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Year G-GS Min-Avg FG-Att Pct 3P-Att Pct FT-Att Pct Rb-Avg F-D Ast To Bk St Pts-Avg
00-01 29-29 928-32.0 125-302 .414 34-117 .291 106-142 .746 101-3.5 86-5 109 65 4 48 390-13.4
99-00 32-26 656-20.5 66-158 .418 20-57 .351 46-57 .807 52-1.6 66-2 84 45 4 45 198-6.2
98-99 29-28 910-31.4 91-222 .410 17-67 .254 47-79 .595 78-2.7 64-2 119 58 9 60 246-8.5
Car 90-83 2494-27.7 282-682 .413 71-241 .295 199-278 .716 231-2.6 216-9 312 168 17 153 834-9.3
Arizona State’s starting point guard for three seasons who ranked ninth in the Pac-10 with a 15.3 points per game mark in conference games in his senior season. Finished his career sixth on the ASU career steals chart with 153 and tenth on career assists chart with 312. A favorite among teammates because of the way he handled adversity during his career. He played one of the most inspirational games among anyone in college basketball and earned the respect of his team when he took the floor vs. seventh-ranked Arizona on Jan. 14, 1999, despite knowing his father had passed away from a battle with cancer that morning in Louisiana. Mason battled Jason Terry and had 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting, five assists and three rebounds in 37 minutes.
Mason has had a lot of happenings with his family in recent years which have made him mature. In his first year, his father Alvin Ford died of cancer in January. In his second year, his mother was diagnosed with lupus in January and had surgery in early March, yet that was when he played his best. He flew back in the middle of the year to see her in Nebraska, and then met ASU in Oregon and had 14 points in a heartbreaking loss in Eugene, yet helped ASU to an overtime win at Oregon State two nights later with 18 points. He was married in the summer of 2000 to Anita Kelly, and the couple has a son, Alton, Jr., And in 1999-2000, when freshman Kyle Dodd took over the point job duties for a five-game stretch while Mason’s play was not up to Rob Evans’ demands, Dodd said one of the reasons he played so well in that time was that Mason gave him support.
Mason was the team’s lone senior in 2000-2001 and he led the team in scoring at 13.4 points per game (14th in Pac-10) and was the only Sun Devil to start in all 29 games. He posted 30 points vs. second-ranked Stanford on Jan. 4 and had 23 points at the top-ranked Cardinal in season finale on March 10. In his final home game on March 3, he hit the game-winning shot with four seconds remaining to give ASU a 61-59 win over Oregon State. Two nights earlier, he made 17-of-19 free throws and scored 25 points in a win over Oregon. In his final 19 games he made 82-of-103 (.800) from the free throw line. Finished the year fourth in the league with 1.66 steals per game and was seventh with 3.76 assists per game and a 1.68 assist-to-turnover ratio.
In his junior season (1999-2000), ASU finished 19-13 and Mason averaged 12.7 points in his final seven games. He posted 11 points, five assists and just one turnover in 36 minutes vs. Cal on March 9 as ASU improved to 10-7 in the Pac-10 and had 18 points in 38 minutes at Oregon State on March 4 in an overtime win. He also had 14 points at NCAA-bound Oregon on March 2 and had 18 points (all in the final 6:15) at fourth-ranked Arizona on Feb. 26.
In his first year at the Division I level (1998-99), he started slowly but came on strong at the middle of the Pac-10 season. He had 15 steals in his final eight games and averaged 31.4 minutes per game on the year. Mason was the team leader with 119 assists (4.1 per game) and also had 60 steals. He averaged 32.8 minutes in Pac-10 play after he did not score in double digits until the seventh game of the year, when he had 11 points vs. UNLV on Dec. 5. Posted 10 points at USC in league opener on Jan. 2 and had back-to-back 13-point games vs. Washington State (Jan. 9) and vs. seventh-ranked Arizona (Jan. 14). He had 13 points, five assists and three steals while going against eventual Pac-10 Player of the Year Jason Terry in the Arizona game and had 14 points and six assists at Washington on Feb. 6. At tenth-ranked Arizona on Feb. 10, he played 38 minutes without a turnover. Scored in double digits in five straight games at the end of the year. He did not turn the ball over vs. Kansas State on Nov. 24 (34 minutes), vs. Stephen F. Austin on Dec. 8 (25 minutes) and vs. Navy on Dec. 28 (26 minutes).
Led Barton County Community College to a 29-4 record in his one season (1997-98) and started all 33 games. He posted a school-record 8.3 assists per game, including 16 in the team’s first game. Averaged 10 points and 3.3 steals as the Cougars won a share of the conference title with a 14-2 Jayhawk West record and ended the season ranked ninth. He had 109 steals and led Region VI (19 teams) in steals, assists and assist-to-turnover ratio. Shot 53 percent from the field in leauge games and was a first-team all-conference pick.
Mason competed well against some of the best point guards in the nation the past three years, including lottery picks Jason Terry of Arizona and Baron Davis of UCLA. He signed in the 1998 spring signing period, but originally signed with Marquette in 1996 and then transferred to Barton County Community College, where he played one season (1997-98). He graduated from Northeast High School in Lincoln, Neb., in 1996.
