Welcome to A10 Talk’s Top 25 Player Countdown. Each day, we publish a new article counting down the 25 best players in the Atlantic 10 this past season. Today, we feature #10 Micah Mason.
Micah Mason was hands down one of the best A-10 basketball players that didn’t receive enough recognition for his play last season. The senior guard put up some incredible numbers and affected all areas of the game. Micah Mason along with teammate Derrick Colter made up one of the best backcourts in the A-10, and the Dukes really played some impressive basketball before a tough 8 game skid.
Best Performances:
Micah Mason was pretty much consistently in double figures all year long; he only scored less than 10 points 3 times last season. Even during Duquesne’s 8 game losing streak, Mason scored 15 points or more on every occasion. For him, there was no such thing as an off night.
Perhaps Mason’s most impressive performance came at the very end of the season against Saint Joseph’s. The Dukes had lost 8 straight and were in need of some sort of momentum swing that came against the red-hot Hawks. The senior guard scored 28 points and knocked down 5 threes to lead his team to an unlikely victory at the end of the regular season.
Also worth noting, Mason scored a career-high 29 points against UMass in an overtime loss. He’d also light up the rest of the stat sheet, finishing with 10 assists, 3 rebounds, 3 steals, and 14 made free throws. It’s hard to determine which of Mason’s performances were his best because he was consistently solid. The senior scored 20 points or more on 15 separate occasions this past season.
Key Stats:
What stands out to me in Micah Mason’s 2015-16 stats are 18.4 points and 4.5 assists per contest. The ability to score and distribute at a high-level is indicative a truly-talented point guard, and that’s what Mason showed in his final year as a Duke. His shooting percentages were solid, though they did drop slightly from his junior season. Mason went 46.9% from the field, 42.3% from three, and 83.5% from the free throw line. Perhaps one of the most underrated aspects of Mason’s game is his ability to crash the boards. You don’t see a lot of point guards put up those kind of numbers and also find a way to grab 3.1 rebounds per contest, but Mason did.
Team Effort:
Along with Derrick Colter, Micah Mason carried this Duquesne team for much of the season. While Mason and the Dukes certainly had a high-powered offense that could put up 80 points on any given night, defense was a problem all year long. This team ranked almost last in the nation in forcing turnovers and also in defensive three point percentage according to Kenpom. Despite this, the Dukes found a way to get some solid wins, especially at the start of the season. If Duquesne hadn’t hit a wall towards the latter half of the season, it looked like a solid contender in the upper half of the Atlantic 10. Micah Mason is certainly going to be missed next season, as he provided a lot of upside to this Duquesne team.
Previously: #11 Dyshawn Pierre
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