Hot Hands

The roller coaster ride that is Mason basketball this season continued Wednesday night with an 89-59 victory over Delaware. This game was over at half time and will hopefully give fans some confidence about Saturdays showdown with ODU. The Patriots were able to shot 63% from the field as a result of great ball movement and feeding off the Will Thomas double teams. Thomas, who is currently ranked fourth in the nation in field goal percentage, continued his shooting streak going 5 for 5 while adding 14 points. Folarin Campbell and Dre Smith were a combined 7 for 9 from the three point line, impressive but can they do this against ODU? They were also able to get to the free throw all night, something we really have not seen much this season, and surprise surprise they blew out their opponent. Not getting enough trips to the free throw line is something that has really hurt Mason this year and its evident in some their bad losses thus far. Delaware dressed only 8 players, including an ex team manager from last season; too bad they don't have 4 more Herb Courtneys.

Although Delaware is not a strong team, its still worth noting that Mason was able to put up a season-high 89 points against a team that just knocked off 2nd place Hofstra on Monday. Another thing to take away from this game is the guard play from starters Carter and Smith. Jordan Carter has looked better running the point each game and rarely makes a mistake. Dre Smith has also looked a lot more confident and has cut back on some of the wild shots we saw earlier this season. The current starting lineup is starting to gel and will face another big test on Saturday where they will need to keep shooting well from the perimeter as Will Thomas will be a facing one of the better interior defenses in the CAA. If the Patriots can keep up this hot shooting and make other teams pay for doubling Thomas it will open things up and allow them to run the offense the way they want to. Thomas is averaging 14 ppg and 6.6 rpg while facing constant double and triple teams, imagine what he can do without this happening (think last years NCAA tournament).