Your George Mason Patriots have brought in another portal commit in Jahari Long, a 6’5 guard who was at Seton Hall and Maryland with Tony Skinn.
We covered Jahari Long’s background in his visit article, so I will not revisit that too much.
I do not know how many years of eligibility Long has. It is his sixth season, which makes sense, since he got his four, plus the injury redshirt, and then will be able to play this season due to his COVID year. But. There is a chance the Kevin Willard-lifer has two years, since he only played in five games in 2021-22. That would make him a seventh-year senior if the NCAA said yes, and that is just the way the current game is.
I think that it is extremely important to note that despite getting very little playing time in his two seasons at Seton Hall, with the first overlapping with Skinn, Willard still brought him over to Maryland. And after those two (and one more) seasons at Maryland, once again the first of which overlapped with Tony Skinn, Skinn wants to bring him here. If you trust Skinn, you trust this pickup. I am reading between the lines and saying that Long is probably a great locker room guy and leader.
Jahari Long Scouting Report (Full Game vs Penn State)
He only played ten minutes in this one, but it was the only one we could find, except for one where he gets three minutes. Also, it is not the full game, somehow they just decide to skip ten minutes at a time.
This game is against Mike Rhoades’ Penn State, which has Ace Baldwin and Nick Kern, who were both VCU players, and Demetrius Lilley, who was a part-time starter for La Salle this past season.
Intangibles/Athleticism
The Maryland transfer was given extremely important time, at the end of regulation and overtime, so he is trusted by Kevin Willard’s coaching staff.
Offense
Jahari was not in the game for too long, and was more involved on defense, but there was some offense. On the first possession, he was given the first touch against a zone press, which they got through, and then took and made a three in the soft spot of the zone.
On another possession, I saw some drive-and-kick ability. This is not a signature skill, but it exists.
Long played a lot of off-ball in the half-court, which makes sense for a guy getting such limited minutes.
Defense
Seems to help the helper off-hall.
Can get beat on screens, got lost on a screen on an inbound and gave up an open look at the rim
Helps his teammates when someone’s gamble doesn’t work out, not a “not my problem” guy
The screen thing popped up again
Long was brought in with 20 seconds in regulation when Maryland was up one for a defensive possession. He was not given point-of-attack responsibility, but the Mason commit was getting some crunch time play.
Made a rangy and instinctive play on an inbound pass that was called a foul, but I say let the boys play.
Brought in with 30 seconds left in overtime, had to cover a big, and did a good enough job at denying the entry pass that the guard on the perimeter took an awful three. Long gave up the board, but then forced a miss on a putback attempt.
Areas of Improvement
There was not much to see, so I will only have two areas of improvement.
The first is that Long was really getting eaten alive by screens, although it was a small sample. I would like to think that screens will be less effective on him when he is going against A10 bigs, and not Big 10 level guys.
The second is his turnover rate. Jahari had a career low 20.8% turnover rate in his last season at Maryland. That will be kind of a problem if that stays for a larger sample, as you cannot have yourself throwing away possessions as a bench guy. I would hope that a different role in a different conference would be able to mitigate some of that.
Joe time.
Jahari Long Scouting Report (Full Game vs Penn State)
So Jahari Long. Not much video exists from the 2023-24 season sadly, which is when he last played. What I was given was 10 minutes from when he played versus Penn State in early December of 2023.
That obviously is not a whole lot of time, but it was a solid ten minutes.
Right away, you can tell Long is a defensive leader off the bench for Maryland. Once he comes off, he is put right on Kayne Cleary, who was Penn State’s best scorer this season. That’s trust from Kevin Willard there.
It’s also why I see Long fitting right in with Patriot Pressure. He’s an active on the ball defender, with active hands and is aggressive. Now, that did come back to hurt them at the end of the game. Long fouled Ace Baldwin going for a steal with UMD up two with 4.1 seconds remaining. UMD went on to win the game in OT, but they arguably should have won it in regulation and it was Long’s fault they didn’t.
On the plus side, Long is a solid free throw shooter, and has a solid shot from long range. He went 1-3 in this game, but all three looked pretty good. I do expect Long, especially coming off a full year of little basketball due to his ACL injury, to come off the bench. Having someone who can provide a defensive spark plug with an ability to shoot the three ball consistently is a great player to have. He’ll bring some important veteranosity to a team that will need it as well, along with being a player Tony is clearly comfortable with.
There’s a whole lot of positives to Jahari and I’m personally excited to have him boogie with us!
Alright, back to Palmer.
Ratings
We are once again using the 20-80 scale.
Athleticism: 55 – There was not much to go off of, but the burst on the one inbound play was pretty good, he was shot out of a cannon on my screen. Long also did not look like a minus athlete against Big 10 players, so there is that. We do not know how the knee injury will affect this.
Driving: 50 – It was not very impressive penetration-wise, but it got someone open and he hit the open man. You know the guard can boogie a wee bit.
Shooting: 55 – 35.5% on 62 attempts in his last season, that is enough volume for me to think that Jahari will at least be a slightly plus shooter. I would enjoy a bump to 38%.
Playmaking: 45 – I cannot give a guard with an assist rate 5% lower than his turnover rate a good grade on playmaking, so it’ll have to be a 45. It would be a 40 if I did not see the drive and kick.
On-Ball Defense: 55 – There is a reason Long is getting in the game in crunch time. Effort raises your defensive floor so much, and he brings it,
Off-Ball Defense: 55 – This would be a 60 without getting eaten by those screens, but the Mason commit was active and giving callouts to teammates.
Fun: 55 – Nobody gets a bad grade for fun unless you are a ball hog who sits out on defense. If you enjoy effort, you will enjoy Jahari Long.
What Does This Mean For Mason?
This is the definition of a floor-raising move. Long is likely going to come off the bench and give you quality glue-guy minutes. He could do it in his last season at Maryland, I would hope the sixth-year senior could do it two years later in the A10.
The biggest question mark is how that knee injury has healed. Was he injured beyond the level of playing for the entire 2024-25 season? Or was he able to come back at some point later on, but decided that it would be more worthwhile to redshirt and give himself a full, healthy season? This will be an important thing to see from the people that attend practices early on. Is he moving like he should? Is there a bulky knee brace?
Since I am an enjoyer of basketball, I am going to assume that Jahari Long is fully healthy and back to pre-injury form when I am evaluating him and the team.
At 6’5, Long can play the two and three, although I would classify him more as a guard. If you look at the guard and wing spots, you have Kory Mincy, Brayden O’Connor, Jermahri Hill, Masai Troutman, and Devin Booker. Mincy is pretty irrelevant in this unless you think Jahari is getting PG minutes. Brayden O’Connor is likely the starting two-guard, and maybe backup PG.
I like Long, but I think he slots in between Troutman and Booker on the depth chart, but I could definitely see him getting more minutes than expected due to his glue-guy upside. Jahari Long as the seventh man is great.
