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GW is taking the George Mason game very seriously

George Mason Basketball: GW is taking the George Mason game very seriously

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Tuesday, December 01, 2009

GW is taking the George Mason game very seriously









If you can't remember the last time George Mason played George Washington in hoops (the universities, not the men) your not alone. It's been years, 11 actually. For most of recent history George Washington felt they had nothing to gain being a mighty Atlantic 10 team playing a lowly CAA team, despite the close proximity. But then something happened. The NCAA banned schools like GW from recruiting players from these high school "diploma mills" that had helped the school produce a winner. Left having to recruit locally against others GW hasn't adapted well and have recently been in the basement of the A-10 conference. Guys like Pops Mensah-Bonsu who starred for the Colonials would not be allowed to play in today's NCAA rules.

So now that George Washington is no longer an Atlantic 10 power, their marketing department says George Mason vs GW is a rivalry now and they have the website to prove it! The "Battle of the Orange Line" slogan is good but I really want to know how much the school paid for this whole "Beat George Mason" campaign. And look there's more video!:



Very cute. I'm glad George Mason is their superbowl for this season. It will be interesting to see how many George Mason fans are in attendance because I know plenty are buying up the tickets. Through all of GW's promoting there still seems to be a lot of tickets left for seats in that high school gym of their's. I really hope this rivalry idea sticks, and next year's GW - Mason game at the Patriot Center should draw a great crowd.

GW fans love to remind us that Mason is 1-9 all-time against them but here's a fun fact about the game I noticed: George Washington, despite having a basketball program for 102 years, has the same number of NCAA tournament wins as George Mason.

8 Comments:

Blogger C Hirsch said...

Already got my tickets and going with about a group of 10. Hope Mason pulls it out!

11:49 AM  
Blogger Maximilliano said...

Um, I agree a rivalry is a great idea, but let's at least pretend to dwell in the world of fact and reason.

1) Your statement about Pops Mensah-Bonsu is completely wrong. If you want to bash the GW Men's basketball program (and Georgetown and others) for following the letter, but not the spirit of NCAA clearinghouse regulations, that's fine. But Pops was not one of those athletes.

2) Can you cite one reference of GW fan's rubbing 9-1 in Mason fans' faces? If anything, all I read about is how much GW fans envy your success in 2006. We were supposed to be the wunder-George that year, not you guys.

There are lots of things for us to build a rivalry around. It is my preference that we try to stick to facts as much as possible.

11:46 PM  
Blogger variaban said...

I don't think it's really a bashing.
I agree, a rivalry is great but the point here I think is why now? There should have never been an 11 year lapse in these schools playing each other. GW should have had the guts to play GMU before their final 4 run.
They are both good schools and a yearly match-up between the two would be good for both schools too as long as they are competitive in their leagues.

10:18 AM  
Blogger Maximilliano said...

Totally agree on this being a good match-up. I do not defend GW's decisions not to play Mason in preceding years. In fact, fans have been clamoring for better CAA competition in the OOC for years. In a lot of ways, the program did themselves a disservice by under-scheduling during one the best eras in GW basketball history from 2004-2007. I don't disagree with you there.

While I acknowledge that this blog is entitled to say what it wants, whether factual or not, again, sullying Pops' academic credentials and those of St. Augustine Preparatory School is simply wrong.

Enjoy the game tonight.

11:06 AM  
Blogger variaban said...

Makes sense... and I don't think it was done intentional by Ryan if it's false, maybe confused Pops with Omar Williams? He runs a pretty clean website and although I've never met the guy, I haven't really seen him talk garbage about GMU opponents.
I would be annoyed too if I were a GW fan.

Regardless, let's hope these two schools will continue to play each other in home and home series from now on. This game could be the start of a decent rivalry!

11:37 AM  
Blogger Ryan said...

Info about Pops came from a few GW fans, so I don't know what to tell you

11:48 AM  
Blogger variaban said...

I'm trying to sympathize with you but you make it hard!
I was just trying to offer up an explanation, that's all.
The fact of the matter is that it doesn't matter if it's Pops or Omar or Maurice or Rich or whoever, taking players from those schools that don't really do much for the students academically is shady, whether they go to GW or GMU or G'Town or UMCP.
Now if you went there (UMCP), I would have a tough time sympathizing with you, damn those terps, lol.

12:25 PM  
Blogger variaban said...

LOL Jonathon, we'll remember that when we spank the hell out of you guys next year at the Patriot Center.

1:54 PM  

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