Game 25: GMU (21-3 / 9-2) at Richmond (13-11 / 3-8) on Tuesday, February 10, at 7:00 PM.

[jruby]

I don't think so.

I would rest mincy until the tournament.
Attempt to stay in the top 4
Get into the NIT
Keep the six most critical pieces over the spring, if possible..for continuity.
Get Brayden back for next year.
And hit the portal for a skilled experienced power forward and another athletic wing
And go for it again next year.

No one cares about the NIT sorry. Literally it's not important to anyone other than a team maybe coming off 5 losing seasons. The way they are no longer rebounding I wouldn't even count on the NIT, that may not even be on the table if they keep playing this way. Very hard schedule remaining. These guys want NCAA"s or bust. Maybe he can make it back by Pittsburgh but he was crying in the corner. I think his hand is pretty bad. Injuries really have not been kind to this team this year. Dola Mincy even Fat was hurt to start the year. Clearly O'Connor, and i'm not sure what's Riley's deal but he hasn't seemed the same since GW either.

I also think someone is going to pay him. Hopefully i'm wrong but it's the name of the game. Everyone upgrades.

 

[jruby]

Don't get me wrong...we played a miserable game, but a few of you here are real catastrophizers. It's like we'll never win again this year. IT'S BASKETBALL!! These things happen.
.
P.S. We lost to a mediocre Duquesne team last season by 17 for our 3d conference loss.

Not much positive to take away from this game but we were down by 26 pts at one point in the second half and lost by 12.

It's like watching a train wreck. It just get's worse and I can't bring myself to change channels. (and Mason seems to be in slow motion)

We have been a lucky pretty bad team for a while now. The luck is gone, and I don't see this turning around this year. Mincey is gone, Allenspach's flaws are exposed, and nobody else is providing any offense or defense of note (Kanga's D, and Fatt/Long's O best of bunch), and the coaching is suddenly questionable over last five - not a recipe for success.

I mean what do you want from the coaching? Not playing Mincy? I don't know..... Now he likely is done. Rebounding is all effort so I guess you can blame coaching for not having them ready to play but can he play the game for them? NO! The turnovers and rebounding are just mental. They should have been able to win that game even without Mincy. Richmond is very very bad and If you don't rebound or box out and you have that many turnovers you won't beat anyone especially not on the road. If they can all get healthy Mincy, Riley, Dola etc etc then maybe. We know based on the vcu game they can be great. I just don't know that they are going to get healthy. Mincy's hand looks completely unusable at this point. I don't know how it heals unless he doesn't play.....

 

[Patriotsince81]

Wow, what a sh&t show. No heart, no pride, top to bottom. Anyone still think an at large is within the realm of possibility?

 

[Verdad]

Wow, what a sh&t show. No heart, no pride, top to bottom. Anyone still think an at large is within the realm of possibility?

Nope

 

[2011WinOverVillanova]

Wow, what a sh&t show. No heart, no pride, top to bottom. Anyone still think an at large is within the realm of possibility?

Bro that died when we lost to Duquesne

 

[nchocola]

Tony mocked the one guy in the press conference last week about “slow starts”. He ate his words today because their defensive effort and hustle in the first 10 minutes took them out of the game completely.

They need to stop going through the motions to start a game. They try to run offensive sets and just make sure they are in the right positions defensively rather than just going out there and playing hard. That’s a Tony problem.

15 turnovers on the road isn’t going to cut it either.

Much better effort in the second half though. They would have won if they played that way in the first half as well.

 

[NewPatriot]

No one cares about the NIT sorry. upgrades.

This team isn't going to the big dance and frankly the fan base should not look down on any post season since there's only been only one post season appearance since 2011....that was last year.

 

[GMUgemini]

Don't get me wrong...we played a miserable game, but a few of you here are real catastrophizers. It's like we'll never win again this year. IT'S BASKETBALL!! These things happen.
.
P.S. We lost to a mediocre Duquesne team last season by 17 for our 3d conference loss.

Not much positive to take away from this game but we were down by 26 pts at one point in the second half and lost by 12.

To be fair, we lost 3 of our last 6 to teams that are not very good and we have our toughest stretch of games ahead of us.

 

[Where's the party?]

I mean what do you want from the coaching? Not playing Mincy? I don't know..... Now he likely is done. Rebounding is all effort so I guess you can blame coaching for not having them ready to play but can he play the game for them? NO! The turnovers and rebounding are just mental. They should have been able to win that game even without Mincy. Richmond is very very bad and If you don't rebound or box out and you have that many turnovers you won't beat anyone especially not on the road. If they can all get healthy Mincy, Riley, Dola etc etc then maybe. We know based on the vcu game they can be great. I just don't know that they are going to get healthy. Mincy's hand looks completely unusable at this point. I don't know how it heals unless he doesn't play.....

Wow. Point out some obvious flaws and mention the obvious slide in performance and draw fire.

You folks need scroll back through all the comments during the last five games. I'm certainly not the only person mentioning the lack of D, O, effort, and coaching.

I've been very supportive of the team this year, and a big fan of Tony since he arrived. If we can't be critical or even downright pessimistic on this forum without drawing the ire of the Pollyanna's, it ain't much of a forum.

 

[jruby]

Wow. Point out some obvious flaws and mention the obvious slide in performance and draw fire.

You folks need scroll back through all the comments during the last five games. I'm certainly not the only person mentioning the lack of D, O, effort, and coaching.

I've been very supportive of the team this year, and a big fan of Tony since he arrived. If we can't be critical or even downright pessimistic on this forum without drawing the ire of the Pollyanna's, it ain't much of a forum.

Rebounding and Turnovers are all mental. You can't teach a kid to rebound if he has zero effort. So again like I said blame him for them having zero effort but what exactly can they can do if the kids don't want to try? I'm not attacking you. I'm simply saying if the kids have no effort its on the team but yes it all goes back to the coaches. I guess I took it to mean subs rotations etc. When half your starting lineup is hurt or gone mentally, sure thats on the coaches to get them back in it but I think they need a serious gut check.

Losing your leading scorer and leader on the floor has clearly messed with their heads. Mincy is not ok as much as people want to stay otherwise. Riley has not been the same since GW. Maybe he's getting exposed but I think his injury is hurting him too. I don't think Tony wants to make excuses though. It should be next man up......

 

[Where's the party?]

Rebounding and Turnovers are all mental. You can't teach a kid to rebound if he has zero effort. So again like I said blame him for them having zero effort but what exactly can they can do if the kids don't want to try? I'm not attacking you. I'm simply saying if the kids have no effort its on the team but yes it all goes back to the coaches. I guess I took it to mean subs rotations etc. When half your starting lineup is hurt or gone mentally, sure thats on the coaches to get them back in it but I think they need a serious gut check.

Losing your leading scorer and leader on the floor has clearly messed with their heads. Mincy is not ok as much as people want to stay otherwise. Riley has not been the same since GW. Maybe he's getting exposed but I think his injury is hurting him too. I don't think Tony wants to make excuses though. It should be next man up......

Agree

 

[Patriotsince81]

https://gomason.com/news/2026/2/10/mens-basketball-tough-first-half-sinks-patriots-at-richmond.aspx

"That's not George Mason Basketball," head coach Tony Skinn ('06) said. "My message to the team was that Richmond was going to give us everything they had. [The record] doesn't matter. I just thought the first two minutes, their toughness and their effort level, taking us out of offense, moving and cutting at a high level – that set the tone."

What are you going to do to fix it? Shitty starts are an all too common theme for the year.

 

[Old Ram]

Wow, what a sh&t show. No heart, no pride, top to bottom. Anyone still think an at large is within the realm of possibility?

Long gone. Time to fix things before Pittsburgh.

 

[NewPatriot]

One of the biggest problem is Allenspach.
.yes, statistically he scores but he has become a vacuum in the post. Throw the ball in and he doesn't look to pass the ball out. Sooo many times every dam game over the last month since vcu..he holds the ball and tries to score through double, triple and even quadruple teams to get his layup ..he doesn't even look when the double comes any more...he just powers on thru to score..one reason the offense has become stagnant...no one gets to step into shoot an uncontested 3..

Remember skinn ran Dola as cutter to the basket twice in the vcu game... where the h@ll did they play go...if your big gets triple teamed..why aren't running cutters to the basket for easy dump offs??
.

 

[GMU1983]

I was at the game absolutely atrocious! Richmond season ticket holders yelling in my ear. I had not been to an away game in years! A10 tourney win or bust at this point! As everyone said we will probably still get a top 4 seed but this team needs to figure it out soon!

 

[GSII]

Hangover from homecoming.

Mincy being out will expose what we as die hards have already seen.... nobody else can score like Mincy at certain times.

Back to the drawing board for CTS.

 

[hoops10]

To start with CTS needs to change the starting lineup. Enough with Sivka starting. He adds nothing to the team. Replace him with Fatts Hill. They need to recapture their confidence and get scoring and rebounding and doing it early. Please give Kanga a solid 20 minutes. Ellington played hard against Richmond. If Troutman doesnt get his game going then bench him. Play the guys who are busting it on the court and contributing. Regain the confidence that they have lost.
Time to light the fire. Lets Go!

 

[Jack Strop]

My head is spinning...

Mason bench scores 41 of the teams' 70 points?!?

Where are the starters? First 5½ minutes of the game and Richmond scores 19 points to Mason's 5???

Richmond 17 assists—is that defense?

Troutman = 6 minutes, 1 shot attempt (a miss). Has he completely checked out?

Mincy... gone at least two weeks (opinion)
Long... inconsistent game-to-game
Troutman... M.I.A.
Adebayo 2.0... over-and-out

What has happened to this team in the span of 10 days??? They go 11 deep, but appear to be running low on fuel.

This is team adversity at its finest, folks. Gut-check, soul-search time for everyone or bust... BIG BUST.

Six games remain. Must absolutely win at least three while playing four teams in the A10's current top 5. I dunno... I dunno. All I can do is offer my support.

 

[psyclone]

Hard to believe that we had anyone in positive territory, but here are our top 3 in +/-:

Ellington +14 in 25 min
Booker +11 in 18 min
Hill +2 in 35 min---apparently the team was a -14 in the 5 minutes he wasn't in the game!

Mincy -29 in his 21 minutes; in fairness, the game was still in rout territory when he was injured, and Richmond at that point had taken their foot off of the gas.

Box Score vs. Richmond (PDF) - George Mason University Athletics

Box Score vs. Richmond (PDF)

gomason.com

 

[psyclone]

Tyne, who killed us at the beginning of the game with 4 3's, set the tone for the game. I'd bet that he wasn't even in our "scout" for the game as he only been averaging ~ 5 pts/game. Wound up scoring all of his 16 pts in the first half.