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What we learned about George Mason from the Charleston Classic

George Mason started off the Charleston Classic strong with a decisive victory over Charlotte but faltered in the 2nd halves of their losses to NC State and Wofford to finish 4th in the tournament.  The Patriots definitely got some quality experience out of this weekend but time will tell if they learn anything from their mistakes and shortcomings.  Here are some things we learned about this year's team so far:

• The team has depth but I don't think Larranaga knows fully how to use it just yet.  I say this because their were a ton of different lineup combinations at there this weekend. I know he was trying to get the younger guys some good experience but the substitutions in the 2nd half of the NC State were head scratching.  I think the coaching staff is still figuring out who they trust in late game situations off bench.

• They need to be more patient.  Coach Larranaga said this in the post game yesterday after the loss to Wofford and it really showed late in the game.  Mason faded in the 2nd half twice over their last two games mostly because they had too many players looking for the quick score one-on-one plays.  They don't have any good one-on-one guys in my opinion, they need all five guys contributing in their motion offense for them to score consistently.  The rushed shot attempts and poor decision making are things that can be corrected if they were more patient late in the games.  This stuck out a lot of some of Luke Hancock's game.  

• You can't blame the defense and rebounding. Larranaga's bread and butter haven't been the problem so far but what they have been doing after an offensive rebound or a defensive stop has been.  It doesn't matter how good of defense you are playing if you constantly turn over the ball. And as for rebounding, Mason needs to capitalize more on those 2nd chance opportunities, they squandered a whole lot yesterday.   

• Problems from last year are still carrying over. And with this I mean finishing strong in the 2nd half when they have the lead.  Towards the end of last season the Patriots struggled to close out opponents and the CIT game against Fairfield was an exclamation point on the matter. So far we have seen a little bit of that as the Patriots seem to forget that there are 40 minutes in the game. You could blame it on youth last season but what do you say if it keeps happening this year?

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Turnovers doom George Mason as they fall to Wofford in OT

                     

                     AP Photo/Mic Smith

The Patriots dominated the boards and shot the ball well in their final game of the Charleston Classic but were doomed by turnovers and then inability to force any of their own for the first time this season. In the end Mason was beat by their own game, points off turnovers. Wofford got an amazing efforts from guards Cameron Rundles (career-high 26 points) and Jamar Diggs (career-high 23) who made the shot to force overtime and then went on to score 11 points in the extra time to seal the victory for the Terriers.  The Patriots were up two with 20 seconds remaining off of Luke Hancock's four straight points but a Diggs lay-up and a sloppy turnover by Hancock on the next play led to overtime.  

Mason started off the game scoring easy in the paint, despite missing second chance points off their many offensive rebounds. It's still hard for me to believe the score was so close at the end of the game despite the Patriots collecting 20 offensive boards in the game and not shooting all that bad from the field.  Morrison and Pearson did their job on the board in this one but no really stepped up and made the shots after the rebounds.  Mason needed someone to step up and match the intensity that the Terriers were getting from Rundles and Diggs.  Hancock and Pearson came on strong late but guys like Long and Cornelius were absent and it hurt the Patriots.  

NCAA Basketball Stats

More on the Four Factors

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George Mason basketball team gets visit from actor Bill Murray in Charleston

The Patriots got an interesting pre-game meal guest before their final game in the Charleston Classic.  Bill Murray, who currently resides in Charleston joined Coach Larranaga and the team for a meal together today and most players identified him as that guy from Space Jam and those Ghosterbusters movies.  Hopefully he was sharing with the guards his awesome passing techniques he used in the movie Space Jam with Michael Jordan.

Murray joined Bill Rohland during halftime on Sunday

Looks like he also had some fun with the Green Machine:

Murray was sitting behind the Patriots bench 

[Photo via Twitpic and Charleston Classic Fan Page]

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Game Day Links: George Mason vs Wofford: Charleston Classic Third Place Game

Game Time: 5:30 pm

TV: ESPNU, ESPN3

Stream: http://channelsurfing.net/watch-espnu.html

Spread: Wofford by 1

Statistical Breakdown

Radio Link, Smartphone, GoMason Mobile App is also in iTunes App store

What do we want to see out of Mason tonight? After a disappointing 2nd half effort on Friday, I'd like to see the Patriots get back to that whole tenacious defense and balance on offense. It's an important to see how this year's team bounces back overall from a loss. They lost their focus in the 2nd half when they fell behind and too many guys tried to make things happen in one-on-one situations on offense.  Distributing the ball and finding better opportunities is something I'd also like to see and overall just better shot selections. The assist to turnover ratio has been good thus far even despite Friday's loss and I'd like to see another 15+ assist night for the team. Luke Hancock has been a great scorer so far this season but he needs to be dishing out more dimes as defenses begin to key in on him.  He tried to do too much against NC State and looked a little too much like Cam Long of last season. It would also be nice to see a game this season where Mike Morrison and Ryan Pearson aren't in early foul trouble and miss most of the 1st half. Wofford hasn't been a great rebounding team so far this year so the Patriots should have the edge there.  They have also been getting to the free throw more than Mason so hopefully they will be more disciplined in that area.  Not that I want to see some sort of blow out victory from Mason, just a more focused team following the game plan and not veering away from what works for them.

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Mason ditches game plan, falls to NC State in Charleston Classic Semifinals

                            

                             AP Photo/Mic Smith

The Patriots lost to NC State last night in the semifinals of the Charleston Classic, but it wasn't one of those well they ran into a great ACC type of losses.  Mason was playing well int he 1st half despite Mike Morrison and Ryan Pearson getting early fouls.  Luke Hancock was again looking like an All-CAA caliber player.  Down 7 at half time you would have expected another strong 2nd half out of the Patriots while making some adjustments during the break.  Unfortunately that didn't quite happen.  Tarik El-Bashir of the Washington Post puts it best:

"But instead of sticking to the plan, the Patriots veered from it, initiated one-on-one battles and took low-percentage shots. The result wasn't pretty. A two-point lead quickly turned into a 10-point deficit, and eventually a 78-65 defeat in the tournament semifinals Friday at Carolina First Arena.

"We got a little selfish," said senior Cam Long, who scored a team-high 16 points. "In the moment, everybody wants to get their shots. And that's what it came down to. We started to put ourselves in a position where we just let ourselves go. We started not sharing the ball with each other. We played right into the hands of N.C. State."

The one-on-one battles and the ridiculously poor shot selections are what really bothered me.  Larranaga is know for having developed smarter more patient teams.  This game shows me that the players just simply didn't listen to him after the lead from Wolfpack started to swell.  What happened to the whole team unity no-name on the back of the uniforms mentality?  When things get tough his team can't resort to having guys individually doing their own things and trying to win the game themselves.  Luke Hancock was doing a little bit of this, and as you can applaud his efforts it's not Larranaga basketball and it's not George Mason basketball, plain and simple.  Perhaps this why he was benched after the 8 minute mark in the 2nd half.  Hancock was also not playing great defense as a couple of commenters pointed out last night and today.

Another thing that bothered me was the substitutions in the 2nd half.  You can't help but wonder why a lineup of one starter and four bench players (two of which barely had any college minutes under their belts) were on the floor for so long in the beginning of the 2nd half with the game still very much in reach.  I know Larranaga loves to use these tournament games as a way to break in the young players and expose them to good talent, but did he really care about that more than winning this game? It's a long season, I get that, and the goal is to win the CAA but I can't help but scratch my head for not playing certain guys for extended periods of time so guys like Paris Bennett, Johnny Williams, Vertrail Vaughns, and Jonathan Arledge could get more experience.

Now for some positives out of this game. Cam Long and Luke Hancock looked great at certain times in this game showed their are capable of carrying the scoring load on nights Morrison and Pearson are doing so hot. Speaking of Pearson, he looked much better last night than he did in the previous two games and was aggressive on the boards.  Freshman Jonathan Arledge and Bryon Allen continue to look promising and hopefully them playing in this tournament will pay dividends later in the season.  You also have to be liking what you are seeing out of Vertrail Vaughns lately.  I didn't think he would be playing this much so early in the season but hes starting to show flashes of great play out both on offense and defense.

The Patriots will not play Wofford on Sunday at 5:30 pm on ESPNU

College Basketball Stats

As you can see from the stats breakdown the Patriots weren't murdered on the boards nor did they turn the ball over badly in this one.  But their poor shot selection from the field and from the three-point line are what stands out most in this analysis.

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