By Ed Morrone
FAIRFAX, Va.-During its stunning March Madness run, it seemed as if George Mason’s basketball team could do no wrong. Problem is, nearly one year later, there seems to be one thing remaining that the Patriots cannot do right-beat Hofstra.
The giant Final Four banner hanging from the Patriot Center rafters symbolizes the change CAA basketball has undergone since Mason shocked the world, but surely a change Jim Larranaga’s bunch would like to make is knock off the Pride, something they haven’t done in the team’s last four meetings.
In the two team’s most recent match-up, a 68-60 Hofstra win in Fairfax on Saturday, that banner was about the only thing reminiscent of last year’s magical Mason group. Gone are Jai Lewis, Lamar Butler and Tony Skinn, the three seniors that willed the Patriots to Indianapolis a little over 10 months ago. Will Thomas and Folarin Campbell are still there, but the rest of the roster is ravaged with inexperience, and Mason’s 13-12 record (7-8 CAA) reflects that fact.
Thomas and Campbell are still dangerous, but they stood out last March by flying under the radar. Now that they can no longer do that, opposing defenses can focus all of their attention on these two and make the other players win games, which is exactly what Hofstra did on Saturday.
The result: Thomas a modest 4-for-8 for 12 points and six rebounds; Campbell a much less appealing 4-for-16 for 14 points.
“For the most part, we contained the people we needed to contain,” Hofstra head coach Tom Pecora said. “I’m proud of them [Hofstra]. It’s a good win on the road. It’s the first time we’ve ever won here, and that’s a good feeling.”
For the Pride, at least a little bit more has stayed the same. Loren Stokes rebounded from his worst half of basketball this season (a 1-for-6 first half) to go 5-for-9 in the second frame for 18 points. Antoine Agudio was only 6-for-18 from the field, but all of his makes seemed to come in big spots. Carlos Rivera had a spotty 13 points, but he followed an Agudio three with one of his own to turn a 34-29 Patriots lead into a one-point Hofstra advantage (he also added the Rivera norms of solid defense and clutch free throw shooting down the stretch).
Hofstra’s biggest change this season has been its disappointing frontcourt which, like most of Mason’s roster, was hit hard by graduation. But on a day where the up and down Chris Gadley and Mike Davis-Sabb played down, sophomore Arminas Urbutis won the award for the most shocking and unexpected performance of the day. The soft-spoken Lithuanian was on the court for 23 minutes (mainly because Pecora ran out of options when Gadley and Davis-Sabb got into foul trouble) and put up nine points and 11 rebounds in a pressure-cooker road atmosphere.
“It was great for him to play with that kind of energy,” Pecora said. “That’s what we need on our baseline.”
On a day where Hofstra had to be reminded of what Mason got to do last year (possibly in the Pride’s place), the team ignored the pain of being left out of last year’s NCAA Tournament and instead concentrated on the future. When it looked like Stokes was overwhelmed by the crowd’s chants of “Tony, Tony” (in reference to Skinn’s cheap shot to Stokes’ groin in last year’s CAA Tournament), the senior guard shook it off and burned the Patriots in the second half.
“Yeah, I heard them,” Stokes said with a smile. “I just blocked it out. We were out there to play the game, not worry about the fans.”
The win left Hofstra one shy of 20 victories in three straight years, as the Pride seems determined to march toward next month’s CAA Tournament to finish what they started last year.
For Mason, the opposite is in effect. Like Cinderella when the clock struck midnight, the Patriots are finding out that magic doesn’t last forever.
“Unbeknownst to our players, they will see an entirely different side of my personality these next few weeks,” a perturbed Larranaga said. “These performances are totally unacceptable to me and our program.”
Unfortunately for Larranaga, the program he has taken so far has been finding itself back at the drawing board more than in the win column-especially when Mason faces Hofstra.