Editor's Note: To celebrate 50 Years of George Mason University men's basketball in 2016-17, Voice of the Patriots Bill Rohland put together a decade-by-decade breakdown of his best players to wear the Green & Gold. Check back to GoMason.com weekly in August and September as another decade is unveiled. Have your own all-decade teams or want to talk more with Bill on his selections? Reach out to him via Twitter at @BillRohland.

By Bill Rohland

Over the past 50 seasons, George Mason men's basketball has gone from being essentially a club sport at the start to now playing in one of the top basketball conferences in Division I.  Over the years, there have been many great players to put on the Green & Gold but a few of them stand out even today as legends in the program.  Whether they played when Mason was an NAIA school or if they helped lead teams to NCAA Tournament appearances, five players certainly deserve to be recognized as "Players of the Decade."

1966-67 to 1975-76  The early years of Mason basketball saw very few players play four full seasons, but even in playing just two years with the Patriots our Player of the Decade Rudolph Jones put his name all over the record books.  Jones played from 1971-1973 and was the first 1,000 point and 1,500 point scorer in Mason history.  He still sits atop of the career scoring averages (25.8 points a game) and scored his 1525 career points in just 59 games.  Jones has the top two scoring seasons in Mason history (779 points in '72-73 and 746 points in '71-72) and is also No. 2 in career rebound average with 9.6 per game.

Photo Caption (Left to Right): Herb Estes, Carl Jackson, John Wiley, Rudolph Jones (Player of the Decade)
 
All-Decade Team: 
Levester Berry (1974-76)
Herb Estes (1973-76)
Carl Jackson (1974-76)
Keith Michael (1970-74)
Jim Nowers (1972-76)
Bob Penland (1969-71)
Melvin Wedge (1971-74)
John Wiley (1971-74)
Hal Woodside (1966-69)
Rudolph Jones (1971-73)

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