Your George Mason Patriots have brought in French 6’1 guard Lilian Marville out of UNC Greensboro, who led D1 in three-point percentage at 52.2%.
Marville is a rising sophomore and will have three years of eligiblity.
Lilian Marville by The Numbers
During his freshman season at UNC Greensboro, Lilian averaged 9.5 points, 2.3 assists, 2 rebounds, and 0.7 steals per game in 26.2 minutes.
Offense
Marville’s 9.5 points came on 59.4% true shooting, which is very good for a freshman. Both the assist rate and turnover rate are 16.4%. The turnovers got better as the season went on, with him dropping it down to 14.9% in conference play.
The exciting number. Marville shot 52.2% from three, which is crazy. Even more crazy is that these weren’t catch and shoot. Only 62.2% of them were assisted, meaning 37.8% were self-created to some degree. For context, Mincy had 68.2% of his threes assisted, and it felt like he created a lot.
Is he going to repeat that number? Probably not, it would be absurd to. The indicators aren’t in his favor, shooting 47.9% at the rim and 36.1% from midrange, although both being incredibly self-creation reliant. Along with that, Lilian was only shooting 6.5 threes per 100 possessions, which would fall between Jahari Long and Riley Allenpach on last year’s team.
Expecting him to make half of his threes again is probably setting yourself up for disappointment, but his regression could still be in the 40s. Give Mason high 30s low 40s from three on good volume and nobody complains.
But there is one thing that could give more confidence that the shooting is real. During his last season in France, the 6’1 guard shot 46% from three. It could be real.
As mentioned with the rim and midrange numbers, his game was very reliant on self-creation. I am going to make a safe assumption that 2026-27 Mason’s offensive environment with will be better than 300th ranked UNC Greensboro. This could mean that even if the efficiency from three drops, an increase at the rim and midrange could make up for it.
Another thing that is very good is his in-season progression. After his last game of non-conference play, his offensive rating was 102.6. At the end, it had slowly increased up to 116.6.
With Marville on the court, UNC Greensboro had a 52.7% eFG, and with him off, it was at 50.9%. The biggest difference actually came in the longer midrange. His team shot 46.7% with him on, and 28.6% with him off. It is highly unlikely Lilian is responsible for all of that, but it could be a spacing/gravity thing.
This guy is money from pretty much everywhere past the three-point line, but especially straight on and his left wing.
Defense
Lilian did not get a block all season, which makes sense for a 6’1 guard, but did have a respectable 1.5% steal rate. That doesn’t make you excited for his defensive playmaking, but he is out of the danger zone. The France native also only commits 2.1 foul per 40, which is good usually, but on such a bad defensive squad, maybe you should commit fouls a little more often.
With Marville on the court, UNC Greensboro gave up 58.2% eFG, and 53.4% with him off. The biggest difference came in the three-point percentage, growing from 34.7% to 40%. This could also be somebody he is in the lineup with often, as nobody on the UNC Greensboro team had a positive defensive box plus minus. Seven players are between -2.4 and -2.6, and Marville is in the middle.
Lilian Marville Scouting Report (Queens)
This was pretty early in the season and the team did not look very connected.
Offense
Marville is able to make the open pass in the flow of the offense, specifically hitting the pass that the play calls for. The advantage creation was not really there, but making the right play was. If he got the ball with a ball-screen going downhill, some advantage could be created and maintained.
The France native was enough of a handler to be able to get quick offense in transition if a slower defender has to pick him up. He looked very comfortable in transition, could find the open guys and create a shot if needed. UNC Greensboro played at a slightly above average pace, I don’t see Mason being close to that speed based on Skinn’s first three seasons.
Queens was pressing him and the 6’1 sharpshooter was getting through it just fine.
Lilian is a good off-ball mover. He will get into space and put himself in position for a pass for an open shot. His teammates are kind of ball hogs, as he would make himself open and available to a driver, and then the driver shoots over a double contest. Marville an get the ball off a dribble hand-off and orient his body midair for the shot.
With the shooting, the sharpshooter will jump a little towards defenders on threes, and will fall down looking to draw the foul. He does not have a quick trigger when ball-handling. There are times I see where I want my 50% shooter taking the three on the advantage he created. If given a green light, it could be crazy.
Defense
The defensive infrastructure was bad. On the first play of the game, their center gave up a drive from Queens’ big from the perimeter. This was early in the season and the defense was not running as it should. Judging by the metrics, there wasn’t too much in-season improvement.
His team played a lot of matchup zone, along with having some full-court man and zone press in there. Somewhat similar to Mason.
Marville is an attentive off-ball defender. He never gets caught ball-watching. The 6’1 guard helps and digs when his nearby teammate gets beat and has good timing to fly back when he can tell the dribble is getting picked up. The downside is Lilian can get destroyed by off-ball screens due to his size occasionally. He got matched up with a shooting threat off-ball and guarded him incredibly well, flying around and through screens, but the screens had mixed results over the course of the game.
The France native boxes his man out as soon as a shot goes up, wherever he is.
The 6’1 guard lined up with a wing who got an on-ball rep with him. Cut him off pretty well, still got pushed to the edge of the paint. As you can guess, he struggles with wings due to his lack of height.
Effort isn’t lacking on the defensive end. Marville will get by if he is on a smaller guard or an off-ball perimeter guy.
Joe time.
Lilian Marville Scouting Report (NC State)
Thanks Palmer.
Boy, I’ve been doing a lot of this the last couple days. It’s fun.
For this one I watched the first half of the UNC Greensboro-NC State game. Marville got the start this game at the PG spot for the Spartans.
Marville was paired in the backcourt for this game with Donald Whitehead, who was listed at 5 ’10. I do not think Whitehead is 5 ’10, that is a small, small backcourt to run against a P5 team, and one that was pretty lanky too in NC State. Feels like that could explain some of the defensive issues in Marville’s analytics.
Speaking of his defense, even though NC State scored 47 on UNCG in the half I watched, it was really hard to blame Marville for the vast majority of those baskets. I think he was at fault at most for two. The first one he just gets hit by the perfect screen and no one steps in to help on the shooter, who gets a wide open three. The second one is definitely his fault, he misses his assignment, someone comes to help very late and proceeds to foul the three point shooter.
The only other thing I noticed defensively is that he tends to lean towards the hoop, leaving his man open behind the arc, but every UNCG guard seemed to do that, so that may have been a system thing (I say that negatively). It’s hard to project his defense in my opinion because his -2.5 DBPM on Torvik is genuinely around the average for this UNCG team, which means something went horribly, horribly wrong systematically for them this year.
Offensively, I see how Marville fits the style Tony likes to run offensively. As the main ballhandler on the offensive end, Marville was clearly more comfortable slowing down the tempo. Slow tempo is what Tony Skinn loves, so he’ll fit right in there.
He took two threes in the half I watched. He had ample time to shoot the first one and it was a beauty. Perfect form, perfect swish. You see why the guy shot nearly 51% on his 89 three point attempts last year. He clearly looks for his spot. He did not look for his spot on his second three and it was clearly off rhythm, yet still almost went in. As much as I would love him shooting 50% from three again, that’s probably not happening, but I don’t think it’s fake necessarily either. He has great form, great sense for space behind the arc, I like it a lot.
I do think there is a touch overreliance on the midrange game. He doesn’t shoot horrifically from there, but he will need to improve his “getting to the basket” ability to compete in the A-10. I don’t think he’s our starter at the PG spot, but he will be crucial depth in the backcourt and will be an important role player this upcoming season.
Back to you Palmer.
Ratings
Passing: 55 – This is scaled for a guard, not a PG. This guy will play within the flow of the offense, and will not ruin possessions, but will not create advantages that change the offense.
Shooting: 70 – As I mentioned earlier, the shooting is probably going to be great, but I am not going to predict another 50% season. I want to make super high ratings mean something. For scale, the only 80 grade shooting season I would give in recent memory is Koby Brea in 2024, and Trey Green would have gotten a 75 last season. Long story short, I think the shooting volume will increase and the efficiency will decrease, but it will still be high enough that you are happy during every shot attempt. A 70 grade is still awesome.
On-Ball Defense: 40+ – It is incredibly hard for a small, although not tiny, guard to be a positive on defense. A 40 grade is to be expected for a guy who is 6’1 and not built like a bulldog. As long as another weaker defender is not played next to him, I don’t think there will be a problem. This guy wasn’t a revolving door or anything, this is more of a projection on how he’ll do against A10 6’3+ guards. I want to make it very clear that he is definitely trying on this end, the effort and care-factor is there. If Marville is your weakest link, you are fine.
Off-Ball Defense: 55 – I really liked the activity on this end. It wasn’t playmaking that showed up in the box score, but there were subtle things that showed Lilian understood
Handle: 50 – The handle isn’t great nor bad. It needs improvement to create advantages, but it gets him up and down the court without losing it.
Shot Creation: 45 – Marville can generate offense for himself a bit, but needs screens to be consistently effective. I think his best shot creation moments came when he created an advantage with his off-ball movement, but that feels more like a separate skill. The 6’1 guard creates advantages is ways without a plus handle or first step.
Off-Ball Movement: 55 – This is the part that could really be used differently and make him a new player. If this guy can run around and get open for threes, you might have a Trey Green regen. When Lilian wasn’t looking for a perimeter shot, he would run close enough to the screener to make some space and then attack the basket on a curl. The catch and shoot threat could turn into some easy advantage creation.
Vertical Athleticism: 40 – It was a small sample size, but it looked like Marville’s jumping was pretty low. 0 dunks on the season might back that up.
Horizontal Athleticism: 50 – If Lilian gets an advantage, he has the athleticism to keep it.
I would like to add the context that I couldn’t find any late-season stuff for UNC Greensboro that wasn’t just highlights, so these ratings are based more on how he was 5 games into his career. I imagine the passing and defense got a tad bit better as the season went on, and will get better during the offseason too.
Where Does He Fit In?
Excluding him, Mason’s proven playmakers are Baraka Okojie, Brayden O’Connor, and Efeosa Oliogu-Elabor. I am not sure if Marville is a true point guard, but you could talk me into getting by with having three secondary playmakers, kind of like what Duke does.
Pretty much, I think lineups with Lilian at the 1 will work if Brayden O’Connor and/or Efeosa Oliogu-Elabor are also in the lineup.
It felt like UNC Greensboro’s offense was very rigid and play-driven, as opposed to Skinn’s where “the first 10 seconds are yours.” There is a chance Marville was a playmaker that wasn’t allowed to show his creativity. Potential.
A realistic projection for Lilian Marville is some form of what Trey Green was doing for Saint Louis, although I am not sure if the volume could hold up.
A low-end outcome for Marville could be something like what GW got in Tre Dinkins, where he was pretty much a three-only guy who couldn’t do much else. That would still be adding value on a team that could use some shooting.
The nightmare bad scenario for the 6’1 guard would be something like Devin Dinkins. Small guard who can’t play defense and can’t play PG, but also doesn’t have any traits to counteract that. I can’t see that happening unless the shooting absolutely plummets.
If you really want to dream, Lilian could be the A10 version of Tre Johnson. The advantages he creates can be small, but still get him open, he just doesn’t pull the trigger. There is a good on-ball scorer somewhere in there, it just needs to be unlocked, maybe down the road.
Devin Dinkins / GW Tre Dinkins / Trey Green / A10 Tre Johnson is a pretty decent range of outcomes. If he lands between the middle two, success.
In the meantime, an off-ball scorer, with some on-ball juice, who can make the correct read within the offense, is valuable, and something Mason was missing last season.
I would slot Marville in as one of the first guys off the bench, and a guy that could make spot starts and be fine.
