Final score: Bradley 70 Wofford 62

[tornado]

we're just one little break from being 3-1 - and I am sure our coaches are telling the kids that so it won't happen again! And it didn't happen down the stretch today!

and yes - our road record has been terrible - Geno was simply never able to win on the road..(nor neutral sites as a Geno's overall record away from Carver that includes both road games & neutral site games was 8-57)
Geno won only 7 road games in 4 years - 1 each in year 1, 3, and 4 and 4 in year two but those road wins were:
at George Washington, IUPUI, CMU, SIU, UIC, Loyola, and Evansville - pretty much a list of the worst teams we've played on the road in that era - except for the surprising win over Evansville that Nate Wells earned us!

but I think this group is gonna play a lot closer in most games and get some wins on the road -
and the best thing is that almost every contributing player has almost 3 to 4 years of eligibility left.

[pfcmsh]

Hofstra or Wollford

Which was the better team? Wollford or Hofstra?

[tornado]

I think Hofstra is a better team and would beat Wofford 4 out of 5 - we needed a far better game to hang with Hofstra who put up 92 pts, and even with a terrible half we beat Wofford.

[houstonbrave]

A really good win-sooo much better than last year. Brown and Mcglaston look really good. I am pleasantly surprised with Bar- I expected much less from a freshman big man with a limited number of years of basketball experience although I fear he will get pushed around a lot when we get into the valley (he needs another 40 lbs or so). Need more out of Foster and Donte ( I know the latter was hurt today) and Suggs .

I would normally expect the number of players seeing the floor to shrink substantially as we get deeper in the season but I'm not so sure that will happen so dramatically with this group.

[Da Coach]

And we know Donte, Luuk, DLO, Ronnie, and Callum are capable of playing far better than they have so far. Those who see Luuk in practices say he rarely misses, so I believe his shot will start falling more consistently. So this team clearly has better talent than they have shown much of the time. If they can play more consistently like the 2nd half today, they can win a lot more games.

[wizard1]

Better!!

Much better today! A very good and very timely win. Improved toughness inside. Good 2nd half and most importantly, we turned it up the last few minutes when the game was on the line and won. Need to keep working on defensive and rebounding toughness in the lane and inside although today was much better. Our bigs need to go strong and hard at the basket on "crip" layups and short jump hooks but they will get better with help from our coaches. Today was a step forward.
Wiz

[Da Coach]

George Mason beats Kent State 79-75 for their first win of the season. It was also Kent State's (3-1) first loss of the season.
Here are the final stats-

http://www.statbroadcast.com/events/archived.php?id=149988

Bradley (3-2) will play George Mason University (1-3) Wednesday at 12:30 PM Central time.

[tornado]

George Mason beat Kent State 79-75

so Bradley will play at 12:30 pm Wednesday for the unofficial championship of the consolation bracket -
otherwise known as 5th place!

George Mason's Marquise Moore went for 23 pts, on 9-16 and GMU played their five starters 38, 36, 32, 31 and 27 minutes!
Only 3 of our players played more than 23 minutes - van Bree 31, McGlaston 28 and Brown 26.

[Da Coach]

According to Coach Wardle post-game, Donte Thomas was healthy, and it was coach's decision to bench him today.

[pfcmsh]

According to Coach Wardle post-game, Donte Thomas was healthy, and it was coach's decision to bench him today.

I am glad he wasn't injured as was mentioned in an earlier post.

[pfcmsh]

I think Hofstra is a better team and would beat Wofford 4 out of 5 - we needed a far better game to hang with Hofstra who put up 92 pts, and even with a terrible half we beat Wofford.

Thanks for the answer! Any ideas where George Mason falls against Hofstra or Wofford?

We've won 3 already vs 5 all of last year! On our way....

[Da Coach]

George Mason is probably about comparable with Wofford, though they are a different type of team. Their record last year was not as good, but they play in a tougher league (the Atlantic 10).
GMU would probably finish near the middle if they played in the MVC.

[PistolP]

Interior D

Unfortunately have not been able to see more than 5 minutes of action this year so looking for some answers. By tracking the stats, it appears that Bar is blocking shots without getting into foul trouble. Sounds like Foster is playing ok overall but not getting many minutes. How/ why are we giving up so many easy baskets and what needs to change? Bar and Foster just not physical enough or are the guys out of position or not rotating? Thanks.

[Da Coach]

From what I have seen, it is mostly slow switching on defense, and shying away from contact and trying too much to avoid fouls that we back off players down low.

[tornado]

I think our guys are also afraid to draw a foul, so the other teams are taking advantage by driving and daring us to stop them.
I would love to see someone step up as enforcer and create some "hard fouls" as a deterrent.