WHEN: Tuesday, 7 p.m.
WHERE: EagleBank Arena, Fairfax, Va.
RECORDS: Mason (0-0), Penn (0-0)
SERIES RECORD: Mason leads, 3-0
LAST MEETING: Mason def. Penn, 79-60, on Dec. 10, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pa.
LIVE VIDEO: ESPN+ ($)
LIVE AUDIO: A-10 Digital Network (link available Monday)
LIVE STATS: Click here
GAME NOTES: Click here (PDF)
TICKETS: Click here
FAIRFAX, Va. - The George Mason University men's basketball team opens the 2018-19 regular season against 2018 NCAA Tournament qualifier and Ivy League champion Penn on Tuesday night inside EagleBank Arena.
Tip-off between the Patriots and Quakers is set for 7 p.m. Tuesday's game will mark Mason's regular season debut on ESPN+. 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.
• The Patriots are 30-22 (.577) all time in season openers. Mason is 19-7 at home, 7-10 on the road and 4-5 in neutral site debuts. The Green & Gold have won two-straight season openers.
* 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 returning 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).
HISTORY vs. PENNSYLVANIA
Tuesday's game marks the fourth all-time meeting between George Mason and Penn in men's basketball. The Patriots have won all three games in the series, including a pair of wins at EagleBank Arena. The Patriots are 2-0 vs. the Quakers under Coach Paulsen, including a 79-60 triumph on Dec. 10, 2016 inside the famed Palestra. In that game, Marquise Moore posted the first triple-double in school history (17 pts, 16 reb, 10 ast). Then-sophomore Otis Livingston II chipped in 13 points and made a pair of 3-pointers. During Livingston II's and Jaire Grayer's freshman season in 2015-16, Mason beat Penn in Fairfax, 63-44. Grayer dropped 20 points in that one while making 8-of-13 field goal attempts and 3-of-5 looks from beyond the arc. Livingston II added 12 points in 28 minutes of work.
A LOOK AT THE QUAKERS (24-9, 12-2 Ivy in 2017-18; Preseason KenPom No. 152)
Coming off an outstanding 2017-18 campaign, Penn is picked second in the Ivy League preseason poll behind only Harvard. Last season, the Quakers posted a 24-9 record, including a 12-2 mark in Ivy play, en route to a regular season conference title. Penn also claimed the Ivy League Tournament title in the Palestra and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the 24th time in school history. The team's 24 wins were the most by a Quaker club since the 2001-02 campaign. In the Big Dance, Penn's outstanding first round performance may have been overshadowed by their fellow No. 16 seed UMBC. Facing top-seeded Kansas, Penn led 21-11 with eight minutes to play in the first half, and trailed by just four with 11 minutes left, before falling to the Final Four-bound Jayhawks, 76-60. Four of the top six scorers from that Quaker team return, including 2018 First Team All-Ivy forward A.J. Brodeur (13.1 ppg, 7.2 rpg, 2.5 apg, 53.8 FG%). Penn also brings back second team All-Ivy selection Ryan Betley (14.3 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 39.1 3pt FG%). The Quakers are in their fourth season under head coach Steve Donahue, who previously led Cornell to the Sweet 16 and guided Boston College from 2010-14.
DEPTH, BENCH SHOULD IMPROVE IN 2018-19
Mason had four starters average at least 10.9 points and 30.7 minutes per contest. However, the Patriots' bench players account for less than 25 percent of the team's total minutes, ranking Mason in the bottom 20 teams in the nation in that category. This season, Mason has jumped from eight eligible scholarship players to 12. Coach Paulsen played all 12 in the exhibition win over Hopkins, and only two (Livingston II, Kier) eclipsed the 30-minute mark for the game.
LIVINGSTON II READY FOR STRONG SENIOR SEND-OFF
Senior Otis Livingston II earned a spot on the preseason All-Atlantic 10 First Team in October and should be one of the best players in the conference this season. He ranked fifth in the A-10 in scoring (19.8 ppg) last season during league play and scored 10+ points in 16 of 18 A-10 games (20+ in 11). He also led the team in assists (4.7 apg) during that stretch and earned 2018 A-10 Second Team accolades, as well as a spot on the NABC All-District Team. Entering 2018-19, he is one of just five players nationally with 1400+ career points, 350+ assists and 250+ rebounds. He is only of only four players in Mason history with 1400+ points and 350+ assists.
DOES EXPERIENCE LEAD TO SUCCESS?
The George Mason 2018-19 basketball team is one of the most experienced in the nation. The Patriots are the only team nationally to return 100 percent of their scoring output from 2017-18 and are sixth in the country in career points returning. Of the top-15 teams in percent of scoring returning, four are nationally ranked, four are picked to win their league, and 12 are picked to finish in the top-5 of their conference. In the career points category, six are nationally ranked, four are picked to win their league and 11 are picked to post top-5 conference finishes.
EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS
In each of head coach Dave Paulsen's first three seasons in Fairfax, the Patriots have improved upon their preseason league prediction in the final postseason standings. Over the past two seasons, Mason has finished five spots higher than predicted (7th from 12th in 2016-17, 5th from 10th in 2017-18).
EARLY POLLING FAVORS PATRIOTS
A number of national pundits and bloggers are high on the Patriots heading into 2018-19. The CBB Central and Bustin' Brackets blogs each picked Mason to win the A-10, while preview magazines Blue Ribbon and Street & Smith's picked the Patriots second. A-10 beat writers David Jablonski (Dayton), John O'Connor (Richmond) and Zac Weiss (Duquesne), as well as NBC Sports Washington, also have the Patriots second.
GRAYER DONE WITH FOOT-BALL; BACK TO BASKETBALL
Over the last half of the 2017-18 campaign, senior Jaire Grayer battled through a nagging foot injury. After shooting 40 percent from 3-point range over the team's first 21 games, Grayer could muster just 25 percent while fighting through the injury. After an offseason foot procedure, he was cleared to practice in September and is ready for a strong senior season.
WELCOME FRESHMEN
The Patriots will bring in a trio of heralded freshmen to the roster in 2018-19. Guard Jamal Hartwell II (Inglewood, Calif.) will back up senior star Otis Livingston II at the point this season. On the perimeter, guard Jason Douglas-Stanley (Mount Vernon, N.Y.) has the ability to serve as a zone buster with his smooth stroke from beyond the arc. To add a local flair, Mason also welcomes Loudoun County native Jordan Miller (Middleburg, Va.) to the wing position. At 6-foot-6, Miller has the opportunity to develop into an extremely versatile player who can guard multiple positions.
GREEN (& GOLD) SHIPS OF SPAIN
The Patriots went 2-1 on their summer Spanish foreign tour, a nine-day expedition that made stops in Madrid, La Roda, Valencia and Barcelona. The experience proved crucial for the development of team chemistry and provided a valuable additional two weeks of official practice for the Patriots over the summer. While at Bucknell, each of head coach Dave Paulsen's teams which took a foreign tour ended the season with a conference championship.
UP NEXT
Mason wraps up its opening week with a home contest against former CAA foe American on Friday (Nov. 9). Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. inside EagleBank Arena. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN+.
