March 19, 2008
Denver, Colo. -
The George Mason men's basketball team will take the floor on Thursday night in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament as the Patriots take on Notre Dame in Denver, Colo. at approximately 9:50 p.m. on CBS. The Patriots will be playing in the postseason for the first time since losing in the Final Four to Florida in 2006.
Mason (23-10) and Notre Dame (24-7) have never met. Mason enters the tournament as the 12th seed in the Charlotte (East) Region after earning the Colonial Athletic Association's automatic berth. Notre Dame earned an at-large bid from the Big East and the Fighting Irish are the fifth seed.
Mason has been led all season long by a pair of seniors - Will Thomas and Folarin Campbell. Thomas is averaging 15.8 points and 10.5 rebounds. He is Mason's all-time leader in field-goal percentage, he is eighth all-time in scoring and third all-time in rebounding. He is having one of the greatest season in school history as his shooting percentage (63.9 percent) is the best single-season in Mason history and his rebounding total (346 boards) is the most ever. He is trying to become the seventh player in school history to average a double-double and he can go without a rebound on Thursday and still be averaging better than 10 rebounds per game. He also became the fifth player in CAA history to be named to the All-Defensive Team three times and he was runner-up for both the CAA Player of the Year and CAA Defensive Player of the Year. He is Mason's all-time leader in games played, games started, minutes played and consecutive games started.
Campbell leads the team in scoring, assists and steals and is second in rebounding and 3-pointers. He is averaging 15.9 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.2 steals and 60 3-pointers. Over his past 17 games, Campbell is averaging 20.0 points per game. He is seventh all-time at Mason in scoring, fourth in assists, fifth in 3-pointers, 11th in steals, 17th in rebounding and 14th in blocks. He is the only player in George Mason school history to record 1,500 points, 400 rebounds, 300 assists, 150 3-pointers, 100 steals and 50 blocks.
Notre Dame is a younger team, relying heavily on a sophomore and a junior. Luke Harangody, in his second season, was named Big East Player of the Year. He averaged 20.8 points and 10.2 rebounds while shooting 51.5 percent from the field. He also was excellent at the charity stripe with a 76.7 shooting percentage. McAlarney, in his third season, was named first-team All-Big East and he averaged 15.2 points, 3.5 assists and he shot 44.8 percent from 3-point range, making a school-record 103 from behind the arc.
The Fighting Irish are first in the nation in assists per game, averaging 18.9 per contest. They are also second in assist-to-turnover ratio, at 1.46 per game, fifth in 3-point field-goal percentage, at 41.0 percent, and 20th in rebounding margin, at 5.8. Notre Dame is also 14th in the country in scoring offense, averaging 80.6 points per game. Despite averaging more than 10 points more than Mason, the Fighting Irish are not shooting as well as Mason as the Patriots' field-goal percentage is .469 while Notre Dame's is .459.
The key for Notre Dame has been its success from 3-point range. In its wins, Notre Dame shot 43.7 percent from behind the arc and made an average of 8.8 3-pointers per game. In its losses, the Fighting Irish shot 32.9 percent from deep while making 7.4 from long range. They have made at least four 3-pointers in every game this year and they have scored at least 64 points in every game. The Fighting Irish were 17-0 at home this year, 2-3 on neutral courts and 5-4 on the road.
The Patriots will have two things playing in their favor when they take the court. The first is a 17-3 record in games that begin 6 p.m. or later. The second is an 11-3 record in their gold uniforms, which they will don on Thursday night.
