Game 31: GMU (19-11 / 8-9) vs Richmond (23-7 / 15-2) on Saturday, March 9, at 2:30 PM.

[Patriotsince81]

The game is on USA.

KenPom: Gives us a 52% chance of winning.
GMU - 104
Richmond - 77
NET:
Mason - 95
Richmond - 72

We are 29-42 (.409) against Richmond all-time.

Richmond is currently 23-7 on the season and 15-2 in A10 play. They are 15-1 at home, 7-4 on the road, and 1-2 at neutral sites.

We lost the first matchup of the year at Richmond on January 13. The final score was 77-70. We had the early lead until Jordan King caught fire. He made 3 straight 3’s to give the Spiders the lead for good. Richmond closed out the 1st half up 43-32. We outscored them 38-34 in the 2nd half but it wasn’t enough. We simply had no answer for Jordan King who finished with 31 points on 11-15 (6-8 from 3) shooting. Isaiah Bigelow, Delonnie Hunt, and Neal Quinn also scored in double figures for the Spiders. Darius Maddox paced us with 18 points.
Box score: https://gomason.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2023-24/richmond/boxscore/12640

Wins: VMI (93-75), Sienna (90-48), UNLV (82-65), Queens (90-61), William & Mary (88-69), Charlotte (64-56), Buffalo (72-66), Lafayette (59-38), St. Bonaventure (65-54), Loyola Chicago (58-56), GMU (77-70), Duquesne (63-61), Davidson (69-64 OT), GW (82-74), Dayton (69-64), Fordham (83-69), La Salle (82-65), GW (90-74), Rhide Island (85-77), Davidson (66-63), Saint Louis (80-64), vcu (79-76), St. Joe’s (73-66)
Losses: Boston College (68-61), #18 Colorado (64-59), Wichita St. (80-88), Northern Iowa (78-73), Florida (87-76), vcu (63-52), UMass (69-59)

Schedule: https://richmondspiders.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule
Roster: https://richmondspiders.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster
Stats: https://richmondspiders.com/documents/2023/11/6/Combined_Team_Stats.pdf

Probable Starters:
6’0” Jordan King (19.0 ppg & 3.9 reb) - Grad Student
7’0” Neal Quinn (12.5 ppg & 5.6 reb) - Senior
6’7” Isaiah Bigelow (11.2 ppg & 6.4 reb) - Grad Student
6’5” Dji Bailey (10.1 ppg & 4.6 reb) - Senior
6’0” DeLonnie Hunt (10.0 ppg) - Senior

Reserves averaging double figure minutes:
5’10” Mikkel Tyne (4.2 ppg - 11 starts - Freshman
6’5” Jason Roche (3.4 ppg) - 2 starts - Junior
6’11” Mike Walz (2.9 ppg) - Sophomore
6’7” Tyler Harris (2.6 ppg) - Grad Student

Team Stats:

Richmond averages 73.6 points per game while giving up 66.1.

The Spiders shoot 46.8% from the floor and 37.0% from 3.
Opponents are shooting 39.9% from the field and 31.1% from 3.

They shoot 73.7% from the free throw line.

The Spiders are being out rebounded by their opponents by 4.0 boards per game and average just 8.5 turnovers per game.

Thoughts: The Spiders are loaded with experience, balance, and talent. They’re 2nd in the league in shooting percentage and 1st in opponent field goal percentage. The Spiders also lead the A10 in turnover margin and assist/turnover ratio.

Given recent events it will be interesting to see how the team responds. I have had this down a loss from the beginning. It would be nice to get this one and finish at 9-9.

Discuss.

 

[hoops10]

Regardless if Mason wins or loses against Richmond they will finish either 8 or 9 who play against each other in the second round, likely St. Joes. Mason gets a bye in the first round of six teams. Whoever wins the 8/9 game plays the # 1 seed in the next round, most likely Richmond. Bring on the Spiders.

 

[GMU79]

Stats and rankings below do not include their game against St. Joe’s tonight. I’ll update everything in the morning.

The game is on USA.

KenPom: Gives us a 52% chance of winning.
GMU - 104
Richmond - 77
NET:
Mason - 95
Richmond - 72

We are 29-42 (.409) against Richmond all-time.

Richmond is currently 23-7 on the season and 15-2 in A10 play. They are 15-1 at home, 7-4 on the road, and 1-2 at neutral sites.

We lost the first matchup of the year at Richmond on January 13. The final score was 77-70. We had the early lead until Jordan King caught fire. He made 3 straight 3’s to give the Spiders the lead for good. Richmond closed out the 1st half up 43-32. We outscored them 38-34 in the 2nd half but it wasn’t enough. We simply had no answer for Jordan King who finished with 31 points on 11-15 (6-8 from 3) shooting. Isaiah Bigelow, Delonnie Hunt, and Neal Quinn also scored in double figures for the Spiders. Darius Maddox paced us with 18 points.
Box score: https://gomason.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2023-24/richmond/boxscore/12640

Wins: VMI (93-75), Sienna (90-48), UNLV (82-65), Queens (90-61), William & Mary (88-69), Charlotte (64-56), Buffalo (72-66), Lafayette (59-38), St. Bonaventure (65-54), Loyola Chicago (58-56), GMU (77-70), Duquesne (63-61), Davidson (69-64 OT), GW (82-74), Dayton (69-64), Fordham (83-69), La Salle (82-65), GW (90-74), Rhide Island (85-77), Davidson (66-63), Saint Louis (80-64), vcu (79-76), St. Joe’s (73-66)
Losses: Boston College (68-61), #18 Colorado (64-59), Wichita St. (80-88), Northern Iowa (78-73), Florida (87-76), vcu (63-52), UMass (69-59)

Schedule: https://richmondspiders.com/sports/mens-basketball/schedule
Roster: https://richmondspiders.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster
Stats: https://richmondspiders.com/documents/2023/11/6/Combined_Team_Stats.pdf

Probable Starters:
6’0” Jordan King (19.4 ppg & 4.0 reb) - Grad Student
7’0” Neal Quinn (12.2 ppg & 5.7 reb) - Senior
6’7” Isaiah Bigelow (11.3 ppg & 6.3 reb) - Grad Student
6’5” Dji Bailey (10.3 ppg & 4.6 reb) - Senior
6’0” DeLonnie Hunt (9.5 ppg) - Senior

Reserves averaging double figure minutes:
5’10” Mikkel Tyne (4.3 ppg - 11 starts - Freshman
6’5” Jason Roche (3.4 ppg) - 2 starts - Junior
6’11” Mike Walz (2.7 ppg) - Sophomore
6’7” Tyler Harris (2.6 ppg) - Grad Student

Team Stats:

Richmond averages 73.6 points per game while giving up 66.1.

The Spiders shoot 46.8% from the floor and 37.1% from 3.
Opponents are shooting 39.9% from the field and 31.2% from 3.

They shoot 73.3% from the free throw line.

The Spiders are being out rebounded by their opponents by 4.0 boards per game and average just 8.5 turnovers per game.

Thoughts: The Spiders are loaded with experience, balance, and talent. They’re 2nd in the league in shooting percentage and 1st in opponent field goal percentage. The Spiders also lead the A10 in turnover margin and assist/turnover ratio.

Given recent events it will be interesting to see how the team responds. I have had this down a loss from the beginning. It would be nice to get this one and finish at 9-9.

Discuss.

Seems almost like this is a new team with a new beginning. Hey, who knows!
Go get 'em boys!

 

[phoenix-arizona]

Jeez where has the regular season gone? I’m overly obsessed with a 20 win season being a bench mark for success so here‘s to a W

 

[Verdad]

Jeez where has the regular season gone? I’m overly obsessed with a 20 win season being a bench mark for success so here‘s to a W

Talk about a real opportunity to change the narrative from last Saturday with the Hall news/Duquesne loss to an opportunity to know off the regular season champs at home and go into A10T with some momentum!

 

[tblack33]

Unpopular opinion, I kinda don’t mind if we lose on Saturday, it doesn’t effect our seed line at all, and Id rather play Richmond having beat us twice than split, very hard to beat a team 3 times in a season.

 

[psyclone]

Unpopular opinion, I kinda don’t mind if we lose on Saturday, it doesn’t effect our seed line at all, and Id rather play Richmond having beat us twice than split, very hard to beat a team 3 times in a season.

Here's a detailed, stat-heavy article agreeing with you about beating a team 3 times in a season:

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/it-really-is-harder-to-beat-a-team-the-third-time-in-mens-college-basketball/

 

[mkaufman1]

Unpopular opinion, I kinda don’t mind if we lose on Saturday, it doesn’t effect our seed line at all, and Id rather play Richmond having beat us twice than split, very hard to beat a team 3 times in a season.

Actually if we win we still have an outside shot at a 7 seed.

I will say that I would much rather be on the 8/9 game with St Joes than the 7 seed having to play a Fordham that always gives us fits or a Lasalle that will be a tough out. Then if Mason somehow makes it through that game, having a 3rd crack at Richmond, we might have a prayer because of familiarity.

I expect us to be ready on Saturday either way and hopefully play solid ball against the best team in the conference.

 

[undertherock]

So essentially a two game series with v Richmond. The first basically being a tune up game without Hall, the second where he returns and who knows what the team chemistry will look like at that point.

Also, did anyone actually read Hall's tweets? He said he's locked in with Mason this year and even put green and gold heart emojis. Said that he is resting his ankle until the A10 tournament which to me actually makes the most sense and every game he was damn near limping to the free throw line. If anyone's dealt with ankle injuries, you would know that playing on it while it is not fully healed can actually make it worse. I agree he should rest until the A10 tournament.

I don't know if he will be on the team next year, but we need to focus on THIS year right now because whether he is here or not the team will look a lot different next year either way. It came out of his mouth that he will play in the A10 tournament, so I'll take him at his word. The accusations thrown against him on this board that he quit on his teammates we're pretty slanderous and baseless.

 

[GMU79]

So essentially a two game series with v Richmond. The first basically being a tune up game without Hall, the second where he returns and who knows what the team chemistry will look like at that point.

Also, did anyone actually read Hall's tweets? He said he's locked in with Mason this year and even put green and gold heart emojis. Said that he is resting his ankle until the A10 tournament which to me actually makes the most sense and every game he was damn near limping to the free throw line. If anyone's dealt with ankle injuries, you would know that playing on it while it is not fully healed can actually make it worse. I agree he should rest until the A10 tournament.

I don't know if he will be on the team next year, but we need to focus on THIS year right now because whether he is here or not the team will look a lot different next year either way. It came out of his mouth that he will play in the A10 tournament, so I'll take him at his word. The accusations thrown against him on this board that he quit on his teammates we're pretty slanderous and baseless.

Perhaps. But Tony must know what is being said, and if the rumors are not true he could have put them to rest from the get go. Coaches are the first to defend their players. He didn't and hasn't.
So we will see. Time will tell.

 

[Verdad]

Perhaps. But Tony must know what is being said, and if the rumors are not true he could have put them to rest from the get go. Coaches are the first to defend their players. He didn't and hasn't.
So we will see. Time will tell.

Ding ding ding.

I would personally be shocked if he plays in A10, but I expect that the “ankle” simply won’t have recovered enough. There is a slim possible chance that he could play in A10, but if he does I strongly believe it would only be because of the rumors.

I don’t think he’ll be back next year, even if he wanted to.

 

[Mason2005]

Anyone have an extra goldroom pass?

 

[GMU79]

Ding ding ding.

I would personally be shocked if he plays in A10, but I expect that the “ankle” simply won’t have recovered enough. There is a slim possible chance that he could play in A10, but if he does I strongly believe it would only be because of the rumors.

I don’t think he’ll be back next year, even if he wanted to.

Exactly.

 

[GSII]

So essentially a two game series with v Richmond. The first basically being a tune up game without Hall, the second where he returns and who knows what the team chemistry will look like at that point.

Also, did anyone actually read Hall's tweets? He said he's locked in with Mason this year and even put green and gold heart emojis. Said that he is resting his ankle until the A10 tournament which to me actually makes the most sense and every game he was damn near limping to the free throw line. If anyone's dealt with ankle injuries, you would know that playing on it while it is not fully healed can actually make it worse. I agree he should rest until the A10 tournament.

I don't know if he will be on the team next year, but we need to focus on THIS year right now because whether he is here or not the team will look a lot different next year either way. It came out of his mouth that he will play in the A10 tournament, so I'll take him at his word. The accusations thrown against him on this board that he quit on his teammates we're pretty slanderous and baseless.

Of coarse he is gonna say that. Kinda had to bc Jon Rothstein has alot of followers amd the narrative seems to point to he quit. So he is gonna try and save his a** now.

Also, Its been posted on these boards that Hall's family, at the Toledo game, was booing Ronnie and acting classless to the point they started cheering for Toledo to spite Tony. Thats messed up x100. If I was the coach, I woulda cut his a** and left him for his family to take back home. Instead he played RP 40 minutes. Coach Skinn will defend KW bc he knows he is misguided, has some bad traits etc. He aint coming back next year even he paid to play here. The proof was in the pudding last night. Team is playing selfless ball and for each other. Just my opinion.

 

[Where's the party?]

Feel like I got it right with my Rhode Island prediction that we win easily if Ronnie plays. And I agree that the team plays a different style of offense when Hall is gone - which I like. And Maddox will become our go to shooter with Hall gone too (as was evidenced last game). I think we will give UR a game. Not sure we win, but if CTS plays his bench (especially Malik) more, I predict a close one.
I went to the last game at UR where their PG went off, throwing shots in from all over the court. No chance he has a night like that at EBA.

Big upset number two of the season
Reinvigorated Pats - 63
Over-rated team from Richmond - 60

 

[Mason2006Patriot]

This is Senior Night for Ronny Polite and Malik Henry. They are playing for their 3rd coach here at Mason in 4 years. They both had some really good moments and games in their 4 years here

Hopefully we can win this game and end their last year on a high note

 

[Mason2006Patriot]

Here is a picture of Malik Henry celebrating after the big home win over Dayton

Here is a picture of Malik Henry celebrating after the big home win over Dayton

 

[phoenix-arizona]

Jeepers that monster spider is scary. If I had arachnophobia I'd be triggered.

 

[GunstonsGhost]

Jeepers that monster spider is scary. If I had arachnophobia I'd be triggered.

For real! The archons that inhabit AI are putting out some ominous vibes.

 

[hoops10]

It appears that Richmond, after beating St. Joseph has now clinched the top seed for the tournament. I would guess that coach Mooney has no reason to play starters against Mason on Saturday. Why would he risk injury when the Tournament is coming up very soon. Of course he may be focused on total wins if they don't win the tournament and are looking for an at large bid, therefore he would certainly play his starters. Interesting decision to make.