Patriots to Face GW in BB&T Classic

All I can say is its about time we get a chance to play local rival George Washington, even if it will be a watered down product from previous years. They have dodged us for awhile now and like Maryland have been scared to travel down the beltway to take us on in the Patriot Center. God forbid they could give up their 10th home game in the row in December. Thanks to the BB&T classic we have got chances to take on local teams such as Maryland, GW, and Bucknell. I would rather we have a home and home type deal set-up with GW but we will see what happens as I believe this is the last year we are locked in to playing in the BB&T. GW has lost some quality guys but do return their leading scorer, Rice, from last years squad that was blown out by Vanderbilt in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Definitely a winnable game for the Patriots and a good early season test against a well coached team.

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Weekend Bullets

• Once again I managed to break basketball news before Gomason.com
• The bookstore is now selling gold jerseys!
• Dayton and Vermont coming to Fairfax this fall?
• Rivals.com ranks mid-major recruiting (VCU #5)
• MDVarsity.com reports on Mason's elite camp last weekend, read it if you pay for the subscription service. I don't because that would be lost beer money
• Mason assistant coach Chris Caputo will be at the Freshman All-American camp at Hoop Magic Sports Academy in Chantilly, Va (Don't let Florida steal our local talent!)
• Montrose Christian (MD) standout Kevon Moore lists Mason in his top 3
  

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Suitable Replacement

When former Mason assistant coach James Johnson bolted from Fairfax to Hokie land in April he left a big void in the coaching staff. As if its not bad enough we lose recruits to a school that hasn't won consecutive NCAA tournament games since 1967 but now they get our coaches too? But hey yeah good for them, they need our help because Johnson is an excellent DC/Metro area recruiter and a defensive specialists. Although he was only at Mason for two seasons his efforts were no doubt a part of the Patriot's recent success. I can't confirm it yet but rumor has it that Larranaga is bringing in a former player he coached from his days at Bowling Green, Michael Huger to fill this last assistant position. Huger has spent the last two years as an assistant at Longwood, which might not sound like much but he was responsible for recruiting a lot of DC/Metro area players that made Longwood a respectable squad despite just recently joining the Division I ranks. Apparently Huger was at this past weekends "elite camp" at Mason which I mentioned in an early post is where a couple local prospects were brought in to be evaluated. Huger coming to Fairfax is good news and maybe Johnson going to VA Tech means maybe we can schedule a game with them in Fairfax this upcoming season! Hahaha yeah I know.

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Weekend Update

As summer recruiting heats up, Mason had a visit this weekend from a rising local prospect. Chris Cooper from Woodbridge, VA had Mason as his first stop along with Virginia, Virginia Tech, Penn State and Pittsburgh, according to scout.com. He is listed as a three-star recruit with an excellent low post game and rebounding. The 6'8", 215-pound Forest Park recruit would fill a huge hole that Will Thomas will be leaving after the 2007-2008 season. I know what your thinking, finally a low-post player taller than 6'7"! Let's all keep our fingers crossed. He has started to get more attention from some high major programs after the Southern Invitational Tournament he participated in with his AAU team. In that tournament he showed off his low post scoring, which is a difficult commodity for mid-major teams to come by. He has already received offers from Marist, Delaware, and Richmond but look for Coach L to enter the mix soon as he has not put out many offers to big men.


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On an unrelated note, how is Mason's Final Four run not on this list?

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On the Recruiting Trails

Coach Larranaga has had success recruiting in his own backyard but every once in awhile he will push hard to bring in an out of state kid. His latest 2008 prospect, Stacey Waters, hails from Michigan and is a 6'4" shooting guard with an excellent perimeter game. All of Larranaga's 2007 recruits have a great shooting touch so its obvious to see what caught his eye in this kid's game. He seems to be the same mold as John Vaughan and incoming freshman Cameron Long. Waters is viewed as a late bloomer that has just recently started to get offers from VCU and Central Michigan. A good mid-major coach has to be able to spot kids like this right from the start and get to him before the major teams start to notice him. Waters speaks of George Mason in an interview on rivals.com:

"I heard from George Mason not too long ago," he began. "They said they are in a good position to offer me a scholarship with one of their guys at my position leaving."

The guy at his position that will be leaving after next season is Folarin Campbell and it will not be easy to fill those shoes. Hopefully Coach L will offer to Waters before his stock continues to rise even more this summer in his AAU league. Here's a quote from an article talking about his AAU team:

Stacey Waters from Detroit Renaissance is playing the best basketball of any perimeter player in the state of Michigan at this point. He's a mid D-1 player now for certain, trying to produce his way to high D-1 status by the end of July.

Larranaga might have to use some recruiting magic and hope for a little luck in order to bring this kid to Fairfax but then again I never thought 'Dre Smith would commit to Mason.

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Spice up the Schedule

Early season tournaments have always given a preview of which teams could be dark horses in March. The pre-season NIT did wonders for Butler last year, giving them a chance to knock off some power house programs and ride the wave of success all year into the NCAA tournament. Mason could have really used a pre-season tournament to help with chemistry last year and this year they will get their chance to prove themselves early. The field was just announced for the Old Spice Classic which has the Patriots squaring off against Kansas State thanksgiving night on ESPN2. The tournament also features Penn State, South Carolina, Villanova, NC State, Rider and UCF. The casual college hoops fan might not think much of this Big 12 Kansas State team but there's nothing about them this year that should be overlooked as they have arguably the best recruiting class of 2007. Before Bob Huggins bolted for West Virginia he was able to sign Michael Beasley (ranked #1 on scout.com) and Bill Walker (ranked #2). Why those two have chosen to stay at Kansas State without Huggins is beyond me. Let's just hope they have not bought into 1st year head coach Frank Martin's system yet, who coached at Northeastern from 2000-2004 by the way. But serious match-up problems aside this is a great opportunity for the Patriots and give me another reason to ignore my family thanksgiving night.

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Goodbye Triple X

Wow it sure was fun to have an ESPN radio station cover all of Mason's games last season but it looks like we have already been dropped. Last week Triple X ESPN radio announced that they had struck a partnership with Virginia Tech to cover their football and basketball games. At first it was thought that this wasn't necessarily the end of the their relationship with the Patriots; until reading Dave Preston's blog. In this blog entry, Preston (an anchor for the station) writes about the new partnership and in the comment section a fan asks if this means the end of Triple X covering Mason games. Preston's response is:

Regretfully yes, after an exciting season of GMU basketball we have decided to make the change to VT Football and Basketball. We only wish we could carry both basketball programs. We will continue to carry the latest info on Patriots basketball in our DC SPortsCenters so keep turnin' us on!

I don't understand why they still can't carry Mason games considering the two teams are in different conferences and don't usually play on the same nights. This is a DC and Northern Virginia based radio station and they give up on the Patriots already? I know there is a lot VA Tech alum in this area but they have not had the most stellar of athletic season recently to merit full time coverage in this area. It basically comes down to the point that the Hokies have football and Mason doesn't. It's a big loss in terms of local coverage and promotion for the Patriots if they are not picked up by a decent local station (possibly WJFK-106.7 ).

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