Top of the A10 George Mason travel to the midwest to take on number three SLU. 6’8″ Senior Jalen Haynes has been a beast down low, shooting 61% from two-point range and snagging rebounds at both ends – he’s currently #5 in the conference KenPom Player of the Year rankings.

Mason are on a nine-game win streak and come off a convincing 82-67 home win over Rhode Island. Tony Skinn’s club gets it done on the defensive end (#13 Adjusted Defensive Efficiency, per KenPom) by bothering shots. They both prevent and defend threes (29% for opponents), and give up nothing inside the arc (43.1%) as the large Haynes and his even larger backup 6’11” Giovanni Emejuru protect the rim and clear the glass as well as anyone in the conference. And after seventeen straight double-figure scoring games to open the season, SLU’s Robbie Avila has been held under ten points the last three straight.

This is a matchup of strength against strength – the Patriots are 4th in the country in defensive 2Pt%; the Bills are 4th in the country in offensive 2Pt%. The other “perfect” matchup is in the realm of free throw rate: Mason is 15th in drawing while SLU is 15th in avoiding.

Data courtesy Kenpom.com and Basketball Reference
Game Score metric created by John Hollinger detailed here
Plot format by Aaron Baggett
Inspiration from Ken Pomeroy
Inspiration from Rock M Nation
Team colors courtesy:
Benjamin S. Baumer and Gregory J. Matthews (2020). teamcolors: Color Palettes for Pro Sports Teams. R package version 0.0.4.