What have George Mason practices been like so far? A lot of running.

Here is some news that may get fans even more excited for this season: Paul Hewitt is conditioning the hell out of these kids. If you follow any of the players on social media outlets you might have noticed they have been talking about how tough the conditioning has been and getting up at dawn for 6 am practices. Mason's play-by-play man Bill Rohland talks about this more in his blog on GoMason.com:

If your coach really wanted to make a point, it was a timed exercise and if you didn't all make it in that time...it was back "on the line".

In a pre-dawn practice a week before the men's basketball team would have their opening exhibition game against Lycoming (October 31st at the Patriot Center, 7pm) new coach Paul Hewitt was making such a point to a group of players.

Late in getting to their spots in a particular drill, Hewitt decided it was time for a little discipline. "Gold team...on the line". Five guys hung their heads, lined up along the baseline and waited for the next command, "go!"

Thirty-five seconds later, all but one in the group of five finished their penalty run on time, but four out of five isn't enough. "Back on the line." The same scene played out two more times with the same four of five players making it.

Coach Hewitt had seen enough and made it quite clear to the veteran player failing to make the run in the allotted time that he was less than pleased with the effort. That's putting it kindly. The next run, all five players crossed the line in time.

We had heard some whispers that Hewitt wanted an uptempo style of play this season from his players and it looks like they are going to be in impressive shape at the beginning of this season. What's interesting is that we also heard that Hewitt might often go with a lineup that includes Erik Copes, Ryan Pearson, and Mike Morrison; will they still be uptempo with those three on the court at the same time? Just add that to the list of many questions that surround this team.