The Monday Morning Quarterback: CBB

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30 November, 2015

Watch Out For Monmouth

The Monday Morning Quarterback 6:25 AM

November 30, 2015

Peter Solari Follow @4PeteSakeNY

Watch out for the Monmouth Hawks! Who?

The Hawks of Monmouth University, a private university with about 4,500 students in West Long Branch, NJ, have been taking the nation by storm lately! The season is very young, but Monmouth has strung together some big-time wins that just might serve them well come March.

Monmouth (4-2) knocked off USC (5-2) 83-73 in Florida Sunday, to take third place in the Advocare Invitational. The win caps off a wild weekend for the Hawks, who also upset #17 Notre Dame (4-2) 70-68 in the opening round of the tournament on Thursday. Monmouth also lost a close one to Dayton (5-1) 73-70 on Friday. Hawks' junior Justin Robinson scored an Advocare Invitational record 77 points over the three games.

Sunday's matchup with USC was the second time the teams have met in the past two weeks. The Trojans took care of Monmouth 101-90 in Los Angeles on November 16th, but the trip out west wasn't all-bad for the up-start Hawks. They knocked off college basketball powerhouse UCLA (4-3) 84-81 in overtime on November 13th. That gives them two victories over Pac 12 teams on the year, in three games against that league. They've also got a victory over a top 25/Big East team in #17 Notre Dame. They lost a close one to a very good Atlantic 10 program in Dayton, and they will play Big East powerhouse Georgetown, as well as in-state foe Rutgers, of the Big Ten, in December. These are the type of schedules and wins, up until now at least, that will garner a mid-major program serious consideration from the NCAA Tournament committee in March. While they likely have their minds set on winning the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) and earning the league's automatic bid, things don't always work out the way you planned come tournament time.

Monmouth was a longtime member of the Northeast conference (NEC), but made the move to the MAAC in 2013. It's definitely a step up for the Hawks, one which should pay dividends in the long run. The NEC is the NCAA's doormat, for lack of a better term. Year after year their conference champion just get's thrown to the wolves like a sacrificial lamb, garnering a #16 seed so one of the best teams in the country can carve them up. The MAAC on the other hand, has historically been more respected. MAAC champions are typically give a seed between 13 and 15 in the NCAA tournament. It doesn't sound much better, but a #16 team has never won an NCAA Tournament game. It's not uncommon, however, for a #13, 14, or 15 seed to win a game in the big dance. And the MAAC is no stranger to upsets in March. Sienna, Niagara, and Manhattan have all won games in the NCAA Tournament in recent years.

Coming out of the MAAC, Monmouth would be a long shot for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. The league has only received two at-large bids to the big dance in their 35 year history. The first was two decades when the Fran Fraschilla-led Manhattan Jaspers were invited 1995 dance, where they upset Oklahoma in the first round. That team was 25-4 and ran through the MAAC, going 12-2 in the conference, but they didn't have a single victory that season even close to the magnitude of Monmouth's win over Notre Dame, and their schedule wasn't as impressive either. In 2012, Scott Machado's Iona Gaels received an at-large bid to the tournament with a 25-7 record (15-3 in the MAAC). That team played a pretty difficult schedule, and pulled off some nice wins against Nevada, Maryland, and St. Joseph's. They also played a good Purdue team, but unlike this year's Monmouth squad, they didn't have a single top 25 team in the regular season. The 2016 season is looking as though it might be one of great parity. There aren't If Monmouth has 25 wins at the end of the year, but falls short of the MAAC tournament title, they'll have one hell of a case for an at-large bid to the big dance.

Of course there's a long way to go and a lot of basketball to played before March, but it's still fun to speculate. Only time will tell what the 2016 Hawks will ultimately be, but things are undoubtedly trending up at the Jersey Shore these days, evident by the mere fact that we're talking about Monmouth basketball in late November.

George Mason Drops A Heartbreaker At Manhattan.

The Monday Morning Quarterback 3:51 PM

Photo courtesy of George Mason Athletics

November 26, 2015

Peter Solari Follow @4PeteSakeNY

There was a lot of optimism among George Mason fans heading into the 2015-16 season, and for good reason. The Paul Hewitt era saw the program gradually decline into irrelevancy, and a new coach, any new coach, was a welcome addition to the suburban Virginia campus. The Patriots may have hit a home run with their hiring of Dave Paulsen to be the 10th head coach in the program's history.

Paulsen wasn't the biggest name out there among the coaching ranks. In fact, he was comfortably settled in at Bucknell, where he had tremendous success leading that program. In seven years at the helm, Paulsen led the Bison to 134 victories, which averages out to about 19 wins per season. He also took them to the postseason four times. His teams won the Patriot League in the 2011 and 2013 seasons, and appeared in the NCAA tournament those years. Bucknell was invited to the NIT in 2012 and 2015. The Bison subsequently won their conference's regular season titles, and Paulsen was named Patriot League Coach of the Year, in all four of those seasons. And Paulsen's success isn't limited to Bucknell. He's been successful everywhere he's been along the way.

Before Bucknell, Paulsen coached at his alma mater, Division III Williams College, where he led the Ephs to the NCAA Division III tournament four times in seven seasons, winning the national championship in 2003, and falling just short of repeating that feat in 2004. Paulsen has truly risen through the ranks of college basketball and he's met that challenge at every step. Who can blame Mason fans for being enthusiastic?

Paulsen's tenure as Mason coach got off to a slow start. The team dropped their home opener to Colgate, before going on the road and losing at Mercer. After that, they went to the Charleston Classic in South Carolina, and rolled off back to back wins against major conference teams, Ole Miss from the SEC, and the Big XII's Oklahoma State. They ultimately lost the championship game of the Charleston Classic to #6 Virginia, out of the ACC, 83-66. However, even in that one-sided affair, you saw some good things from the Patriots. Considering that Mason is in complete rebuild mode, and Virginia is #6 in the country, it's pretty amazing that the Patriots were able to hang in there with the Cavaliers for as long as they did (well into the second half).

Mason Nation was feeling pretty good after Charleston, but last night's contest with Manhattan was a stark reminder of how much work is left to be done. Mason was in complete control of the first half and took an 11-point lead into the break. This marked the fifth time in six games that the Patriots led at halftime. Mason pushed their lead to 16 points early in the second half, but a 20-4 Manhattan run over six-plus minutes, tied the game. It stayed close for the rest of the way. Mason held a one-point advantage in the final seconds, but Manhattan's Shane Richards was fouled on a converted layup, and the Jaspers had the lead, 69-67, with just one second left on the clock. Shevon Thompson's buzzer-beating attempt fell off the back rim, and the Patriots had once again, lost a game in which they held a second half lead.

Blowing big leads in the second half is nothing new with Paulsen. It was a staple of Hewitt's teams, and obviously still haunts this team. Turnovers are the main catalyst behind this. Mason committed 25 turnovers against Manhattan, including a number of offensive fouls. Again, turnovers are nothing new with this program. They've plagued the Patriots for years now, but something's gotta give if the team ever hopes to get better.

Here's the good news: Dave Paulsen is the man for the job. Even though his Patriots have had the lead at halftime in five of their six contests, and only have two wins to show for it, there's a bright side. The two games they have won, never would have went in their favor last year. And the game against Virginia, would have been a blowout from start to finish. This team makes too many mistakes, no doubt about it. But they're correctable mistakes.

This team is exciting, however. When they're hitting on all cylinders, they're very impressive. They've also show the ability to come back when they fall behind early, which is something they haven't shown since Larranaga.

There are miles and miles to go before George Mason can sleep, but let's give them credit where credit is due. They're better now, than they were a year ago, and the team that's dwelled in the basement of the Atlantic 10 since their arrival in 2013, is primed to make a jump in the conference this season.

The Patriots were picked to finish 13th in the 14-team Atlantic 10, but don't be the least bit surprised if Dave Paulsen gets them to somewhere in the middle of the pack, like sixth or seventh, which would mark monumental improvement over the last year.

While 'middle of the pack' isn't where Mason ultimately hopes to be, it will be another indication that this program is on the right track. It's not going to happen overnight. The program dug themselves a really deep hole over the past five seasons. But if we give Paulsen a few years to right the ship and recruit his own players, he has the capability to return George Mason to it's past glory, when they competed for their conference's championship, every season.

George Mason's Patrick Holloway Suspended First Six Games Of Season

The Monday Morning Quarterback 7:58 PM

November 10, 2015
Peter Solari Follow @4PeteSakeNY

As reported earlier by GMUHoops.com, George Mason senior guard Patrick Holloway, the team's best outside threat, has been suspended by new head coach, Dave Paulsen, for the first six games of the 2015-2016 season for "not meeting program expectations as a student-athlete."

Apparently, Holloway hasn't been attending classes regularly, and Paulsen is laying down the law. Holloway's absence will leave the Patriots extremely thin in the backcourt, but Paulsen is pulling no punches by sending a message. It's his way or the highway.

While it's not exactly the start you'd hope for from Paulsen, he's a proven coach, who given time, has the capacity to get Mason on the right track.

Mason fans have been chomping at the bit for this program to be relevant again, four years after longtime coach Jim Larranaga, shocked the Fairfax, Virginia campus and bolted for the University of Miami. Mason has struggled ever since, falling to a middle of the road Colonial Athletic Association team, before moving to the Atlantic 10, where they've been basement dwellers the last two seasons. To make matter worse, Mason's longtime CAA-turned A10 rivals, VCU, have become a national powerhouse since stepping into the Atlantic 10, while Mason can't seem to get out of it's own way. Paulsen was hired away from Bucknell University over the Summer, to right the ship.

George Mason will open the 2016 campaign this Friday, November 13th, against Colgate at the Eaglebank Arena on the Fairfax campus. Tip-off is set for 7 PM and the game will be broadcast by MASN where available.