Shawn Kemp Wallpapers

Shawn Kemp Wallpaper

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Coaches Corner: Eric Konkol gives a coach's perspective on tomorrow's game

The voice of the Patriots Bill Rohland sat down with assistant coach Eric Konkol recently. They discuss the game tomorrow against Harvard and how the team played in the exhibition against Bowie St last week. At the end he also talks about freshmen Jonathan Arledge and Bryon Allen and Mason recruits Corey Edwards and Vaughn Gray.

[Video from George Mason athletics]

Also, GoMason.com just posted information on how to watch and listen to the game tomorrow.

The GoMason Mobile app itself doesn't appear to be in app stores yet but you can point your smartphone mobile browser to the radio broadcast tomorrow by going to http://www.gomasonradio.com/ on your iPhone, Blackberry or Android, or any phone with internet access. Not sure if this is just a temporary "webapp" or if this in fact is the official app.

UPDATE: It's available in the Android Market now. Still waiting for it show up in iTunes.

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Previewing the season opener against Harvard

Oliver McNally

The season officially gets underway this tomorrow at 4pm as George Mason hosts Harvard. We have talked about this year's George Mason squad in detail already, now it's time to see what they are up against. Harvard was picked to finish 2nd in the Ivy this year despite losing their best player from last season Jeremy Lin (now in the NBA on the Golden State Warriors). Cornell's tournament run last season and then Lin making an NBA roster gives the Ivy league some respect around the NCAA and proves they have teams that can be just as dangerous as other quality mid-majors. The Crimson got a taste for the post season last year in the collegeinsider.com tournament and will be wanting to build off that.  

However, Harvard won't be at full strength this Saturday against Mason as their reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Year Kyle Casey is injured with a broken foot. He most likely won't return until December for the Crimson which will leave the team's front court a little thin.  With Casey out the team will be relying heavily on guards Oliver McNally and Brandyn Curry, both of which had a few games last season in which they led in scoring.  Both are also very good three-point shooters so let's hope the Patriots' perimeter defense has improved.  The Crimson's guards are not huge playmakers but they do have the ability to make Mason pay if they get sloppy on defense.

The Crimson's front court is a different story.  The absence of Kyle Casey leaves them with no depth up front leaving junior Andrew Van Nest having to start alongside center Keith Wright.  Wright was hobbled by injuries all last season and Van Nest struggles with his interior defense. Forwards Mike Morrison and Ryan Pearson should not have trouble scoring down low. Mason should be able to take advantage enough here to give their guards plenty of open looks.  

I don't think the Patriots will have trouble with the Crimson if they cover the perimeter well. However no lead is safe when a team can stroke the three from four different players on the court at any time.  I don't doubt Mason's ability to score points in this one but I am curious to see if the team's defense has improved over last season.  Not saying we will see the scramble defense in full force but look to see Larranaga be more aggressive since he will have the better athletes on the court.

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Shaquille O'Neal Wallpapers

Shaquille O'Neal Wallpaper

Shaquille O'Neal Poster
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Shannon Brown Wallpaper

Shannon Brown Wallpaper
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Shannon Brown Poster

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Mike Morrison will be a big factor in George Mason's success this season

Although Cam Long continues to get the preseason press clippings, I feel Mike Morrison will most likely end being just as big of a factor this season for the Patriots. Jake Whitacre of SB Nation will agree with me on this one. It's often difficult for mid-major teams to find tough inside players to battle with the big boys and Morrison's improvement over last season could give the Patriots a much improved inside prescence in the CAA.  Ryan Pearson is a consistent scoring threat at forward but he's still undersized for the position.  Morrison becoming a terror in the middle only helps Pearson's game while also giving plenty of scoring chances for the team's stellar guards.  Larranaga's best teams always had strong forwards/centers, think George Evans, Jesse Young, Jai Lewis, and Will Thomas.  All those guys were coached up by Larranaga into low post machines, except maybe for Evans who was just a flat out beast. But can Morrison get to the same level as those guys? I think so.

Morrison will benefit from being surrounded by a lot of talent this season, talent that also won't be going though as much growing pains. The reason why Morrison's improvement will be so important this season is that it will strengthen a weak area for the Patriots.  While him and Pearson certainly didn't have awful years last season, they did have games where they got abused by better big men in and out of the CAA.  The game against Radford was probably the most telling as the Highlanders scored at will inside all game long.  Larry Sanders (VCU), Gerald Lee (ODU), and Nkem Ojougboh (NU) are just some of the forwards in the CAA that gave the Patriots trouble last year, however they are gone now.  As a whole I don't think the CAA is as deep at the forward position this season,  which opens the door for Morrison. 

Free-throw shooting will probably still be an issue this season for him and he will still need to learn how to stay in games longer by not getting into foul trouble.  This is where it's obvious how important he will be to the team's success frankly because the group just isn't that deep at forward.  If Morrison gets into early foul trouble the team won't have the benefit of subbing in a senior at that position like with Louis Birdsong last year.  While working on those areas, he should be a much improved rebounder and defender this season without a doubt.  His rebounding will play a large part in letting others take more three-point attempts, something Coach Larranaga wants to see.  I think fans will be very pleased by his offseason work ethic and how he will be more aggressive in the middle this year.

[Photo Credit: George Mason Athletics]

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Video and Pictures from Corey Edwards and Vaughn Gray's Signing Day

Photo via NY Post

Yesterday Corey Edwards and Vaughn Gray signed their national letters of intent pledging their commitment officially to George Mason.  The GoMason blog has a great "behind the scenes" look at the recruiting process that took place in order to get these guys to commit to the green and gold. Also, the NY Post also has a story up this morning talking about Corey Edwards and other Christ the King players who signed yesterday. We talked about how Corey Edwards could be the old school type of point guard that Larranaga covets and how Vaughn Gray's versatility will be big asset for the Patriots.

Photo via Rivals

                                  

                                                             Vaughn Gray

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