Midway through the non-conference schedule, Dave Paulsen and his coaching staff, disappointed in the team's shooting, decided to tweak their practice strategy. They instituted a daily half hour shooting practice, half the team working before the start of the main practice and the other half going after the main practice.
    It's nothing fancy – just game speed and game style shots by perimeter players and posts working with coaches – but it's focused. And it has been effective.
   "We were just saying that maybe nobody's benefited from that extra half hour of shooting every day as much as Jaire," Paulsen said.
   Jaire Grayer, a 6-4 sophomore guard, has been a different player since the start of the A-10 season. After scoring a season-high 22 points in Saturday's 95-75 home win against La Salle, Grayer heads into Wednesday's game at Davidson, averaging 13.2 ppg and shooting 49% (25-for-51) from three-point range in A-10 competition.
   In non-conference games, Grayer averaged 9.5 ppg and shot 29% from beyond the arc. Those aren't bad stats, but Grayer, whose father Jeff played on the 1988 Olympic team and had a 10-year NBA career, was hoping for more, especially after scoring 9.5 ppg last season and emphasizing shooting during off-season workouts.
   "I just got into the flow of the game and gelled with my teammates pretty much," said Grayer of the recent improvement. "We're playing better together."
   Grayer did a bit of everything for the Patriots (15-8, 5-5 A-10) Saturday. Besides four threes in six attempts, he scored on drives, turnarounds and a spectacular tip dunk that energized the EagleBank Arena crowd and teammates. When teammate Marquise Moore got into foul trouble, Grayer inherited the defensive assignment on Jordan Price, who finished with 21 points but shot a sub-par 7-for-19. Grayer also had seven rebounds, just above his A-10 average of 6.7.
   "I hope he shoots 49% the rest of the season, but that may not happen," Paulsen said. "But he's playing really hard. He's giving us extra possessions with offensive rebounds. He's defending. He did a nice job on Jordan Price the other night. I hope it continues.
    "He's maturing and focusing. Sometimes he would allow a missed shot or a bad play to affect him. He's improved a lot in not letting a negative affect him. He's also focused more on his defense and rebounding so he thinks less about offense. When you're playing on offense, the worst thing you can do is think. Shoot. Our ball movement has gotten better, and he's benefitted from that."
 
   EFFICIENCY EXPERT: Sophomore guard Otis Livingston II was named A-10 co-player of the week after his two-game totals of 48 points on 15-for-20 shooting including 8-for-10 beyond the arc. He also logged 83 minutes with 46 coming in the 76-74 2OT loss at St. Louis.
   "That's as efficient a week as any guard I've ever coached in 23 years as a head coach," Paulsen said. "To average 24 points in two games on a total of 20 shots is nothing short of remarkable."

   FLU RECOVERY: Marquise Moore battled the flu for as long as he could before he had to be taken out of the St. Louis game on last week after playing 24 minutes. His illness troubles continued on the charter flight home.
   "I've never had a player as affected by the flu during a game and the trip home," Paulsen said. "It wasn't pretty, and he really bounced back."
   The 6-2 senior had a career-high 28 points against La Salle while adding nine rebounds, just missing a 14^th double-double for the season.
  But what had teammates and fans buzzing was Moore's 3-for-5 shooting beyond the arc. He entered the game 1-for-8 for the season and 8-for-44 for his career.
   "He's the shooter now," deadpanned post Jalen Jenkins.
  "Marquise is in the training room icing his elbow," Paulsen said.
   All La Salle coach John Giannini could do was shake his head, though the stats he quoted weren't precisely accurate: "Our game broke his mystique in my mind a little bit because he's a guard whose made two or three three-point shots in his career. Then he makes three out of four against us."
   The three isn't part of 'Quise's game, but rebounds are. His 10.4 per game are the best for any guard in the country and also lead the A-10 overall.
   "It's rare you find somebody 6-2 with those numbers," Giannini said.
   Giannini, one of two Division I coaches with a Ph.D., threw out some theoretical numbers that with 10 players on the court, it means a player should have a 10% chance of rebounding a miss.
   "To get 10 rebounds, mathematically you should have to go after 100 to get 10," the La Salle coach said. "My point is: He's going after every rebound. They say rebounding is heart. To me, that's heart.
   "He certainly gets more than 10% of them. His instincts, he does things you can't teach. He can follow the flight of the ball; he can anticipate where it's going. So he has the right mental characteristics in terms of anticipation, heart and effort. And physically he's just a really strong athletic guy."

   SUSPENSIONS: Paulsen suspended freshmen Ian Boyd and Karmari Newman plus sophomore Danny Dixon for three games because of unspecified team rules violations. Dixon and Newman will be eligible to play again after the Davidson game. Boyd's suspension ends after Saturday's home game against Fordham.
    "We love those guys. We believe in them," Paulsen said. "We're an educational institution. When guys make mistakes, they've got to be held accountable. It's a privilege to represent George Mason and be a student-athlete. We want to make sure we hold our guys accountable to the highest standards."