Game 28: GMU (14-13 / 7-7) at Davidson (24-4 / 14-2) on Wednesday, March 2, at 7PM.

[Patriotsince81]

Davidson is currently 24-4 on the season and 14-2 in A10 play. They are 12-1 at home, 9-1 on the road, and 3-2 at neutral sites.

History: Including tournament play GMU is just 2-7 against the Wildcats while a member of the A10.

Wins: Delaware, Penn, East Carolina, Robert Morris, Charlotte, William & Mary, Northeastern, Radford, Alabama, Johnson & Wales, St. Joe’s (x2), Rhode Island, UMass, Richmond, vcu, Fordham (x2), LaSalle, St. Bonaventure, GW, Duquesne (x2), St. Louis
Losses: SanFrancisco, New Mexico St., vcu, Rhode Island
Canceled/Postponed: Loyola Chicago

Schedule: https://davidsonwildcats.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule
Roster: https://davidsonwildcats.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster
Stats: https://davidsonwildcats.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2021-22

Davidson is led by 6’7” Hyunjung Lee (16.7 ppg & 6.0 reb), 6’0” Foster Loyer (16.5 ppg & 3.3 reb), 6’10” Luka Brajkovic (14.9 ppg & 7.3 reb), and 6’5” Michael Jones (12.2 ppg & 3.4 reb). 6’9” Sam Mennenga (7.1 ppg & 5.1 reb) serves as the 5th starter. 6’3” Grant Huffman, 6’5” Desmond Watson, and 6’8” Nelson Boachie-Yiadom average double figure minutes off the bench but don’t provide much in the way of scoring. It is important to note that Loyer has missed the last 3 games with a lower leg injury. I don’t know if he will play or not.

Davidson averages 76.3 points per game while giving up 66.4. The Wildcats shoot 48.7% from the floor and 39.4% from 3. Opponents are shooting 42.2% from the field and 34.4% from 3. The Wildcats shoot 76.5% from the free throw line. They have out rebounded opponents by 3.3 boards per game. They average just 10.1 turnovers per contest.

The game is on ESPN+.

My prediction: Davidson is the class of the A10 thus far. They are an excellent shooting team while also defending well. I hold out little hope that we win this game on the road. Much work to do in Fairfax before we begin to play, compete, and execute on their level. Davidson 75 - GMU 61.

Discuss.

 

[GMUYoda]

Davidson has won the past 4 straight by an average of nearly 20 points

 

[JimP]

Yeah...just beat UMass. Hoping Davidson game is competitive.

 

[mkaufman1]

Not expecting much

Davidson 85
Mason 63

 

[Walter]

I was going to attend this game, but midweek and the way we are currently playing has made me change my mind.

 

[GSII]

We match up pretty good....should be a close game.

 

[NewPatriot]

Mason wins. Book it.

 

[gmubrian]

I was going to attend this game, but midweek and the way we are currently playing has made me change my mind.

and miss out on the chance to meet GMUBrian and GMUBrianJr. in person?

 

[Walter]

and miss out on the chance to meet GMUBrian and GMUBrianJr. in person?

You and Jr are hardcore

 

[gmujim92]

Not predicting a Mason win, but Davidson has benefited tremendously from playing the softest possible A-10 schedule. The only one of the other top-5 teams they played twice was vcu. Gotta believe they would’ve caught a couple strays if they had to go home-and-home with Dayton, Bona and SLU.

 

[TweederGMU]

Cooper and Gaines HAVE to give us some offensive help and pour in double digit points in order to pull this one out.... Oduro and Schwartz can't be the only 2 main scorers in this one if we want to pull the upset. Lots of things have to go right here in order to beat them.

Just don't see it coming together.

Goodguys 64
Ricky Roe's 72

 

[GreenLantern]

Us 66
Them 80
OT

 

[PDGL Hoops]

Tough game and I am not sure this one goes our way. Please prove me wrong!

 

[GMUgemini]

Cooper and Gaines HAVE to give us some offensive help and pour in double digit points in order to pull this one out.... Oduro and Schwartz can't be the only 2 main scorers in this one if we want to pull the upset. Lots of things have to go right here in order to beat them.

Just don't see it coming together.

Goodguys 64
Ricky Roe's 72

Davidson isn’t the best defensive team, so Mason really needs to look to play inside-out and get as many easy 2s as possible. IF Loyer is out, there are really only two pure shooters to worry about (Lee and Jones) so they best chase them around all game and never give them an open look and turn it into a Brajkovic vs. Oduro game in the paint.

It’s really too bad we don’t have a second big. This would be a great game to be able to play with two bigs a la Rhody and really muck up and dominate in the paint. But we can’t trust either Henry or Jones to play alongside Oduro at this point.

 

[Quentin Daniels]

I'm hoping our 3-pt shooting against GW was an aberration, just a really bad day when the entire team but Schwartz was off (1-15). Opposing game plans seem to be double & triple Josh and make anyone else beat you.

Josh is such a gifted passer out of the post that if we're knocking down 3's, we become an awfully tough team to knock out of the game.

 

[Quentin Daniels]

So looking at our 14 games we've played in '22, tossing out Kansas on the road as an outlier competitor, we are:
- 3-5 (38%) when we shoot 33% or lower from the 3-pt line
- 4-2 (67%) when we shoot 40% or higher from the 3-pt line

So we win more when we knock down our 3's. Earth-shattering reveal, right? Also fire is hot & water is wet.

But if you look at the 3x we won while shooting <33%, those came against GW & St. Joes (twice) who are 8th & 12th in conference. In those cases, we managed to overcome a pair of bad teams in spite of the poor 3 pt shooting.

And if you look at the 2 losses where we shot >40% from the arc, one of those was the double-overtime loss against St. Louis which could just as easily have been a W and the La Salle game in which Oduro didn't play.

 

[phoenix-arizona]

For the sake of symmetry it is too bad an L wouldn't make the record 14-14, 8-8.

 

[GMUgemini]

For the sake of symmetry it is too bad an L wouldn't make the record 14-14, 8-8.

As much as I hate losing some of these games, it also sucks that we couldn’t reschedule two super winnable games and might have finished 10-8. You couple that with the 9 games this team lost by 2 possessions or fewer (including 5 by one possession) you can’t but ask what if?! But after having to overturn 4 starters you can’t help but be optimistic for the future after the results of year one.

I’m not super optimistic about this particular game, but that’s also why you have to play them. If Gaines and Cooper can get going and Schwartz doesn’t have an off night, Davidson’s home crowd might have a stunner on their hands.

 

[MasonFanatic]

I'm looking forward to seeing Oduro match up with Luka B. The outcome of that could help decide who wins POTY.

 

[psyclone]

I'm looking forward to seeing Oduro match up with Luka B. The outcome of that could help decide who wins POTY.

Right now Kenpom has Josh #1 and Luka #2 in the A10.

Scoring: Josh #1, Luka #11.
Rebounding: Josh #8, Luka #6

Shooting % (2s/3s/FT)
Josh 59%/32%/72%
Luka 64%/42%/65%

Turnover Rate
Josh 18.5
Luka 14.6

Assist Rate
Josh 13.7
Luka 17.9

Rebounding % (OR/DR)
Josh (8.5/20)
Luka (8.7/21.5)

Blocks
Josh #8
Luka *12