WHEN: Thursday, 7 p.m.
WHERE: EagleBank Arena, Fairfax, Va.
RECORDS: Mason (0-0), Johns Hopkins (0-0)
SERIES RECORD: Mason leads, 1-0
LAST MEETING: Mason def. Johns Hopkins, 96-58, on Nov. 27, 1982 in Charlottesville, Va.
LIVE VIDEO: ESPN+ ($)
LIVE AUDIO: A-10 Digital Network (link available Wednesday)
LIVE STATS: Click here
GAME NOTES: Click here (PDF)
TICKETS: Click here

FAIRFAX, Va. - The George Mason University men's basketball team will host an exhibition contest against Div. III stalwart Johns Hopkins Thursday night inside EagleBank Arena. The Blue Jays are ranked No. 15 in the NCAA Div. III preseason poll.

Tip-off between the Patriots and Blue Jays is set for 7 p.m. Thursday's game will serve as Mason's inaugural ESPN+ men's basketball broadcast. The broadcast will feature "Voice of the Patriots" Bill Rohland. An ESPN+ subscription, with access to all Mason home events, as well as NHL/MLB/College Sports and more, can be purchased for $4.99/month. In addition, Rohland's audio stream will be available for free via GoMason.com.

PATRIOT POINTS
• Mason has not played an open exhibition game since the 2014-15 season when the Patriots knocked off Shenandoah (91-51).

• Johns Hopkins head coach Josh Loeffler served as an assistant coach at Williams College under Mason head coach Dave Paulsen during the 2005-06 season.

• The 2018-19 Patriots are the only team in the nation to return 100 percent of their scoring offense and every player from a season ago. Mason's 4,306 combined career points as a team is the sixth-highest total in the country.

• The Green & Gold were picked fourth in the Atlantic 10 preseason poll. It marks Mason's highest ever predicted finish in the league by six spots (Patriots were picked 10th in 2017-18).

• The 2017-18 Mason squad placed fifth in the Atlantic 10, marking the team's highest-ever finish in its five-year tenure in the league. The Patriots went 9-9 in league play for the second-consecutive season and won an A-10 Tournament game for the second-straight campaign.

• Mason has averaged 9.0 A-10 wins over the past two seasons. The Patriots averaged 4.3 conference victories over their first three seasons in the league.

• Nine of Mason's 13 non-conference opponents won 19+ games in 2017-18, while five qualified for postseason play (3 made the NCAA Tournament).

• Senior guard Otis Livingston II is the first preseason Atlantic 10 First Team selection in school history. He ranked fifth in the A-10 in scoring in league play (19.8 ppg) and dished out 4.7 assists per contest in A-10 games.

• Livingston II, senior guard Jaire Grayer and junior guard Justin Kier have combied to start 257 of 263 games in their Mason careers.

• Mason will welcome the addition of forward Jarred Reuter to the active roster in 2018-19. The University of Virginia transfer has started during the exhibition season and averaged 11.3 points and 8.3 rebounds during the team's summer Spanish foreign tour.

• The Patriots enjoyed a nine-day, four-city cultural and competitive journey through Spain this summer. During head coach Dave Paulsen's tenure at Bucknell, his team's won a conference championship in each of the seasons in which the team took part in a foreign tour.

• Last season, Mason ranked as the 11th-youngest team in the nation, with just 0.94 years of experience per player. The Patriots had 0 scholarship seniors for the first time since 2004-05. This season, the Patriots will arguably rank as one of the country's most experienced squads, with five upperclassmen, four sophomores and just three freshmen.

HISTORY vs. JOHNS HOPKINS
Thursday's game marks the second all-time meeting between George Mason and Johns Hopkins in men's basketball. Mason won the only previous matchup, 96-58, on Nov. 27, 1982 as part of the United Virginia Bank Cavalier Invitational. The Patriots made 19 steals in that regular-season contest, which still ranks as the fifth-highest theft mark in Mason single season history. Mason would finish the season 15-12 under head coach Joe Harrington. Mason's all-time leading scorer Carlos Yates averaged 26.8 points during his sophomore campaign in 1982-83 and would go on to earn AP All-America honorable mention accolades.

A LOOK AT THE #15 BLUE JAYS (24-5, 15-3 CENTENNIAL)
Johns Hopkins is coming off a historic 2017-18 season in which the Blue Jays claimed a share of the Centennial Conference regular season title and won the league tournament with a 61-57 championship game victory over Swarthmore. In the NCAA Tournament, Hopkins knocked off La Roche (52-39) before falling to the No. 19 MIT Engineers (62-54) in the NCAA Round of 32. The Blue Jays were ranked No. 12 in the nation entering the NCAA Tournament and are the 15th-ranked team in the 2018-19 Div. III preseason poll after returning five of the team's top six scorers. Hopkins will be led by 2018 First Team All-Conference selection Michael Gardner, who averaged a team-high 14.2 points and shot 39.4 percent from 3-point range last season. Centennial Conference Rookie of the Year Conner Delaney returns after averaging 10.7 points and a team-high 3.9 assists. The league's Defensive Player of the Year - Daniel Vila - also comes back for the Blue Jays. He blocked 47 shots and and claimed 32 steals while averaging 6.6 points a season ago.

UP NEXT
Mason opens the 2018-19 regular season inside EagleBank Arena on Tuesday (Nov. 6). The Patriots will take on 2018 Ivy League champion and NCAA Tournament qualifier Penn. Tip-off between the Patriots and Quakers is set for 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN+.

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