Trouble at Trask continues

The George Mason Patriots are now 1-9 in there last 10 games at the Trask Coliseum in Wilmington North Carolina. It amazes me that even when UNCW is in last place in the CAA they can still find a way to beat the Patriots on their home court. Mason's quest to move into the top 4 of the conference standings took a bad hit tonight. This is the same UNCW team that shot under 9% in the first half last time these two teams met in Fairfax. In the second half of this evenings game the Seahawks were able to shot over 65%, what happened to the CAA best scoring defense? UNCW was shooting the ball well all night and it proved to be too overwhelming for Mason. The Patriots defense looked out of sync and gave up some easy baskets late in the second half. Campbell again led the team in scoring with...

Read more »

Mad Respect

The Patriots game on Wednesday night was a game I was looking forward for awhile. VCU always gives us a great showing and gritty play down to the wire. This years match-up was even more exciting because of VCU being undefeated in the conference and getting some national attention in the polls. After their win in Fairfax I believe they should be ranked in the top 25, but we will have to wait and see. As ugly was this game was for Mason, with the poor defensive play and even worse free throw shooting I have to give respect for this VCU team. They played with such poise and silenced a large crowd at the Patriot Center at many points in the game. Their three point shooting was off the charts at 60%. This shooting was a mix of the VCU's...

Read more »

Patriots Taking Control

After yesterdays win against Northeastern the Patriots streak is now at five in a row. Five in the row that may not be against the best in the league but its a streak that the Patriots have been winning by an average of more than 20 points a game. They are clicking and doing it at the right time as their conference schedule starts to heat up. They will face VCU on Wednesday who are currently 8-0 in the conference and sit in 1st place. This will be a showdown in Fairfax that the Patriots must win to keep this streak going and climb into the top 4 in the conference standings. Will Thomas has been huge during this winning streak, connecting on 30 of 38 from the field over the last four games including 10 of 11 against Northeastern where he looked dominate. This is how I imagined Thomas...

Read more »

Are the Patriots coming together?

George Mason is on a three game winning streak in which their average margin of victory over UNCW, Towson, and JMU has been about 24 points. The Patriots are starting to resemble last years squad more and more each game; they are playing great defense and are not just relying on one or two guys to score points each night. Their scoring defense is tops in the CAA, last season the Patriots were ranked in the top 10 in the nation in this category at certain points in the season. Larranaga finally seems to have his patented scramble defense firing on all cylinders, steals are up, and opponents look flustered a lot more on offense then they did earlier this season. Another thing to note is that the Patriots have been shooting better, especially...

Read more »

UNCW rout doesn't hide Mason's woes

Last season UNCW and Mason both earned NCAA tournament bids and were the cream of the crop in mid-major land; now they are fighting to stay out of the bottom of the CAA. The Patriots held UNCW to only two field goals the entire first half. Thats right, two! If not for Daniel Fountain's buzzer beating three pointer at the end of the half UNCW would have set the record for lowest FG% in a half since the shot clock was instituted. Whats even more amazing is that even as UNCW continued to play terrible in the second half Mason still shot only 36% from the field and scored just 55 points. Coach L chose an interesting starting lineup which included Jordan Carter and Chris Fleming who had career highs in minutes (21) and points (8). Is Fleming...

Read more »

Patriots hit an all time low

Coach Jim Larranaga looked angry, confused and at times frustrated; something you would normally not see at a home game against William and Mary. Just how bad was this loss? Mason hadn't lost a home CAA game in nearly two years and hadn't lost to the Tribe at home in nine years. A Tribe team that had no players with significant height or bulk and only one player who averaged more than four rebounds a game yet they out rebounded Mason 34-21. Whats even more disturbing about that statistic is that the Tribe had 13 offensive rebounds and Mason had 3. That was the major difference in the second half. William and Mary would score on almost every possession because of all the second chance shots they got. Once again Mason played down to the...

Read more »

From one Cinderella to Another

Oh that George Mason public relations department, aren't they worth every penny? How do you keep the whole Cinderella thing going? Easy, take out an advertisement in another Cinderella team's local newspaper wishing them luck before their bowl game! Maybe this gesture by Mason to Boise State was where they got the courage to call some of those trick plays they did at the end of the game last night. Boise State has been labeled the George Mason of college football, but sadly for them their run is over because their is still no playoff system in place. Maybe Boise State can help make sure that we do see a playoff system in the near future for college football. But forget the underdog stories, that was just a great game of football, one of...

Read more »

Patriots looking for a fresh start in '07

After being suffering a loss in their conference opener to Drexel and narrowly beating Mississippi State at home, the Patriots would like nothing more than to get a fresh start for 2007. Its that point in the season when your team should be developing team chemistry. I don't really see any from this team yet. Night in and night out I don't know what Patriot team is gonna show up; the team that runs the offense through Thomas in the low blocks or the team that doesn't protect the ball and then launches three point attempts every possession. The Drexel game could pretty much be summed up in the 2nd half when John Vaughan dribbled the ball off his foot which led to Dominick Mejia taking in the loose ball for an easy layup. That play was one of the many easy scoring opportunities that the...

Read more »