Welcome back everyone! It has been a LONG time. Through every possible obstacle, we have somehow made it to college basketball season. Even as the coronavirus pandemic still rages on, limiting attendance, travel and much much more, we know one thing for sure: there will be college basketball TODAY. Damn it feels good to say that.
The 2020-2021 George Mason Patriots will kick off their season tonight at Pitt. The Patriots are coming off a 9-21 (3-13 A-10) campaign a year ago while the Panthers went 5-26 (1-17 ACC). This is just the second ever meeting between these two teams, with the only other matchup coming on November 23, 1991, with Pitt winning 73-68. Safe to safe no one on either roaster was born when that matchup took place.
This season has a lot of question marks for Mason for a lot of reasons, and not just because the world is about as stable as an erupting volcano and schedules change faster than you can say “Rathskeller” three times fast. The Patriots graduated it’s second winningest senior class in program history with Alexsis Grate, Jacy Bolton, Allie McCool, and Sarah Kaminski. Not to mention one of the greatest players the team has even seen, Nicole Cardano Hillary departed for Indiana to complete her senior year in Big 10 country. In all, the Patriots lost 38.4 points of offense per game, well over half of the team’s production. There’s no question that this year’s team is going to be very different. And perhaps that’s not a bad thing entirely.
As wonderful and as many accolades as last year’s class had produced, I think we can all agree that the 2019-2020 campaign was one that many Patriots fans would like to forget. The team recorded just nine wins, three in conference play, and finished the season 13th place in the Atlantic 10. It was how anyone pictured the year going, especially after Mason was picked to finish 6th in the A-10 preseason. Expectations were high and they were not met. That’s probably a good chunk of the reason why George Mason was predicted to finish in dead-last this season in the A-10.
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
So be it.
But I’m very excited about this year’s team. I think change is good, and I like the pieces the Patriots have assembled here. It all starts with Georgia Tech-transfer Daijah Jefferson. She has two years of eligibility left, and the importance her height and most importantly, her athleticism cannot be understated. Mason’s offense is so much more dangerous when they can dress a big who can stretch the floor and knock down jump-shots and threes. It’s also worth noting that Daijah Jefferson has faced Pitt twice before: once in 2019 and once in 2020. Her redshirt-freshman year, she played just four minutes and had two rebounds. Her redshirt-sophomore year, she played 12 minutes and posted two points and two rebounds.
Head Coach Nyla Milleson has also been very excited about freshmen Taylor Jameson and Vanessa Laumbach. She went as far to say that she expects Jameson to contend for some serious minutes out of the game at point guard. Speaking of coach, Nyla is just five wins away from 100 wins at George Mason. She will be just the third coach in program history to reach that mark. Milleson could reach that milestone as early as December 13 against Georgetown. But first, one game at a time.
In the meantime, lets take a look at Pitt. The Panthers are frankly in a very similar position that Mason is in. While they lost just one starter from last year (who was their second-highest scorer), they have six newcomers to the team, including four freshmen. Dayshanette Harris is the player to keep an eye on for Pitt: she led the team in scoring a year ago as just a freshman, posting 12.7 points and 4.5 rebounds per game.
How this game, and this season for that matter, plays out is anyone’s guess. This is a young George Mason team, and there’s going to be some growing pains along the way. Players like Marika Korpinen and Tamia Lawhorne are going to have a lot more asked of them. There’s also a LOT of new pieces that are going to task some time to all mesh together.
Like I said in my season preview, this season is going to be a roller coaster. No one knows exactly how things are going to go. Games are inevitably going to be postponed or canceled. This are gonna shuffle around. Mason announced last week that only 250 fans will be allowed in attendance at EBA. With the holidays approaching and coronavirus cases rising, there will likely be more restrictions coming. The most important thing is we keep as many people safe and healthy as possible. We’ll worry about playing ballgames later. And when we do indeed get to play games, we all know we will never take that for granted again.
One way or another, college basketball is BACK.
Tipoff is at Noon and the game will be broadcast on ACCNX/ESPN3.
And then I’ll see you at EBA on Sunday for the home opener against Navy. We a damn mask, and be safe. HERE. WE. GO.
