With coach Paul Hewitt and several players having New York City connections, the George Mason basketball team hopes the Atlantic 10 Championship in Brooklyn turns into an extended homecoming.
No conference tournament is easy. It's harder for the Patriots, the No.12 seed, who play 13-seed Fordham on Wednesday at the Barclays Center. Hewitt has a simple-but-not-easy philosophy on the challenge of needing to win five games in five days to win the tournament and earn an automatic NCAA bid.
“One day at a time,” he said. “Let's have a good practice Tuesday. Get on the bus, head on up there, bed down and then get ready for a long weekend of basketball.”
The team should be comfortable on Big Apple turf. Hewitt grew up in Queens as did point guards Marquise Moore and Corey Edwards. Forwards Jalen Jenkins and Anali Okoloji are from Brooklyn. Sherrod Wright (Mount Vernon, NY) and Vaughn Gray (Elmwood Park, NJ) are also from the metropolitan area.
“We've got to be ready to take care of business,” said Wright. “We've got to refocus. We still have a chance. Everybody in the tournament has a shot. We've just got a longer run now. We've got to work for it. It's not going to be given to us. We've got to go out there and take it.”
If the Patriots can beat Fordham, who won the regular-season game 76-70 in the Bronx, they might have an edge against No.5 seed Dayton in Thursday's second round by virtue of having a tournament game under their belt.
“I think it is an advantage – you kind of get the jitters out,” Hewitt said. “If you can get through the first game, the first half of the second game I think you have a clear advantage.”
In the regular-season matchup, Fordham guards Branden Frazier and Jon Severe combined for 43 points on 15-for-31 shooting.
“They're kids who can really create plays for themselves so we're going to have to do a good defensive job,” Hewitt said. “It's one of those deals when you hear someone say all five guys have to guard the ball. That's what you have to do those two guys. Any time the ball's in their hands, everybody has to know where they are.
“You've got to play their tendencies. There are tendencies that we see that we're going to try to take away. That's the primary thing.”
The other priorities include hitting the boards – Mason held a 37-31 rebounding advantage in the first game – and finishing plays at crunch time.
“The last time we played them,” Hewitt said, “We had opportunities to put them away, but we didn't capitalize. We missed a couple of easy baskets and front ends of one-and-ones that gave them life.”
The Patriots could use some good luck that has largely bypassed them during a difficult season. Take the regular-season finale, an 81-69 loss to Duquesne. L.G. Gill, shooting 28% from three-point range, hit three consecutive threes during a 13-0 first-half run that gave the Dukes momentum and eight-point lead. Derrick Colter, shooting 22.2% from beyond the arc in the previous nine games, went 5-for-8 on threes to further boost the Dukes.
Does everybody bust out of a slump against Mason? “We've been the most unlucky team I've ever been around,” Hewitt said. “Though we made two critical mistakes at the end of the LaSalle game the other night, we did get a little lucky (in a 59-57 win), I will be the first to admit. That's the exact opposite of the way this year has been going. This is the first time I've gone through a year where anything that could go wrong does go wrong.”
During practices, Hewitt has preached to players that they make their own luck. Good defense, for example, means making opponents miss or take difficult shots, not relying on percentages. Limiting live ball turnovers cuts down on opponent fast breaks.
The second season starts Wednesday. Hewitt is hoping the Patriots' luck changes.
