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The Patriots Cinderella Story Volume 2 was cut short last night. Late steals and nine straight points from Eric Maynor stole the game away from Mason who was leading most of the game. Dre Smith and Gabe Norwood went from heroes to goats in about 5 seconds. Smith who had been the teams leading scorer during the tourney coughed up the ball at mid court to Maynor who took it for a layup and was fouled. A three point play. On the very next play he stole the ball from Gabe Norwood and scored again with 1 minute 44 seconds remaining. Patriot fans including myself were sitting there with blank stares. How could this be happening? Mason took the ball down the court, Campbell had his shot blocked and Maynor took the ball down the court for another layup. Its one thing to lose to a better team but its another when you just let it slip away because of little mental errors. Sure Mason was more fatigued having played an extra game over the weekend and VCU was practically playing a home game but Mason had this in the bag with less than 2 minutes to go and flat gave the game away. Maynor is a hell of player and hes going to get steals hes done it all season, but after the first time he did it, wake up! Norwood had been handling the ball well after Jordan Carter went out with a hurt knee. Norwood, the only senior getting significant playing time this season, had been in clutch situations like this before and I can't believe he let this happen. VCU, who killed us during the season with three-pointers, made only one during this contest. Mason played the perimeter extremely well compared to earlier in the season. They kept VCU from taking the long range shots they wanted to. If they could have played like this against some of their non-conference opponents we might be thinking about an at-large berth instead of an NIT one. After the way this season has gone a bid to the NIT (which to most fans stands for the Not In the Tournment, tournament) would be more of a rewarding experience than disappointment. With the way this time has improved over this past tournament weekend, I want to see them keep playing no matter where it is.

I think John Feinstein put it best in today's Washington Post:

"If the NCAA men's basketball committee took gallantry into account, George Mason would be a lock for a bid this coming Monday.

Sadly for the Patriots, gallantry counts far less than the Ratings Percentage Index."