Petey’s Bucket of Knowledge

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.

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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.

Number of the Beast

666

6 wins in a row: After an abysmal start to the season, which many expected, the Patriots are now riding a somewhat unexpected 6 game winning streak. The latest win being the most impressive, as Mason walloped Penn St. 85-66 in Happy Valley. Let me repeat that, Mason, the team that lost to Mount St. Mary’s, Towson and struggled against D3 Lebanon Valley College just capped off a 6th consecutive win versus a Big 10 school on the road. So what clicked? What’s changed since the 1-3 start?

Shortened Bench: Paulsen has now identified his starters (Otis, Moore, Kier, Grayer, Jenkins) and is opting to rotate in Boyd, Newman and Troy with Relvao getting some additional minutes but in a limited role. That adds up to be an 8.5 man rotation which leaves off the likes of Abram (former starter), Dixon, Murrell and Tate. If you look at Mason’s first game versus Towson, Paulsen used 11 players and shot an inefficient 42% from the floor and was outrebounded 39-22. Fast forward to Penn State and excluding both Danny Dixon’s and Kam Murrell’s 1 minute of playing time, only an 8 man rotation was used and Mason shot more efficient (51%) and out-rebounded the Nittany Lions 44-29. Although a 6 game sample size may be small, the numbers don’t lie and there appears to be a correlation between the two.

Shorter Lineup: Mason’s starting lineup is ranked 322nd in the nation in terms of average height. So we’re small, very small. You would make the conclusion that a short team simply cannot compete with bigger teams on the boards. That’s where you’d be wrong. Mason has out-rebounded their opponent 5 of their last 6 games. This is an incredible feat considering we’re starting a four guard lineup and our center only stands at 6’7. Marquise Moore especially is defying conventional wisdom by leading the team in rebounding with 10.3rpg and only standing at 6’2. In fact, Moore is top 25 in the nation in rebounding. The average height of the 24 players ahead of him is 6’7. Additional kudos to freshman Justin Kier for averaging close to 6rpg at only 6’4. When asked about how Mason’s guards are out-rebounding taller lineups, Moore responded after the Mercer win “its 90-95% will, we just want it more.”

By George will be traveling up to Philadelphia for the UPenn game at the historic Palestra. Follow us at our new Twitter @ByGeorgeGMU for pictures and in-game analysis. Go Mason!

RAC Open Scrimmage Takeaways

Back in the day, if we wanted to see some incoming freshmen play, We’d go to Georgetown and watch a Kenner League game over the summer. Since Mason pulled out of that summer tradition, the only way to see incoming freshmen before our first game of the season is during our open practice held every October. By George was there and here are some notes:

Freshmen
Troy- here today gone -Tamara: Probably showed the most impressive performance by any player on our team during the scrimmage. Physically speaking, Troy looked complete. Great frame, tall, moved well for his stature (6’8). Troy attacked the rim at will and had a scorer’s instinct. After seeing Troy win the dunk contest and dominate the scrimmage in front of large crowds, it appears as if there’s no moment too great for Troy. He almost thrives off of pressure and attention.

Karmari-Hello… Newman: We’ve got another short shorts guy on the team. Karmaris’ frame while thin was still lean and long perfect for a SG in the A10. He was pegged as a deep threat coming out of high school and his performance on Saturday lived up to the hype. Not only did he sink a few three’s but his form left Mason fans salivating over the thought of finally addressing our need for a sharp shooter.

Justin-where there’s smoke, there’s Kier: Not much was known about Kier coming out of Spotswood VA. We may’ve known his high school stats and seen his mixtape on twitter but it was difficult to place his role on the team. I think it’s safe to say that he will be used a quasi- PG/SG type of player who actually may see some serious minutes. Paulsen placed him with our starters during the first scrimmage game (Most likely backing up Grayer who sat due to an ankle injury) and we could see why. Kier has some length to him and can also handle the ball pretty well. I think he’s one player to keep an eye on as the season progresses. He may be an under-the-radar type of kid that may end up starting at some point.

Ian –he’s definitely not a Boy-d: When By George arrived to practice early, most of the players were already warming up. I distinctly remember thinking, wow; I didn’t know we were bringing former players back for this scrimmage. Upon closer review, that former player was actually our freshman Ian Boyd. Already dawning a full beard and a more developed body than any senior we have, Ian appears to be ready to hit the ground running. His football athleticism seemingly creeps its way into his basketball game. He jumped so high for a rebound; I thought I was witnessing AJ Green pull down a Hail Mary pass. Even on a fast break he was able to stop on a button to allow his defenders to over pursue, leading to an easy bucket.

Daniel-Relv…ah..oh..fuck it: As a redshirt freshman, Daniels strength is his overall body build. He’s big, like built Ford tough big and Mason can certainly use that this year with the departure of Shevon. Rocking two knee braces throughout the scrimmage, it was difficult to notice any hitch in his step due to his tendentious. He displayed some solid low post moves and will provide some additional depth to an already depleted position.

Other notable standouts:
Otis-Living on a prayer-ston: Otis showed up and did Otis. He’s our clear captain and just did everything right during the scrimmage. Whether it was floor management, dribbling, getting to the hoop, shooting threes, wow this kid can do it all.

Dany- VCU can suck our Dix-on: The days of little skinny framed Dany are behind us. Say hello to a more built frame which led to more confidence on the court. Will Dany ever become a massive A10 bruiser? No, but he will set screens and light you up with some finesse game including some nice jumpers and an improved hook shot.

Marquise-Gimme some-Moore: Similar to Otis, Quise delivered what we know and love. He attacked the rim and at times just scored at will. I didn’t really see any issues with his previous injuries; he had some nice spring to his step. He also might still be one of our best rebounding guards of all time.
Paisano’s Delivery Guy: Dude straight delivered like 40 pizzas. You the real MVP.

Mason Madness

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Good
-The Quick Change couple sounded pretty lame when we read it on the lineup card but wow, it was actually pretty amazing. Kudos to GMU for booking the former America’s Got Talent duo. I once saw Erik Copes rip off his warm up gear in just under a 1 second only to foul out 2 mins later.
-The dogs, again, another lame sounding performance that actually turned out to be pretty spectacular and delivered some of the loudest crowd reaction of the night. These dogs were jumping, twirling, spinning, catching Frisbees; you could make an argument that they almost stole the night. Troy at one point was holding the entire team back (a la Monmouth bench) after a dog caught a Frisbee.
-Green Machine delivered another classic opening intro. What else can you say about the nation’s number one pep band? They killed it.
-50 years of Mason Basketball. The hype video did just that, it hyped me, hard. It was great seeing clips of Mason greats coupled with some of our current players. Really put the program in perspective.
-The Dunk contest. Finally, after years of doing the same open scrimmage, we fans got to enjoy a more entertaining contest. Troy and Jai (Boogie) specifically delivered some legitimate dunks…like; I was actually kind of blown away (check out our IG for slo-mo videos). Also cool seeing Darrel Green as one of our celebrity judges, welcome to Mason Nation.

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Bad
-The Dunk contest. Yes, yes, the dunk contest was awesome but it would’ve been a little better if our participants actually made a few of their dunks. Some of our freshmen had such ambitious first dunks that they couldn’t even make them in the time allotted. Maybe save the 360-windmill-behind the back dunk for the end? Oh well.
– There were some awkward transitions right? Green Machine delivers a loud, high energy performance and then…. Silence… Cough, cough……crickets……someone pick up a microphone!

Ugly
-What the hell was that choir singing at the end? I legit thought it was a funeral service and decided to bounce before they could finish. Nothing pops the season off quite like a solemn, eerie performance of Man in the Mirror performed by bunch of school children. Yikes