Patriots ready for postseason

After winning four of its final five games of the regular season, the George Mason men’s basketball team is coming up on the time they shine nearly every year.

The Patriots earned the No. 2 seed for the upcoming Colonial Athletic Association Tournament behind Virginia Commonwealth with their Saturday win over visiting Towson and Northeastern’s overtime loss to Old Dominion in the season finale.

Mason will begin the tournament March 7 in the quarterfinals, facing the winner of the March 6 first-round game between No. 7 James Madison (18-13, 9-9) and No. 10 William & Mary (10-19, 5-13).

It’s in the tournament stretch that Mason (20-9, 13-5 CAA) has excelled the past five years, posting a 9-4 record over that period, including a 3-1 performance in 2007 and a 3-0 run last March that resulted in the Patri-ots’ first conference title in seven years.

“I think our players recognize the importance (of the tournament) — only one team is guaranteed a spot in the NCAA Tournament and that’s the team that cuts down the nets Monday night,” said GMU coach Jim Larranaga. “The entire coaching fraternity in the CAA knows that this is the biggest weekend of the year for everyone.”

Last season the Patriots entered the league postseason having lost their finale to the Huskies and ended up facing the same group in their first game of the tournament (like this year, Mason had one of the four byes for the tourney and did not play until the quarterfinals).

Larranaga said it is important that each coach find a way to prepare his team to play over a three or four night span, something that is not typically required during the season.

“That’s the whole key,” he said. “Quite frankly, that has a lot to do with your personnel.”

For this year’s Patriots, four starters played large roles in 2008’s run: seniors John Vaughan, Dre Smith, junior Louis Birdsong and sophomore Cam Long (Freedom). In addition, senior reserve forward Chris Fleming (Osbourn Park) provided important minutes off the bench in earning the title.

“Players who have played in championship games and won championships can have a certain amount of confidence built in,” Larranaga said.

Though personnel changes from year to year, the coach said there is one thing that doesn’t differ for his squads.

“We’ve always believed in routines,” he said. “We try to create a certain mental picture for our players and we’ve developed routines that we use year in and year out.

“If you want to know what those routines are, I’m sorry, I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you,” Larranaga added laughing.

Coach of the Year up for discussion
In the final CAA conference call of the year, talk shifted to whom the coaches felt was deserving of Coach of the Year honors.

Sort of.

“There were certainly a lot of guys that should be considered,” said ODU’s Blaine Taylor. “That vote’s one I’ll keep to myself, though. It’ll be a tough vote I think.”

Taylor’s sentiment of voter confidentiality was echoed by most of the coaches, but they agreed it would be a close decision. Although they also agreed there are a couple of favorites.

“I think the top six coaches all merit consideration,” Madison coach Matt Brady said. “A lot of times people judge the all-league teams based on point production and a lot of times, I think, coaches pick a coach of the year based on where the teams were picked at the beginning of the year (versus) where they finished up. If you keep that in mind, then to me, there was one obvious candidate.”

Brady, in his first year with the Dukes, later revealed his pick as Drexel’s Bruiser Flint, a choice that reflected exactly what Brady outlined as likely criteria.

Flint’s Dragon’s were picked to finish last in the conference to start the season but ended the year 15-13 and in sixth place with a 10-8 CAA mark. Drexel was even alive for one of the four byes awarded to the top four clubs entering the final week of play.

“In that case, you have a team like Drexel that was picked last and Bruiser’s obviously done a fantastic job,” Larranaga said.

But the long-time GMU coach added a couple other ways to arrive at a choice without giving away his vote.

“Here’s the way I look at it philosophically: No. 1 – the preseason favorite, the team that has very high ex-pectations and how did they produce?” he said. That described VCU and Anthony Grant, but Larranaga said Brady shouldn’t be overlooked either, as well as others.

“You look at where JMU was last year — they won 13 games and this year they won 18 — and Matt has had to deal with injuries all year,” Larranaga said. “Abdulai Jalloh has missed the whole year, Juwaan James was missed with health issues, Devon Moore was missed with an injury so he’s had to deal with an awful lot and I think he’s done a fantastic job.”

Larranaga and Brady also both stumped for Hofstra’s Tom Pecora and Northeastern’s Bill Coen before letting the issue rest.