Game 29: GMU (14-14 / 7-8) vs UMass (13-16 / 6-11) on Saturday, March 5, at 4 PM.

[TweederGMU]

Who called the timeout at the end?

It was KE. Happened right in front of me.

I couldn't believe it

 

[psyclone]

At the press conference, Coach said it was a chest contusion and that he's okay.

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[TweederGMU]

Surprised no one has mentioned Blake Jones's collapse. Scary moment. I didn't see what led to it. He returned to the bench but not the game. Anyone see what happened?

This also happened 30 feet in front of me. The big boy from UMass gave him an elbow directly in to the sternum/gut area. Was not his head. It's one of those delayed type injuries as it got worse and seems he couldn't catch his breath and collapsed.

The blonde lady trainer/doc escorted him through the tunnel and then he came back out 10 mins later and sat on the end of the bench. She kept giving him ice bags and he stuck them under his jersey to ice down his stomach/chest area.

He should be alright.... bruised sternum at worst.

Did KE give an update at the presser on him?

 

[tblack33]

It was KE. Happened right in front of me.

I couldn't believe it

Ouch. That’ll be a lesson he takes with him for the remainder of his career. I am not saying that lost us the game, but as a coach that’s a mental lapse that you make one time and never do again.

 

[FreeGunston12]

This also happened 30 feet in front of me. The big boy from UMass gave him an elbow directly in to the sternum/gut area. Was not his head. It's one of those delayed type injuries as it got worse and seems he couldn't catch his breath and collapsed.

The blonde lady trainer/doc escorted him through the tunnel and then he came back out 10 mins later and sat on the end of the bench. She kept giving him ice bags and he stuck them under his jersey to ice down his stomach/chest area.

He should be alright.... bruised sternum at worst.

Did KE give an update at the presser on him?

Those seemingly minor chest blows can be deadly if at the wrong time in the heart's rythym. Knew a soccer player that took a knee to the chest like that. Commotio cordis or "cardiac concussion".

Needless to say, my group at the game was very concerned. But not seeing exactly what happened, I wasn't sure if it was a blow to the head or just the wind knocked out of him. Glad it seems to have been the latter.

 

[Irish44j]

I didn’t have high expectations for the season, but I didn’t expect a losing record.

I mean I guess one way of thinking about it is that two of the games that were canceled and never rescheduled were more than likely going to be wins.

I mean just trying to look on the bright side here I guess lol

 

[Irish44j]

On a roster that was frankensteined together in a few months notice, this season is what we got. Talent to compete with the best in the country, inconsistency from a first year head coach trying to set up his program. This is the floor, the future still feels good.

I will say that the style of play has been a lot more fun to watch than the previous couple of coaches at least...

 

[psyclone]

This also happened 30 feet in front of me. The big boy from UMass gave him an elbow directly in to the sternum/gut area. Was not his head. It's one of those delayed type injuries as it got worse and seems he couldn't catch his breath and collapsed.

The blonde lady trainer/doc escorted him through the tunnel and then he came back out 10 mins later and sat on the end of the bench. She kept giving him ice bags and he stuck them under his jersey to ice down his stomach/chest area.

He should be alright.... bruised sternum at worst.

Did KE give an update at the presser on him?

See above. Here's the link: https://www.facebook.com/MasonAthletics/

 

[Patriotsince81]

"This is a disappointing loss for us," head coach Kim English said. "UMass played really well, particularly on the offensive end. They are a top-25 offense and when you let UMass play offense, they can beat anyone. It was our emphasis to not make this an offensive game. That should've been the mindset and should've been the focus of the game. It wasn't."

 

[JimP]

Ok, the whole story is the team gradually got worse as the season went on and finished 9th in a down year for the conference. I’d rather lose to those teams than finish in the bottom half of the conference…still have the A10 tourney but not much to be excited about right now.

This will be in the back of my mind if the team gets off to a decent start next year. 2nd year is big for this coaching staff - hopefully regressing as the year goes on is a first year thing and not a trend.

 

[sleeperpick]

I don’t understand how losing any game with this team is such a surprise. When Oduro plays soft like the 5th Telletubbie we might lose games. He bricked multiple layups in an OT game. We also are STILL playing without a D1 mid major level point guard and STILL are 4 dudes deep. If YOUR expectations weren’t super low then it is STILL YOUR fault.

The timeout call is boneheaded but Polite and Oduro missed about 12 points combined from within 1 foot with nobody guarding them. I can’t quite blame that on CKE.

The talent on this team sucks so thinking they should win ANY game is again on YOU the fan

 

[mkaufman1]

I think it’s fair for some concern. The team did not get better as the year went on like expected and we saw some questionable situations all around. The way Mason played yesterday was pretty inexcusable and you could tell CKE was pissed.

But like many have said, this is year1 and the head coach is learning and adjusting. He gets a pass this year, but I do expect bigger and better things over the next 2 years. If mason isn’t in the top 5 next year and playing for an ncaa bid by year 3, I’ll be very disappointed (and surprised).

Disappointing end to the season, but not surprising and we should really take it as a grain of salt, not what is coming. I expect another busy transfer season.

 

[Patriot Lawdog]

Really bad loss....But as others have said, all of us knew coming in that this season was going to be choppy at best. I'll also give some credit to UMass. Those kids and staff could have easily packed it in and they clearly didn't....Also, the way this season has played out keeps the outside expectations low for next year which is probably a good thing.

 

[Masonfan3]

I don’t understand how losing any game with this team is such a surprise. When Oduro plays soft like the 5th Telletubbie we might lose games. He bricked multiple layups in an OT game. We also are STILL playing without a D1 mid major level point guard and STILL are 4 dudes deep. If YOUR expectations weren’t super low then it is STILL YOUR fault.

The timeout call is boneheaded but Polite and Oduro missed about 12 points combined from within 1 foot with nobody guarding them. I can’t quite blame that on CKE.

The talent on this team sucks so thinking they should win ANY game is again on YOU the fan

Talent sucks? We had three exceptional transfers with two having been solid contributors on tournament teams and the other everyone with knowledge raved about in Ticket Gaines. Schwartz is potentially an all A10 player, Oduro will be 1st Team, Cooper was 2nd team all conference last year, Ticket is solid. PG play wasn’t the best but this team had WAY too much talent in our starting 5 to finish below 500 in conference play. You want to say our depth sucks then I can probably get on board with that. CKE and staff did not do a good job down the stretch and they will admit that. I’m still optimistic with our recruits next year and potential for transfers, but everyone should have expected more than what we saw after getting off to a hot start to the season.

 

[sleeperpick]

Talent sucks? We had three exceptional transfers with two having been solid contributors on tournament teams and the other everyone with knowledge raved about in Ticket Gaines. Schwartz is potentially an all A10 player, Oduro will be 1st Team, Cooper was 2nd team all conference last year, Ticket is solid. PG play wasn’t the best but this team had WAY too much talent in our starting 5 to finish below 500 in conference play. You want to say our depth sucks then I can probably get on board with that. CKE and staff did not do a good job down the stretch and they will admit that. I’m still optimistic with our recruits next year and potential for transfers, but everyone should have expected more than what we saw after getting off to a hot start to the season.

Yea having 4 dudes worth a damn on an entire roster would lead me to say the talent sucks. Having 4 point guards and all of them not being worth a damn means that position sucked. CKE made mistakes but he had a damn walk-on as his 6th best player.

 

[Dawgs99]

I don’t understand how losing any game with this team is such a surprise. When Oduro plays soft like the 5th Telletubbie we might lose games. He bricked multiple layups in an OT game. We also are STILL playing without a D1 mid major level point guard and STILL are 4 dudes deep. If YOUR expectations weren’t super low then it is STILL YOUR fault.

The timeout call is boneheaded but Polite and Oduro missed about 12 points combined from within 1 foot with nobody guarding them. I can’t quite blame that on CKE.

The talent on this team sucks so thinking they should win ANY game is again on YOU the fan

Have to agree with this. There are major deficiencies with this roster. PG is a glaring one, but so is shot creation. We really have nobody who can consistently create their own shot, they need to be set up from a teammate. While there have been growing pains from CKE, talent and lack of depth to me is the story of the season. As sleeper mentioned, when a career walk on is basically your 6th man, you have problems.

IMO we need the following roster moves to make a run at the post season next year:

1. Veteran PG who can create shots for himself as well as teammates. I feel like every team we've played in conference has this guy.....Look at Fernandes yesterday. Its clear to me with XJ and Ronald as our primary ball handlers we are hamstrung right from the opening tip. There's no way both XJ and RP return next year with Dinkins coming in right?

2. A Junkyard dog type inside bruiser would really take some pressure off Oduro. Doesn't need to be a scorer but provides solid defense and gives the team a badly needed edge. Josh for all his talent is a finesse player and would do well playing with and off of a tough guy who provides badly needed toughness. This would also allow Ticket to move to the 3 for stretches of the game where he should be able to shine.

3. A slashing wing type player, who gets to the basketball and can play the 2/3. This might be Fernandez but not sure how much we get out of him year 1. I'm thinking of a kid in the mold of Erik Herring/Sherrod Wright.

I still think the future under CKE is very bright. If you watch the pressers, it almost seem like CKE wants to be honest about the talent on this roster not being where it needs to be but he doesn't want to throw the kids under the bus and I totally get it. But when he says that we are not a finished product, to me he's saying just wait until I completely re-make this roster over in my vision. We can all agree that there will be multiple transfers out and CKE and staff will undoubtedly bring in kids who will improve the roster and make an immediate impact.

 

[dr. gunnie]

We had zero depth, so nobody should be surprised that we faded down the stretch.

I can’t fault KE for this roster/lack of depth. He now knows exactly what he has and I think he’ll have possibly 6 scholarships to hand out this offseason to transfers.

This is going to be fun to see what he can bring in. Absolutely have to get a veteran PG and another big man to help Oduro. The rest guards/forwards - some flat out shooters like Schwartz and some that drive with the ball (which we didn’t have this year).

Next year is when we really get to see what a KE team looks like.

 

[Earl the Squirrel]

Starting 4-1 and ending 7-8 is pretty bad.

I too am disappointed. We're limited, but we do have enough talent that we should not be .500 against shitty teams. The TO by English was a mistake, one of many mistakes English would readily cop to over the last 10-12 games.

But here's the silver lining which we should all take comfort in: Kim English can recruit WELL ABOVE his pay grade. Recruiting is everything in this game. We all know this. Bringing in talent allows you to make mistakes, and still win.

On this front we already see a trend. Look at the sales job English was able to with Oduro, Schwartz, Coop, and Gaines. Next year we're going to benefit from Fernandez and Dinkins, and additional names from the portal. Plus, we'll be deeper and better next year and the combination of recruiting and winning begins to feed on itself.

 

[psyclone]

I think starting Polite over XJ just hasn't worked out these last 4 games. While Polite may score more points, he really has a much poorer assists/turnover numbers.
Kenpom assist rate: RP 15.7, XJ 27.4;
TO rate: RP 27.1, XJ 26.4

And I think the demotion from being a starter has had a negative effect on XJ's self-confidence. I'm not saying that XJ didn't need some relief from the PG minutes he had been playing, but I think bringing RP off the bench would have brought about better outcomes.

 

[GMUgemini]

Everyone keeps harping on XJ as being a bad player but let’s look at his numbers before being benched in our losses:

Fordham: 19 points, 2 assists, 2 rebounds
vcu: 11 points, 9 assists, 4 rebounds
Richmond: 13 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists (yes 6TO)
La Salle: 16 points, 10 assists, 6 rebounds
SLU: 7 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds (he had a bad game against SLU)
GW: 12 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds (also 5 to).

In the vast majority of these games it was team defense that let us down. The secondary problem has been getting too enamored with shooting 3s. In both instances, it’s either design problems or execution problems (in other words, largely on the coaches to get the players to play to their principles).