Welcome to the Jungle, it’s finally Mason basketball season.
Let’s get it started…
The George Mason Patriots will open the 2018-2019 regular season against the reigning Ivy League champion, University of Pennsylvania. This will be a great test of this year’s squad against a 2018 NCAA Tournament team.
After finishing last season with a 16-17 record, going 9-9 in Atlantic 10 play, the Patriots will look to move forward after winning four fewer games compared to the 2016-2017 season.
Meeting for the fourth time in history, Mason leads the series 3-0, with two of those wins coming at home. However, we’ll see how Mason handles this game, as they are 30-22 in season openers all time.
UPenn Background
After going 24-9 overall and 12-2 in conference play, the Quakers captured its first Ivy League championship since 2007 last season. As a result, they advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the 24th time in program history.
UPenn was picked to finish second in the Ivy League behind Harvard, coincidentally the team that UPenn beat in the Ivy League Championship game last year.
In the fourth season under Head Coach Steve Donahue, the Quakers will hope to start the season with a win in pursuit of consecutive NCAA Tournament berths for the first time since 2006 and 2007.
The Quakers return four starters from their championship team, including AJ Brodeur (13.1 ppg, 7.2 rpg, 2.5 apg, 53.8 FG%) and Ryan Betley (14.3 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 39.1 3pt FG%), two All-Ivy League players.
On the other hand, the Patriots return all of their scoring offense and every player from last season, a total 4,306 career points.
This Year’s Expectations
Switching gears now, during the preseason, the A-10 coaches’ poll picked Mason to finish fourth in the conference, which is their highest ranking since joining the A-10 in 2013.
All-Atlantic 10 Preseason First Team selection Otis Livingston II looks to lead this team for his senior year stating, “We got talent, have guys that like to work hard. They’re all competitive, so it won’t be that hard, I don’t have to motivate them or anything, they’re already motivated.”
Livingston II also commented on his goals for this year saying, “We want to improve every game, I feel like that’s a big goal for us, in the [nonconference] and through the A-10,” said Otis Livingston II.
Livingston continued, “We want to make it to the A-10 tournament and the NCAA Tournament. I feel like we want to do as good as we can in nonconference [games] and get off to a really good start, to give us some momentum going into the conference [games].”
Head coach Dave Paulsen stated his expectations for this year saying, “The hope is to maximize your potential to be as good as you can possibly be, and I say that because I think our guys need to focus on that. There are expectations, which is great because expectations make people believe in you, [make] people have confidence in you, and they think you’re pretty good. We want those expectations to fuel us, and make us feel more together.”
With the addition of UVa transfer Jarred Reuter this year’s squad will hopefully have a strong post position, that is if Reuter builds up his stamina allowing him to play a high volume of minutes.
READ MORE: A new element for George Mason: Jarred Reuter
Paulsen stated in a recent Washington Post article, “[Reuter’s stamina has] vastly improved, but he’s not going to be a 30-minute-a-game guy right now.”
With the addition of three new freshmen this year, Jamal Hartwell II, Jason Douglas-Stanley, and Jordan Miller, they will all compete for a small amount of quality playing this year, and then more time next year, with the departures of Livingston II and Grayer.
In other news, after undergoing a procedure on his foot in the offseason, Jaire Grayer stated he thinks he’s “back to 100%.”
As long as we keep UPenn out of the paint and out-rebound them, we should be confident to win in the season opener. However, we need to make sure we don’t let up on the gas or else Penn will easily push the game back in favor of them.
READ MORE: Breaking Down George Mason’s 2018-19 Non-Conference Schedule
