George Mason vs K State

[jasonpeoria911]

Undefeated GM is hanging with #20 K-State. GM up by 5 with 4 minutes left in first half. Would be a decent win for a mid-major team.

jason

[Da Coach]

GMU holding onto a lead as of now--

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/boxscore?gid=200711220288

[amckillip]

Games on ESPN

[Da Coach]

I just finished watching Kansas State get beaten pretty soundly by George Mason 87-77.

Former BU recruit Andre Gilbert played a little in the second half for KSU and he didn't show me much. He bricked a couple free throw attempts and didn't score. It is clear, though, that he is very deep on their depth chart.

Kansas State is very athletic and freshman Beasley is a stud, but they need a couple better outside shooters. Bill Walker can't shoot a lick from outside 8-10 feet, and neither can anyone else on that team. They get almost all their points close to the basket.
As a team, they are shooting 24% from 3-point for the season, and 12% tonight.

George Mason has inferior talent to Kansas State, but their kids are extremely well conditioned and play hard.

Frank Martin (Kansas State coach) might have a stroke before the season is over. He was going ballistic at his team when they kept making turnovers and bad decisions in the 2nd half.

[Bravesfan]

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

A Happy Thanksgiving to George Mason as well as they took care of #20 Kansas St 87-77. A nice win for the "little guys", which is an oxymoron as far as George Mason is concerned! This will help them greatly if they are on the bubble come tournament time, because frankly, the rest of George Mason's OOC schedule leaves little to be desired. Therefore, a win tomorrow night against #18 Villanova would REALLY put them in the driver's seat for a high seed in the tourney, provided they do well against the elite teams in the CAA conference.

[Bravesfan]

I just finished watching Kansas State get beaten pretty soundly by George Mason 87-77.

Former BU recruit Andre Gilbert played a little in the second half for KSU and he didn't show me much. He bricked a couple free throw attempts and didn't score. It is clear, though, that he is very deep on their depth chart.

Kansas State is very athletic and freshman Beasley is a stud, but they need a couple better outside shooters. Bill Walker can't shoot a lick from outside 8-10 feet, and neither can anyone else on that team. They get almost all their points close to the basket.
As a team, they are shooting 24% from 3-point for the season, and 12% tonight.

George Mason has inferior talent to Kansas State, but their kids are extremely well conditioned and play hard.

Frank Martin (Kansas State coach) might have a stroke before the season is over. He was going ballistic at his team when they kept making turnovers and bad decisions in the 2nd half.

George Mason may have inferior talent, but many of their players have Final Four experience. That greatly offsets whatever lack of talent they may have. Kansas St started four freshmen! That won't get the job done against most experienced mid-major teams. I think Kansas St will be a force later in the season, but not right now.

Martin also has to realize that his team played a well-versed George Mason team. "Mid-major" or not, he needs to learn that just because his team has the BCS label attached to them does not mean they have a right to win the game just because of their conference affilation. I say that because I believe this is Martin's first head coaching job, so I think he has a lot to learn instead of chastising his team, which as I stated is very young right now.

[BradleyBrave]

I thought George Mason looked like the team that should be ranked, and KSU didn't have much beyond Bill Walker and Michael Beasley. Those two guys are a ton down low, but their guards leave a lot to be desired.

[tornado]

Beasley is impressive, but as other teams learn he is all they have, they will double team him more.
Nobody else on K-State impressed at all.
Certainly not Bill Walker, who went 2-7 and played nearly 30 minutes to get 7 points 7 turnovers and five fouls.
There were 3-4 other plays that were also bad plays by Walker that don't go in the turnover column, and then I wasn't impressed with his desire to play defense, and apparently neither was the coach.

If anyone else stayed up really late, I also watched OJ Mayo...
USC barely beat Uinversity of San Diego, a pretty weak low-major who hasn't beaten anyone yet excpet a D-II and a 300 RPI team.
Mayo launches lots of shots, plays absolutely no defense, and will cause team fighting before the season is over with his ball hogging.
Mayo took 15 shots, scored 20 pts in 36 minutes, and had as many turnovers as assists. But the thing that wreaks is that he was guarding the one guy on USD that kept the Toreros in the game, and superstar Mayo couldn't contain San Diego's Brandon Johnson who literally kept USD in the game with his 19 points.
I agree Mayo is talented and will be in the NBA next year, but I will be surprised if USC finishes even 5th or 6th in the Pac-10 as UCLA, Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Arizona, and Stanford are all better.

[Braves4Life]

Pullen is a good lil' point guard, but he's a freshman and makes freshman mistakes (plus he doesn't shoot too well yet). This KSU would be an impressive team in that they are extremely young. Unfortunately, my gut feeling is that at least 50% of the freshmen and sophomores will either go pro, flunk out, or transfer within two years and this KSU program will be right back where they were prior to Huggins (ala Cinci).

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, the legacy of Huggy

[Beninator]

I thought George Mason looked like the team that should be ranked, and KSU didn't have much beyond Bill Walker and Michael Beasley. Those two guys are a ton down low, but their guards leave a lot to be desired.

I agree with you BradleyBrave. George Mason also played smart basketball by taking their game to Beasley to get him in foul trouble.

[BradleyBrave]

Beasley is impressive, but as other teams learn he is all they have, they will double team him more.
Nobody else on K-State impressed at all.
Certainly not Bill Walker, who went 2-7 and played nearly 30 minutes to get 7 points 7 turnovers and five fouls.
There were 3-4 other plays that were also bad plays by Walker that don't go in the turnover column, and then I wasn't impressed with his desire to play defense, and apparently neither was the coach.

If anyone else stayed up really late, I also watched OJ Mayo...
USC barely beat Uinversity of San Diego, a pretty weak low-major who hasn't beaten anyone yet excpet a D-II and a 300 RPI team.
Mayo launches lots of shots, plays absolutely no defense, and will cause team fighting before the season is over with his ball hogging.
Mayo took 15 shots, scored 20 pts in 36 minutes, and had as many turnovers as assists. But the thing that wreaks is that he was guarding the one guy on USD that kept the Toreros in the game, and superstar Mayo couldn't contain San Diego's Brandon Johnson who literally kept USD in the game with his 19 points.
I agree Mayo is talented and will be in the NBA next year, but I will be surprised if USC finishes even 5th or 6th in the Pac-10 as UCLA, Washington, Washington State, Oregon, Arizona, and Stanford are all better.

Agree with this assessment of Mayo's game. He typifies the 'And 1' and 'Me First' generation. Floyd might be glad when he's gone, because it's a very good class even without Mayo and his baggage.

[SFP]

If Floyd would be glad that OJ left then all he would have to do is sit him on the bench. Floyd probably believes he can coach this kid to submission between now and March.

[MacabreMob]

Agree with this assessment of Mayo's game. He typifies the 'And 1' and 'Me First' generation. Floyd might be glad when he's gone, because it's a very good class even without Mayo and his baggage.

Is the 'And 1' and 'Me First' generation a product of growing up watching MJ for the Bulls in the NBA?

[Lakeview Brave]

MJ did what ever it took to win. He was not a me first player he was a win first player.

[MacabreMob]

MJ did what ever it took to win. He was not a me first player he was a win first player.

Yea... take twice as many shots as anybody else on the floor. Give me the ball and let me do whatever I can... I will pass it out if I can't handle 1 on 5 this time.

And kids grew up watching how a 1 man show was what the NBA and all their fans/sponsors wanted. And so today, we have a lot of 'all about me' individual players wanting to take on 5 to do whatever they can to win the game.

But really... we all know it it was MJ's shorts.