More Than Just Hoops

Coach Larranaga: basketball coach, motivator, public speaker, geography educator? Yes, that is correct, Coach Larranaga's basketball summer camp apparently is not limited to just hoops. GMU Geography Department Chair Allan Falconer discovered that Larranaga would often quiz his campers on geography. This prompted Coach L and Falconer to develop the "Mason World Ball", an NCAA-regulation basketball that is also a globe providing a correct scale representation of the location and areas of the continents. I'm not making this up, take a look. I'm sure the campers loved that during their summer break from school their basketball instructor was quizzing them on how many U.S. states start with the letter 'M', I can hear the screams of joy now. I joke about it but it is free publicity for Mason as they teamed up with National Geographic Society and the Geographic Information System (GIS) software company ESRI to develop the ball which also sports the Mason logo. I think it's great Coach L is helping out other departments of Mason but for the love of God focus on getting us a football team first! Is that really too much to ask? Well it might be, but still.