Game 22: GMU (13-8 / 8-6) vs Davidson (12-7 / 7-4) on Friday, March 5, at 5:30PM.

[Patriotsince81]

Davidson finished the regular season 12-7 and 7-4 in the A10 which was good enough to earn them the #3 seed.

History: Including tournament play DP is 2 - 4 against the Wildcats. Our game with the Wildcats scheduled for 2/24/21 was canceled and we ended up playing GW instead so this is the first meeting of the year.

Wins: High Point, UNLV, Georgia Southern, Rhode Island, Vanderbilt, Duquesne, St. Joe’s, LaSalle, Fordham, UMass, Southern Virginia, vcu
Losses: Texas, Providence, Charlotte, Richmond, Dayton, St. Bonaventure (x2)

Schedule: https://davidsonwildcats.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule
Roster: https://davidsonwildcats.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster
Stats: https://davidsonwildcats.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2020-21?path=mbball

Davidson is led by 6’5” Kellan Grady (16.8 ppg & 4.7 reb), 6’7” Hyunjung Lee (13.2 ppg & 4.3 reb), 6’3” Carter Collins (11.9 ppg & 4.0 reb), and 6’10” Luka Brajkovic (10.3 ppg & 6.1 reb). 6’9” Sam Mennenga (6.7 ppg & 4.9 reb) is the fifth starter. 4 other guys average double figure minutes off the bench but don’t produce much in the way of stats.

Davidson averages 71.9 points per game while giving up 63.4. The Wildcats shoot 47.6% from the floor and 35.7% from 3. Opponents are shooting 41.8% from the field and 34.0% from 3. They shoot 68.3% from the free throw line. The Wildcats are currently out rebounding by their opponents by 5.4 boards per game. They average 10.7 turnovers per game.

The game is on NBCSN.

My prediction: They have great size, defend well, rebound well, and shoot well. In short, they are better than us. This will be a win for the Wildcats. Our season ends and the boards blow up with continued speculation about DP and whether he keeps his job or becomes a snake oil salesman in the southwest. Davidson 72 - Mason 63.

Discuss.

 

[GreenLantern]

Us 68
Them 66
OT

 

[CHRISTOPHER JAMES JOLLAY]

As nice as it is to see the rise of Polite, Hartwell get hot, etc. this team essentially will advance based on the play of Greene, AJ, and Miller.

And, obviously playing closer to 40 minutes of good basketball than 20.

If we're losing at halftime, can Rock, KA, and those guys post about Paulsen? Cause God seems to dislike them.

The beat goes on?

 

[JimP]

Hey - they've gotta shot at the A-10 semis for the first time. Not gonna be easy - but at least it seems the team is playing their best ball of the year going into the game.

 

[gmutom]

I’m just happy we get to play another game. We can debate Paulsen’s future when the season is over. If we get five players in double figures and hold them under 70, we win.

 

[CHRISTOPHER JAMES JOLLAY]

Hey - they've gotta shot at the A-10 semis for the first time. Not gonna be easy - but at least it seems the team is playing their best ball of the year going into the game.

We're tightroping on a thread...but at least the thread looks like it might go...for a while.

 

[GMUgemini]

Hey - they've gotta shot at the A-10 semis for the first time. Not gonna be easy - but at least it seems the team is playing their best ball of the year going into the game.

Weve played in the quarters before. We lost to Bonaventure in the quarters two years ago and St. Joes in the quarters the season before that. Not new ground...yet.

Make us believe, guys. One more game. Make it to Saturday!

 

[tblack33]

It’s been a fun run, but it’s time to shit on everyone’s rainbows and butterflies parade.

I can count on one hand the number of games where we’ve played 2 good halves. They’ve all come against shitty teams. Davidson is not the kinda team where you can come out flat. We’re probably going to get exposed tomorrow night for this fraudulent “run” we’ve been on.

Unless we make this an ugly rock fight, Davidson is going to run us out of the gym before Dave comes out of his Diet Dew coma and realizes we’re supposed to be playing. Davidson isn’t unbeatable, but they are solid across the board and very well coached. Not going to get a million second chance points against a mckillop team.

Davidson 76
Mason 59

Everyone cries that the freshman didn’t crush it realizing that they are freshman and will be inconsistent (if Polite scores 17 tomorrow night I’ll buy anyone who goes to Brions Saturday a beer). I have seen the light on what Polite can be but a single game doesn’t make me forget the whole season where he couldn’t put the ball in the ocean. He’s made strides, but anyone expecting more than 2 made FGs from him tomorrow is setting themselves up for disappointment. We will go as far as the upperclassmen can take us, because that’s how college basketball works at this level.

 

[mkaufman1]

I'm pretty interested to see how Mason looks to start the game tomorrow. Today they started by chucking threes. I don't think you can do that against Davidson, you have to mix and match. Of course things evened out and they ended up hitting some 3s when it mattered in the second half.

The other thing that will be interesting will be to see who starts the game. While I bet it'll be Hartwell at the point, I could see Davidson immediately go at him and look to exploit him off screens to create space for their shooters early. I suspect he will have a short leash even though I would hope he can provide an offensive spark to start the game.

Guys like Frazier, Haidara and XJ didn't play much today and so one of them is going to need to show up tomorrow to help out. While Polite did great today, I don't expect him to score like he did today. If he does, great. This is the type of game where you need that depth and someone to step up to give yourself a chance. I'd love for Frazier to score 12-14 points out of nowhere.

Unfortunately, Friday is traditionally where Mason poops out in the A10 tournament. They have never won and I don't think this is the year they will win despite playing some of their best basketball with winning 7 of 9 games (albeit weak teams other than vcu).

It was a rough season with ups and downs, it was nice to win some games in a row and blow out some bad teams. It'll be another long offseason that starts officially tomorrow around 730pm. I'd be very happy to be wrong though.

Davidson 76
Mason 62

 

[gmujim92]

Could see us getting off to a very fast start tomorrow — typically on Friday it takes a double-bye team some time to hit its stride against an opponent that already has a game under its belt.

The question is whether we can play two good halves or collapse after halftime like we did against Belmont.

Just a hunch but I think we win Friday and lose to Dayton for the third time this season in the semifinals.

 

[psyclone]

Kenpom: Davidson by 5;
Vegasinsider: Davidson by 4.5

 

[gmutom]

If McKillop is as smart as I think he is, he’ll play a tight zone the entire game to take away our dribble penetration and force us to beat them from the perimeter.

 

[JimP]

Weve played in the quarters before. We lost to Bonaventure in the quarters two years ago and St. Joes in the quarters the season before that. Not new ground...yet.

Make us believe, guys. One more game. Make it to Saturday!

Yeah - didn't word my post well. Should of said this is a chance to make the semis for the first time.

 

[JimP]

It’s been a fun run, but it’s time to shit on everyone’s rainbows and butterflies parade.

I can count on one hand the number of games where we’ve played 2 good halves. They’ve all come against shitty teams. Davidson is not the kinda team where you can come out flat. We’re probably going to get exposed tomorrow night for this fraudulent “run” we’ve been on.

Unless we make this an ugly rock fight, Davidson is going to run us out of the gym before Dave comes out of his Diet Dew coma and realizes we’re supposed to be playing. Davidson isn’t unbeatable, but they are solid across the board and very well coached. Not going to get a million second chance points against a mckillop team.

Davidson 76
Mason 59

Everyone cries that the freshman didn’t crush it realizing that they are freshman and will be inconsistent (if Polite scores 17 tomorrow night I’ll buy anyone who goes to Brions Saturday a beer). I have seen the light on what Polite can be but a single game doesn’t make me forget the whole season where he couldn’t put the ball in the ocean. He’s made strides, but anyone expecting more than 2 made FGs from him tomorrow is setting themselves up for disappointment. We will go as far as the upperclassmen can take us, because that’s how college basketball works at this level.

I agree that Polite likely won't score 17 tomorrow. There are others who could step up the way Polite did tonight and help make it a game tomorrow though.

 

[ephoops]

I like that they play at Robbins again on Friday night. It helps to have at least some familiarity shooting on a court you played on the night before. This is Davidson’s first game at Robbins this year.

AJ will be key tomorrow. Hopefully his three buckets in the waning minutes carries over to Friday night.

 

[Quentin Daniels]

Hadn't paid much attention to Davidson this year but they look solid. Beat Vanderbilt by 20 and came within 2 of upsetting Texas. Worst loss was Dayton by 11 but otherwise look solidly like the third best team in the A-10.

 

[Herndon]

McKillop is one of the better coaches in the game.

I think they're too big, too old, and have too much shooting for us to deal with.

Also, the Aussie/Korean kid is going to contend for all conference before he graduates. He's nice.

I think we get in foul trouble, and get beat pretty handily.

All in all, a fun, and pretty good season. I'll take it

 

[TweederGMU]

Can't start off ice cold against these guys and then battle back, won't happen. Need to keep the game close going in to half in order to have a shot. Look for them to clog the paint against us and force us to beat them with our perimeter game. I think we will see a steady dose of our larger guys going at them.... Polite should get some minutes and he needs to continue to drive on them. Get them in foul trouble and kick it out to guys on the perimeter and for the love of christ Kolek and Greene need to knock down these shots in order to win.

Toss up with the way it goes.

Goodguys 66
Furry white animal not starring Goldie Hawn, Wesley Snipes, or Woody Harrelson 72

 

[GMUgemini]

So many people talking like this is a foregone conclusion. Look, I get it, but of all the top four seeds, this is the one team Mason has a chance to beat (a banged up vcu is probably up there too). Any team that relies as heavily as Davidson does on outside shooting to win can have one mediocre to bad shooting night in the postseason and that's the opening this team needs.

Granted, they might shoot 15/26 from 3 and it's game over (lord knows we let a lot of open looks from 3), but I like our chances against this Davidson team a hell of a lot more than our chances against St. Bonaventure, Dayton, or SLU.

 

[Pablo]

Of course, Mason can win this game. But, IMO, this game is about Dave Paulsen. I don't care if Mason is a perennial top 7 A10 team, if it never plays in the A10 semis.