Welcome to the last day of the off-season! In what has been an extremely interesting and different offseason in Fairfax, George Mason basketball has welcomed in two new head coaches, Kim English and Vanessa Blair-Lewis, as well as a slew of incoming transfer players as well as a strong group of freshman for both Men’s and Women’s basketball.
We’ve got one heck of a week of basketball ahead of us, as both teams play three games in Week 1 of the 2022 season, with four of the six being played at home in EagleBank Arena. Let’s talk about this week, and talk frankly about what our expectations are.
Men’s Basketball
Mason Men’s Basketball opens up the season on Tuesday night at 7PM against Stony Brook. The Seawolves are ranked #185 in KenPom (Mason is #212), and were picked the preseason favorite in the America East Conference, receiving 5 of a possible 10 first place votes. They are led by preseason all-conference guard Elijah Olaniyi, who transferred this offseason from Miami where he averaged 10.5 points and 5.1 rebounds a game. Recent experience screams to me this game might just be a rock fight, though I would love to be wrong. Don’t get me wrong, there’s no scenario in which losing this game is ok, but I could see Stony Brook keeping this game pretty competitive for the first 30 minutes or so of the game.
The second game of the year is against Penn, who notably did not play at all last season due to the Ivy League cancelling all sports during the 2020-2021 school year. The Quakers are a familiar foe to the Patriots, as Penn knocked off George Mason 72-71 on opening night of the 2019 season. Penn was picked to finish fourth out of eight teams in the Ivy League this year, though they did receive two out of a possible 17 first place votes. Let’s be completely candid about this game: This is a game that Mason really needs to win by double digits. They’re playing a team that last played a game on March 7, 2020 and furthermore, by the time the Quakers get to Fairfax, they will be playing their second road game in three days (Penn opens the season on the road at Florida State on Wednesday night). Especially since Mason’s opening night game may wind up being closer than we’d like (taking into account past opening nights and the strength of opponent), the Patriots will need to prove that this is a vastly different team than we saw under Dave Paulsen.
Finally the Patriots will close Week 1 with a 6PM game on Sunday against Morgan State. The Bears were picked to finish second in the MEAC behind only Norfolk State, as Morgan State received three first place votes of a possible 15. This should be another win for Mason, meaning the Patriots get out of the first week of the season 3-0. Hopefully.
Let’s talk honestly about our expectations for Week 1. There is a tremendous amount of talent on this roster, but there are a LOT of new pieces here. It may take a little while for all the pieces to mesh together. There likely could be some early loses. I think the key with this team is just to stick with them, especially early on. They’re not going to be in contention for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, so an early season loss to a team like Navy isn’t the absolute end of the world. That said, the expectation is they go 3-0 this week, full stop. I want to give this coaching staff the benefit of the doubt, especially since Kim English is still yet to coach his first game as a Division-I head coach. I’m going to try hard to be patient with this group. But I think I also speak for a lot of people when I say I’m anxious to see this team takes steps and finally get back to playing some winning basketball.
I have more questions than answers right now, and that’s probably normal given the circumstances. We’re going to have a some answers by this time next week (hopefully), and if nothing else, it’ll be great to have fans back in EBA and have college basketball back in season. Now let’s go win some damn ballgames.
Women’s Basketball
George Mason opens the VBL era on the road Tuesday night at FIU with tipoff at 7PM. The Panthers are coming off a 15-13 season, including an 8-8 showing in conference play. FIU was picked to finish 7th out of 14 team in the preseason C-USA poll, and did not have any preseason all-conference honors.
Mason continues their road swing on Friday morning when they travel up to Baltimore for an 11:30AM tip against Loyola (MD). The Greyhounds were picked to finish 9th out of 10 teams in the Patriot League. Let’s be brutally honest here: if Mason is going to win a game during opening week, their best chance by far comes in this game.
On Sunday, a whole different kind of beast comes to EBA, as #24 Virginia Tech comes to town. The Hokies will be the first ranked opponent the Patriots will have faced since #24 Michigan on opening night of the 2018 season, and the first ranked team to come to EBA since Elena Delle Donne’s #18 Delaware Blue Hens came to town in 2013.
My goal for the opening week of the season is to pick up at least one win, and be competitive in the other two. FIU is a potentially winable game, there’s just too many unknown factors with both teams to be able to get an idea of what to expect from that one. To tell you the truth, I’m don’t think we’re going to know how good this Mason team is until they step on the court Tuesday night. Friday morning should be win, and getting an early road W could be a huge confidence boost for this bunch, and as a whole, George Mason hasn’t won a road game since February 22, 2020 at Saint Joseph’s. For the Virginia Tech game, I really would like to see Mason keep it relatively close. Yes, the Hokies are nationally ranked, and picked fourth in the ACC preseason poll. But when Mason hosted Virginia Tech in the 2020 season, yes it ended up being a 20 point loss, but it was much closer than that especially in the first half. Just keep is close, and make it respectable.
And shoot, just win a game during opening week. I know this is a very different team than we saw a year ago, but Mason lost the last 16 games of last season. I just want to see them get a win for a change. The rest will follow in suit.
