JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Bashir Mason isn’t apologizing for winning. He never will. But he’s not winning his way right now, and it’s clearly irking him.
On Saturday, the Peacocks nearly gave up a 10-point lead with eight minutes to play before escaping with a 68-66 home win over UMass Lowell. The win improved Saint Peter’s to 2-3 on the young season, with a matchup against Dartmouth coming up next Saturday.
The way this season has started, the Peacocks are unrecognizable. They’re 68th in the country in three-point
attempt rate, something that Mason and Saint Peter’s have never done. They’re near the bottom of the country in effective field goal percentage defense, another thing that has never been part of the program. And it’s not going to continue, even if it has the ability to lead to some wins.
Saturday was Saint Peter’s second straight game attempting 30 threes, something the Peacocks didn’t do for a single game all of last year. Brent Bland’s big start to the campaign has changed the offense a little too much for Mason’s liking.
“I would like that number to come down,” Mason said. “It’s Brent. He got off to a bit of a hot start in some of those earlier games, and right now, when he wakes up in the morning, he feels like he can make every shot he’s throwing up.”
Bland scored 13 points on Saturday, and is averaging a whopping 17.6 per contest, which is just a point and a half off his single-game career high from before the season. He’s made 20 threes in just five games and is attempting 10 per game.
Saint Peter’s actually did attempt more threes last year than Mason’s teams typically do, so while the Peacocks won’t be shot-averse – Mason said that the Peacocks’ strength is that they put shooters around their playmaking guards – they would rather work the ball into the paint and figure it out from there. Part of the reason why SPU almost gave up that lead was because of what Mason called “ill-advised” shots late in the game.
Starting the season with Akil Watson and Elijah Perkins on the sideline, and now Zaakir Williamson missing the Lowell game – Mason has no update on any of those guys coming back – Mason needed to find a way to play defensively in the opening games of the campaign.
Known typically for ball pressure and man defense, Mason switched it up, going to a 2-2-1 press, and 2-3 zone to start the season at an extremely high rate. It doesn’t sit right with him.
“The last couple of years I wasn’t getting my guys to play the way we teach man-to-man until about January,” Mason said. “And now everybody don’t make the conference tournament, so we can’t wait until January to start winning some games.”
“So I felt like implementing the zone in the summer, we could start working on it right away,” Mason continued. “The slides of the zone never change, and the more you do it, the better you get in it. (Once we get our guys back) we’ll still use this in spots, but the Saint Peter’s toughness, man-to-man and fouling the shit everybody is coming back.”
The zone allowed UMass Lowell’s bigs – JJ Massaquoi and Austin Green – to dominate from the high post. They torched the Peacocks once they touched the ball, combining for 37 points on 14-19 from the field, but it was a double-edged sword.
SPU forced 24 turnovers, stealing the ball 21 times. The River Hawk guards struggled to cross half-court against the Peacock press, and the bigs fumbled the ball a bunch as well. Bland had six steals by himself, Toks Bakare had four, and three other Saint Peter’s players had three.
Freshman TJ Robinson helped will the Peacocks forward, leading the team with 15 points – his fourth double-digit scoring performance of the season already. Pairing him with Bryce Eaton gives Saint Peter’s one of the better point guard duos in the conference.
SPU plays the fewest non-conference games of anybody in the league, with just eight. That doesn’t give the team a ton of time to figure things out before January. With just one more game until the MAAC’s December interlude, when the Peacocks will host Niagara and Canisius, it will be important to follow the team’s progress in the categories that the team usually wins in.
Quinnipiac beats Pitt
Eight months ago, when Amarri Monroe was in the transfer portal, he released a list of the top six schools. The Pitt Panthers were one of the six teams that he was considering, although Tom Pecora claims it was down to mostly Rutgers and Creighton (Bluejays were not on the top six). On Sunday night inside what could’ve been his home arena in another universe, Monroe made big shot after big shot, leading Pecora and the Bobcats to their first ever ACC win, 83-75 in the Steel City.
“We were led by our veteran senior, Amarri Monroe,” Pecora told Mid-Major Madness. “And we’re still a young team, but that’s what you need to do in a game like this. The other guys just followed his lead.”
Quinnipiac grabbed the lead with an early 18-3 run that spanned seven minutes, and never gave it up the rest of the way.
When Pittsburgh made their runs in the second half, the Bobcats leaned heavily on Monroe to make the shots needed to get the job done.
It’s a huge departure from the Bobcats’ last game against high-major athletes, when St. John’s destroyed them 108-74. Quinnipiac struggled against top-100 caliber opponents last year as well, with big losses to both Yale and St. John’s. After all, Quinnipiac wins in the MAAC with athleticism, and that doesn’t work against teams with high-major athletes.
Except when it does.
“(St. John’s) was a great learning lesson and teaching tool for us,” Pecora said. “Without a loss like that, we don’t find a way to win this one because we’re not comfortable and we’re not accustomed to playing against that size.”
Monroe finished with a game-high 25 points, taking just 13 shots. It was one of his most efficient scoring performances of his career. However, the biggest development for the Bobcats comes with their freshman point guard.
Tai Turnage was not expected to have a major role for Quinnipiac this year. Before the season, a redshirt could’ve been in play. Now, he’s thriving as a tablesetter for a team that desperately lacks playmaking in the wake of Savion Lewis’ departure.
“He’s a natural point guard, he’s a quarterback,” Pecora said. “With him and Asim (Jones), it’s a great two-headed monster, because Asim is the real tough on-ball defender, slasher, then you come back with Tai is smaller and quicker. He makes great decisions with the basketball.”
Pecora has a longstanding relationship with Pitt head coach Jeff Capel dating back to their days in the CAA at Hofstra and VCU, so the veteran head coach can’t revel too much in defeating a friend. However, he understands the type of win this is for Quinnipiac as a program.
It’s the first power conference win for the Bobcats since 2014, when they beat Oregon State in Hamden, and Quinnipiac will have another chance on Tuesday against UCF.
4-3 Canisius
Canisius has already surpassed its win total from last season after defeating Binghamton on Sunday to sweep its multi-team event. The Golden Griffins went 3-28 in Jim Christian’s first campaign, so the bar was on the floor for improvement. However, given the schedule that Canisius has faced, it’s hard to know just how much better this group is. One possession wins over Mercyhurst and Maryland Eastern-Shore are good for the program, but they aren’t needle-movers. Nor is a nine-point win against a Binghamton team that is already in the 350’s of KenPom.
But the Griffs are doing all of this without Marcus Niblack, who is expected to be back some time within the next month. Bryan Ndjonga has delivered, draining a game-winning three with a hand in his face against Maryland Eastern-Shore. He’s averaging 13 points and six rebounds per game, while Kahlil Singleton went nuclear, with eight threes for 33 points on Sunday.
Canisius hasn’t faced a team ranked between 118 and 312 in KenPom. That changes when the 5-0 Buffalo Bulls come to town next Saturday. That should provide a really fascinating litmus test early in the season.
Where is Manhattan at right now?
There are a few teams in the MAAC where I don’t feel like I have a strong gauge. Manhattan sits at 3-3, but has dropped to 302 in KenPom, as all three losses have come by at least 30 points.
The Jasper roster is built to outscore MAAC teams, not to compete with high-major ones, especially with Will Sydnor still sidelined. But is it concerning that the team almost blew a 14-point second half lead to Utah Tech? Is it concerning that they were in a dogfight with KenPom #365 Mississippi Valley State? On some level, yes, but it’s nearly Thanksgiving and Manhattan hasn’t played a Division I mid-major opponent on the United States mainland. How much can we take from this?
That changes this week, when the Jaspers take on Wagner on Wednesday.
