Ignoring the Elephant in the Room (Recap of Hofstra vs George Mason)

I was reluctant to write this recap. How could I, as a George Mason fan, write about a Hofstra/Mason game, for a Hofstra fan's blog, without either annoying 75% of the audience of this blog, or annoying myself? I'm not sure I can, especially with Defiantly Dutch's simmering hatred for Mason undoubtedly hovering nearby. But I like playing with fire, so I'm going to try it anyway.

The first half was pretty much a rerun of so many other CAA rockfights from recent years. Erik Copes scored Mason's first field goal of the game. Hofstra went ahead 8-5 early on a Taran Buie three-pointer, helped out by 4 Mason turnovers in the first 4-plus minutes. But then, the Pride offense went into a funk, missing their next 13 shots and 3 of 5 free throws as the Patriots built a 21-10 advantage with 7:29 left in the half.

After a Hofstra time out, Daquan Brown made a layup, the visitors' fourth and final field goal of the first half. However, Mason's foul-prone defense conceded 11 free throws, and the Pride converted all 11, allowing them to keep pace with the Patriots offense.

At the half, the visitors only trailed 31-23, despite shooting a horrendous 4-25 from the field (compared to 11-25 for the hosts). The Pride made exactly one field goal in the final 14 minutes of the first half, but 14 (of 18) made three throws, compared to 7 (of 12) for the Patriots, kept them in the game.

The second half began just as many Patriots fans feared: Mason continued to look out of sync on offense, while the Pride looked energized, and began to attack the 8-point deficit. The home team had let the visitors hand around too long, and there was no way Hofstra was going to shoot 16% again in the second half.

Mason was held to one field goal in the first 5 minutes, while Stevie Mejia and Steven Nwankoni combined to score ten points, tying the game at 33 apiece at the under-16 media timeout. The Hofstra bench and the small band of Pride fans behind it were ecstatic, but Sherrod Wright had other ideas, scoring the next four to retake a lead that the Patriots would never relinquish.

The teams traded baskets for the next two minutes, but Mason began to settle in on defense, turning up the full court pressure and creating steals. Buie cut the lead to 4 at the ten minute mark, but Hofstra didn't score another field goal for eight minutes, giving up an 11-2 run that pretty much ended any hopes of a comeback.

In the late minutes, the Hofstra defense failed to get back in transition and were beaten several times, capped by a Sherrod Wright (who scored 21 points for his CAA-leading ninth 20-point game) scored on a breakaway dunk to make it 55-44 with 1:09 to play, and from there, the Patriots largely ran out the clock, winning 57-46.

The Pride only made 11 of 48 field goals for the game (including 1 of 13 three-point attempts), finishing with an astounding 22.9 shooting percentage. However, their 23 points from the field were augmented by an additional 23 from the free throw line, which served to keep the Pride in the game well into the second half, and the final score (somewhat) respectable. The Pride won't win if they can't shoot better than they did in this game, but their hustle and effort to tie the game early in the second half won my respect. It was evident before and during the game that Mo Cassara has done a lot to motivate and encourage his players in the face of what's been a very trying season.


One positive for George Mason continues to the the shooting of sophomore point guard Corey Edwards. He doesn't shoot a lot -- 3.1 attempts per game -- but he's shooting a team-leading 54.5% from the field (Wright is second at 50.5%) and an amazing 11 of 17 on three-point attempts. Edwards' prowess can be attributed to his patience. He almost never rushes or forces a jump shot, instead making sure he's squared to the basket and his feet are under him.

On the other hand, two areas seem to be the Patriots' constant sources of pain and frustration: finishing at the rim, and defending without fouling. Mason's starting big men, Johnny Williams and Erik Copes, finished 1 of 9 from the field, and both are shooting around 40% for the season. Copes has been slowed by his recovery from offseason hip surgery, but Mason fans expected much more from Williams in his return from a medical redshirt year. The Patriots need one or more of their post players to step up, whether it be Copes, Williams, Jonathan Arledge (who finished with 8 points and 7 boards on Saturday), Serbian freshman Marko Gujanicic (the reigning CAA rookie of the week), or even the rarely used Paris Bennett (hero of the ODU win).

Fouling, meanwhile, has been a team-wide problem. The quality of CAA referees isn't always very high, and some games in recent memory were clearly over-officiated, with even the whisper of contact called as a foul. That didn't seem to be the case on Saturday, at least in my eyes. The officials allowed quite a bit of contact under the basket, and they made their share of questionable calls in both directions, but the Patriots have no one but themselves for most of the 25 fouls they accumulated.

If Mason can cut down on their fouls while maintaining defensive intensity, their ability to hold teams' shooting percentages in check will start to pay off. If they continue to foul, there will be many more nights like Saturday, where a team hangs around solely because of the charity stripe.

Mason's Valiant Comeback Falls Short (Recap of George Mason-VCU CAA Semifinal)

The George Mason-VCU semifinal was the fifty sixth Division I game I had covered live this season.  It perhaps might be the most memorable one from start to finish.  I can probably say beyond a shadow of a doubt that no one expected the first nine minutes of the game.  But given the first nine minutes of the game, I can also say that likely no one expected the last thirty one minutes of the game either.

After Drexel had soundly defeated ODU in the warmup act, the headliner was a matchup between two CAA rivals with a long rivalry.  The Rams had knocked the Patriots out of the CAA Tournament the last two years.  Last year was the most memorable as VCU upset George Mason, the regular season champion, in the semifinals.  It's quite likely that win helped the Rams make the First Four. We all know what happened from there.

Now with a sold out crowd made up mostly of VCU fans, but with a large contingent of Mason fans as well, there was this third act. The Richmond Coliseum was loud.  And to add the cherry on top of an amazing atmosphere, the two best pep bands in the Colonial were taking turns getting their fans in a frenzy.

Mason won the tip, but immediately turned the ball over as Darius Theus stole the ball and hit a layup to put VCU up 2-0. This would become the common theme for the first nine minutes.  Another steal, another layup. 4-0 Rams. Then Troy Daniels buried a three to make it 7-0.  Another steal by Rob Brandenberg leads to his dunk. 9-0.  Burgess with three straight three pointers, the third resulting in him shaking his head down the court.  18-0 VCU.

After Mike Morrison turned the ball over again, which was George Mason's seventh turnover in not even six minutes, Daniels buried another three pointer.  Six minutes gone by, Rams up 21-0.  Timeout, Patriots.

The VCU fans in attendance that had been loud already, were now at the point of reaching all time record decibal levels of noise.  It was deafening.  Those of us that were sitting on press row, we were stunned.  VCU hit all five of their three point attempts.  Mason couldn't even get the ball down the court.

After the timeout, Brandenberg hit one of two free throws to put the Rams up 22-0.  The Patriots finally got their first two points on free throws by Sherrod Wright.  The twenty two point run had ended.  But VCU wasn't quite finished yet.

A Reddic layup was followed by another three pointer by Brandenberg.  Jonathan Arledge finally got Mason's first basket on a dunk. However, Treveon Graham followed with a three pointer for the Rams.  Two Theus free throws made the score 32-4 with a little more than nine minutes left.

That wasn't a misprint.  VCU was leading a twenty four win George Mason team 32-4 after nine minutes of action.  To put that in perspective, I had seen Iona score thirty one straight points against St Peter's exactly seven days before that.  As impressive as that was, this was more impressive. St Peter's was the ninth place team in the MAAC.  George Mason was the third place team in the CAA and basically the same team that made it to the round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament last season.

Only one word described how I felt sitting in my seat: Surreal.

It looked quite likely that VCU was going to break Georgia State's tournament setting record from Friday night for largest margin of victory in a CAA Tournament game, thirty five points (Georgia State defeated Hofstra 85-50 in the first round of the CAA Tournament that Friday).  The situation was desperate for George Mason and Patriots' coach Paul Hewitt desperately tried hockey line substitution changes to get his team into a groove.  It looked like the story had been set by the first nine minutes.

But someone forgot to tell George Mason that.

The Patriots' comeback started slowly.  Though they still committed a few more turnovers, Mason for the most part was able to get the ball up the court finally and hit some shots.  VCU though kept pace with them for the next six minutes and the lead was still twenty six, 46-20 with five minutes left in the half.

Then the Rams went cold from beyond the arc, missing their last five three point attempts.  This allowed the Patriots, led by Morrison and Arledge, to go on a 12-2 run to end the half.   It was now a "respectable" sixteen point deficit at the half, 48-32.

If George Mason was going to cut the lead further, they had to cut out the turnovers.  They had twelve turnovers in the first half, which led to seventeen points for VCU, which had only one turnover.  Thus the points off turnovers was in favor of the Rams 17-0.

The second half started out with Mason and VCU basically holding serve.  After six minutes, the Rams' lead was fifteen, 55-40.  The Patriots had not helped themselves, committing three more turnovers in that span.

But Hewitt made a change that ultimately helped Mason.  He had Andre Cornelius now lead the point, which brought them needed quickness against VCU.  Cornelius and Morrison combined to score all of Mason's points during their 12-4 run which cut the VCU deficit into half, 59-52 with about seven a half minutes left.  The George Mason fans roared in approval.

The Patriots' cut the lead a little further. After Morrison, who was dominant the last twenty five minutes of the game, hit two free throws, the Rams were now only ahead 64-58 with three minutes left. What had been a twenty eight point lead had whittled down to six. A lot of credit was due to the Patriots' second half defense, which held the Rams to twenty six percent shooting in the second half.

Mason had a chance to cut the lead further, but they missed four consecutive shots over two possessions. They couldn't cut the lead any further.  VCU scored eight of their last ten points on free throws.   The Rams would hold onto a 74-64 win.

Big Shot Burgess led VCU with twenty points, whild Daniels added seventeen.  They combined to shoot nine of seventeen from beyond the arc.  Brandenberg added fourteen points while Juvonte Reddic scored twelve points.  Morrison and Arledge each had doubles for George Mason.  Morrison had twenty points and eleven rebounds while Arledge had ten points and eleve rebounds. Cornelius added fifteen points.

After watching two terrific games in front of a raucous, sold out crowd over eleven thousand people, I was convinced that there would be a great championship game with what I thought was two definite NCAA tournament teams.   I wasn't able to stay for the championship game, because I had to get back to New York.  But I got to see it the next night.  It lived up to the billing.