Patriots Seek Redemption in Homecoming Rendezvous with ODU

Jim Larranaga has said a few times in the past month that this is the deepest he has seen the Colonial Athletic Association in his 14 seasons as the head men’s basketball coach at George Mason.

As many as six teams from the league could reach 20 victories, and five were selected earlier this week to participate in ESPN BracketBuster games later this month. Three teams  – Mason, Virginia Commonwealth and Old Dominion – have been mentioned as potential at-large candidates for the NCAA Tournament.

“This is a heckuva league,” Larranaga said after his Patriots defeated Hofstra, 87-68, for their eighth straight victory on Wednesday night.

Two of the CAA’s most consistent teams from the past decade will meet on Saturday, when George Mason (18-5 overall, 10-2 CAA) hosts Old Dominion (18-5, 9-3) at 2 p.m. in its homecoming game in front of what is expected to be a near-sellout crowd at the 10,000-seat Patriot Center. A Mason win will keep it in at least a tie atop the conference standings with VCU and put two games between them and the Monarchs, who likely need a win to keep their hopes of securing the top seed in next month’s CAA Tournament alive.

“The game is definitely going to be as important as the game we just played because just like Hofstra, ODU beat us down at their place,” said George Mason senior guard Isaiah Tate. “We’re definitely going to want to come in here and set the tone right.”

ODU enters on a four-game winning streak and is receiving votes in both the Associated Press and ESPN Coaches Top 25 polls. The Monarchs are second in the nation in rebounding margin (40.0 to 29.0), and are led by the inside-outside duo of senior forward Frank Hassell (13.5 points, 9.3 rebounds) and junior swingman  Kent Bazemore (12.1 points, 4.7 rebounds).

Larranaga knows that he will need his front court to play well, namely junior forward Mike Morrison, who will get the bulk of the minutes guarding Hassell, who had 18 points and nine rebounds in ODU’s 69-65 win over the Patriots on Jan. 8 in Norfolk. Senior guard Cam Long, who leads Mason  averaging 15.5 points per game, will likely share the responsibilities of marking Bazemore with Tate, the Patriots’ defensive stopper off the bench who helped hassle Hofstra’s Charles Jenkins, the league’s leading scorer, into an 8-for-20 night from the field on Wednesday.

Long had 23 points in the loss to the Monarchs last month and has had one of the hottest hands in the conference lately, but it is the depth of the Patriots on the offensive end that has sparked their recent run. Junior forward Ryan Pearson had 19 points and 12 rebounds in Wednesday’s win and is second on the team averaging 14.3 points while leading the team with 6.0 rebounds a game, and sophomore swingman Luke Hancock is averaging 12.2 points and has developed into one of the top playmakers and toughest matchups in the CAA this season.

An additional factor in Saturday’s game could be Patriots junior guard Andre Cornelius, a streaky shooter who exploded for four first-half 3-pointers and a season-high 22 points against Hofstra. When he’s on, Cornelius is one of the most dangerous 3-point shooters in the league and creates yet another headache for opposing defenses.

 “When a guy like Andre has a hot hand, you really want to find him regularly,” Larranaga said. “When you get different guys making contributions, and especially if it’s shooters, that now opens the defense up.”

Regardless of the outcome, Saturday’s game figures to mirror the teams’ first contest, which was essentially a one-possession game that the Monarchs weren’t able to seal until the final seconds.

“They know it’s our homecoming, so they’re going to want to come in here and ruin it for everybody,” Tate said. “So we’re going to be prepared and ready to take them on too.”