2020 has been one hell of a year. We’ve faced a pandemic, an election and the Tiger King era of quarantine. It’s time for basketball. Finally!
Look, lets be up front. The 2019-2020 season was disappointing. Mason posted a 9-21 record, including 3-13 in A-10 play, finishing in 13th place. The Patriots lost seven of the final eight games of the year, with the lone win during that span being against UMass. It was frustrating. But they never gave up.
That said, it goes without saying this team is very much being overlooked this year. Good. We like it that way.
In the 2021 A-10 conference preview, Mason was picked to finish in last place. You can find the full poll here:
Preseason @A10WBB Poll:
1. VCU
2. Dayton
3. Saint Louis
T4. Davidson
T4. Duquesne
T4. Fordham
7. UMass
8. Richmond
9. George Washington
10. La Salle
11. Rhode Island
12. St. Bonaventure
13. Saint Joseph’s
14. George Mason#A10WBB #A10WBBTipOff— Daniel Frank (@n1a2v3y4) November 9, 2020
The poll’s release drew this reaction from Assistant Coach Bob Dunn:
LOL. About to prove a lot of people wrong! https://t.co/iatLkCkpJr
— Bob Dunn (@CoachBobDunn) November 9, 2020
Look I know this is going to be a young team this year, but wow is this team being disrespected.
The Patriots welcome in freshmen Taylor Jameson and Vanessa Laumbach who were highlighted by Head Coach Nyla Milleson in the team’s A-10 preview. The team also brings in freshman Teodora Popovic, though given she does not have a roster picture on the Mason website, I’m not sure if she’s going to redshirt this season or not. Redshirt freshman Rachel Balzer, who sat out last year, is expected to make her Patriot debut this season.
In addition to freshman, Mason adds grad transfer Daijah Jefferson from Georgia Tech. Milica Manojlovic also is a newcomer, a transfer from Furman.
Now let’s talk a little bit about the schedule:
Nov 25 | at Pittsburgh
2020 record: 5-26 (1-17 ACC)
Nov 29 | vs Navy
2020 record: 7-23 (2-16 Patriot)
Dec 1 | vs Longwood
2020 record: 12-18 (8-12 Big South)
Dec 6 | at James Madison
2020 record: 25-4 (16-2 CAA)
Dec 13 | vs Georgetown
2020 record: 5-25 (2-16 Big East)
Dec 19 | vs Ole Miss
2020 record: 7-23 (0-16 SEC)
Dec 21 | vs Delaware State
2020 record: 12-18 (8-8 MEAC)
It’s going to be a tough road. But boy are there some fun games on there! There are three matchups with power conferences on the schedule (ACC, Big East and SEC), and two of those games are home games.
The Patriots will face a very tough JMU team that was 14-1 at home a year ago. They finished in 2nd place in CAA with wins over Villanova, St. John’s, Georgetown, GW, UCF.
Getting to see Navy is always a personal treat for me as well, as my family has strong ties to the military, and I grew up a Navy football fan. You’ll forgive me for singing the school’s alma mater “The Navy Blue & Gold” after the game ends (it’s an awesome tradition, if you’ve never seen it, I highly recommend looking it up!)
Plus for those of you who know me, I hold a personal grudge against Georgetown for refusing to play my childhood team, GW. This dates back to 7-year old me being quoted in a 2007 GW Hatchet article: “…Hobbs ended the session by taking one more question from a child seated next to his father in the back row of the bleachers. Likely expecting a softball, he was asked a loaded question – one GW fans have been asking for years, “Why won’t Georgetown play us?”” 7-year olds hold grudges, what can I say? I digress.
Now, this is usually the part of the article where I hype up games, attempt to boost attendance and write something along the lines of #FillEBA. Obviously that won’t be happening this season, at least not for the next several months. George Mason is fortunate that they will be allowed to have at least a small number of fans inside EagleBank Arena to start the year. Other schools such as George Washington have indicated they don’t plan to have any fan attendance this season, which isn’t too much of a surprise considering their entire Fall 2020 semester was virtual.
While it’s great for the team to have fans in the building, I wish everyone safety and good health as we are still in the midst of this raging pandemic. I do have confirmation that I will indeed continue to be able to cover Women’s Basketball games live and in person from Press Row at EagleBank Arena this year. Masks and social-distancing, of course are required. Photos and videos are going to look a bit different this year as no media personnel at EBA will be permitted access to the court or floor level like in years past. That will all have to be done from my media table. Post-game press conferences will be done over Zoom rather than in-person in the media room. I’m also not sure whether travel to any road games will be possible this season, we’ll have to wait and see.
This season is going to look different. Games are inevitably going to get postponed or canceled. Some games may be played in empty arenas. Maybe you feel it’s best for you and your family to skip going to games this season. That’s completely understandable. For my part, I’m going to try to do the best I can from my end to give the full gameday experience to you that I can from inside the bubble. That means as much content as I can bring to you, I will endeavor to do so.
This season is going to be an adventure to be sure. Buckle up, here we go!
