Greenfield native Makai Mason became a household name over the weekend. Now he’ll find out how far his prime-time performance in the first two rounds of March Madness can take him.
On Monday, Mason made it official that he’ll test the NBA waters to gauge what kind of interest teams may have in Yale’s 6-foot-1 point guard.
I spoke to Mason and his father Monday afternoon, and father Dan made the official statement that his son was going to take advantage of a new rule that allows players to work out with teams but remain eligible to return to their collegiate team. Even though Makai will likely be back at Yale next season, there is no harm in working out with any interested NBA teams, and there has been interest.
“We are just testing the waters right now,” Dan Mason said. “It’s just a good time to get a lot of good workouts. There are no guarantees, but we will know what kind of interest there is. You never know.”
In case you were living under a rock for the past four days, the Yale guard burst onto the national radar Thursday afternoon by scoring 31 points to lead his 12th-seeded Bulldogs to a 79-75 upset over fifth-seeded Baylor in the first round of the tournament. The Cinderella run ended in the Round of 32 Saturday, when Yale suffered a 71-64 defeat to fourth-seeded Duke. But by that time, Mason’s likeness was everywhere. His picture was being run in newspapers across the country, he was being talked about all over the airwaves, even making an appearance on the Dan Patrick radio show, which is simulcast on NBCSN. He even trended nationally on Twitter.
“It’s pretty wild,” Makai said Monday afternoon. “Obviously, at the NCAA tournament, everything is magnified. I really never imagined anything like this happening. Even though you have confidence in your game and your ability, to turn on the TV and see yourself is pretty crazy.”
Mason grew up in Greenfield and went to Rowe Elementary School and later Bement School. He spent his high school years at The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Conn., and wound up signing with Yale.
One thing that set Mason apart from many others is his unusual name. Even though I had done a pair of stories on Makai prior to the tournament, I never asked him about his name, but that was one of the hottest topics over the weekend. Makai’s parents, Dan and wife Jody Sieben, gave each of their four sons creative names, as Makai’s brothers are Sandino (age 31), Yukio (27) and Akira (25). The name Makai is Hawaiian and means “winds to the sea,” according to Mason, who said having the unusual handle helped set him apart.
But the name alone was not what drew people’s attention. That only helped set him apart and make him memorable. What really served to get him recognized was his game. Mason shot 50 percent from the field (9-for-18) in the Baylor game, and 11-for-11 from the line. He also added 6 rebounds and 4 assists, playing 39 of 40 minutes. Perhaps the only downside to his performance was his 25 percent (2-for-8) 3-point shooting line, but that was only an afterthought to an otherwise dominant performance.
“I really don’t think I had any nerves,” Mason said of his feelings going into his first NCAA tournament game. “I remember in warm-ups taking a couple of heavy breaths, but you then have 30 minutes to warm up, and by game time, I was just focused on the game.”
Mason said that once the game got going he was so focused that it was easy to block out everything else going on around him. He admitted that the only thing he recognized outside of the game was when the crowd went nuts following Yale runs.
And what was it like to play in front of such a pro-Yale crowd? Yale wound up with the good fortune of being placed in the bracket that had it only playing at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence. Yale’s fans were able to make the short trip, and even fans of other teams in the building that day could not help but root for the underdog Bulldogs. Mason said: “In the first five minutes of the game, you have your core group of fans and parents, and you kind of knew where they were. But as the game wore on, the whole place was really cheering us on.”
Mason’s 31 points were 13 more than any other teammate and three more points than Baylor forward Taurean Prince, who led the Bears with 28 points and is likely to be drafted in the NBA.
The victory put Yale against Duke in the Round of 32, a team the Bulldogs had lost to by 19 points earlier in the season. Things did not start out well for Yale, as Duke shot nearly 61 percent from the field, and 60 percent from 3-point range (including making 9 of its first 11 shots from long range), to build a 48-25 halftime lead.
“Duke came out and just couldn’t miss a 3-pointer,” Mason said. “It was really deflating when they were not missing.”
The second half was a very different story. The Bulldogs threw a full-court press at Duke to expose the Blue Devils’ lack of a point guard. Yale went on a big run and got the crowd into a frenzy as it tried to push the Bulldogs to victory. The Duke lead was cut down to three points with 39 seconds left, before a pair of free throws pushed it back to 5. Mason had a chance to cut it to two points with a 3-pointer, but the shot was off the mark and Duke went on to win by 7.
“We were able to cut into the deficit, we just weren’t able to get over that final hump,” Mason said. “Overall, we were a little disappointed as a team after the game, but it was an amazing experience altogether.”
Mason did not have as memorable an offensive performance against Duke, shooting 2-of-12 from the field, and 0-for-5 from beyond the arc, but he did finish a perfect 4-for-4 from the line to finish the game with 8 points. The Bulldogs tried hard to set screens to free up Mason, but Duke continually had defenders laying in wait to pick him up. It was not all bad for Mason, who finished with 7 assists, including some sparkling dishes during the second-half run. He did nothing to hurt his opening-game performance, but was simply too keyed on by the Duke defense to score the way he did in the opener.
The irony of Duke’s lack of a point guard is that at one point the Blue Devils were interested in recruiting Mason, but when Dan Mason pulled Makai out of AAU basketball, it hurt hurt him in the recruiting process. When I spoke to Dan back in December, he said he pulled Makai from AAU because he had read the book “Play Their Hearts Out,” which is an expose on the exploitation of youth basketball players, and was something Mason was beginning to see himself. He did not want his son in that type of environment. But that also hurt Makai in recruiting, since he fell off big-time teams’ radars. This fact was confirmed by Duke associate head coach Jeff Capel in a Sports Illustrated story.
“(Makai) had a big reputation when he was young and he kind of went off the path,” the assistant said.
Rather than end up at Duke, Notre Dame and yes, Baylor (three schools that were recruiting him), Makai wound up working on his academics at Hotchkiss and he wound up at Yale, picking the Ivy League school over other Ivy contenders, as well as Davidson.
Everything that Makai has been through all came together this past weekend, when he became one of the most talked-about people in the country. He was tied for first in scoring for the Bulldogs this season with 15.8 points per game, helping lead them to their first tournament berth since 1962. He then led them to a first-round upset win over Baylor, and helped lead the comeback against Duke.
And now, who knows what’s next? Makai is only a sophomore. He will see what NBA teams have to say about him and re-evaluate his options. This year’s draft class is not all that strong, so we will have to wait and see. Yale does lose three seniors, so there is no telling if Makai will ever be in this position again. But no matter what happens, he will never forget the weekend in March when he was one of the most popular people in the country.
Last week, I mentioned that Mason was believed to be the first player in Franklin County history to start an NCAA Tournament game. One emailer set the record straight.
According to Bill Herdiech, former Greenfield High School basketball player Francis “Red” Quinn was a three-year starter at UConn and played on the 1955-56 Huskies’ team that won the Yankee Conference with a 7-1 record and went 17-11 overall. UConn won its first-round game against Manhattan to advance to the Sweet 16 (there were only 32 teams in the tournament back then), losing to Temple.
I checked the UConn archives and Quinn did indeed play for three years and scored 531 points, including a career-high 239 during the 55-56 season. According to Herdiech, Quinn was a captain that season, something I could not confirm, although I do know Quinn made the Yankee Conference Honor Roll Second Team in 1956-57, and wore No. 22.
According to Herdiech, Quinn graduated from GHS in 1952 after being a team-captain, three-year starter and two-time All-WMass player.
“Back when GHS played with the big boys,” Herdiech said.
And with that, I stand corrected.
Jason Butynski is a Greenfield native and Recorder sportswriter. His email address is jbutynski@recorder.com. Like him on Facebook and leave your feedback at www.facebook.com/jaybutynski.