Mason from Section 105, Row P, Seat 3 ....

[Taj79]

.... until the first "quarter" was over, then it was Row CC, Seat 1. In a 10,000 seat building filled at about 40%, no one cared or cared to argue where I went. So three rows from the floor behind the Billiken bench. Shout out to SLUNick! Though the had gone MIA. Shout out to bomble, for hooking me up with a gratis A10 media guide for the upcoming jaunt in Brooklyn. Shoutout to Meg and company for another great alumni pre-game party. Never did find 68alum.

Frankly, I got nothing. Everyone will lament 60% free throw shooting and leaving 14+ points off the board and that was the story of this game or we cover. But we did overcome emptying an entire clip into our own feet left and right. But other than that, the kids played their hearts out and it could be seen in the demonstrative high fives and satisfied grunts coming from the team as the exited the floor at the Patriot Center. Jake Barnett was extremely demonstrative and rightfully should have been. Rob Loe was aces once again late from bomber's range. Jordair found his offensive game in the second half but with the way free throw shooting has gone for us lately, what is up with that. I said to a fellow St. Louisan who I just met last night if we could ever get up by two possessions, Mason just might crack. And give Mason credit, they never did. I suspect the old adage about not being able to beat a team three times in one season would definitely come true if we see them in Brooklyn. I don't want to see Mason anymore.

But they are 9 - 17 for a reason and I expected, and got, the result I figured on as the overtime played out. I guess Bryon Allen didn't matter this game. Rather, Sherrod Wright went off on us for another Mason 30+ performance. I am glad Allen and Holloway didn't compliment Wright any better then they did. So who covered Wright last night? I have been watching him lately and he seemed rather disinterested, that the losing record and senioritis might have left him aloof. And maybe he used Cruise's line from "Risky Business" and is now saying "what the fuok?" and winging it. He was really unstoppable.

No b*tching about the referees. I'm giving up there as stated after the VCU game. No sense wasting time pondering over something I'll never get. So I've dropped it. But I did not see them as a factor any more then they usually are. Hewitt coached his arse off and I'm not sure the technical was all that deserved.

The guys seemed to ebb and flow through the game, with different guys having hot streaks. Mike McCall banged his first two threes, Jake made his first and came back later with two more in the second half. Dwayne will always have problems with teams like that because Jenkins, Williams and Copes are all 6'8" or so jumpingjacks and know he's our guy in the paint. But he did well enough except the two free throws and fouling out at the end. And in OT, Rob Loe saw green-n-gold and thought it was a red bull flag and burned them from deep. Do not underestimate what Rob is doing this year. He was the coach on the floor at closing and down the stretch in overtime last night.

If I'm giving up on the refs, I'll do the same with Jordair. Player of the Year in the A10. Plain and simple. Why Mason didn't double him on the final play in regulation I don't know and am completely thnakful. Who else was going to get it, go length of the court in 5.4 seconds, and score or be fouled. Anybody seen that move before?

We got a full game plus 5 minutes from our bench last night which was different. Grandy could have been labeled a doofus --- 6 minutes, 5 fouls, the rest zeros ---- but about three of his fouls seemed almost laughable. Phantom-like. John did okay and I asked his family if playing Mason meant anything special to the Chantilly, Virginia native. No. I liked that Mike Crawford went back to the well and made his second layup after missing his first. And it was a good thing Tanner canned that second free throw late in overtime. Needed to keep the two possession game intact. Crews showed great faith in Tanner subbing him and John in an offensive/defensive alignment down the stretch. Same with Austin and Jake.

Crews and company coached their respective arses off too. All in all, take the win, bid adiue to Mason, and move on.

Mason --- that was my second time there and I'd like to get there in daylight and see just what the campus looks like. Looked great at night. Lots of trees. Brick buildings. Kids everywhere. The Patriot Center is very nice and puts the usual pits like Hagan, Gola, Rose Hill, Palumbo and Reilly to shame. I have never been to the Ryan or Mullins Centers but the Patriot Center rivals Dayton as a great place to see a game. No beer sales, however. And Mason does atmosphere really well. They still have the professor/band leader "pimping" up the baseline and their band is really active. The even have singers belting out tunes at breaks like "Living on a Prayer," and so on. After the Gola Mausoleum with commercials on the big screens during time outs, this was much better.

With last night's scores, nothing really changed in the A10 except our magic number. We are up three with five to play and if Umass beats VCU at home Friday, both of them will be back four with four to play. See ya! St. Joe's is three back with five to play and still has to host Dayton and go to Bonaventure and GeeDubya. Two wins at these next two home games and it's all over at the top; let the minions do battle for the lower echelons.

Man! Is that different ----- and GREAT!

[slufan13]

I've been one of the biggest Jake haters on here, but he played well tonight. 4 3's and hit 2 big free throws. Pretty sure he was 4-7 from 3 and 2-2 from the line and only hit the rim once. He did start out guarding Wright and he had a monster game, but I get the feeling last night was Wright's night no matter who guarded him.

Jordair. You have to live with his bad turnovers I guess. 23 points in 2nd half and OT. Amazing. He could sit out the rest of the year and I'd give him A10 POY. If he doesn't get All American consideration and Chaz does, it's a crime.

McCall. Good confidence game for him. If his shot is going we can beat anyone. He disappeared in the 2nd half. I'd like to see that stop, but still. He's still the best I've ever seen at denying his man the ball.

Rob. Clutch. Maybe more clutch than Jordair. How Mason didn't guard him last night is probably why they're 9-17.

Dwayne. He's putting up the numbers this year but man. I'm just a little disappointed. He's probably overmatched at the 4, but I see a lot of times where he doesn't box his guy out and tries to rely on strength and athleticism to get the rebound. That's not going to work against big athletic teams. I have confidence that more times than not he'll hit his free throws, but out of the 5 guys who are on the court for free throws (JJ, MM, AM, DE, RL) DE might be my last choice with the game on the line. He'll be fine and he'll win us plenty of games.

McBroom. Let's get the 3 point shot going again. We need it.

Manning. Good enough.

Grandy. I hate to be like this, but if Grandy is contributing a lot of minutes next year, we won't be very good at all.

Lancona. Good enough.

Crawford. Bad pass at the end of the 1st half. But good play when he took that drive to the left and got the layup. I'd still like more minutes out of him.

Agbeko. Everyone wants to complain that he didn't play. Maybe he's just not good enough yet. He's had a couple injuries this year and I guess he just fell behind the curve.

[slu72]

Thanks for the eye witness report Taj Mahal. 40% for the #10 team in the country? It looked rather bare there in spots. Still, surprised at the small crowd especially since they took us to OT in game 1. Guess we're not quite a household name yet. I just checked their schedule and they are a schizo team for sure. For example, UD clobbers them by 13? They seem to have a lot more talent than UD.

This game seemed different than the first in that they hung with us because of all the second chance baskets we gave them. This time it appeared they just kept punching us in the face on the inside. It was like they said, "you know what's coming, but you can't stop it". And we had no answer for them. Why our top 10 defense can't stop or even slow these guys down is a mystery to me. Any thoughts, Taj? Is GM the most physically imposing team we've played and, therefore, shoves us around like rag dolls? I certainly don't want to see them again.

[SLU_Nick]

I'll Chime in.

First if you ever find yourself driving from DC out to Fairfax (15ish miles) on a weeknight to have a few beers with Taj and the gang before a Bills game, Give yourself 2+ hour of travel time. DC Traffic is hell on earth. So I got there in time to chug a dogfish and head off to the game. Looked like a great reception though. Props to Meg.

Onto the game. GMU was extremely physical with us down low and it was going both ways so the refs really couldn’t call anything. I think Grandy could have been very effective if he would stop overplaying guys 40 feet from the basket. If he could have just mucked it up with the GMU guys in the paint, it could have gone a long way. He could have at least made his 5 fouls, 5 effective fouls. This was just a bad match up for DE, I am giving him a pass bc not a lot is going to work when the guys guarding you are 3+ inches taller. GMU seemed to specialize in fall away jumpers which look like bad shots....but they hit about 70% of those bad shots. St Joes shot those same shots, and we blew them away. I still cant tell if it is luck or skill with those shots for GMU.

Jordair was simply incredible. The GMU folks I was sitting with compared him to a stockier version of Derrick Rose. That might be a generous comparison, but he simply could not be stopped last night. When he blows by his man, he is at the rim before the defense can even recover. If Jake, MM, and McBroom can hit open 3s, then we can just run the JJ iso all game long. We pretty much throw the offense away in crunch time anyway.

Rob Loe shooting the rock is really what puts us in the elite category of college basketball. People may have been wondering why Loe was so open in overtime.....well the other option was to leave the paint unoccupied for Jordair to continue to make open layups. We are pretty tough to defend when Loe is locked in....almost impossible. DE wasn’t even in the game. Man this is a fun team to watch.

Free throws hurt. GMU Band was the best band I've ever seen--Bunch of Caucasians living out their "drumline" dream. I thought it was just awesome.

We expended a lot of energy in Northern VA last night. GW is going to be a tough one. We are gonna need the Fetz rocking.

Go Bills.

Nick

[jimbofive]

Jordair. You have to live with his bad turnovers I guess. 23 points in 2nd half and OT. Amazing. He could sit out the rest of the year and I'd give him A10 POY. If he doesn't get All American consideration and Chaz does, it's a crime.

fuok chaz. jordair is putting up better numbers on a much better team. fuoking FACE.

[WestCoastBilliken]

Listening to the announcers last night, not sure which one, but he said he thinks DE has a future in the NBA... for what thats worth.

[jimbofive]

jordair's conference season is 18, 5 and 5, plus playing exceptional defense, taking and making lots of clutch shots, and just willing us to victory after victory, in the middle of an 18-GAME WIN STREAK. this is an absolute no-brainer.

that being said, last night was a true team victory. got major contributions from all five seniors, and they sure picked up dwayne when he fouled out. wasn't pretty, but couldn't be prouder. i was watching in the kitchen on my laptop, "helping" the missus make dinner, but mostly just yelling BILLLLLLLLLIES.

keep it rollin'...

[cheeseman]

I'll Chime in.

First if you ever find yourself driving from DC out to Fairfax (15ish miles) on a weeknight to have a few beers with Taj and the gang before a Bills game, Give yourself 2+ hour of travel time. DC Traffic is hell on earth. So I got there in time to chug a dogfish and head off to the game. Looked like a great reception though. Props to Meg.

Onto the game. GMU was extremely physical with us down low and it was going both ways so the refs really couldn’t call anything. I think Grandy could have been very effective if he would stop overplaying guys 40 feet from the basket. If he could have just mucked it up with the GMU guys in the paint, it could have gone a long way. He could have at least made his 5 fouls, 5 effective fouls. This was just a bad match up for DE, I am giving him a pass bc not a lot is going to work when the guys guarding you are 3+ inches taller. GMU seemed to specialize in fall away jumpers which look like bad shots....but they hit about 70% of those bad shots. St Joes shot those same shots, and we blew them away. I still cant tell if it is luck or skill with those shots for GMU.

Jordair was simply incredible. The GMU folks I was sitting with compared him to a stockier version of Derrick Rose. That might be a generous comparison, but he simply could not be stopped last night. When he blows by his man, he is at the rim before the defense can even recover. If Jake, MM, and McBroom can hit open 3s, then we can just run the JJ iso all game long. We pretty much throw the offense away in crunch time anyway.

Rob Loe shooting the rock is really what puts us in the elite category of college basketball. People may have been wondering why Loe was so open in overtime.....well the other option was to leave the paint unoccupied for Jordair to continue to make open layups. We are pretty tough to defend when Loe is locked in....almost impossible. DE wasn’t even in the game. Man this is a fun team to watch.

Free throws hurt. GMU Band was the best band I've ever seen--Bunch of Caucasians living out their "drumline" dream. I thought it was just awesome.

We expended a lot of energy in Northern VA last night. GW is going to be a tough one. We are gonna need the Fetz rocking.

Go Bills.

Nick

I bet those violins really rock the noise level for the band. You have to play better help defense to stop a team like GM. No way will the guards be able to stop every drive without a big stepping up and sealing the paint. After that you have to box out who you can to get a rebound and also hope they miss the shot. I know we have spoken about how the 4 is not a good spot for DE but he has to figure out how to adjust against bigger players - he has to figure out how to shoot better from 10 feet out - why he did not develop this part of his game this summer is beyond me. You can not be identified as the leader when you are not there at the end. He has been a great player for us but he has to stop getting angry and play more consistently - 21 points one game and half that the next with fouling out and missing key FTs at the end to seal the game - not acceptable from a leader.

[DirtyRican]

Listening to the announcers last night, not sure which one, but he said he thinks DE has a future in the NBA... for what thats worth.

I think that was SVG aka Ron Jeremy. He also kept saying that Loe was a "medoicre" 3 point shooter and the Big Kiwi just told him to shove it.

[bomble]

Some photos from last night

[slu72]

Let's not be too harsh on DE, cheese. That said, I 'd sure like to see him get back to the beast mode he was in for about the last 10 games last season. He was hitting those mid range jumpers back then. This year not so much, but I think it's due to the fact he's playing the 4 and getting mugged most of the time by two trees. As for FTs, he was almost automatic up until 3 games ago. Tired, a little banged up, who knows? It is disconcerting, however, as games in the dance often times come down to FTs.

This really is a whole different team from last year even though we still see a lot of the same faces out there. CR and CE would have protected the interior against a team like GM. This year we're lacking that element. I find fault with GG not stepping up, which keeps DE at the 4. I'd rather see TL get GG's minutes. He seems more accomplished and an upgrade on the O side. Sure wished we could get a blowout game going as that might give us a better idea of his whole game, eg what he showed in the BG game, and to build up his confidence. But I don't see many chances at a blowout until we play Duquense. Maybe not even there, since they took us to the wire last time.

[slu72]

Some photos from last night

Thanks. Man, that place looks empty.

[NextYearBill]

that would have been a weak court storm

[bomble]

that would have been a weak court storm

The place was empty. Their band, I must say, is pretty good. I could have done without their student section chanting "Richard Sherman" when Jett was shooting freethrows. Seemed a bit racist.

[Dwayne's_World]

I wonder why Reggie didn't play, he might have matched up well defensively with GM's bigs. It's a mystery but I'm not going to speculate.

[White Pelican]

I wonder why Reggie didn't play, he might have matched up well defensively with GM's bigs. It's a mystery but I'm not going to speculate.

I wondered too. I like Lancona, but Reggie seems like more the banger type and I wanted to see what he could bring against that team.

[Taj79]

@larry72 --- no, I don't think Mason is that imposing. VCU has the athletes with four-stars. Umass has a nice front line. St. Joe's has always had a nice trio and we trash them consistently going back to Nivens, Ferguson and Calithes. The college game is a guards' game and I think the ability shown by both Allen and Wright and even Holloway to drive takes our help defense to them on that drive and frees up the big men for backboard havoc. Copes and Williams and Gujanicic are NOT good basketball players. Jenkins is but the others are so good, they average 3.9, 5.6 and 6.5 ppg. Yesterday, they scored 10 points (average) and gathered two offensive rebounds (meh). Their guards combined for 4 offensive rebounds and they only totaled 9 for the game. i thought they didn't miss much but of their 30 misses, 33% of those were offensively rebounded. While that hurts, it was amplified by their FG%, I think. Because when we got that much-needed stop, we didn't get the much-needed rebound.

Also, Allen and Wright are seniors. You don't see much of a senior tandem with any other teams in the league. So they are very smart, well-traveled ballplayers. They have the perfect combo to give us fits. They play two guards and three "four" men. We play three guards, a challenged four and a Euro five. It's just not a good combination and that shows in the total number of points scored and how they battle us. Holloway and Moore were weak as far as guards go so seeing both Allen and Sherrod average 40.5 each last night should be no surprise.

No matter how you cut it, our three-guard lineup is easily moved in at least one position.

[slufan13]

Let's not be too harsh on DE, cheese. That said, I 'd sure like to see him get back to the beast mode he was in for about the last 10 games last season. He was hitting those mid range jumpers back then. This year not so much, but I think it's due to the fact he's playing the 4 and getting mugged most of the time by two trees. As for FTs, he was almost automatic up until 3 games ago. Tired, a little banged up, who knows? It is disconcerting, however, as games in the dance often times come down to FTs.

I don't see what goes on in practice but based on what I've seen this season, I'd be fine if DE didn't take another mid range jumper the rest of the season. Well he can take the shot, but lately he has been putting it up 8 seconds into the shot clock. I'm fine with that shot with 5 seconds left on the shot clock but I have confidence that more times than not, we can get a much better shot than that.

[Littlebill]

Grandy. I hate to be like this, but if Grandy is contributing a lot of minutes next year, we won't be very good at all.

+1.. dude was a blind squirrel with no acorns to be found

[Taj79]

re: Reggie ---- I guess onyl Crews knows for sure.

[JMM28]

The place was empty. Their band, I must say, is pretty good. I could have done without their student section chanting "Richard Sherman" when Jett was shooting freethrows. Seemed a bit racist.

I hope Jordair has a chance to give a Richard Sherman interview after the final 4 game he wins.

[bomble]

I hope Jordair has a chance to give a Richard Sherman interview after the final 4 game he wins.

That would be awesome.

[slu72]

Could the issue w/ RA be he's just not that BB savvy yet? If I recall correctly, he's only been playing for 5 to 6 years. He just might not be that skilled in the fundamentals to make the staff comfortable with him. He's shown us flashes, but not a big enough body of work to judge. Frustrating for us fans because he's got the body and athleticism we've been begging for all these years. And now that we've got one, he's not playing. In JC we must trust.

[Bay Area Billiken]

Listening to the announcers last night, not sure which one, but he said he thinks DE has a future in the NBA... for what thats worth.

That was Stan Van Gundy, the former Coach of the Miami Heat and Orlando Magic. He mentioned that Evans could be a small forward in the NBA.

I like Stan Van Gundy's commentary on these A10/SLU games on the NBC Sports Network.

[cheeseman]

Could the issue w/ RA be he's just not that BB savvy yet? If I recall correctly, he's only been playing for 5 to 6 years. He just might not be that skilled in the fundamentals to make the staff comfortable with him. He's shown us flashes, but not a big enough body of work to judge. Frustrating for us fans because he's got the body and athleticism we've been begging for all these years. And now that we've got one, he's not playing. In JC we must trust.

Except for a flash once or twice , RA has shown little this year. I am not giving up on him just stating the obvious. He has a good body but he is still a bit short - at 6'6" he is not much bigger than DE and if he can not handle the PFs then don't expect a vastly different result from RA - especially this year. I do agree with those who say that GG seems lost and I was a big supporter of him early this year but man he has really regressed.