The Life of a Freelance Basketball Scout – Game 17

George Mason vs George Washington

March 9 – George Mason vs George Washington

After passing out the night before at 12:15 a.m., after a couple beers and watching some of the Wizards game, I got up around 8:30 a.m. Pretty solid amount of sleep. More than I normally get. I got the kids some cereal and I had some coffee. We then started watching the Wizards game while on the couch! This time consisted of a lot of weird questions that you would expect a three and a five year old to ask. “Is santa claus family?”, “Is God family?”, “Can God see us naked?”. Fun times with the little ones. I also explained to them how Bobby Portis got fouled at the end of the game and the refs missed the call. I then explained Portis should have been shooting foul shots to take the lead. I explained foul shots to them. My son Junior said, “Hey we get shots too, just not the same kind of shots”. He was talking about needles at the doctor, not alcohol. Lets put that out there right away. My wife woke up around 10:20 a.m. We are a team. We take turns sleeping in on the weekends. Once my wife woke up we watched some of an episode of “The Kitchen”, before I had to get ready to leave for Washington D.C. I left for the game at 12:15 p.m. Traffic was pretty typical for a Saturday on the beltway. I arrived at the parking garage at 1:35 p.m. I walked a couple blocks to the arena and entered. After finding my seat, I had a few minutes to eat a couple of pieces of Domino’s cheese pizza in the media room before the game started.

The game was never really in question. George Mason has very good guard play. They like to play a quicker tempo than George Washington is comfortable with. They also have better athletes by a pretty big margin. George Mason won 81-65.

For Mason I was interested in seeing Otis Livingston II. He is a smaller point guard that has been a mainstay for the last four years. The senior had relatively quiet 14 points, three rebounds and three assists. It seemed like he could have taken over, but decided to get his other younger guard the chance to shine more. Freshman guard Jordan Miller was a perfect six of six on the day. The lengthy, 6’6 left-hander is a dangerous driver and plays both sides of the ball. He has the physical tools to develop into a well-rounded prospect. He had 17 points and nine rebounds. Junior guard Justin Kier was also very solid. He can score or be a factor as a distributor. Kier had 13 points, five rebounds and nine assists.

George Washington is a team that lacks athleticism and a bonafide scorer. The man that led them in scoring was their sixth man Justin Williams. Williams is an undersized 6’4 guard/forward. He is just constant energy and effort. He will get loose balls, rebounds or make the correct basketball play. Williams is a great teammate and plays the game with passion. Without him on this senior day it would have been very embarrassing for the Colonials. Williams had 18 points, five rebounds and three steals.

After the game I walked a couple of blocks to the parking garage and then battled D.C. and beltway traffic all the way home. The game ended at about 3:45, and I arrived home at 5:15. Overall it was pretty solid timing. I picked my wife and kids up from the house and we went to the bowling alley for my brother in law Kody’s party. I bowled two bad games, ate some cardboard bowling alley pizza and some surprisingly good garlic french fries. We returned home and the rest of my night was watching some basketball and having a few more IPA’s.

It was a pretty busy weekend overall. This was my last regular season game and could be the last game I attend in person this year.