I don’t want to get caught up in the moment. Seeing how I am writing this article only two minutes after the buzzer. But what I just witnessed was the greatest, perhaps most significant game in the modern era of college basketball-if not ever. I looked at my phone to discover a buddy had text-messaged me, “Is this a joke?” I thought for a second that the T-shirt and hat company crudely crossed out both UCONN and GEORGE WASHINGTON before realizing that, indeed, a commuter school founded in 1972 was emblazoned on Final Four paraphernalia. George Mason, of the Colonial Athletic Association, is going on to the biggest stage in sports.
I think I echo the thoughts of the rest of the nation outside of Storrs, Conn., when I say that I could have cared less about UCONN going all the way in my bracket. This was college basketball’s answer to Miracle on Ice or the Joe Namath guarantee.
This was a team that, by seeding, was one of the two or three final at-large teams to be selected to the tournament. Many analysts, including CBS’ Billy Packer, argued that they should not even have the opportunity to deprive some big conference of another at-large bid, especially to a team that lost to Hofstra twice in a 10-day span preceding selection Sunday.
Well, Packer will now have the best view in the house to witness the team he criticized, when he does the color commentary next week in Indianapolis.
The Patriots didn’t waste any time dispelling the notion that mid-majors can’t play. They defeated Michigan State, a Final Four team last year, without their senior captain Tony Skinn, who was suspended for throwing a punch in the CAA conference tournament. They then defeated defending champion North Carolina, a legitimate Final Four pick and perhaps the most storied program in college basketball, despite being down double-digits. Then they easily handled a Wichita State team, whom they were picked to lose against, even though the Patriots had disposed of the Shockers on the road earlier in the year. Finally they defeated tournament favorite UCONN in overtime, mind you in a game in which they were down 12 and then seemed to have in control before a Denham Brown miracle lay-in at the end of regulation tied the game up.
This team was the anti-UCONN. The Huskies seemed to get bored by their competition, often letting them back into games they had control over. Even though some NBA general managers would trade their rosters for UCONN’s, the team often plays without any sense of urgency. George Mason, with no players on their team with NBA prospects, plays a frenetic style, crashing the boards and treating each offensive possession as if it’s their last. Considering the way they beat UCONN, the victory begs the question: What exactly are these so-called “power programs” looking for in their recruits? While UCONN looked robotic and hesitant in the game, GMU was loose, playing with absolutely no burden or pressure, even after a heartbreaking end to regulation. In overtime, they got back up and effectively attacked UCONN’s greatest strength, posting up their NBA-bound big men time and time again.
Every year, hundreds of mid-major teams enter into the season with high hopes of making the tournament. Even a loss in the first-round of the NCAA Tournament is considered a success in many cases. But now, with the emergence of this Cinderella, every team can look to George Mason and say, “We could be the Patriots of this year.” Coach Jim Larranaga’s squad is proof that you don’t have to have McDonald’s All-Americans, just determined, coachable players who have the will to win. One only had to look at the “Players of the Game” selected by CBS to determine this. Both Will Thomas of GMU and Rudy Gay of UCONN are sophomores from the Baltimore area. Gay was one of the most highly touted recruits of his year and has been mentioned as being the top pick in the NBA Draft. Thomas was overlooked by just about every top program, despite the fact that he had gone 7-0 against Gay head-to-head in high school games. It went to 8-0 Sunday as Thomas hit one clutch hook-shot after another and grabbed every rebound in sight. Meanwhile, Gay scored a respectable 20 points, but none came in the last six minutes of the second-half or in the extra session.
Over the last 25 years, every Final Four representative has came from a major conference. The last “true” mid-majors to qualify for the Final Four were in 1979: Indiana State, a number- one seed that had a player by the name of Larry Bird, could hardly be considered fitting of a glass slipper; the other was a ninth-seeded Penn team that did not overcome the odds the way this GMU squad did.
The Patriots were ranked for a mere two weeks this year and did not get a single vote in the final coaches poll. Keep in mind this isn’t the ’91 UNLV team that almost went wire-to-wire ranked number one, or even a Conference USA or Atlantic 10 juggernaut with legitimate NBA talent like the ’96 UMASS and ’03 Marquette squads. This is a team from the CAA,which has no player in its rotation over 6’7″.
About the only thing as refreshing as the story itself is how the Patriot players have conducted themselves. The team has relished its underdog status. The players are constantly joking before, after and even during games with one another. But let’s hope that Florida, or any of the other Final Four participants, heeds this warning; there is nothing funny about this team’s game. Just ask my buddy who text messaged me, or for that matter, just about any sports enthusiast.
