Mason Takes On Rhody in A10 Home Opener

Your 13-1 and 1-0 George Mason Patriots are taking on the 9-5 and 0-1 Rhode Island Rams in Mason’s conference home opener.

The Rams are coached by Archie Miller, who is in his second stint as a coach in the A10, with his first being at Dayton, where he made the tournament in his last four seasons, before going to Indiana and not making it since. Miller has an overall record of 254-181, a 48-60 record at Rhody, and an 18-37 A10 record with the Rams.

There have been talks about whether this could be Archie’s last year in Kingston, and I will not call for anyone’s firing, as that is not just the multi-millionaire head coach losing his job, it is his family, along with the assistants and their family. A lot of people are displaced by a move of that magnitude. A personal philosophy of mine is that you get four years, and if things are not looking up, it is time to move on. Being in the pillow fight all four seasons would definitely fall under that.

The Rams are coming off what should have been an unfathomable loss, but with Archie Miller at the helm, it felt like a coin flip to beat 297^th ranked Loyola Chicago in Kingston, Rhode Island.

Senior forward Drissa Traore is the only returner to get minutes for Rhody, but he shouldn’t be the only name familiar to some. Jonah Hinton spent last season at St. Bonaventure, and junior Jahmere Tripp spent his first two years at Fordham.

Tripp missed their December 31^st game against Loyola Chicago, and Archie said he did not practice, although the two-time Ram was listed as questionable. A bit of mixed signals there.

Rhode Island By The Numbers

The Rhode Island Rams are the 117^th ranked team on KenPom, with the 172^nd offense and 81^st defense. Archie is running at a below average pace, with more of it coming on the defense end, having the 322^nd shortest possession time on that end at 18.1 seconds.

This is a very old team, with their D1 experience average being at 2.49 years, which is probably brought up by seventh year senior Tyler Cochran.

Offense

Rhode Island’s calling card is their rim control. They shoot 57.3% from two, 57^th, and get 35.4% of offensive rebounds, 61^st. Those are probably related, but it really gives you a pretty good floor every game. The Rams also get to the line a decent bit, with 38.6 free throw attempts per 100 shots, 113^th.

A drawback of their offense is that they turn the ball over 19.2% of the time, 280^th, which kind of counteracts the extra possessions you get from the rebounds. Those mostly come from steals, 11.7%, which is 317^th, which probably hurts the defense a bit.

Their eFG% is a pretty good 52.4%, 134^th, which was pulled down by their three-point shooting at 30.5%, 294^th. For a team with that kind of disparity being two and three points-per-shot numbers, you would assume they would take less threes than they do, with 42.3% of their shots coming from behind the arc, 2.5 percentage points above average, and sitting at 129^th.

KenPom released a new stat ‘Average 2PA Distance’ that tracks how close the average two is, assuming that shorter is better. Average is six feet, and Rhody is at 5.1, which is 54^th best. Shots closer to the rim are generally better, and long twos drastically increase this if you take a lot of them, which are the worst shots in basketball.

The rim is slightly above average, but the midrange is kind of going crazy. I have to wonder if that is sustainable.

Rhody has a big three on offense in Jonah Hinton, Jahmere Tripp, and Tyler Cochran at 27.1%, 26.1%, and 25.3% of shots.

Junior wing Jonah Hinton averages 15.6 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 2 assists per game on 55.9% true shooting, which includes 33.9% from three. He is more of a volume scorer than an efficient one, which has value on a defense-first team. Hinton has already taken 127 threes, which is a lot.

Fellow junior wing Jahmere Tripp averages 12 points and 4.1 rebounds per game on 60.3% true shooting, which has him shooting 40% from three, along with drawing 5.2 fouls per 40 and hitting 80.9% from the stripe.

Seventh year senior wing/forward Tyler Cochran averages 12.4 points and 4.9 rebounds per game on 50.7% true shooting, only making 26% of his threes and 48.9% of his twos. The 4.8 fouls drawn per 40 somewhat makes up for it, but you do not have Cochran on your team for his offense. His value comes on the other end, like a Jared Billups type.

Outside of Hinton and Tripp, there are really no plus shooters. Alex Crawford is 10-30 from deep, and Myles Corey is 6-29, with both having track records of being bad shooters.

6’9 center Keeyan Itejere has a 74% eFG, which is fourth in the country, all on twos, and has a 70 free throw rate, 50^th, making 65.7% of his shots from the stripe, which is passable.

Myles Corey and RJ Johnson are the two listed PGs, with Johnson seeming to do more facilitating, having a 29.3%-23.9% assist-turnover percentage ratio. Corey is at 14.6-18.9%, not too good.

Defense

This is where this team makes its money. Their calling card is forcing turnovers, at 23.2%, 8^th in the country, but is somewhat counteracted by giving up a lot of offensive rebounds, 34.2%, 296^th. That is kind of the inverse of their offense. The turnovers mostly come from steals at 14.8%, which is 5^th, theoretically boosting their offense with efficient fast break opportunities. Maybe it contributes to the high two-point percentage.

The eFG% is pretty good at 49.3, 112^th. Opponents shoot 47.6% from two, 68^th, and 34.4% from three, 221^st. Teams take a decent amount of threes, 40.9%, 1.1 percentage points above average.

Rhody doesn’t just get steals, they also get blocks, with a 11.8% block rate, 78^th.

Mason will need to make their open threes to win this game, which I am hopeful of.

That rim protection is pretty good, although the amount is pretty high. You take it if it is good enough, which it seems to be. You really need the efficiency to stay like that, because if the volume if there with average efficiency, the defense will be shredded.

The volume being high isn’t just visual, with opponents’ average two-point distance being .4 feet below average (closer), 243^rd.

The Rams have a lot of defensive playmakers, as you may expect with such high stock rates.

Tyler Cochran is some people’s favorite to win A10 defensive player of the year. He averages 3.2 steals per game, which on a playmaking basis, backs it up. His steal rate of 6.6% is second in the country.

Keeyan Itejere has a block and steal rate of 6.5% and 2.3%. Drissa Traore 9.8% and 2.3%, Myles Corey 2.7% and 3.5%, Alex Crawford 2.6% and 2.3%, and Jahmere Tripp 1.3% and 4%.

Jahmere Tripp leads the team in fouls per 40 at 5.3, with Drissa Traore close behind him at 5.1, and Keeyan Itejere at 4.4.

Rhode Island Scouting Report (First Half vs. Loyola Chicago)

Tyler Cochran is huge.

Offense

The offense is pretty clunky, which makes sense if you have so many non-shooters. A decent amount of the offense is giving it to Hinton and hoping something good happens.

Everyone collapses on shots looking for rebounds.

Tyler Cochrsn likes to play in the post and is a good cutter. He looks like he played in the 90s/2000s era of post play and iso-ball.

Myles Corey is super fast, and can jump really far with it. He’s their Fatt Hill, being a scary driving threat but lacking an outside game. Corey is also a hustler who will get on the floor for loose balls.

Drissa Traore will let it fly if sagged off

Defense

Rhody runs a matchup zone switch-heavy style defense. It is very physical, passing lanes are jumped. Everyone is flying around. The Rams risk fouling to get on-ball steals but do a pretty good job. They do that move where you almost put their whole body under the ball-handler’s armpit.

Non-shooters are heavily sagged off of, which allows someone to help somewhere else.

The defense looked a lot better with Myles Corey in.

Their defense was a lot more fun to watch when it was working as intended than the other side of the ball.

What Does This Mean For Mason?

This team is Archie’s best work at Rhody. Every other team of his had me confused on what they were, which was generally a fine offense with a defense that gets shredded. Now it’s a fine offense that causes chaos on the defensive end, working more often than not.

Maybe I would have said that during their strong non-con last season, but lets fall for it maybe. They still lost to Loyola Chicago, which was so predictable, but at least they do something. There is an identity.

The winner of the turnover battle had won every game Rhody was in this season until the Loyola Chicago game, where they won that battle 24-12 and still lost by 4.

Rhody’s chances of winning are probably very dependent on Jonah Hinton’s self-created shots going in. When the offense doesn’t work, can he bail them out?

I predict a 65-55 Mason victory, with the defenses dictating the game.