Game 29: GMU (16-12 / 8-7) at Dayton (19-9 / 11-4) on Saturday, February 25, at 6:00 PM.

[tblack33]

Those refs calling every little tick tack foul tried to gift wrap that game to Dayton but not today you little whores.

To all the Ronnie haters where you all at!? He single handedly carried us to this win tonight with his drives, jumpers, and FT's. He didn't back down after Smith was talking crap to his face in the 2nd half..... he rose up to the challenge!

Cooper was huge as well, big time 3's and layup drives when we needed someone to step up!

These 2 guys showed some big sacks tonight and played out of their minds.

Great win!!! Suck it Dayton and your hometown refs!

I’ve been down on Ronnie for pretty much all of conference play (and rightfully so, I stand by it), and I’m not gonna sit here and dog a guy after one of the best games of his career but I still do think it will still be in our best interest to target a PG in the transfer portal this off season, if nothing else for depth, but hopefully someone who can push for starter minutes.

Rewatching it this morning, Cooper absolutely came up massively clutch in crunch time last night despite a missed FT late. Hit some massive 3s to keep us in it and got to the rim when it mattered. Really quietly owned his role perfectly last night.

 

[GMU79]

I was worried about their last 2 reviews, thinking they would call a flagrant on Cooper for his elbow and then on Holmes' court length pass possible being last touched by Saquan. The latter would have given the Flyers the ball at their offensive end with 4 sec left to get off a quality shot. If the refs were real homers, those would have been relatively easy to make.

Now don't go spoiling a good rant thread.

 

[GMU79]

Ronnie's play can be maddening at times, but there's no question he's a steady presence, overall. It's also clear we can't win without him. I've enjoyed watching him progress throughout A10 play. You never want to see your point guard dribble off his foot while casually bringing the ball up court, but when he has made mistakes he hustles to try and make up for it.

He's hitting damn near 40% of his threes during league play, has become more assertive on offense, and is encouraging to his teammates. Everything you want from a floor general.

And kudos to KE and staff for great defensive schemes during this streak. Didn't realize we're top 3 defensively in the A10, but after the last 4 games, I can't say I'm surprised.

Onward and upward!

Top 3!? KE said we would hang our hat on D. Good for us!

 

[GMU79]

Patriots Win Fourth in a Row with 74-69 Triumph at Dayton - George Mason University Athletics

The George Mason University men's basketball team (17-12, 9-7) continued its surge up the A-10 standings with a statement 74-69 win at Dayton (19-10, 11-5) on Saturday

gomason.com

Patriots Win Fourth in a Row with 74-69 Triumph at Dayton - George Mason University Athletics

The George Mason University men's basketball team (17-12, 9-7) continued its surge up the A-10 standings with a statement 74-69 win at Dayton (19-10, 11-5) on Saturday

gomason.com

Make that 51-9 at home over the past 4 seasons, Dayton.

 

[mkaufman1]

To be the turd in the punch bowl for a second, I did not think we played very well defensively. I don't think the coaches will be happy with that side of the ball either. Holmes caught the ball way too deep for my liking all game, and could have had 40 if he made his free throws. Dayton shot almost 60% from 3 too. The officiating made it tough to do anything about that, but I still wouldn't call it a good defensive effort.

On the positive side, we won the turnover battle and shot better from the line. Oduro looked good aside from foul trouble. Ronnie was phenomenal. Coop hit some big shots. Saquan gave us the best version of him.

At the end of the day, it's nice to beat a top A-10 team without a lot of minutes from your star player and without great contributions from his backups. This is not this team's ceiling. Let's hope they can keep putting the pieces together.

Totally fine. I honestly don’t know what else they could have done with Holmes though. They did push him out at points. Oduro and Henry were bumping, keeping hands up and generally trying to make it hard for him. He did make some tough shots as well.

He’s a 6’10 monster with long reach and ability and without doubling that’s about the best anyones going to do. Coach said we haven’t doubled a big all year.

I did like that nobody else had a chance to beat us, it was him and only him.

 

[gmujim92]

Totally fine. I honestly don’t know what else they could have done with Holmes though. They did push him out at points. Oduro and Henry were bumping, keeping hands up and generally trying to make it hard for him. He did make some tough shots as well.

He’s a 6’10 monster with long reach and ability and without doubling that’s about the best anyones going to do. Coach said we haven’t doubled a big all year.

I did like that nobody else had a chance to beat us, it was him and only him.

I kept waiting for us to double him, but Kim’s philosophy is to wall up and make the guy consistently hit tough 2s while being bumped around or go make your FTs, rather than getting into scramble situations where we give up open 3s.

As frustrating as it was to watch Holmes almost beat us single-handedly, Kim is obviously better at math than I am. 3 being more than 2 and all that lol

 

[GMUgemini]

I kept waiting for us to double him, but Kim’s philosophy is to wall up and make the guy consistently hit tough 2s while being bumped around or go make your FTs, rather than getting into scramble situations where we give up open 3s.

As frustrating as it was to watch Holmes almost beat us single-handedly, Kim is obviously better at math than I am. 3 being more than 2 and all that lol

Largely agree with this, although they could have done a better job denying him the ball or making sure a big was covering him at spots and kept him under 30.

But I also think they did a much, much better job of keeping their guards away from the rim than they did earlier in the season and that needs to continue.

 

[DRK331]

Is this the biggest win of the KE era so far?

 

[MasonFanatic]

Top 3!? KE said we would hang our hat on D. Good for us!

KenPom has us 5th, but the gap between 3rd, 4th, and 5th is razor-thin.

 

[MasonFanatic]

Is this the biggest win of the KE era so far?

Either this or the Maryland game.

 

[KAOriginal]

Haven't been that excited in a game for quite a while!

Defense was good. Offense still needs a tweak...but with the drop in turnovers, our Euler Ratio is under 1 which KE has been looking for.

Can't wait till next game for a change!

 

[NewPatriot]

To be the turd in the punch bowl for a second

This is great! Lmao! I've never heard it before

 

[thebiasedannouncer]

I kept waiting for us to double him, but Kim’s philosophy is to wall up and make the guy consistently hit tough 2s while being bumped around or go make your FTs, rather than getting into scramble situations where we give up open 3s.

As frustrating as it was to watch Holmes almost beat us single-handedly, Kim is obviously better at math than I am. 3 being more than 2 and all that lol

KE said on the Giant Killer spaces last night that the game plan was always to play Holmes 1v1 and don't let their other guys do anything. Holmes did dominate, but as we certainly know as Mason fans, can't just have your big man do all the scoring, a guard or wing has to show up too. No one else had double digit points and Ticket shut Camara (who's been the key to Dayton's success before this game) completely down. The game plan worked to a T... mostly

 

[gmutom]

I’ve been down on Ronnie for pretty much all of conference play (and rightfully so, I stand by it), and I’m not gonna sit here and dog a guy after one of the best games of his career but I still do think it will still be in our best interest to target a PG in the transfer portal this off season, if nothing else for depth, but hopefully someone who can push for starter minutes.

I'm also in this camp and stand by some of my criticisms of Ronnie and also in how English used him. I agree with the general sentiment that we go as he goes, and we weren't going well for a stretch when I suggested we recruit another PG. Falling in the "Duh" category, if he played every game like he did yesterday, we'd be stupid to look elsewhere.

Truth be told, the biggest improvement in his game came when Kim starting paring him with other ballhandlers (specifically Singleton but also Dinkins). Our offense tends to come to a standstill when Polite is standing at the top of the key dribbling for 15 seconds, but it has been flowing better — not great but better — when he can play off the ball more and focus on his greatest strength (dribble penetration). He's also been stroking it better from outside and knocking down his FTs.

We will still go as he goes, so here's hoping Dr. Jekyll leads to us deep in Brooklyn. If Mr. Hyde rears his ugly head, we could be in for a quick trip.

 

[Falco]

Is this the biggest win of the KE era so far?

The Maryland game felt bigger in the moment. But we learned it wasn’t a big deal pretty quickly lol.

This win feels big, but I think it won’t mean much unless we take care of Fordham at home.

 

[Earl the Squirrel]

The Maryland game felt bigger in the moment. But we learned it wasn’t a big deal pretty quickly lol.

This win feels big, but I think it won’t mean much unless we take care of Fordham at home.

It would be incredibly deflating for us to lose to Richmond or Fordham, after the roll we're on. I'll be really disappointed if the students don't turn out for the Fordham game.

 

[Earl the Squirrel]

KenPom has us 5th, but the gap between 3rd, 4th, and 5th is razor-thin.

Don't have a Kenpom sub so I based my post on our Top 3 D according to what I saw on the overly simplistic ranking on the A10 site re: points per game, which had us as #3 last night. Now at #4 for some reason.

https://atlantic10.com/stats.aspx?path=mbball&year=2022

 

[DRK331]

Wins like this really helps out with recruiting also

 

[mkaufman1]

Is this the biggest win of the KE era so far?

League play yes.

Overall, tbd. Either this sets the stage for things to come or we just circle the same block and fart against Fordham.

 

[GSII]

Don't forget we get VBJ soon.