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Patriot's take down Hofstra, remain only unbeaten team in CAA play

George Mason Basketball: Patriot's take down Hofstra, remain only unbeaten team in CAA play

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Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Patriot's take down Hofstra, remain only unbeaten team in CAA play


















After last night's 67-63 victory over Hofstra, the Patriots improve to the lone unbeaten CAA team during conference play. This certainly wasn't the most pretty thing to watch as the game started off with both teams throwing up bricks left and right. The Hofstra Pride were having their way in the paint in the 1st half but a little bit of butt-kicking by Larranaga at half-time seemed to motivate the young Patriots to clamp down more on defense. The ended the game with 7 blocked shots and held preseason co-MVP Charles Jenkins in check for most of the game. Louis Birdsong, who most of us have been tough on this season, played excellent defense in this one, blocking 3 shots. In the end it was the Ryan Pearson and Andre Cornelius show. Both had some clutch shots and just great overall defense down the stretch, while also managing to hit free-throws to seal the deal. Mason scored 17 points off 18 Hofstra turnovers and this is area that I think the Patriots are the league's best at. They use their defensive ability to create more points than most other teams in the CAA and I think it will really attribute to more wins to come.

-I thought it was interesting how Mason handled ODU's powerful front court easier than they did against Hofstra's smaller more scrappy group. Mason was out rebounded 41-30.

-After going 3-for-4 from the three-point last night, Andre Cornelius is currently shooting 50% on the season from there. Why isn't he shooting more?

-Jai Lewis was in attendance last night. A shame he wasn't in uniform, the Patriots could have used him on the offensive boards.




Below is a chart from StatSheet.com and it highlights the "Four Factors to Winning at Basketball". If you have never heard of this statistical breakdown before read more about what they mean here


NCAA Basketball Stats

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4 Comments:

Blogger greenandgold said...

Yes, definitely a tough game to watch-as the majority have been thus far. I, personally (along with many other fans in the audience last night)find it difficult to watch Coach L pull out players for making 1 mistake and play Luke despite his errors-missed defensive rotation, missed shots, turnovers. Yes, statistically he is doing well. I'm sure if the "highly recruited" got as many opportunities/minutes as Luke, their numbers would be just as good if not better. It is very apparent, Luke is Coach L's "guy"-Rookie of the Year and the future Face of Mason. Yes watching Mason play this season is Tough and sometimes Sad. I do not envy the leader(s) of this team. It's a hard job trying to manage egos when it is obvious that time is being taken away and not necessarily earned. .

8:53 PM  
Blogger Trent said...

GreenAndGold, it's a win(!) not a loss. The team and Coach L should be commended not criticized at this juncture. Granted, there are blemishes on this team but come February this is gonna be a tough squad for anybody to handle. And the upside next year is through the roof! As far as "tough" and "sad", I wonder if you're even a fan.

9:04 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Did you not watch the game last night green and gold? When Luke had that wide open 3 in the corner at the end of the game...ANY other freshman in the NCAA would have shot that...Luke drove into the basket to make the much easier lay-up which helped seal the win. That's just one example of why he is out there getting big minutes... he makes things happen.

9:25 PM  
Blogger Mr. Miles said...

I think that if you gave some of the other freshman the same time as Luke then the results would be horrible. Just now you see that Foster, and Williams are stepping up their games and Wright has done well with the minutes he has recieved. The others are not ready or have not shown that in the minutes they have had. Coach L played the freshman a lot in the games not in the CAA, the ones that could play under pressure, or composed recieved the most playing time. Now that conference play has really begun the cream of the crop will get the minutes. Coach L will probably stick with this rotation. Luke has without a doubt be the crem de la crem of this class. He has poise, confidence, smarts and ability beyond what anyone was expecting. So he should get the minutes and he will learn from the mistakes, he put in an extra year of ball before college to solidify his position and game.

6:46 PM  

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