WHEN: Wednesday, 1 p.m.
WHERE: Barclays Center - Brooklyn, N.Y.
RECORDS: George Mason (16-15, 5-13), Saint Joseph's (6-25, 2-16)
SERIES RECORD: Series tied, 5-5
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FAIRFAX, Va. - The George Mason University men's basketball team begins play in the 2020 Atlantic 10 Championship Wednesday with a 1 p.m. contest vs. Saint Joseph's in Brooklyn.

Tip-off between the No. 12 Patriots and 13th-seeded Hawks is scheduled for 1 p.m. Wednesday's game will be broadcast on ESPN+, featuring commentary from Matt Martucci and John Feinstein. In addition, Bill Rohland will call the game on the GoMason Digital Network, with streaming coverage beginning at 12:45 p.m.

PATRIOT POINTS
• Mason is in the A-10 opening round for the first time since 2016. The Patriots have posted a top-7 seed (No. 7 in 2017 and No. 5 in 2018 and 2019) in each of the past three campaigns, but a total of 87 games missed by Mason players due to injuries in 2020 have played a major factor in the Patriots' season.  

• The Patriots are 3-0 all time in the A-10 second round, but will be looking for their first-ever first round win (0-3).

• With a win, Mason would move on to play No. 5 St. Bonaventure on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. inside the Barclays Center.

• The Patriots have won an A-10 Tournament game in each of the past three seasons under head coach Dave Paulsen.

• The Patriots are coming off a 65-61 win at Fordham in the regular season finale Saturday in the Bronx. Mason made an A-10-season high 10 3-pointers and shot 43.5 percent from deep.

• Javon Greene led Mason with 19 points and tied a career high with five 3-pointers made on seven attempts (.714). He finished A-10 play ranked 10th in the league in scoring (14.9 ppg) and fourth in steals (1.8 spg).

• Jordan Miller reached double figures for the 11th-straight game, tallying 17 points and four assists while hitting a big jumper with less than a minute to go. He's averaging 16.3 points and shooting 52.9 percent over the past three games.

• Freshman forward Josh Oduro also has played well of late. He tallied six points, eight rebounds and a career-best four blocks at Fordham and is averaging 9.0 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.7 blocks over the past three games.

• Patriot foes are averaging just 6.5 offensive rebounds/game over the past four contests. Mason limited SLU (ranked 18th nationally with 12.67/game) to 10 and Fordham to  four. Mason has held its opponent to 10 offensive boards or less in 13 of the past 15 games.

• Mason has posted a 4-11 record since 2019 A-10 Most Improved Player Justin Kier re-fractured his foot on Jan. 14.

• After struggling to defend the 3 early in conference play (.387 thru nine games), Mason held its opponents to a combined 28.7 percent (47-164) over the final nine games of the A-10 season.

• Junior Javon Greene is ranked 53rd nationally this season with 1.8 steals/game. He is tied for eighth on Mason's single season steals list with 55 in 2019-20. He needs three during the A-10 Tournament to move into sixth all time.

• Freshman guard Xavier Johnson averaged 1.6 steals per game in A-10 games, which ranked eighth in the conference. He has averaged 2.2 steals/game over the past six contests.

• Jamal Hartwell II led Mason with 15.3 points and shot 42.1 percent from 3 in three neutral site games this season, while Javon Greene averaged 15 points and 6.3 rebounds. AJ Wilson averaged 12.7 points, 12.3 rebounds and 4.0 blocks in the three neutral games.

MASON CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY
The Patriots have posted a 38-43 (.469) all-time record in conference postseason events, including a 32-33 record (.492) in the Div. I era. Mason was 4-8 in NAIA District 19 events and 1-2 in the Mason-Dixon Conference (Div. II), before joining the Div. I ranks (1978-79). In its Div. I history, Mason was 1-4 in ECAC South postseason contests and 29-23 all-time in CAA Tournament games. The Patriots are 3-6 all time in Atlantic 10 postseason contests. Mason has won A-10 second round games vs. Fordham in 2017, UMass in 2018 and George Washington in 2019. Mason is 0-3 in the A-10 first round, 3-0 in the second round and 0-3 in the quarterfinals. The Patriots have won four postseason conference tournament championships in program history, all during the CAA era (1989, 1991, 2001, 2008).

HISTORY AS THE #12 SEED
Mason is 0-1 all time in the A-10 Tournament as the No. 12 seed, falling to No. 13 Saint Louis 83-78 in 2016 at the Barclays Center. The Patriots have averaged a seed of 5.7 over the last three seasons, before entering the tournament as the No. 12 in 2020.

HISTORY vs. SAINT JOSEPH'S
Wednesday's matchup marks the 11th all-time meeting between Mason and Saint Joseph's. The series is tied at 5-5, although the Patriots have won five of the past six meetings. Mason is 5-2 vs. the Hawks under Dave Paulsen. SJU has won the only A-10 Tournament contest between the teams, 68-49, on March 9, 2018, in Washington, D.C. This season, Mason took a 62-55 victory on Feb. 22 in Fairfax. Mason limited the Hawks to just 1-of-14 shooting (.071) from the 3-point line in the second half and made 5-of-7 second-stanza triples on the other end to help capture the win. Javon Greene led Mason with 20 points and eight rebounds. He made 6-of-8 shots and 4-of-5 3-pointers in the second half. AJ Wilson chipped in 13 points, six rebounds and four blocks, while Jamal Hartwell II added 13 points (3-4 3pt FG).

A LOOK AT THE HAWKS (6-25, 2-16 A-10; NET No. 237, KenPom No. 260)
Saint Joseph's finished 13th in the A-10 standings. Four of Saint Joseph's six wins are against KenPom top-150 teams, including a pair of top-75 victories (UConn, Davidson). The Hawks have struggled primarily on the defensive end, where the team ranks 314th in defensive efficiency (1.103 points/possession). SJU has been led by Ryan Daly, who averages an impressive all-around 20.4 points, 6.9 rebounds and 4.3 assists per contest. Freshman Cameron Brown (10.1 ppg) and redshirt-sophomore Myles Douglas (7.9 ppg) also supplement the SJU offense.

INJURY BUG BITES PATRIOTS YET AGAIN
2019 A-10 Most Improved Player Justin Kier missed the first six games of 2019-20 as he recovered from a stress fracture in his right foot and is out again after he re-fractured his foot on Jan. 15. In addition, senior guard Ian Boyd is out for the season after having a surgical procedure on his right wrist. The duo of Kier and Boyd have combined for 1,718 career points in a Mason uniform. Freshman Bahaïde Haïdara is also out as he recovers from a left wrist sprain, Jamal Hartwell II has missed time due to illness/injury and Greg Calixte missed three games with two different injuries.  That's 87 total games missed by scholarship Patriots this season. As a result, Mason now ranks 304th nationally out of 353 teams in experience (1.26 years/player). The bad injury luck carries over from last season, as Mason players missed a combined 48 games due to injury.

UP NEXT
With a victory, Mason would move on to the second round for a contest against St. Bonaventure. That game would tip at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday (Mar. 12) and be broadcast nationally on NBC Sports Network.