George Mason is one of the few schools (relatively speaking) who has their homecoming during the basketball season.
Unlike football, the school doesn’t get to roll in a sacrificial lamb to beat by a million points. The celebration happens during the conference season and this year the opponent was VCU.
The second-place Rams came to Fairfax having won six of their last seven games.
Head coach Mike Rhoades has continued the tradition of successful VCU coaches, in part, because the university has done a great job of hiring the right coach at the right time.
It started with Jeff Capel. Then it moved to Anthony Grant, Shaka Smart and Will Wade. When Wade went to LSU, the Rams pivoted to a familiar face in Rhoades.
Despite having five different coaches, VCU has continued to have a measure of success . Their identity, culture and, of course winning has made it possible for recruiting to stay strong despite the changes.
It’s what Kim English was brought here to do.
George Mason (12-11, 5-5) saw what that looked like up close in the 85-70 loss to the Rams.
VCU was relentless on defense. No. It’s not the “Havoc” the Rams are known for but they’re willing to concede some baskets to set the tenor of what they want the entire 40 minutes to look like.
“They force a lot of steals and turnovers and they foul a lot,” said English.
They sure do. The Rams try to establish the rules of the game hoping that the refs will buckle to their wants and needs. It’s something the program has had success with to the tune of multiple Final Four appearances. Success has its privileges.
The Patriots were swimming upstream all game. They didn’t necessarily play bad but they didn’t play well enough to win. Sometimes that’s the most difficult losses because, as much as, coaches preach the value of every possession, every possession doesn’t have the same level of value.
Whether a coach admits it or not, the flow of the game means there are some possessions where a one-pass-shoot is fine and others where that same one-pass-shoot is considered a low IQ play. It’s the old “time and situation” adage.
VCU forced the Patriots to have an inordinate amount of high value possessions, in part, because the Rams got contributions on offense from players who haven’t necessarily contributed in that fashion.
It required the Patriots to be better than what they were on Saturday.
For George Mason, they’re in the infant stage of establishing an identity. It’s been a long time since the “Living on a Prayer” Patriots made the miraculous Final Four run under Jim Larranaga.
Larranaga’s successor, Dave Paulsen, certainly left the program in a good place but with the Transfer Portal and varying philosophies, George Mason was looking to start over under English.
He is well on his way to giving the program an identity, a culture, and hopefully for the Mason fan base, a high level of success.
Sometimes imitation is the highest form a flattery especially when you hire the right coach at the right time.
