Just who are these guys?

ryan kishJan 4, 2010

At this point it seems pointless trying to predict what this team will do night in and night out. We have seen a some awful performances only to then see a terrific performance immediately right after. Most fans knew we were in for a roller-coaster ride of a season but few knew it would be this extreme. After being manhandled by a superior front court at Radford, this team then responded by taking down the CAA's preseason favorite 71-55 in arguably their best performance on the season to date. Everything seemed to be working well for the Patriots Saturday afternoon, especially on the defensive side. They started off shooting the ball well and which helped them to an early lead despite being out-rebounded. Ryan Pearson's 17 points led the Patriots while Mike Morrison was also excellent in transition adding 15 points. It was very surprising to me that ODU didn't attack the Patriot's front court given how successful Radford was in that area just a few days prior. The Patriots had the rebounding edge in this one (36-30) although at times it seemed like the Monarchs had 8 chances to score each drive to the basket. ODU's Frank Hassell and All-CAA forward Gerald Lee never really got it going up front to keep the Monarchs close. Mason did an excellent job on the Monarch guards and they ended up not being much of a factor, especially from the three-point line.

Below is a chart from StatSheet.com and it highlights the "Four Factors to Winning at Basketball". If you have never heard of this statistical breakdown before read more about what they mean here