s first option, as he scored 14.7 points on 43.6% from the field, 33.3% from three on 4.7 attempts per game, and an eFG% of 50.5. He’s a volume scorer, but I don’t see much volume anywhere else, so they probably need him. I believe King is the only full-time starter returning.

Prediction

Mason should win this game by double digits, and it will be kind of concerning if they don’t. Look for Jalen Haynes and Gio Emejuru to absolutely eat. There’s a chance NC Central has a big man that can stop them, but Mason has two bigs who should dominate, and the floodgates can only hold for so long.

I predict a 75-55 win.

The season is here, Mason Nation. Get excited.