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George Mason heads down to Harrisonburg for showdown with James Madison

George Mason Basketball: George Mason heads down to Harrisonburg for showdown with James Madison

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Friday, January 21, 2011

George Mason heads down to Harrisonburg for showdown with James Madison

Mason travels to Harrisonburg for a Saturday morning ESPNU game against JMU at the ripe ol hour of 11 a.m. JMU, like Mason, is undefeated at home this year and has been averaging 79 points there in their CAA wins.  The Dukes pose a different type of challenge for the Patriots, they can be very tough up front with Denzel Bowles (6-10, 250) and Rayshawn Goins (6-6, 250) but they also shoot the ball very well from the outside as they are 2nd in the CAA in field goal and three-point percentage. Mason doesn't have the usual big advantage in the shooting department here and they are also undersized.  Statistically JMU isn't really much better in rebounding but Denzel Bowles almost averages as many a contest as Mike Morrison and Ryan Pearson do combined.  In JMU's loss to ODU on Wednesday they had 30 points in the paint most of them coming from Bowles.  Last time these two teams faced had 20 points and 13 rebounds in a losing effort for the Dukes at the Patriots Center.  I'm giving JMU's front court a lot of attention and I can't forget to mention how well guards Devon Moore and Julius Wells are doing this season. No doubt they are benefiting this year from the things Bowles and Goins are doing up front.  Both Moore and Wells are shooting over 37% from behind the three-point line.



The Dukes are not a deep team and this is where Mason has the advantage.  Often JMU goes only about 8 deep with sometimes only Andrey Semenov getting any real minutes.  Patriots can take advantage of this is they push the tempo like they did against Drexel in the 2nd half.  A run and gun type of game could favor Mason as the Dukes are by no means a fast team.  Mason has also done a good job lately of getting to the free-throw line which tells me they might be attacking the rim more considering JMU's lack of overall depth. On offense Ryan Pearson averaged 19.7 points a game in Mason's last three road games so I think it's in their best interest to get him going early and not wait for more second half heroics.  

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5 Comments:

Blogger C Hirsch said...

I hate the start time, think it is going to work against us.

11:19 AM  
Blogger Ryan said...

yeah not the best when your the road team starting at 11 am and your last game ended after 11 pm a few nights ago.

11:23 AM  
Blogger DVDub said...

R. Pearson is crafty and left-handed, so he has the ability to draw a lot of fouls... that's probably our best chance at winning this game. Bowles is a beast and honestly our only real chance at slowing him down is getting him in early foul trouble. He opens up the floor for them so much, without him out there, they will struggle.

12:05 PM  
Blogger Ted Meyer said...

Can't wait to go to this game. I will be very curious to see how are team reacts in this game. The one upside is that GMU had a home game at 9 PM and JMU is coming off a tough game on the road against ODU so I think the 11 PM to 11 AM thing may be balanced out.

I will be very curious how the crowd is for an 11 AM game at JMU. The team is better and trying to draw people to the team. However, football is king at JMU and basketball has struggled. I am hoping for a good atmosphere and a GMU win!

3:51 PM  
Blogger Ryan said...

Ted,

It might be a good crowd, the school is givng away free breakfast before the game to students who attend.

http://www.jmusports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=62352&SPID=6826&DB_OEM_ID=14400&ATCLID=205080359

4:02 PM  

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