Patriots slip to third in CAA after another lackluster road performance

It's been six years since Mason has won in Norfolk and you knew this year would be just as tough despite the fact that they handled ODU in Fairfax earlier this season. The roller-coaster season for George Mason continued Saturday as we saw the immaturity of this team become exposed. Mason trailed 17-1 right off the bat and needed almost nine minutes to make a field goal while never really getting into a rhythm on offense. Andre Cornelius was the only starter who finished in double figures and how ironic that he finally started to shoot well again when no one else on the floor seemed to be able to. The Patriots missed a lot of open shots but the Monarchs played excellent defense and owned the boards when it mattered. ODU also took advantage of the Patriots inside as Gerald Lee and Ben Finney had their way all day long.

The game was basically over early in the second half at the same time Mike Morrison exploded onto a referee arguing a call and received two technical fouls, ejecting him from the game. Per CAA rules he won't be able to play this Tuesday against William & Mary, nice going big Mike. Emotions have been high all season with this young squad but the immaturity of the sophomore class continues to be a recurring theme. Pearson, Cornelius, and Morrison have all missed games now because of dumb and totally avoidable instances. In a year where this team has lived and died by the play of it's starting line-up, it's unacceptable to have guys miss games for reasons other than injury. Speaking of the starting line-up, Morrison didn't start in this one due to Coach Larranaga's effort to get more leadership out of this sophomore class:

"We want them to take on more responsibility and be more accountable," Larranaga said. "As the season has come near the end, you need great leadership from more than just one or two players. Cam Long, as a leader, has been fantastic, but the other starters have got to chip in. When they don't, I am going to try to send them a message."

I think it's ridiculous the lengths he'd having to go at this point in the season to send these guys a message. You almost can't help but wonder if Coach L is losing control of some of these guys on and off the court. I question the move only because Morrison has been hot recently, going 15 for 18 from the field in the last two games. They needed 25+ minutes from him to have any kind of chance against ODU. Johnny Williams has been improving but the Monarchs just attacked him from the beginning and that led to Mason getting into a large deficit that became too much to overcome.

Although most fans might have expected a loss in Norfolk this Saturday, must of us probably didn't think we'd get this type of disappointing showing. It's really difficult to have faith in this team's ability to close out the season strong and make some noise in the CAA tournament with a breakdown like this. We have seen the extreme highs and lows of this season continue to drag on but predicting how things will go from here on out is next to impossible.

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