Vs NIowa: I read some preseason previews of George Mason and basically they started and played about 7 freshman last year. They had severe ups and downs, sometimes IN game. Example is losing a 21 point lead int he first round of the NIT. That said, they were in first place of the CAA in mid-February last year. This year they return everyone from that team that did really well considering their age. Fast forward to 2011 and add to that I have been very impressed with Old Dominion and impressed with VCU and this team laid a WHOOPIN on them. So I was excited to crank up the DVR and watch them.
And I saw an undersized – at times severely - team that I liked but didn’t love. Their offense is primarily 4 guards lining up and looking for threes. At times, they will send it to the post where their undersized but efficient bigs create or kick out. They also will slash to the hole periodically. Their big man Pearson is an AWESOME offensive rebounder who just has that feel for where the ball will go and the tenacity to go get it. On defense, they played good fundamental defense, mostly man to man. NIowa was never able to take advantage of their size, but Im not sure if that was GM defense or NI big men not being awesome post players.
Regardless, I only liked this team but they are that team that can keep it close and their ability to hit the three is scary if betting against them. Gritty, solid, fundamental, can hit the three. No idea what I plan to do with them except watch them again.
A little more than a minute into the second half of George Mason’s ESPNU BracketBusters matchup against Northern Iowa Saturday night, Panthers guard Kwadzo Ahelegbe drilled a 3-pointer that gave the home team a 42-32 lead.
George Mason was in trouble. Certainly 10 points is a manageable deficit with more than 18 minutes to play, even on the road. But the Patriots needed something they hadn’t shown much of this year: resolve. Mind you, Mason isn’t a team to lie down in the face of adversity. Rather, the “issue” was the Patriots haven’t needed resolve.
Jim Larranaga’s team owns the nation’s longest winning streak, now 13 after the 77-71 win over Northern Iowa. Comparisons to the Cinderella 2006 team have been inevitable.
While the results and the run are impressive, it’s the how that is turning heads nationwide. Mason is playing stunningly efficient basketball, and the final results show the carnage: Only two of the 13 victims have come within 15 points.
Two changes–one by the coach and one from the point guard–have elevated Mason from CAA good to nationally good. First, Mason has become a wrecking ball on offense since Larranaga moved athletic big man Mike Morrison to the high post.
Mason has a bevy of 3-point shooters, including All-CAA guard Cam Long and point guard Andre Cornelius. They’ve been freed and knocked down open shots, 90-of-210 (.430) in all in the streak. Cornelius has hit 26 of his last 47.
Lefty Ryan Pearson has been the biggest benefactor. With an unclogged low post, Pearson is able to employ his full arsenal of unorthodox moves, both back-to-the-basket and facing it. Pearson made all 13 of his free throws in a 21-point, 15-rebound effort against Northern Iowa, has scored in double digits in 21 consecutive games and has averaged a double-double over his last six games.
As a team, Mason is leading the CAA in assists and averaging 1.13 points per possession. It has scored at least one point per possession in every game since a Dec. 1 win over George Washington. (An average-producing offensive team scores 1.00 points per possession.)
The second change is a renewed focus on team defense, supercharged by the jet quick Cornelius. After Hofstra torched Mason for 87 points in early January, Larranaga directly challenged his team. Publicly, he spoke in very Washington, D.C., terms, saying “We’ll be encouraging our guys to defend better.”
Privately, the words were a little more pointed, but they stuck: stop dribble penetration at the point of attack–the job of Cornelius–and gang rebound.
“I wish we were a defensive team that happened to be playing offense well,” Larranaga said last week, reinforcing the defense-first ideology that is a hallmark of Larranaga-coached teams, including the 2006 Final Four squad.
But even if the defense isn’t completely where the coach would like, the Patriots are getting there. Only two teams in the run have reached 70 points, and Northern Iowa was just the fourth team to score 1.00 points per possession against them.
VCU had won 22 in a row at home when it faced Mason last week. The Rams are a potent team on any court, especially so in the friendly confines of the Siegel Center. VCU is among the national leaders in 3-pointers but made just 5 of 19 that night and shot 37 percent overall in a 72-51 beat-down.
“They are very good,” VCU coach Shaka Smart said. “They are versatile. They are talented at every position. They share the basketball. They have really dedicated themselves to playing very well on the defensive end.”
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The comparisons are inevitable–this season’s Patriots and the 2006 squad that captured the hearts of college basketball by making it to the Final Four.
Both teams played below the national radar through January. Both teams relied heavily on their starting five and on a versatile attack and sharing the basketball. This year’s team is 13-0 when it doles out 16 or more assists.
Both teams won on the road in the BracketBusters event against a Missouri Valley team. And yes, both teams display a resolve to execute that leads to an efficient performance on both offense and defense.
It’s a natural tie.
However those are all cause and effect. It’s a differently constructed team with the same leader and similar results. The scary part for 67 other teams right now: This year’s version is playing better than the 2006 squad.
