Your 22-7 and 13-3 George Mason Patriots are taking on the 12-17 and 4-12 La Salle Explorers in Mason’s last home game, which is senior night.
Senior Night
Mason has a ton of players in their last season of eligibility, with six from my count. I believe Jalen Haynes should have a year of eligibility with redshirting last season, but he got a senior day post, so we will do one for him, which makes it seven.
I will be doing them in order of how long they have been at Mason.
Chase Tucker
Chase Tucker has been with Mason for three seasons as a walk-on. Walk-ons are important, as that is who the players practice against.
Tucker’s best game as a Patriot came against Ferrum this season, where he scored the first basket of his career. Good for him.
Thank you, Chase Tucker.
Jared Billups
Billups committed one day before our next entry, so he goes first.
After spending two seasons with Siena, Jared Billups transferred to Mason to be on Skinn’s first team. Over his two seasons, Billups has averaged 4.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.6 blocks on 39.5% from the field, 23% from three, and 69.2% from the line in 26.2 minutes per game.
But his play is not in the box score. He does everything else. With two games left, Billups leads to conference in College Basketball Reference’s Defensive Box Plus Minus at 4.7. Among players in the rotation, he leads the team in Box Plus Minus, doing so with a negative Offensive BPM.
It is also worth noting that Jared was moved to the bench after coming back from an injury and has not taken a step back in any way whatsoever.
Billups’ best game with the Patriots was his 16-rebound performance against George Washington this year, which ended up being a double-overtime thriller. That was a critical win coming off of a thumping of Dayton on the road.
Captain America will be remembered for his intense defense, hustle, and occasional insane blocks. Glue guy.
I don’t get one, but he gets my vote for A10 Defensive Player of the Year.
Thank you, Jared Billups.
Darius Maddox
After turning down Skinn’s offer from Seton Hall and spending three seasons as a Hokie, two of which included major contribution, Maddox redeemed himself and made the correct choice to come to Mason.
In Maddox’s two seasons with Mason, he’s averaged 13.7 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.8 assists on 41.9% from the field, 37.4% from three, and 87% from the line.
This season, he’s been relegated to more of a volume scorer role, but with a team with Mason’s defensive prowess, volume scoring is good.
Maddox’s best game is probably the efficient 20-pointer in the road victory against Dayton, where he shot 8-11, including 4-5 from three.
Thank you, Darius Maddox.
Woody Newton
After one year at Syracuse and two at Oklahoma State, Woody came to Mason for his last two seasons of eligibility.
The 6’9 wing has been extremely important to Tony Skinn’s style of play, taking on guards, wings, and bigs, and being the at the top of the 1-3-1 zone. Woody has been assigned some tall tasks on defense, including guarding Saint Joseph’s Erik Reynolds and Fordham’s Jackie Johnson for stretches.
The versatile weapon averaged 6.6 points and 3.8 rebounds on 39.8% from the field and 32.6% from three in 20 minutes per game. Newton is shooting 42.9% from three in this season’s conference play, seventh highest. We good the good end for A10 play this season.
It is also worth noting that Newton has played center when needed, and has done a very fine job.
Woody’s best game as a Patriot is easily the 27-point outburst against Saint Louis, where he went 8-12 from three in a game that ended up being an overtime victory for Mason.
Thank you, Woody Newton.
Jalen Haynes
Jalen Haynes came over to Mason after a season at Virginia Tech, one at East Tennessee State, and then spent two seasons as a Patriot, the first being a redshirt. In my mind, this puts him as a redshirt junior, but I guess is he graduating.
Haynes has racked up KenPom MVPs, but I think his best game was against Saint Joseph’s, where Mason went down big and he pretty much got them right back in it with a crazy stretch, that included getting their starting big man in foul trouble. He ended up with 22 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, and only 1 turnover.
Jalen has had his moments, with the crazy double-poster dunk against UMass, and the creative 8 second stretch vs Loyola Chicago that may have been the difference in the game.
In his lone playing season at Mason, Haynes averaged 13.2 points, 7 rebounds, and 1.2 assists in 25.2 minutes per game on 56.3% from the field. This won’t be in the box score, but his versatility covering wings, and even guards, on the perimeter has let Mason play him at the four. He was a much better defender than I thought he was going to be, and him being a positive is a big reason for the defensive dominance.
There is no reason a man as big as Jalen Haynes should move like that.
This play has probably earned him a spot on the All-A10 First Team, since they probably will want someone from the two seed on there.
Thank you, Jalen Haynes.
KD Johnson
After spending a season at Georgia and then three at Auburn, KD Johnson came to Mason to play point guard.
Auburn fans have been in the comments of Mason posts talking about how much they miss KD. After watching him for a season, I get it.
In his one season at Mason, Johnson has averaged 7.2 points, 2.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 1.2 steals on 41.2% from the field and 38.9% from three. I don’t have the numbers, but he has got to be shooting 60% on those stepback corner threes.
Johnson’s primary roles have been being a pest on defense, bringing the energy, and being the closer for the offense.
The grad transfer’s best game as a Patriot was in that double-overtime GW game, where he pretty much took over, drawing fouls and dropping dimes. That was his highest minute total all season, and he added on 15 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, and going 6-10 from the line. Those fouls were huge in a game that ran for ten extra minutes.
Thank you, KD Johnson.
Zach Anderson
Zach Anderson spent four seasons at Florida Gulf Coast before coming to play the three and four for Mason.
Anderson has been slightly disappointing as an offensive piece, but has been more versatile on defense than expected. I predicted he would be somewhat of a tweener between a three and four on that end, but has randomly guarded team’s best bigs on occasion. The big wing was given the Rafael Castro assignment in the second GW game, and did well enough for the Patriots to win.
In his lone season in Fairfax, Zach averaged 5 points and 3.4 rebounds on 39.3% from the field and 39.8% from three. That is a pretty good clip from outside, especially on a team that struggles with offense the way Mason does.
I’ve been weighing impact for the “best game”, so his 7-9 from three against Coppin State won’t win this, but it is worth noting. His most impactful game was when he for 17 on 5-8 from three on the road against St. Bonaventure.
Thank you, Zach Anderson.
Alright, back to La Salle.
Fran Dunphy
The La Salle Explorers are coached by Philly legend Fran Dunphy, who will be retiring at the end of the season. Dunphy coached for Penn, Temple, and then after a stint as Temple’s athletic director, took the La Salle job.
Fran made the tournament nine times with Penn and eight times with Temple. Barring an incredible A10 tourney run with La Salle, he will end his career with 17 tournament appearances.
Dunphy has an overall record of 623-378, with a record of 43-53 at La Salle, and a conference record of 17-35 during his stint with the Explorers.
La Salle By The Numbers
La Salle is the 244th ranked team, with the 249th offense and 216th defense, per KenPom. In A10 play, they have struggled, with the 15th offense and 14th defense.
The Explorers have lost seven straight, and their last two games are against Mason and Saint Joseph’s, and then into the A10 tourney. Fran Dunphy is not ending his career on a ten-game losing streak.
Dunphy has his guys playing at a somewhat fast pace, at 68.1 possessions per game, which is fourth in the conference.
Eric Acker is either injured, or is out of the rotation.
Offense
There’s a lot of negatives here, as you may expect. I’ll get those out of the way first. La Salle is last in eFG% at 44.1%, and they both offensive rebound and get to the line at a below average rate, 9th and 11th.
The Explorers shoot 30.5% from three, 13th, and 43.3% from two, 15th. Not good. They take 34.1% of their threes from behind the arc, which is 13th. Taking a lot of twos and making the lowest rate in the conference is not a good recipe for success.
The only positive on the La Salle offense is that they do not turn it over often, at 15.1%, second best.
Chart credits to CBBAnalytics
The rim, along with the paint, is way too blue to do anything. That is not how you win basketball games. And, of course, their outside shooting does not make up for it in any way.
La Salle has not really had a number one option, with Corey McKeithan and Deuce Jones being 1A and 1B, with them taking 23% and 24.1% of the shots.
McKeithan has a true shooting of 48.7%, making 44.3% of his twos, and 31.4% of is 102 threes.
Jones, the likely freshman of the year, has a true shooting of 50.6%, the only one above 50% on the team, making 42.7% of his twos and 33.3% of his 34 threes. He does have a pretty high assist rate at 22.1%, 16th in the A10, but also a 21.5% turnover rate, which is bad. Deuce does get to the line pretty often, drawing 4.8 fouls per 40, which is 12th.
There is a universe where Deuce Jones elevates his team like Baraka Okojie did last season, but we do not live in that universe. We were almost there though.
Outside of the previously mentioned, their shooters are Daeshon Shepherd at 22.2% on 54 threes, Tunde Vahlberg Fasai at 31.1% on 45, Demetrius Lilley at 30.8% on his 39, and Jahlil White at 40.9% of his 22.
Mac Etienne is a pretty good offensive rebounder at 11.2%, sixth best.
Defense
Well, La Salle is last in eFG% on this end as well, at 54.3%. To make matters worse, they are 13th in defensive rebounding, with opponents grabbing 31.3% of offensive rebound opportunities. The Explorers are not starting nor finishing possessions well.
With the eFG%, it is because teams are shooting 34.9% from three, 13th, and 55.8% from two, last, against them.
Chart credits to CBBAnalytics
The rim defense was fine early on, but has really collapsed. And they are not stopping threes too well either.
Mac Etienne has the eighth best block rate at 7.1%, but I do not think it is “real” since the defense is so bad.
Jahlil White is the biggest defensive playmaker, at a 3.1% block rate and 3.4% steal rate, 22nd and 7th. This comes with him being the only player averaging more than four fouls per 40 at 5.
They have a couple more playmakers, with Deuce Jones at a 3.7% steal rate, third best, and Daeshawn Shepherd at a 3% block rate, 24th.
La Salle Scouting Report (First Half vs. George Washington)
Offense
There was a lot of dribble-drive in their offense, but it usually ended up with throwing up an ok three and hoping it went in. It felt like La Salle’s offense devolved into that.
It seems like anyone on the team will chuck up a three if they are open. Even in transition, if there is anyone in the paint, they will look for a three. This goes against what I saw in the stats, but this is what I saw from this one-half sample.
La Salle’s guards really struggled to get the ball inside when one of their bigs had a mismatch.
Deuce Jones will have to create for himself a decent amount. He is very shifty, and will get open with a big on him.
Jahlil White is a driver but not an overwhelming athlete. The Temple transfer passed up a full-court shot with time remaining to save his stats.
Demetrius Lilley, their center, will launch threes. They might go in, they might not, but it will not look pretty.
Mac Etienne’s range seems to end at the free throw line.
Defense
There was a lot of man defense, with the Explorers trying not to switch.
The team went into a 2-1-2 and had about a 50% success rate with it, but it was streaky. They will pull that out at some point. The Explorers went into a man press, but it did not work too well, and they had to play half a second behind for the rest of the possession.
La Salle overall struggles with lobs and closing out late. They solved the closeout problem by going with a small ball lineup with Fasasi at the 5, but the lob problem got worse.
Fasasi is not too good as a post defender. Demetrius Lilley is very good at that, though.
Jahlil White can get beat on drives pretty easily.
Corey McKeithan can get beat on ball-screens.
Deuce Jones is pretty good at staying in front of his man, but not very good at contesting. He will guard the wrong hand sometimes despite being in pretty good position.
What Does This Mean for Mason?
The Patriots have to come out and make a statement after that awful loss to Duquesne. You also cannot lose on senior night, since that is not how you want your guys to go out.
I predict that Mason wins this one 70-55. I think that La Salle will not be able to handle Mason’s bigs, and that the defense will pull through as expected.
