VCU game 1 wrap-up – walking the tightrope
By: Petey Buckets
One of the things that will be hanging over Mason’s head all year is that the path to victory for this team is narrow. They need to win the boards, shoot a lot of free throws, and keep opponents out of the paint. They need Marquise to dominate on both ends and Jalen to stay out of foul trouble. If any of those things don’t happen the night gets whole lot longer. Last night, basically everything went wrong. Jalen picked up two (cheap/bad/really bad/awful/missed calls) quick fouls and only played 4 minutes in the first half. Marquise didn’t look like himself and after the game we learned his groin was bothering him. VCU dominated the boards, dominated the paint, and shot 20 free throws to Mason’s 8. Mason kept the margin close despite all that, but for most of the second half this didn’t really feel like a game Mason could win.
Some other thoughts:
- VCU is the first good team that clearly had a game plan that revolved around trying to hammer the paint, and they succeeded. 26 of their first 29 points came in the paint and Mason couldn’t get stops in big moments all night long. Every other team has taken the cheese – ignore the post, and take those threes Paulsen’s defense is gently encouraging you to take – and as a result we didn’t know what it would look like if a capable team made it their mission to get the ball inside. Now we know, and it’s not pretty. The guards couldn’t cut off dribble penetration, and when Mason did force misses, they couldn’t collect rebounds.
- A telling stat is that even though VCU didn’t shoot well from three, they were 26-45 from inside the arc. My eyes tell me that most of those shots were in the paint, where Mason has defended well all season but allowed too many easy buckets last night. Mason shot 20-51 from inside the arc – lots of those were long twos – and this disparity pretty clearly illustrates why it’s so important to get high-percentage shots at the rim. Mason has had a lot of games this season where they’ve lost the three point battle but it didn’t matter because they shot so well from the rest of the floor and got more free throws. VCU flipped that script.
- The rebounding advantage Mason has enjoyed all season might have been a mirage. VCU, which is not a good rebounding team, grabbed 16 offensive rebounds on only 29 missed shots. That’s apocalyptically bad. As a point of reference, it’s even a little better than the offensive rebounding advantage Mason enjoyed against Prairie View, when they grabbed 18 on 34 missed shots.
- Alie-Cox and Tillman only had about 10 overlapping minutes (I’m estimating) but it felt like those minutes went very badly for Mason. I was worried that VCU was the first team with two skilled bigs Mason has played all season, and this was part of the reason why. When they were on the floor together, Alie-Cox was guarded by Jalen, Relvao, or Temara, which left Grayer, Boyd, and Kier to defend Tillman. Tillman only scored five points but he also grabbed eleven rebounds, five offensive, as a result of those much smaller guys being left to box him out.
- The non-Jalen minutes didn’t kill Mason, but I’m not totally sure why. In 18 minutes Relvao and Temara combined for 2 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal. Most of those minutes came in the first half, after Jalen picked up his second foul, when Mason actually closed the gap. Their defense seemed mostly solid, but Mason is effectively playing 4 on 5 on offense when Jalen goes to the bench. Relvao and Temara both have a ton of potential but aren’t quite where they need to be yet. Quick aside – there was a moment in the first half when Relvao was waiting to check in. Paulsen watched a sequence where VCU got a couple consecutive boards, turned to Relvao at the scorers’ table, and yelled “Grab every fuckin’ rebound!” Having a real coach is fun.
- Behind Boyd, the bench is thin. Scoring from the starters was very balanced (12, 10, 10, 10, 8) and of the 14 bench points, 10 came from Ian Boyd. Boyd again impressed with his ability to scrap in the paint, fight for rebounds, and his defensive instincts, but the bench contributions need to be more consistent if Mason is going to compete with better teams.
- As if everything else didn’t go wrong, Mason’s backcourt combo of Otis and Marquise had their least efficient scoring games of the season, combining for 20 points on 8-27 shooting, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals, and 9 turnovers. I’m not concerned they’ll have many more games like this, but last night showed us how ugly the offense can look when neither of those guys finds a rhythm.
Given that just about everything went wrong, this game could have been a lot worse. There are some definite positives to take away – perimeter defense looked really good, Kier had another quiet but solid game, Ian Boyd looks ready, Jalen played very well in his limited minutes, and VCU’s press didn’t win the game. The issues that cost Mason this game are correctable, though personnel limitations will make them susceptible to games like this one. I’m curious to see if Paulsen considers going with two forwards at any point in the year to combat teams that are beating Mason on the boards as badly as VCU did last night.
