George Mason Basketball: Turnovers doom George Mason as they fall to Wofford in OT

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Turnovers doom George Mason as they fall to Wofford in OT

AP Photo/Mic Smith

The Patriots dominated the boards and shot the ball well in their final game of the Charleston Classic but were doomed by turnovers and then inability to force any of their own for the first time this season. In the end Mason was beat by their own game, points off turnovers. Wofford got an amazing efforts from guards Cameron Rundles (career-high 26 points) and Jamar Diggs (career-high 23) who made the shot to force overtime and then went on to score 11 points in the extra time to seal the victory for the Terriers. The Patriots were up two with 20 seconds remaining off of Luke Hancock's four straight points but a Diggs lay-up and a sloppy turnover by Hancock on the next play led to overtime.

Mason started off the game scoring easy in the paint, despite missing second chance points off their many offensive rebounds. It's still hard for me to believe the score was so close at the end of the game despite the Patriots collecting 20 offensive boards in the game and not shooting all that bad from the field. Morrison and Pearson did their job on the board in this one but no really stepped up and made the shots after the rebounds. Mason needed someone to step up and match the intensity that the Terriers were getting from Rundles and Diggs. Hancock and Pearson came on strong late but guys like Long and Cornelius were absent and it hurt the Patriots.

NCAA Basketball Stats

16 Comments:

Anonymous said...: Why does Andre Cornelius continue to believe that he's a 3 point shooter. Great dribble penetration, but those 3's are just turnovers. Please go back to what we do well.

Aloha, J; 9:06 PM
Ryan said...: He shot over 43% from there last season. If anything I'd want more shots from there out of him.; 9:42 PM
Anonymous said...: This had very little to do with turnovers or Cornelius and everything to do with Larranaga. Once again, this team was in the position to win but once again Larranaga got out-coached! Wofford's coach made all of the necessary adjustments and provided his team the motivation to Win. How can you allow your best first half performer to take only 4 shots in the second half? Larranags did nothing to provide Cam the opportunity to score. No set plays, screens, picks, backdoors, NOTHING. Rather than counteract, he made Luke the go-to-guy. UNBELIEVABLE!!!; 9:52 PM
Ryan said...: something needs to be fixed. real soon. before this team loses their composure.; 10:00 PM
Anonymous said...: I hate to say this, especially considering the type of recruit we keep bringing in, but this team and the previous three teams were less and less of a team and more individuals. I love the talent, but before we recruited team and chemistry and skill; now we think we can force great talent into wins. I know Tate is not a great scorer and he makes me made from time to time, but he does everything on the court and then you get someone jacking up shots so they can get theres and not worry about the play in the game. Just a thought, but I've seen this script too much the last couple years. Go Patriots!; 5:54 AM
Anonymous said...: I hate to say this, especially considering the type of recruit we have been pulling in, but we are less and less a team out there as opposed to a bunch of individuals. Everyone seems to be on their own out there with no team movement. Go back to the years leading up to the Final Four and there was good ball movement, working together, and sharing the ball, but now with all the talent, people are just pushing the ball out of control, taking unnecessary shots, and acting like individuals. I hope it starts to change.; 5:57 AM
HL said...: Cornelius kills Mason.

Same old refrain from me: we need a point guard. It will make everyone else better. Throw Allen in and let him learn.

There is no composure or scheme on the offensive end.

Wofford is well coached.; 6:30 AM
HL said...: It had everything to do with turnovers and Cornelius. They killed Mason. Ryan, WHEN does Cornelius shoot well from the 3? Not in tight spots and not against good defensive teams is my guess. It would be interesting to research that. He is not the off the bench knock down the dagger 3 guy that they need.

And Coach L did get out coached.

Same old refrain from me: they need a point guard. It will make everyone else better. Throw Allen in and let him learn. Baptism by fire before the conference schedule gets here. Who cares about these games? There's no bid if there's no CAA title and there's no shot at that with the current situation on the offensive end.

Wofford is well coached.; 6:44 AM
Mr. Miles said...: Here is what really is going oyn with the team. They don't have one!!!! You have a group of players that obviously don't understand the principals of basketball. There was plenty of motion at times but the players were not screening or if the ball was passed down low everyone stopped and watched. Where are the cutters, L-cuts, Flashes to the paint. These kats have to move in order to get a flow on offense. Maybe they don't know because they aren't coached that way, if he doesn't change and show them how to run a set, then let them just run and deal with the results. Poor coaching and low bball iq from the players doesn't equal wins. The Pats could have come out of there with some quality wins over decent teams, instead same old story, so close to winning but not enough of something.; 8:15 AM
Anonymous said...: The team needs to learn how to fight back from behind and sustain the lead. I dont know how because I'm not a coach but i know this is what the team needs. You are not gonna have the lead the entire game. Every time this team falls behind, you get a sense that they are going to lose. Don't you all feel the same? They just dont have enough leadership and composure on the court. CAM IS NOT A LEADER I CAN TELL YOU THAT MUCH. He could be a much better player if you leave him alone and just let him play his own game.; 9:20 AM
Anonymous said...: Mooky You are Right. There is NO movement. It looks like no movement by design. I rarely hear or see Coach L and his staff yelling at the guys to "move." Coach L allows all of this one-on-one play which is clearly part of his strategy. Poor strategy, I might add. Yup guys just clear out while Ryan, Mike and Luke go one-on-one. Although, Mike is becoming a decent passer. The only time there is motion is when it is a set play. Terrible- isolation plays just slow down the offense and alienates players. Low bball iq? The students are only as good as their teachers. We can point fingers at many or all of the players. But the only one to blame for this poor start and terrible finish(last year) is Larranaga and his staff. They have failed and continue to fail to MOTIVATE ALL of their PLAYERS!; 10:28 AM
Rick said...: Maybe part of our lack of team chemistry is because we are trying to develop team depth too much. You can say it's egos getting in the way, but I tend to think it's players not being familiar enough with what the others can do. Maybe over the long haul our depth will be an advantage, but I'm not sure wearing down your opponent's legs is such a successful strategy nowadays. Rundles and Diggs played a ton and they looked fresh as daisies at the end.

Feeding the post seems to have become our obsession, and to boot, once we were able to actually feed it in there, it was always one on one to the basket, with virtually no passes back outside to an open guy.

Maybe we should do the "Green Team" thing again.; 10:36 AM
C Hirsch said...: If only we still had the Flem and Mahan Konate.; 10:48 AM
Anonymous said...: My problem with this team so far is the speed of play and their inability to vary it. The uptempo is fine when the opportunities are there. When they aren't Cornelius, Vaughans, and Allen need to slow it down, and set up rather than jacking up a quick (bad) shoot. Oh one other gripe, somebody please tell Ryan Pearson he isn't a guard and shouldn't dribble the ball outside of the paint.; 12:50 PM
gmusmurf said...: After 35 years of attending GMU basketball games this is my take on the last 4 years since the Final Four run:

1: Coaching- We used to get good kids with decent basketball skills and our coach was very good at coaching them up and getting the best out of them. These kids only averaged mid teens in high school and didn't have BIG egoes and loved to play aggressive "D".The kids we have gotten in the last 4 years were the Big stars in there leagues and state and averaged low to mid 20's and with this kid comes a BIG ego and a kid who was never ask to play "D". These kids don't need to be coached up because they came to GMU with very good skills, they need to be put in the proper offense to accentuate their skills and our coach is struggling in this regards. These kids did not come to GMU to sit on the bench, they could have gone to a much bigger basketball school and sat for the first 2 years. We will continue to have decent kids leave us, Foster and I bet Johnny Williams soon. Our coach has really struggled the last few years at making the right decisions in the last minute of winnable games, no reason with 8.8 seconds left last night to call time out, told my friends we won't get a shot off now and we didn't. He's cost us atleast 4 other games with bad end of game decisions(Penn State-NIT,Liberty-Seth Curry,Fairfield-buy in tourney). Coach is known for his defense but these kids we are recruiting now are soley offensive minded because that's all they've ever known and will not play good defense. We have more kids on opposing teams score career highs on us then probably any other team in the country, the 2 guards from Wofford last night did it.

2: Offense- .... do we have one, all I see is 3 guards and a forward standing on the 3 point line and the first true BIG MAN we've had in 20 years setting picks at the top of the key, ball usually never goes down low in the first 25 seconds of a shot clock if at all. Waayyy to much standing around and wayyyy to many 3's being shot in the first 15 seconds of a shot clock, you can take a bad 3 at anytime. Speaking of 3's, we don't have a good 3's shooting team so whyyyyyyy do we shoot so many, 34% is not good as a team. And Cornelious was good last year but this year he's 2-16...aweful!! When you're 2-10 or 11 you stop shooting them and get closer or let others shoot. The coach should take a portion of his HUGE salary and hire a offensive coach to put these talented players in situations where they can excel. As a coach I would never have Tate or Pearson putting the ball on the floor, they lose it every time. I'll stop for now, we do have the makings of a very good team this year I just don't know if our coach can change his coaching style to suit the kind of player he is now getting because of the Final Four run.....GO PATRIOTS!!!; 4:31 PM
gmusmurf said...: After 35 years of attending GMU basketball games this is my take on the last 4 years since the Final Four run:

1: Coaching- We used to get good kids with decent basketball skills and our coach was very good at coaching them up and getting the best out of them. These kids only averaged mid teens in high school and didn't have BIG egoes and loved to play aggressive "D".The kids we have gotten in the last 4 years were the Big stars in there leagues and state and averaged low to mid 20's and with this kid comes a BIG ego and a kid who was never ask to play "D". These kids don't need to be coached up because they came to GMU with very good skills, they need to be put in the proper offense to accentuate their skills and our coach is struggling in this regards. These kids did not come to GMU to sit on the bench, they could have gone to a much bigger basketball school and sat for the first 2 years. We will continue to have decent kids leave us, Foster and I bet Johnny Williams soon. Our coach has really struggled the last few years at making the right decisions in the last minute of winnable games, no reason with 8.8 seconds left last night to call time out, told my friends we won't get a shot off now and we didn't. He's cost us atleast 4 other games with bad end of game decisions(Penn State-NIT,Liberty-Seth Curry,Fairfield-buy in tourney). Coach is known for his defense but these kids we are recruiting now are soley offensive minded because that's all they've ever known and will not play good defense. We have more kids on opposing teams score career highs on us then probably any other team in the country, the 2 guards from Wofford last night did it.

2: Offense- .... do we have one, all I see is 3 guards and a forward standing on the 3 point line and the first true BIG MAN we've had in 20 years setting picks at the top of the key, ball usually never goes down low in the first 25 seconds of a shot clock if at all. Waayyy to much standing around and wayyyy to many 3's being shot in the first 15 seconds of a shot clock, you can take a bad 3 at anytime. Speaking of 3's, we don't have a good 3's shooting team so whyyyyyyy do we shoot so many, 34% is not good as a team. And Cornelious was good last year but this year he's 2-16...aweful!! When you're 2-10 or 11 you stop shooting them and get closer or let others shoot. The coach should take a portion of his HUGE salary and hire a offensive coach to put these talented players in situations where they can excel. As a coach I would never have Tate or Pearson putting the ball on the floor, they lose it every time. I'll stop for now, we do have the makings of a very good team this year I just don't know if our coach can change his coaching style to suit the kind of player he is now getting because of the Final Four run.....GO PATRIOTS!!!; 4:32 PM

Turnovers doom George Mason as they fall to Wofford in OT

George Mason Basketball

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Turnovers doom George Mason as they fall to Wofford in OT

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