Patriots Taking Control

After yesterdays win against Northeastern the Patriots streak is now at five in a row. Five in the row that may not be against the best in the league but its a streak that the Patriots have been winning by an average of more than 20 points a game. They are clicking and doing it at the right time as their conference schedule starts to heat up. They will face VCU on Wednesday who are currently 8-0 in the conference and sit in 1st place. This will be a showdown in Fairfax that the Patriots must win to keep this streak going and climb into the top 4 in the conference standings. Will Thomas has been huge during this winning streak, connecting on 30 of 38 from the field over the last four games including 10 of 11 against Northeastern where he looked dominate. This is how I imagined Thomas playing all year and his teammates hitting shots from outside is what really has been opening things up for him. Jordan Carter is dishing out great assists on a nightly basis, Folarin Campbell has been hitting three pointers, and Darryl Monroe has been scoring in the post; everyone is starting to contribute consistently. This consistency is what has been fueling Mason's recent success and what they will need to keep going in order to win the conference. It was obvious in the beginning of the season that Campbell and Thomas cannot carry the team themselves and now they seem to understand that getting the other teammates involved is critical.

Wednesday night will be a great match-up of two teams that are hot and for once the pressure will not be on Mason. VCU is lead by the play of their guards who will definitely give Campbell, Carter and Smith some problems. That is why it will be important to get Will Thomas involved early as he should create some problems for the Rams. VCU has beaten 7 CAA teams so far, none of which had a post player as dominate as Thomas. We can expect to see double teams a lot and the way Mason's guards have been shooting that could really back fire for the Rams. The Rams are a good perimeter shooting team, which is what Mason has had trouble with so it will be important for them to hit their three pointers as well. I don't think VCU will have an answer for Will Thomas and his play will most likely be the difference in the game.