Your 21-6 and 9-5 George Mason Patriots are taking on the 17-10 and 9-5 Saint Joseph’s Hawks.
This is the most important game of the season so far for two reasons. The first is that both teams are 9-5, and with a win, Mason would be 1.5 games ahead of Joe’s because of the tiebreaker. The second is that a loss here just kind of means that the week break didn’t do anything, and it is plausible the Patriots end the season on an eight-game losing streak, losing the last seven, and then the tourney game.
I already wrote an article for the first time Mason played the Hawks, which they were victorious in, so go read that. I will try not to repeat myself.
Looking through their recent depth chart, nobody is really different.
Saint Joseph’s By The Numbers
The Saint Joseph’s Hawks are the 148th ranked team on KenPom, with the 246th offense and 72nd defense. In A10 play, they are 10th and 2nd.
If you filter Torvik to only since A10 play started, Joe’s is the 81st best team in the country, with the 179th offense and 34th defense. If you filter it to since they played Mason, they are 135th, with the 249th offense and 58th defense. Side note, Mason is 327th in that time period. Bad.
All stats below are conference play unless specified otherwise.
Donahue has his guys playing at an average pace, with 67.2 possessions per game, 8th, with that coming on the defensive end.
Offense
Their offense is fine, with the 9th eFG%, 7th turnover rate, 5th offensive rebound rate, and 12th free throw rate. It is good enough to hang with whatever their defense gives them most games.
Joe’s shoots 33.3% from three, ninth, and 51.7% from two, fifth. They take the third most threes at 46.3% of their shots, and have the highest assist rate at 61.7%.
The offense has regressed a decent bit in February, which is bound to happen your top three options have their threes stop going in so much. At least it is still better than what was going on with Deuce Jones running the show.
They still have a big three on offense, with Jaiden Glover-Toscano, Derek Simpson, and Dasear Haskins averaging 16.2, 15.8, and 13.1 points per game. All three have had their three-ball stop going in a little bit, but are all threats from outside.
Simpson still leads the conference in assist rate at 35.1% and free throw percentage at 91.5%.
Defense
The defense is a mixed bag, but a good one. 2nd in eFG% at 48.1%, 1st in free throw rate at 21.7 free throw attempts per 100 shots, but 12th in turnover rate and 11th in giving up offensive rebounds.
With their heavy zone usage, those make sense. You give up offensive rebounds in a zone, along with forcing difficult, but generally not turnover-worthy passes. They make up for it by not fouling, which is likely a lot of Ajogbar being awesome (sneaky DPOY candidate), and giving up that extremely low eFG%.
Their eFG% comes from 34.1% from three, seventh, and 45.9% from two, second. Opponents are shooting a decent bit of their shots from behind the arc at 42%, which is sixth most. D1 average is 39.6% of attempts coming from three.
The Hawks’ defense gives up the highest percentage of points from three in the conference, and the least amount from the free throw line. You take that.
Joe’s biggest strength is still avoiding fouls, which is impressive with how well they protect the rim both efficiency and volume-wise.
It is pretty crazy how much of a turnaround at the rim they had between the end of non-conference play and A10 play. And they are getting better. Their average two-point distance is the highest in the conference at 6.8 feet. That is really good.
Justice Ajogbor still leads the conference in block rate, and these are real blocks.
What Does This Mean For Mason?
There is no scouting section because I watched the first couple of minutes of their game against St. Bonaventure and realized I had nothing to add.
I will not give a score prediction for this one. We will go back to getting those once Mason wins.
