Mason vs Longwood Analysis
By: Petey Buckets
The Buckets post-game report is going to be a little different than your normal post-game recap. I’ll be writing these similar to how I post on the boards and Twitter @Peteybuckets – lots of bullet points, lots of stats, lots of rambling, some general thoughts, and some insanely minor details that I think might be important. Hope you like them!
First, while Monday’s win was fun and exciting, Longwood is near the bottom of Division 1 in just about every important category. We shouldn’t read too much into any individual player’s performance. Good teams should beat up on teams like Longwood – and that’s what I’m happiest about. Monday said more about the team’s mental focus and ability to get up for lesser competition than anything else. To this point in the Paulsen era, Mason has proven to be very good at putting away inferior teams. Even Larranaga teams screwed around and frequently played down to their level of competition, so this is a welcome change. Now on to the bullets, which I promise will not follow a logical order:
- I’ve been a little tough on Jaire recently so it’s only fair to recognize him for a fantastic game. In addition to scoring very efficiently (17 points on 10 shots, 3/6 from three) he added five steals. The biggest knock on him has been that he doesn’t impact the game in other ways when his shot isn’t falling, but he brought the pain on Monday.
- Tonight was a good example of why Mason fans are so bullish on Ian Boyd. Even though his shot wasn’t falling (1/7) he filled up the stat sheet with 7 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal. He’s the kind of player who doesn’t need to score to make his presence felt, and it’s hard not to love how well-rounded his game is.
- It’s easy to see why the coaching staff loves Kier so much. He’s one of the smartest players Mason has had since the Larranaga years. He’s always in the right spot, rarely makes mistakes, and is happy to play an important role on the team. He knocked down two wide-open threes, which is something he’s going to need to do over the course of the season if we’re going to keep winning.
- Longwood ran a lot of double-screens at the top of the key and Otis kept going under them. He did a fine job of keeping up, but he still goes under screens almost exclusively. I’m mildly concerned that A-10 teams with better guards and bigger screeners are going to pick on this tendency.
- On the other side of the ball, Otis and Marquise took turns blowing by Longwood’s guards and getting into the paint. This team is at its best when it attacks the paint, and Longwood is not a team capable of taking us out of our game. Otis and Marquise were clinical at getting to the rim or finding shooters when help came. The ball movement was fantastic and a big part of the reason we were 10/23 from downtown.
- One cause for concern is how much our frontcourt fouls. Relvao had two fouls in ten minutes, which actually brought his foul rate down to 10.2 per 40. Jalen’s foul rate is 4.6 per 40 and Temara’s is 7.1 – it’s not unthinkable that we play a game this season where all three of those guys foul out, leaving us with the choice of running with five guards or Danny as the big.
I want to end this with some thoughts about how much better the team has been shooting and defending throughout the win streak. Take a look at our numbers before and after the Houston game (I’ve excluded Lebanon Valley from these since they’re not D1):
- Before Houston: 43.9% FG, 20.9% from three
- After Houston: 45.3% FG, 37% from three
But the improvement gets even more pronounced if you cut the win streak in half. Check this out:
- Kent State through UNI (four games): 41.0% FG, 30.9% from three
- Mercer through Longwood (four games): 49.6% FG, 42.9% from three
The first four games of the streak showed we can win ugly. The last four games of the streak have showed we can win pretty, too. That’s not something I expected as recently as the UNI game.
As impressive as our offensive improvement has been, the improvement on defense almost mirrors it. Check out these opponent splits before/after Houston:
- Before Houston: 47.1% FG, 38.9% from three
- After Houston: 39.4% FG, 29.1% from three
It’s not surprising that we are shooting better and defending better during the winning streak than we were during the losing streak, but those splits are so dramatic they’re worth spending time on. The team has done a tremendous job of turning around what was starting to look like yet another lost season.
It feels a little strange to get through a recap without spending much time on Marquise and Jalen, but I think anything more I say about them will be redundant. These two, along with Otis, are the stars, and they’ll go as far as the supporting cast will take them.