WHEN: Saturday, 5 p.m. (ET)
WHERE: Phog Allen Fieldhouse - Lawrence, Kan.
RECORDS: George Mason (7-5), #6/6 Kansas (10-1)
SERIES: First meeting
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FAIRFAX, Va. - The George Mason University men's basketball team (7-5) wraps up non-conference play in historic Phog Allen Fieldhouse with a New Year's Day contest at #6 Kansas (10-1).

Tip-off between the Patriots and Jayhawks is set for 5 p.m. (ET). Saturday's game will be broadcast on Big 12 NOW/ESPN+. Steven Davis (pbp), Nick Bahe (color) and Kennetra Pulliams (sideline) will call the game. In addition, Bill Rohland will broadcast the game on the GoMason Digital Network, with pre-game coverage beginning at 4:45 p.m. (ET).

PATRIOT POINTS
• Mason is riding a three-game win streak, which includes a 67-44 triumph over American Dec. 21 in Fairfax. The Patriots held AU to 44 points, the lowest output by a Mason foe this season.

• The Patriots forced 17 AU turnovers and held a sizable 31-8 edge in points off turnovers for the game. Mason is now 5-0 when winning the turnover battle this season. The Patriots have posted a +6.7 average turnover margin during the 3-game win streak.

• Graduate student DeVon Cooper led the Patriots with a game-high 18 points and tied his career high with five triples on just seven attempts (.714). Cooper has scored 10+ points in 10 of 12 games this season and ranks fifth in the A-10 in 3pt FG% (.390).

• Graduate student D'Shawn Schwartz added 15 points vs. the Eagles. He's averaging a team-best 18 points and shooting 42.1 percent from beyond the arc over the past two contests.

• Junior point guard Xavier Johnson dished out a game-high six assists vs. American. He's averaging 7.5 assists and a 5.0 A/TO ratio (15a, 3 to) over the past two games.

• The Patriots rank 38th nationally in effective FG% (.545), 40th in 2pt FG% (.550) and 70th in 3pt FG% (.360) this season.

• Junior Josh Oduro ranks second in the A-10 and 29th nationally in field goal percentage (.596). He is one of just three players in the country this season to average 17 or more points, shoot 58 percent or better from the floor and tally at least 1.5 blocks per game.

• The Patriots rank 35th nationally with 9.8 3pt FG made/game, the most in school history by a sizable margin. Mason has made 10.5 3-pointers per game and shot 38.9 percent from 3pt range over the past two contests.

• Mason gets 40.2 percent of its points from 3pt range this season (30th nationally) and 44.2 percent from 2pt range (316th nationally).

• Mason is averaging 20 assists over the past two games, highlighted by a 23-assist performance on just 28 made field goals at Georgia. That marked the most in a game by a Mason team since Feb. 2012.

• The Patriots shoot an average of 50 percent from the floor and 40.7 from 3 in wins this season, and 40 percent overall/30.1 percent from 3 in losses.

• Mason has not played in 11 days. The Patriots' Dec. 23 home game vs. Coppin State was canceled due to COVID-19 protocols within the Eagles' program. Mason then shuffled to schedule a Dec. 23 game at #24/24 Wisconsin, but that game was canceled due to COVID-19 issues with the Badgers. With Mason's first two A-10 games postponed, the opportunity arose to play the Jayhawks.

ENGLISH RETURNS TO THE PHOG
George Mason head coach Kim English is quite familiar with Phog Allen Fieldhouse. The former Missouri Tiger matched up with Kansas in eight Border Wars from 2008-09 to 2011-12, including four contests in Lawrence. He averaged 14.5 points and 4.5 rebounds in two games against the Jayhawks as a senior. In his assistant coaching career, English faced off with Kansas on a pair of occasions when he was at Tennessee in 2020-21 (an 80-61 triumph in Knoxville) and 2019-20 (a 74-68 defeat in Lawrence).

PRODUCING AGAINST THE POWER 5
Mason has picked up two Power 5 road wins (Maryland, Georgia) this season for the first time in school history. The win against the Terps marked the program's first ever road win over a top-25 foe. With a victory Saturday, it would mark the first time in program annals the Patriots would claim three Power 5 wins in a season. Mason has won two games vs. Power 5 foes four times in school history (2005-06 Final Four season, 2007-08 NCAA Tournament season, 2015-16, 2021-22).

HISTORY vs. KANSAS
Saturday's matchup marks the first ever meeting between George Mason and Kansas on the hardwood.

HISTORY vs. BIG 12 OPPONENTS
Mason is 2-10 all time against Big 12 foes. Mason's most common opponent is West Virginia (0-4). The Patriots are 1-0 against Oklahoma State (71-68 win in 2015-16) and 1-1 vs. Kansas State (win was 87-77 over No. 18 KSU in 2007-08). Mason most recently played a Big 12 opponent two seasons ago, when the Green & Gold fell at TCU 87-53 on Dec. 30, 2019.

HISTORY AGAINST SUNFLOWER STATE FOES
Mason has tallied a 4-3 record all time against programs from the state of Kansas. That includes a 3-2 mark vs. Wichita State and 1-1 record against Kansas State. The Patriots defeated the Shockers twice during the 2006 Final Four campaign. That included a 70-67 BracketBusters win in Wichita on Feb. 18 which proved critical in Mason's at-large inclusion into the Big Dance. The Patriots then defeated the Shockers, 63-55, in the Sweet 16 on March 24 in Washington D.C. Mason last traveled to the state on Dec. 29, 2018, when the Patriots fell narrowly to Kansas State (58-59) in the Little Apple. In the game against the Wildcats, the Patriots rallied from a 21-point, second-half deficit to nearly pull off the upset.

HISTORY vs. THE BLUE BLOODS
Kansas ranks second in NCAA Division I college basketball history with 2,332 all time victories. With Saturday's contest in Lawrence, Mason will now have battled seven of the top-10 winningest programs in the sport. The Patriots have played #3 North Carolina (1-1), #4 Duke (0-3), #7 UCLA (0-1), #8 Notre Dame (0-1), #9 St. John's (0-1) and #10 Indiana (1-1). Mason has yet to face off with #1 Kentucky, #5 Temple or #6 Syracuse. The Patriots have played two of those programs in the NCAA Tournament. The Green & Gold knocked off the Tar Heels in the second round of the 2006 NCAA Tournament (65-60) in Dayton and fell to the Fighting Irish (68-50) in the first round of the 2008 Big Dance in Denver.

A LOOK AT THE #6/6 JAYHAWKS (10-1, 0-0 Big 12; KenPom 5, NET 7)
Kansas was picked to win the Big 12 and has started the season 10-1, highlighted by an 87-74 win over #10/10 Michigan State to open the campaign in Madison Square Garden. The Jayhawks feature KenPom's third-most efficient offense (1.185 points/possession). Kansas ranks third nationally in field goal percentage (.521) and sixth in scoring offense (86.0 ppg). Senior guard Ochai Agbaji is sixth in the nation in scoring (21.5 ppg) and 13th in 3pt FG percentage (.478). Junior guard Christian Braun ranks fourth in the Big 12 in points/game (17.3) and 17th nationally in field goal percentage (.620). The Jayhawks are 138-5 (.965) in non-conference home games in Phog Allen Fieldhouse since head coach Bill Self took over the program in 2003-04.

UP NEXT
The Patriots open Atlantic 10 play with a home contest Wednesday vs. Rhode Island (8-3). Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. inside EagleBank Arena. The contest will be broadcast on ESPN+.