Colonial Athletic Association Notebook
by Jay Pearlman
Ok, so they’re not the Final Four team of two seasons ago (though exactly two years ago no one in America called that group a Final Four team either). Ok, so in opening 6-2, they’ve played four games at home, four at neutral sites, and none on the road. Ok, so they stubbed their toe last evening against East Carolina in DC (a loss that could end up hurting a ton in mid-March). Ok, so the Drexel team they beat 85-38 lost three of their four best players from last year’s defensive juggernaut.
Still, with wins over Kansas State and South Carolina down in Florida, and with Will Thomas playing like an All-American, the question must be asked: just how good is George Mason? And the related question: just how good is Will Thomas?
Certainly the biggest game of the season for the Colonial Athletic Association came in the first round of the Old Spice Classic in Orlando, with GMU (then 3-0) taking on 18th-ranked Kansas State. In their best performance since the win to reach the Final Four (last year’s tournament final against VCU included), Jim Larranaga’s Patriots delivered the game of the year, at least to this point. Five players scored in double figures: John Vaughan with 21 points (including 3-5 in threes) and 6 rebounds, Folarin Campbell with 18 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists, and diminutive Jordan Carter with 10 points, 8 assists and a monstrous 9 rebounds. And then Will Thomas: 18 points on 7-12 shooting and 7 rebounds. George Mason pulled out an 87-77 decision over the Wildcats.
After a hard-fought eight-point loss twenty-four hours later to Villanova (and then a day off), the Patriots took the floor against the “real” USC (South Carolina of the SEC) in the game for third place. Trailing by as many as 12 in the first half, George Mason showed grit and determination, fighting back in the second half to overtake South Carolina in the final minute, winning by a single point 69-68.
Vaughan had 14 points, Louis Birdsong contributed off the bench to score 13 points on 6-7 shooting and grab 6 rebounds, and Thomas was the best player in the gym, scoring 22 points on 9-15 shooting and grabbing 11 rebounds in just under 40 minutes of play.
In the conference opening 47-point drubbing of Drexel, not having to play similar minutes Thomas scored 10 points and had 8 rebounds. Significantly, he held the league’s other star big man, Drexel’s 6-9 senior Frank Elegar, scoreless in the game. Even in being upset by East Carolina, the two-time conference Player of the Week had 14 points and 11 rebounds.
CAA news and notes
- With November and two days of December behind us (since when has November been a full month of college basketball?), the non-conference record for all CAA teams remains in the green, 34-33.
- The third-biggest CAA win of the non-conference season (arguably the second) was defending champ VCU’s win over Maryland in DC last night, 86-85. Related to that, I can’t wait for Tuesday January 29th, the only meeting of the year between GMU and VCU – significantly, at the Patriot Center in Fairfax
- In addition to Mason’s win over Drexel in conference play, in all three games played on December 1 in this notoriously home-court league, road teams were victorious: Old Dominion predictably at Georgia State, UNC-Wilmington at Hofstra (slightly less predictably), and most surprisingly James Madison at Northeastern
- Finally, while everyone knows UNC-Wilmington is better this year, while this writer suggested Delaware as most improved, a slight revision is required. With Saint Joseph’s transfer and former Atlantic-10 second team all-conference player Abdulai Jalloh now in the lineup, Las Vegas freshman Heiden Ratner better than expected, and last year’s second-place rookie Pierre Curtis significantly improved offensively, James Madison now has three scoring point guards along with forwards Terrance Carter and Juwann James. And while the Dukes aren’t big or deep along the front line, in Saturday’s win against Northeastern – a team that forced overtime at College Park – JMU showed that they’re for real, and that perhaps James Madison is the most improved team in the CAA.
