George Mason Basketball: George Mason goes into OT for third time in four games, falls to FAU

Sunday, November 20, 2011

George Mason goes into OT for third time in four games, falls to FAU

Game Highlights

Through four games this season George Mason has had three of them that went into overtime. But after last night in Florida the Patriots are 1-2 in overtime games this season. Florida Atlantic controlled the boards and took advantage of a lot of points off turnovers to beat George Mason 80-75. Vertrail Vaughns enjoyed a great night shooting the ball and scoring a season high for him at 21 points. Ryan Pearson added 19 but failed to keep his double-double streak alive. Erik Copes and Corey Edwards both had big contributions in key situations late in the game. Copes had a put back that sent the game into overtime and Edwards hit a big three-pointer in the overtime period. Sherrod Wright traveled with the team was a late game scratch and Paris Bennett also didn't play. So Mason played this game with only eight players.

The Patriots finished with their lowest amount of turnovers in a game yet this season, 14, but FAU took advantage of each one it seemed, scoring 20 points off turnovers. The turnover rate is still high though when you factor in the Patriots number of possessions but I will admit this did keep them to a minimum down the stretch and into overtime. Points in the paint was another issue however as Mason yielded 38 to the Owls, a lot of which were second chance opportunities. Mike Morrison continuing to get three or so rebounds a game and fouling out hurts because they don't have much depth in the front court. Hewitt must not think much of Jonathan Arledge as a front court player as he started at the three spot for the injured Sherrod Wright.

NCAA Basketball

Labels: post game media

17 Comments:

Patriot74 said...: Just a really dissapointing loss. I really hope these guys can pull it together. I still believe this team will win 20 games this season. Hope I'm right.; 9:29 AM
Bentleydogg said...: The season is young, but you do have to be worried when you lose, and play down to, such bad teams. The record of all Mason opponents is 3-8, 1-8 if you take out the wins vs. Mason. (And FAU lost to American BTW) Early season trouble is to be expected, especially with a new coach, but playing teams from the bottom conferences should basically be tune up games.

In the next four games, the teams are a combined 4-9 and all bad teams - or teams from a lower level conference. If Mason doesn't emerge 6-2, then they have major problems and will likely get smoked vs. UVA. If they can regroup and rattle off some wins here when they are suppose to win, then they can still have a decent season and maybe get to 20 wins. The next month is crucial to setting the stage for a good, or disappointing Jan/Feb.; 9:56 AM
Mluhman22 said...: I'm starting to miss Jimmy L and it's only November....; 11:40 AM
Gio said...: Season is starting to sound like a broken record already. I suppose the game could have turned out differently with Wright, Bennet, and of course Cornelius playing but the team keeps turning the ball over so no excuses there. Well at least we get to see them play again quickly in back-to-back games. Hopefully they correct their mistakes.; 4:52 PM
Taylormade703 said...: Does anybody know if Mason coaches/staff read this blog?; 5:54 PM
Matt said...: Do coaches read fan blogs? Doubt it. Not sure it would be a good sign anyway.

I know they were short handed last night but agree with others-too many turnovers! Because all I had was the radio last night I can say for sure but it sure sounded like Bill was saying "and the Owls score with no one back for Mason" too often. I get that there are only 8 of them but I thought this team was "well conditioned."

As for Hewitt's opinion of Aldridge, I don't think it's low, he can hit form the outside we needed a three and most of the time if Mike is out Erik should be in anyway. As for the Edwards TO when we didn't have one-forgivable, he's a freshman, instinct overtook experience. Did the coaching staff remind them when they took that last timeout so early in OT?

The worst of all was taking 9:28 seconds to finally get a bucket in the second half and having only 4 free throws to show for it. That was the game right there because even though they roared back we can't always expect last minute magic to work for us. Remember last year when we always seemed to close the half huge and roar out again for the start of the second?

Two games this week, hoping, lack of missing players and time will start to gel. Pearson deserves a better senior year than the start of this one.; 7:24 PM
out1aw said...: If Coach Hewitt convinced Hancock to stay, we'd be 4-0 right now. I wonder if he knew just how important Hancock was to this team. I wonder if this team was aware of it. I think these guys thought they would be a great team this year. I took a beating when i said we'd stink this year. Win 20 games, how? We lost Long, Hancock, Tate and Acorn. Throw Pearson's name in there, along with these four, and that's why we won almost 30 games last year. I'm not surprised at all that we're 2-2. Like i said last summer, we're going to struggle to win half our games this year, and that's if we stay healthy. I'm not a hater i said, i'm a realist. I don't expect to see any "you were rights," but i sure would appreciate a cllick on the 'like' button.; 8:54 PM
BD said...: too early to say you were right, but it is headed down the road you described pretty quick. While I have my doubts that they go far this year, I would say don't write them off yet. I'd say the month of December will go a long ways to determine how the season shapes up. By the end of this month, we will have a pretty good idea how the movie ends.

As for Hancock, that was a major loss. The sad part is, it was a loss for both parties. Mason was better with Luke, and Luke was better with Mason. He will never have much playing time with Louisville. Too bad, he's a really good player at the mid-major level.; 9:12 PM
BatMason said...: Positives - VV. This kid is not a fluke. He's been lights out since he started getting minutes last year and I can't wait until we get a PG developed or acquired to compliment his sharp shooting.

- I feel like with both losses if we had 6-8 bad plays back we would have won both times. 6-8 more offensive boards, 6-8 less turnovers, less missed free throws or any combo of those. We'd be right there knocking on 4-0 and possibly pulled a W at Tech. We're young and hopefully we can bridge this gap soon.

Negatives - Allen shows flashes with some decent shooting, steals etc., but he can become a real turn over machine out of nowhere.

- ACorn's off season is hurting us right now. I'd rather the young guards be learning from his mistakes than their own. **Note to Self - Never use a credit card you found in a parking lot to pay for XBox games and to pick up bar tabs. Dumb.

- MikeMo and Copes (albeit I give Copes gets more leeway because of lack of experience) need to get to the rack more often and help us out on the offensive glass. When they do draw fouls, they need to do better than a combined 40% at the stripe (stats before last night's game). Combined with his 0 for 4 from the stripe before last nights game, the bricks Copes threw up from the stripe were painful. Forget 50 flips after each practice, these big fellas need to be taking 25 practice flips 4-5 times a day. If they can't convert at the line they become easy targets in tight games and create scoring void in the post. That 9 minute scoreless run... we shoudl be able to toss the ball to one of these guys and have them back down their man for a for a quick flash to the bucket or a little 4-5 foot jumper, hook, fade away..something. Neither of you are Shaq...practice your flips!

- Wright's the business...when he's not injured; 9:43 PM
Brentrg said...: I know many of us had fairly high expectations, or at least hopes, but we are clearly a team in the midst of transition. I am always overly optimistic, and this team has more talent than we've seen in a long time. From watching the highlights, it seems our two freshman Copes and Edwards are really going to be players. Edwards just needs more time, but has the pass first mentality and strong defense we have not had in a pg that I can remember since Skinn (although he liked to shoot). I think ACorn is going to make a much bigger difference than any of us imagined. We've got three games here to work out the "turnover/rebounding" kinks I think are our key issues. When Acorn comes back, we'll have three guys who can hit the 3 at a high percentage. Defense is going to be the key to our success this year, so let's get it done!; 10:07 PM
Patriot74 said...: Yes you are a realist but I'm an optimist and I still think we can win 20 games. Nobody's calling you a hater, but dont start pushing any panic buttons just yet. Just remember last year after four games we were 2-2. And that was after two terrible losses to NC State and Wofford.; 12:34 AM
BoredInClass said...: Fans that keep saying things about how it'd but different if Coach L were here or Luke was still here need to stop. They are gone, deal with it. As for the players that are currently here, something needs to change. Too many turnovers and fouls to win games. There's a lot this team hasn't had the chance to figure out yet. Hewitt has not been able to map out a rotation that works because of injuries/suspension or run a certain offense because when DJ comes back it opens up more opportunities for kick out threes. The more and more I watch, the more I believe Copes should start over Morrison. He is just as skilled, if not better already. But, its still early, and while the start is somewhat worrying, it has not doomed out season. Besides, the goal is to be in top form by the time the full conference schedule starts.; 1:05 AM
Matt said...: I go know that I can buy into this all that much. While I enjoyed what Hancock did bring, his defense wasn't that much better than what we've seen so far. Wright is attacking the basket. If this team will settle in to being more cautious with the ball, better position on D and transition D, and running some offense the talent is still there to do good things. Hancock was good but not the glue.; 9:00 AM
Mark Schumaker said...: You think the video department does?

How about deinterlacing the highlight videos...; 3:49 PM
gmuhoops said...: Oh wow. You are kidding right? I'm sure it is the first thing they do after a game. Haha; 4:05 PM
Taylormade703 said...: No, I'm not kidding. Coaches and players are fans and followers of gmuhoops on facebook and twitter, so it's not outside of the realm of possibilities that some of them read the blog. And while I'm sure they don't check gmuhoops.com in the locker room after games, I do appreciate your smart-a-ilk remark.; 7:15 PM
mooky_l3d said...: The key to this lose was the offensive rebounding by FAU. It was the same in all of the games this season (not Monmouth). To much standing around watching instead of boxing out and crashing the boards. Before long the Mason players will be charged admission for watching the game instead of playing. GO MASON!!!!!!!!; 7:18 PM

George Mason goes into OT for third time in four games, falls to FAU

George Mason Basketball

Sunday, November 20, 2011

George Mason goes into OT for third time in four games, falls to FAU

17 Comments:

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