The George Mason Patriots will open the 2019-2020 regular season against an old CAA foe, Navy. This year seems to be the year that Mason has stayed local in its nonconference schedule.
After finishing last season with an 18-15 record, going 11-7 in Atlantic 10 play (after starting 7-1), the Patriots will look to recover after their missed opportunity in the A-10 quarterfinals.
The Patriots and Midshipmen are meeting for the 25th time in history with the Patriots leading 15-9. However, during Paulsen’s tenure, the Patriots are 1-3 in these season openers. This should be the game to make it 2-3.
Navy Background
The Midshipmen went 12-19 last year and 8-10 in the Patriot League. They were picked to finish 9th in the Patriot League Coaches Poll with good reason.
Navy absolutely struggled on the court last season. During the 2018-2019 season, the Midshipmen finished 322 (out of 347) in NCAA D-I in field goal percentage at 41 percent. Ouch.
To add fuel to the fire, they also finished 311th in scoring in the nation with 66.5 points per game.
Double Ouch.
The last time these two teams met was last year on Dec. 21, 2018. (84-63). The Midshipmen lost their leading scorer from that night, senior Hasan Abdullah. He scored 16 points in that contest.
They return junior Cam Davis (9.8 ppg, 2.4 rpg), senior Evan Wieck (8.8 ppg, 5.5 rpg) and sophomore John Carter Jr. (8.4 ppg, 5.2 rpg). Navy has also brought on 11 new freshmen to their team. That consists of half of their active roster (22 total).
This game should be an easy win for the Patriots to start the season, but many know that the Patriots play down to their opponents.
The Patriots are Coming, The Patriots are Coming!
The Patriots are home for the first five (yes, five) games of the season. This is the first time this has happened since the 1996-1997 season.
Mason was picked to finish 9th in the A-10, which at this point I can actually see happening.
“We take that as motivation, through our team, we don’t look at that stuff,” Justin Kier said.
He continued, “We’re not those types that are ‘oh were ninth and we got to show everybody,’ no, we want to continue to do what we do. Go from there and you know that’s what you know we’ve seen it we’ve heard it, and then we move on from it and then we just you know embrace that and take on that challenge of taking it into practice and taking it into film, and just getting better individually, not looking to beat everybody out there and looking to beat everybody in conference. Just let us do us and we’ll go from there.”
To start with some bad news, Ian Boyd is out for the season after undergoing surgery on his right wrist. Not good.
With the injury to Justin Kier (a stress fracture in his foot), the Patriots will be without him for the beginning of the season. Very bad.
I can see this going in many ways.
- Kier heals before the end of conference play and comes back in say December.
- Kier doesn’t come back until conference play to allow him to fully heal.
- Kier misses the entire season in order to apply for a redshirt and play another year.
Now while that last option may seem extreme, I think there’s one situation where it happens.
Leg injuries have plagued Patriots for the last couple of years. So why wouldn’t Dave Paulsen want to try and get the most out of his star point guard? You don’t want another Jaire Grayer situation, you don’t want another Goanar Mar situation, you don’t want to have another Otis Livingston II situation.
You want a healthy Justin Kier. One that you could use for an ENTIRE season. That is my reasoning.
“I think everything’s for a reason,” Kier said. “I didn’t pray for the injury, but it really allows our guys to step up and better themselves for the team and maybe get them out of their comfort zone.”
Javon Green, Jamal Hartwell, and Jordan Miller are looking to explode this season as they’ll get more playing time.
The Patriots also picked up three new freshmen, Josh Oduro, Xavier Johnson, and Bahaïde Haïdara. You’ll hear more about them from me as the season goes on.
Paulsen said this on the incoming freshmen, “They got to get used to playing in front of the crowd and the band and different teams. Josh, can really score the ball in the low post and is a really underrated rebounder. Badihaide can really be an elite defender, and attacker off the dribble and Xavier, you know, defensively, can really be a bulldog and really get us going in transition, so they only have different things that they can really do.”
Meanwhile, I’m predicting a Mason win.
The Patriots play at 7 pm at EagleBank today, be sure to come out for the season opener.
