Patriots head to Big South

The Patriots travel down to Radford Wednesday to take on last year's Big South champion. This will be an interesting test for Mason as the Highlanders sport a much bigger line-up including the team's leading scorer and rebounder Artsiom Parakhouski who stands at 6-11, 260 lbs. Their line-up includes a three forward, two guard set which we don't see often among mid-majors. Will this give the Patriots trouble and will rebounding be an issue in this one? Mason has had trouble out-rebounding teams they had a size advantage over so this could be a battle for second chance points. Parakhouski will give the Patriots trouble and keeping guys like Mike Morrison and Ryan Pearson out of foul trouble will be key. I would expect to see a lot more minutes for Kevin Foster up front in this one as well. As for the backcourt, Radford doesn't have anyone that will give Cam Long and the rest of the gang much trouble so Mason will have to take advantage in that area. Three-point shooting could also be a factor in this one as Radford has been allowing their opponents to shoot over 34% from behind the arch. William & Mary squeaked by these guys last week by nailing 15 three-pointers. Another weakness Mason could exploit is the Highlanders lack of depth, an up and down the court type game could favor the quicker, more athletic Patriots.

We have only seen this team win once on the road so far and I am curious to see how they will come out after only playing once in 18 days. The young guys on this team need to get more reps on the road, so hopefully Larranaga will use this game like the Tulane one and play the freshmen often. Last time the Patriots played a bigger team I thought we'd see more Johnny Williams, might things be different this time? The kid needs more work on his game but I still believe he will have a bigger impact before the season is over.

This is the final out of conference game before the conference schedule kicks into full swing and it will be the final chance for Larranaga to play around with the line-up. Some questions that still remain unanswered would be is the starting line-up going to stay the same and will the scramble defense continue to be put on hold.

Side note: Freshmen Sherrod Wright was named CAA Rookie of the Week