George Mason takes on Loyola (MD), looking to finish homestand strong

Mason looks to improve to 6-0 at home this season as they play their 5th consecutive home game tonight.  The Patriots were lights out shooting against UNCW in their last game and they will again be facing a poor shooting team in Loyola of Maryland.  Unlike UNCW however, the Greyhounds have a much better front court and are a better rebounding team. No one expects the Patriots to recreate what happened Saturday night as I can't imagine an opposing coach wouldn't make it a point to cover the perimeter.  It will be interesting to see if Mason can get more good play from their bench players who have been inconsistent in their efforts on defense thus far. I expect another balanced shooting night on offense with maybe not as many three-pointers taken this time but still a far amount.

If Loyola makes it a point to prevent Mason from reigning threes, I'm curious to see if they will run some plays for Mike Morrison and Ryan Pearson, something we haven't seen much of this season.  The reserve forwards still seem to be uncertain for Larranaga and his staff so I wouldn't be surprised to see Paris Bennett, Johnny Williams, and Jonathan Arledge get a few more minutes here and there tonight.  Larranaga will experiment with lineups and different "Green teams" in non-conference games like this as he and staff need to find who they can trust on defense form the bench during road games.

Recently Mason has been doing a lot of things well, shooting, making assists, and getting to the free-throw line. All of these areas are improvements for the team when you compare them to last year's squad at this point.  Although their shooting percentage numbers might go down as they start to play some better teams, you'd their ability to keep dishing out assists and get to the free-throw line doesn't.  Another area that needs to stay strong is on defense where the Patriots have held their last four opponents to under 38% shooting from the field. That's an impressive stat, but it remains to be seen if they can keep this up away from the Patriot Center and during the CAA schedule.  

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Highlights from the George Mason vs UNCW game

[Video from GoMason.com's Patriot Vision]

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George Mason opens CAA play with a blow out victory over UNCW

Coming into the game most thought the Patriots would work the ball inside where they had a significant advantage over UNCW's front court.  That wasn't really the case last night as Mason started firing threes in the early minutes and connecting on almost all of them it seemed.  During a 6 1/2 minute span the Patriots made 7 of 8 three pointers, including Vertrail Vaughns hitting 3 consecutive ones in 63 seconds. Bench players led Mason in scoring for the first time this season after being called out by Larranaga after the GW game for not playing solid both ways. Vertrail Vaughns and Isaiah Tate combined for 8 of 9 shooting from behind the arch and each had career nights in scoring. I honestly thought Mike Morrison and Ryan Pearson would be the stars in this one and not Mason's guards but I guess when you are left that wide open so often how can you pass up that shot opportunities? Senior guard Cam Long is now 2 points shy of a career 1,000 points at George Mason after a quiet night finishing with 5 points.  Andre Cornelius and Mike Morrison were quiet as well and I don't think it's a bad thing because this team is more dangerous with a continuous balanced attack.  

The coaching staff had to be pleased with the defensive efforts of the "Green Team" who to this point haven't had trouble scoring but just needed to stop their guys from scoring to get more playing time.  The efforts from the bench have been spotty this season but the more games like this we see the more confidence one has to have in this team's ability to stay atop the CAA.  I still need to see the bench perform like this against a better opponent before I'm ready to call this team "deep".  Midway through the season I might come back to this post and laugh that I once questioned the team's depth but we'll see how things unfold.  

NCAA Basketball

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George Mason opens CAA schedule against UNCW

The Patriots open their CAA schedule this season at home against UNCW tomorrow night. They are three games into their current five game home stand and are looking to stay unbeaten at the Patriot Center.  It's a rare thing to see Mason play this many consecutive home games in the beginning of the season but it could benefit the team a lot.  Both UNCW and Mason are coming off wins against George Washington, however the Seahawks turned over the ball 17 times in their victory and allowed GW's Nemania Mikic to go 7-for-13 from the three point line. I should mention though that UNCW went 12-for-22 from there as well in that game. As a whole this might be the best shooting team the Patriots have faced this season, the only thing is they don't score a whole lot of points.  They often get out-rebounded and turnover the ball about five more times a game then their opponent.  Getting to the free throw line is another area they haven't been effective in as they have already had 3 games in which they attempted 8 or less free throws.

Up front the Seahawks are undersized and beat reporter Brian Mull thinks the Patriots will pound the ball inside early in this one. Can't say I disagree with that, especially with how effective Mike Morrison has been. If Ryan Pearson can start off strong as well, the game could be an easy one for the Patriots. However the Patriots can again be their own worst enemies against a team like this, especially if Pearson or Morrison get into early foul trouble. When Morrison got a breather Wednesday night against GW, Mason looked completely different on both ends of the court.  With the bench players struggling to play effective Larranaga defense it is very important for the team not to shoot themselves in the foot with early fouls.  As a team they did a good job staying out of foul trouble against GW but we have already seen too often this season guys like Pearson and Morrison missing a large part of the 1st half of games. The Seahawks themselves don't have much of a bench either and have been living mostly off the shooting from Chad Tomko and Ahmad Grant. Grant by the way is 15-for-20 on three-pointers for the season; something to keep in mind.

Sure UNCW was picked to finish last in the CAA but don't think Larranaga isn't taking this game seriously.  The Patriots have made a living on home CAA wins in recent years and each one carries a lot of weight.  When you factor in how good teams like ODU and VCU have looked so far you begin to get a perfect of how CAA wins can come at a premium.  But I do think the Patriots offensive attack will overwhelm UNCW as I don't expect them to shoot as poorly as they did Wednesday night.  A high scoring game favors Mason and their ability to create turnovers against already turnover prone team should be the difference in this one.

A few things to watch tomorrow night:

How much the will the starters play? Wednesday night all the starters played 31 minutes or more despite Mason having a double lead late in the 2nd half.  Larranaga stated he is not confident in his bench playing adequate defense so it will be interesting to see how those guys respond to being called out.  Sure Cam Long has been averaging 30+ minutes since his sophomore year but I don't know if you can keep this up with the rest of the starters who aren't used to logging that many minutes. If Larranaga wants to use the scramble defense more this kind of thing can't continue.

Free-throw shooting. Mason got to the line a lot Wednesday but can they keep it up or was it just a fluke? Effectiveness at the free-throw would add a new dimension to Mason's offense, especially if Mike Morrison continues to produce from there.  I always have thought guys like Andre Cornelius and Luke Hancock should get to the line more so hopefully they saw the difference it can make.

Will Mason pick up the defensive intensity? The Seahawks turn the ball over a lot and don't have someone outside of Chad Tomko who handles the ball well. Look for Mason to be more aggressive in this one on defense as they try to force the ball out of Tomko's hands.  If all goes well this game could end up like the win against Charlotte. 

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Highlights from the George Washington game

[Video from GoMason.com's Patriot Vision]

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George Mason earns bragging rights, gets revenge with win over George Washington

George Mason avenged last year's disaster in Foggy Bottom last night and earned the Battle of Orange Line bragging rights for this season.  The final score (60-46) might show that the Patriots covered the double digit sports betting spread but it was an ugly game at times and they gave George Washington way too many chances.  Both teams started off shooting the ball terribly but Mason's defense gave them the edge early on.  It was the first game this season where you saw the Patriots sputter on offense to begin a game. However despite poor numbers from the field they were perfect from the free-throw line in the 1st half which turned out to be the difference in the score at halftime.  The slow start might have been the Colonials constantly double-teaming Luke Hancock, who so far this year has set the tone for the Patriots on offense.  If not for some strong moves to the basket by Mike Morrison Mason probably would have been down at the half.  The Patriots weren't playing their game in the 1st half and the full court pressing by GW slowed everything down.  It was a little concerning how easily they were able to throw Mason off their game.  

The 2nd half is where the Patriots found their groove.  They used a 9-0 run capped off with a Mike Morrison dunk to take a strong hold on the lead and never look back.  Their defensive intensity picked up and Ryan Pearson, who was a zombie in the first half, really picked up his game on both ends of the court.  A combination of steals and getting to the free-throw line sealed the deal for the Patriots in the end of this game. They were still a bit throw off by the constant pressing of GW, who actually ended up playing better defense last night then I thought they were capable of doing.  Luke Hancock got a lot of jeers from the Mason fans in attendance for his inability to hold on to the ball at times. Despite leading the Patriots with 15 points he seemed a bit too frustrated by the double teams in the 1st half and will have to learn to work through when teams key in on him like that. Hancock and the other starters had to log way too minutes to close this game out as Larranaga didn't show much faith in his bench.  It seemed as if the starters played nearly the entire 2nd half.  Even with a double-digit lead Larranaga didn't feel safe inserting Bennett, Arledge, or any reserve guards.  In the post game interview Larranaga had this to say about the bench players:

"They don’t clearly understand how to get it done yet,” said Larranaga. “I didn’t want to take a chance on putting them into a situation where they’d turn the ball over a couple times and we’d lose the lead.”

Rebounding: The Patriots didn't do a great job on the boards in this one and were out rebounded 37-31.  They let GW get way too many second chance opportunities and when your playing a team that shoots that poorly you can't have that happen.

Bench Support: So much for this being a deep team.  Mason got almost no help from their bench last night and it's obvious after Coach L's comments post game that he doesn't have much faith in their ability on defense. If he doesn't have faith in them with 8 minutes to go and up by 10 against a team like GW what's going to happen when they play VCU or ODU? The starters won't last playing this long all season and it was rare that no one was in foul trouble in the 2nd half. Also, Paris Bennett continues to get minutes over Johnny Williams in the front court, which is still puzzling to me.

Free throws:  I can't remember the last time I praised Mason for their free-throw shooting, probably because I never have.  Not only did they do an excellent job getting to the line more than GW (as you can see in the chart below) they also made them pay for it.  It still wasn't a great percentage (69.7%) overall but they connected on a lot in the first 30 minutes of the game which helped them maintain a lead.  At times it seemed as if Cornelius, Hancock, and Pearson could get to the line whenever they wanted, I'd like to see more of that.

NCAA Basketball

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Battle of the Orange Line Part II: Game Day Links and Live Blog

Game Time: 7:00 pm, get to the game early to receive a Folarin Campbell Bobblehead

Radio: WGMU and also on 1050 AM (GW broadcast)

Spread:  Mason by 13

Game Notes

Washington Post Preview

Previewing the Battle of the Orange Line Part II

Video Highlights from the game against FAU

Gametracker

Statistical Breakdown

Join us for the Live Blog and chat tonight. If your at the game or not by a computer you can also join in via twitter by sending me a tweet @gmuhoops or by using the hashtags #gmuhoops or #mason

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