Game 15, 2016-17: at George Mason (1/4)

[69MG]

I wasn't able to watch or listen to the game so I need some help. I've read the post and there seems to be a debate on the officiating. I know that looking at the box score doesn't always tell the story but 28-7 in free throw attempts seems way out of balance. Even if we gave them 10 intentional free throws at the end of the game, that's still 18-7.

A few other questions. I saw that Gresham started but don't know how many minutes he played. Just 2 points, but the rest of his stat line was OK. How did he look?
Did Baldwin get any time? 3 rebounds, nothing else.

Thanks.

I'm beginning to fear that this might be a long year. The SBU and GMU games were our best shots in the first 5 A10 games. A 5 game losing streak is a real possibility which will kill attendance besides putting us in a large hole in conference play.

[EBox]

Glad to see Holloway at least doing better at the FT line. Last year he was less than 40%. At least he is at 57%, but needs to improve. Gresham needs to take the same free throw class as Holloway did in the offseason to improve. 0-8 on the season is just...wow.

Team shooting 64.5% on the year, and barely 30% from 3 point. Averaging 15 turnovers per game. Its a miracle we have 10 wins with those kind of numbers. Buckle up because after the next 4 A10 games, they will likely be even worse.

[UMass87]

The officiating wasn't great but didn't seem one-side to me EXCEPT with regards to Holloway. They can mug him when he has the ball and charge into him when he defends and nothing gets called. GMU had fewer fouls called against them because they played more disciplined defense. UMass consistently doubles and hacks in the half-court and when they don't hack the open man left by the double drains a wide open three. And it's usually a player that is a known three-point threat. DK and his staff are extraordinarily incompetent in game planning against specific opponents. It's all or nothing. Gee, lets press the entire game. Today, lets not press at all. That's the apparent extent of their game planning on defense.

[rayers]

DK needs to fit an offense to his players talents and skills rather than try to fit his players to what he likes or feels comfortable with running. This should be a half court team playing more inside with more bigs on the floor at once. Most of our shots should be from inside the arc. We should be setting big on big screens. I believe our young bigs have tremendous potential. Our guards are not good outside shooters. They are streaky but to be good means consistent! We our giving away possessions with our frequent hoists and it's obvious that is how all the players think DK wants them to play. Every shot we take should be considered a pass and we should send four guys to go get the friggin offensive rebounds for put backs and fouls. 15 footers, post ups, drive and shoot or dish, get to the damn FT line. On top of that, play kick ass half court D and start and play the guys that defend best and rebound best. Scoring is friggin worthless if you can stop the other team. Play friggin half court basketball because this DK crap is not working and hasn't worked for the vast majority of his time here. Flashes of good or great with no consistency is a recipe for consistent failure. I believe there are no less than 50 coaches out there who are assistants or head guys at smaller programs who could get more out of our guys and improve the program almost immediately.

[DoctorJ]

We're 10-5, and it could be worse. I didn't think we would be as competitive as we are at this point of the season, when the season started.

We are currently 87 places ahead of ConnU in RPI, and 100 ahead of Chestnut Hill Community College.

Half of the minutes played in today's game went to players who have never played George Mason.

This is only the third time the Freshmen have played outside New England. Only the fifth road game for them, and only the second A10 game, first A10 game on the road.

Next two or three games could be brutal. It's why a joke of a tournament, like the Gotham Classic, made sense for this year. We got some experience and some confidence ahead of going into a rough early conference schedule. I'm not going to lose my mind if we start the conference schedule off 0-5 or even 0-6. This is a transition year.

What I found interesting today was DK going with the younger guys ahead of Berger and Coleman, who only got three minutes each while playing on the floor at the same time. Sure looks like they are being dropped down on the depth chart. I'm more than okay with that, for now.

What matters to me in this conference schedule is how we play the repeat opponents the second time...

If we finish the season with a winning record, NIT invite, and win a game in the A10 tournament, the season will likely be seen as a huge success.

Holloway got 26 minutes and didn't look exhaused like he did earlier in the season and had a double-double.
Pipkins hit four threes, five boards and 16 points. A better offensive performance.
Anderson had a nice game with five rebounds, five points, and three assists.
Lewis had an okay game, after struggling lately.
Gresham needs to work on his free throws and still looks a little out of sync out there but is improving every game.

This is the big test, the next three games. Can we stay competitive in each of them, without gettin blown out. The future stars now. Go UMass...

[Wiscstlatlmia]

I'm sad.

[InnervisionsUMASS]

Only got to listen to the last 8 minutes of the game. Disappointing result considering what I've read here and understanding the big lead in the first half.

Freshmen/youth, coaching... I really don't give a fuck what the issue is but it needs to show some improvement very soon.

[DoctorJ]

I'll be happy if we can win two of the next four games.

I'm hoping that once February comes, we'll have pulled things together.

I think it will end up an exciting season. Have Faith!!!

[Refuse2Lose83]

Terrible defense. Would of given up over 90 if GMU could make FT's. UMass must have the worst defensive gameplans in the country...if there are any gameplans.

This team plays too hard and has too much talent to be what they are. Sadly, as long as DK is in charge (and he will be for the foreseeable future) this extremely talented group will never reach their potential....individually or as a team. It's criminal.

[harbo]

Washington Post write up:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/c ... a#comments

Sloppiness extends all the way to the athletic department who listed UMass as playing some 180 miles away in Norfolk, VA.
http://www.umassathletics.com/news/2017 ... ath=mbball

[TruBluMaroon]

pipkins a massive liabilty on offense. ,

Pipkins shot 40% from 3 tonight. I'll take that every game from him.

He also shot 40% from 2 tonight with Zero FTA, you can't be happy with that!

[Kelz626]

As much as I understand DK scheduling a weak non-conference to get the young guys experience, confidence and a chance to gel, now we're starting to see the bad habits that were formed coming back to kill us. You can get away with 15-20 turnovers and prolonged stretches of a game where you don't "show up" against A&T and Kennesaw but in conference play that will kill you. We did it against Bonnie and again last night, 14 turnovers and we watched a 31-18 lead with under 7 minutes to go in the half turn into a 2 point deficit at halftime. You can't just mail it in for 7 minutes and expect to win. Really hope DK can figure it out and get us back on the right track but 0-5 to start A10 play seems very possible.

On a side note DK not doing a postgame interview after nearly every loss is really becoming childish. It's not just this year but seemingly every year for the past 2-3 years. We lose, DK declines an interview...

[NilesGold]

I wasn't able to watch or listen to the game so I need some help. I've read the post and there seems to be a debate on the officiating. I know that looking at the box score doesn't always tell the story but 28-7 in free throw attempts seems way out of balance. Even if we gave them 10 intentional free throws at the end of the game, that's still 18-7.

A few other questions. I saw that Gresham started but don't know how many minutes he played. Just 2 points, but the rest of his stat line was OK. How did he look?
Did Baldwin get any time? 3 rebounds, nothing else.

Don't listen to some of these other idiots. The officiating was bad, in particular in the paint where GMU could do whatever they wanted on offense and defense (over the back, hacking, lowering shoulder, etc) and yes, in particular where it concerned Holloway, which is a big deal because UMass fed him the ball a lot, more than any previous game.

Gresham played 16 minutes, he got two relatively quick fouls in the first half and sat for a lot of it. He was good defensively, but his two missed FT's late hurt. I also swear he had a bad turnover in the 2nd half, but I don't see it in the play by play or boxscore.

Baldwin got minimal time, he was good, honestly, my only complaint about the game management is that we didn't get more of Baldwin.

I'm not mad about UMass' defense, GMU made a lot of difficult shots, the officials allowed Jenkins to lower his shoulder and do whatever he wanted on the block, then he'd hit a tough contested jump shot. If/when UMass doubled him he kicked it out and GMU made almost every good look they got from 3. UMass game planned it right, Grayer and Boyd are 31% and 32% 3pt shooters, they went 5-10 in the game. UMass didn't ball pressure Moore, they played him to drive, which is the right decision.

I'm not mad about UMass' offensive game plan, they shot the ball well in the early part of the 1st half, but the turnovers killed them, 11 in the 1st half alone, Jarreau was responsible for 3 of them. After half-time they cut down on the turnovers and only had 3 the rest of the way (Jarreau was on the bench a lot), but their shooting reverted to the mean (which is bad), they went 3-13 from 3 and 17-40 from the field. They looked for Holloway pretty much every possession and fed him the ball more than I've ever seen, he had 10 FGA in the 2nd half, but he had a lot of trouble finishing and was getting hacked with no calls. If the team can't hit 3's and Holloway is having trouble converting, I'd love to hear what other good options we have for a half-court offense.

UMass was up 70-69 with 4 minutes to play, on the ensuing possession GMU got 2 OR and finally hit a jumper with a questionable and-1 foul called on top. Then CJ turned the ball over before getting it past half-court (you couldn't see the play on the stream) and GMU got a transition layup off of it to take a 74-70 lead. After that there were about 5-6 6 missed open 3's by UMass (and I mean completely wide open on most, like no defender within 10ft when they caught the ball and went up for the shot), a pair of missed FT's from Gresham and that was it, couldn't hit shots when they needed to.

P.S. GMU had only 8 turnovers (vs UMass' 14), that's was a killer.

[PreecherJenkins]

Being at the Bank Teller last night a few observations:

1. Too many misses layups. From Holloway, Pipkins et all too many missed layups.

2. Why DK went to a zone in the first half? we were rolling, then CK tries a 1-2-2 zone. UP 13 went down 4 very quickly.

3. The subsitution paterns left something to be desired

4. They ran sets in the first half, think they got a couple of lob looks, and an open pipkins three. The second half though was "Hero Ball" and a lot of Donte Clark trying to turn the corner on 22. 22 has no jumper, why Donte was guarding him up tight is beyond me because his defensive slides are not very quick which causes him to pick up careless fouls.

5. We slapped the floor twice. Did not work, wish they would retire this...

6. In the second half when they got down 8 the bench was died, Jeb Bush enegery levels. Makes me wonder who is the leader of this team, and I think that is a MAJOR problem not having any upper class leadership.

[photoman]

A "transition year?"......Transitioning from what to what?