Well, I’m really freaking glad I drove down to Richmond yesterday and not today. What a truly lackluster showing from George Mason with their season on the line.
This was the best shot as they have had since joining the Atlantic 10 at advancing to the Semifinals. Davidson was by far the weakest of the top four seeds, and there were some serious questions about how good they actually were. On the flip side, Mason entered having won five straight. They looked promising. They were playing together. And the worst part: they made me believe. I’ve not been quiet in that I’ve been quite apathetic to this team for a good chunk of the season. A lot of their games felt meaningless. They flirted with 11th place for two thirds of the year, and it’s only because they strung together a few wins at the end of the year that they avoided yet another play in game appearance. They hung on to beat GW a couple of times, they throttled La Salle and they stole one at VCU.
But when the game actually mattered, they laid a huge egg. Mason was down 10-0 before you even had time to figure out what channel NBCSN is on your tv. The effort from this team was just completely and truly lacking. The bench stopped doing their cheers less than 5 minutes into the game. The overall energy wasn’t great. The game plan SUCKED. The defense was non-existent: the first half looked like a morning shootaround for Davidson as many open looks as they got. In the end, they hung 99 points on Mason. The sixth most in A-10 Tournament history. Embarrassing.
There was just such little fight and pride shown tonight. Even after halftime, and momentum was gone before it could fully develop. And giving up a 10-0 run when you’re already down 25? Utterly pathetic. I really don’t know what else to say right now. Maybe I’ll have some more rational and more thought-out feelings about this game and this season in the morning. Right now I’m just mad. Really mad.
Woohoo Mason made it to the Quarterfinals for the fourth time. Yeah, all four have been DOUBLE-DIGIT LOSES. ALL FREAKING FOUR OF THEM.
Well I think the trend of double-digit loses in the A-10 Quarterfinals in going to continue… https://t.co/WBskUYSzE7
— Daniel Frank (@n1a2v3y4) March 5, 2021
Their average margin of defeat in four total A-10 Quarterfinal appearances is 18.25 points. Yikes.
At any rate, George Mason finishes the season 13-9 (8-6). This team is going to look a lot different next year, graduating such prominent names like AJ Wilson, Javon Greene, and so on. Plus we’ll see who winds up transferring. And the Athletic Department has to make a decision on Dave Paulsen, as he heads into the final year on his contract next year. Do they extend him? Buy him out? Or let him go into a lame duck year? Either way, some decision needs to be made.
Thanks for following along this season. I hope my recaps brought some sense of normalcy to what was a very abnormal college basketball season. Sadly, the ending is an all-too familiar one, with yet another loss in the A-10 Quarterfinals.
Until next year.
