Ever wonder what a Luke Hancock to Mike Morrison Three-Story Alley-Oop would look like?

New uniforms revealed in video recap from the team's photo day

Some of our readers thought the names were left off the jerseys because they these were just the ones they were wearing for picture day but after talking to assistant coach Eric Konkol it's confirmed that there will not be names on the back of the jerseys this year, which I don't like. Also the Gomason Blog points out that the name omission on the jerseys was pushed by Coach Larranaga to develop team unity and Mike Morrison is quoted as saying it represents the "13-as-one" team concept.

What are your thoughts on the new threads?

New uniforms revealed at team's photo day

Isaiah Tate tweeted some pictures of the new uniforms from the team's photo day that took place this afternoon. The image quality isn't great and I hope Gomason.com posts video of the photo day like they did for the women's team. The uniforms themselves look like the similar to the Nike Elite one's that Xavier just revealed on their website so I believe they are of the same mold.

Sherrod Wright to have surgery on his shoulder tomorrow

Sherrod Wright says he is having surgery tomorrow on his shoulder. We already knew that Sherrod would be out for this upcoming season when his injury kept him out of the games in Italy and the MRI results revealed the damage on his shoulder shortly after the team's return from the trip.  We wish Sherrod a speedy recovery and can't wait to see him on the court again for the Patriots.

Coach Larranaga talks about recruiting and his keys to success at George Mason

Coach Jim Larranaga does many public speaking events and I found this video which appears to be one of his latest. He talks about the "8 C's" which he often does if you've ever heard him talking to an office group before, but he also discusses recruiting and some fun stories from 2006.  I thought it was interesting as he explains the process in which they landed Folarin Campbell, have a look it is in three parts:

Video Diary from the George Mason men's basketball team's trip to Italy this summer Part I

GoMason.com's blog posted a nice little video diary from the team's August trip to Italy:



[George Mason Athletics YouTube]

Yahoo's The Dagger previews the CAA, projects George Mason to finish #2

Matt Norlander of the Yahoo's college basketball blog The Dagger previews the CAA today and has ODU, Mason, and VCU in his top 3.  He also has JMU at #8 which I don't agree with, they are going to surprise some people this season, especially with Denzel Bowles.  No way I'd have them below Northeastern in the standing after the starters the Huskies lost this off-season. I also think he's giving Hofstra a little too much credit in these rankings, Charles Jenkins will be a beast this year but I don't know if it's enough to stabilize the changes that program is going through.

The conference had arguably its best year, top to bottom, in its history. Can it get at least two teams to The Dance?

Every year at this time the topic of multiple NCAA tournament berths comes up. I think it's very possible this season because the CAA as a whole returns almost 70 percent of their starting players. The out of conference schedule for the league is also pretty good this year. ODU and VCU have a chance to make some noise early in the year and Mason's game on the road at Dayton could be bubble worthy.  But like every year we have to wait to see how everything unfolds. 

Fox Sports Jeff Goodman catches up with Jim Larranaga in New Hampshire

Jeff Goodman has an article today were he talks with Jim Larranaga, who is currently on a recruiting trip with his staff in the northeast visiting area prep schools.  Although Goodman refers to George Mason as the "Colonials" in this one (now it's fixed), it's a good read. Here are some notable quotes:

On the team's trip to Italy:

"Our one and only objective was to give our team an opportunity to be together and really learn about each other. We wanted them to go to dinner and shopping together – not with the coaches, either.” Larranga also worked it in a way that a senior such as Cam Long roomed with each of the two freshman for three days at a time and also with someone else on the team he doesn’t live with back on campus."

On Bryon Allen and Jonathan Arledge's play in Italy:

Larranaga played his two true freshman, Bryon Allen and Jonathan Arledge, with redshirt frosh Paris Bennett and Vertrail Vaughns – and played all four substantial minutes. ``It gave them the opportunity to really play without feeling as though they had to defer to an older player. It made them more aggressive. They were all able to play a lot and not have to worry about being taken out after a mistake."

On Cam Long:

Larranga said that Long should be a much better leader this season. ``He’ll be more comfortable and confident this year,” he said. ``He just had so many young guys to lead last year.”

Might this be the year Georgetown and George Mason meet?

Craig Stouffer of the Washington Examiner brings up this point again today reminding DC fans of the possibility of George Mason and Georgetown playing each other in the Charleston Classic this November.  Of course all Mason fans are pining for this match up but let's not forget they still have to beat Charlotte and NC State.

Georgetown head coach John Thompson III and Jim Larranaga do hold annual preseason scrimmages, closed door of course, but the two teams have only met once in regulation which was December of 1985 (Georgetown won at the Patriot Center 75-63).

Charleston Classic releases schedule of games

ESPN's Charleston Classic tournament released it's schedule of games today and currently shows four games will air on ESPNU (which also means they will be on ESPN3.com). After speaking to media coordinator Charles Green for the event, there is a chance some of the other games could be picked up so we'll have to stay tuned.  However it looks like we most likely won't see the Patriots' first round game against UNC Charlotte on Nov. 18. 

Despite the field not looking too great on paper, it would appear that depending on the outcome of the games Mason could end up playing North Carolina State and then possibly Georgetown in the championship game if all goes well.

Sherrod Wright Out for the 2010-2011 Season

After finding out earlier this month that the results from Sherrod Wright's MRI on his shoulder weren't good, we knew this was coming.  Sherrod Wright will miss the 2010-2011 season and redshirt so he won't lose a year of eligibility.  It's big blow for the team as Wright is probably one of the more promising offensive threats on the roster for this upcoming season.

George Mason won't be the only team holding a Midnight Madness at the Patriot Center this year

It may seem weird for an NBA team to be holding a Midnight Madness, especially when there aren't strict rules governing when NBA teams can start to practice like there is in college. But I guess that's what you have to do when you put your fan base through what the Wizards have over the last few seasons. New owner Ted Leonsis seems adamant about restoring the local fan base here in the suburbs of Northern Virginia and his success with bringing new fans to Washington Capitals proves he knows what he's doing. This could also end up being good publicity for the University, especially if Coach Larranaga and the his staff can use this as some sort of recruiting edge. Let's not forget having President Obama visit the campus certainly didn't hurt our chances of landing Bryon Allen earlier this year.

Field for Charleston Classic finally complete

The Charleston Classic really had to go out on a whim to find the last two teams to complete the field for this year's tournament.  The Classic takes place November 18-21 and the last two teams added to the field are USC Upstate and Coastal Carolina says ESPN's Andy Katz. It's a shame the field didn't turn out better and its obvious the committee just grabbed some regionally close small schools in order to fill out the bracket. But there is still hope of landing a game with either NC State or Georgetown but I wouldn't get my hopes up. Members of NinerNation.net are saying that George Mason and UNC Charlotte are to be paired together for the opening round of games.

Sherrod Wright has MRI on shoulder

Sherrod Wright was kept out of the games in Italy by the coaching staff due to a shoulder injury. He posted on facebook yesterday that he was getting an MRI to see if there was any damage on that shoulder.  He says today that "hopefully everything is straight" so Mason fans are to wait and see if he won't miss any time during this up coming season.

Sherrod should see a much increased role on the team this season, especially if he steps up his play on defense.  He showed flashes of his big time scoring ability against Dayton (17 points) and in the VMI shootout (24 points) but then was a non-factor in the Patriots CAA tournament game against VCU and the CIT disaster against Fairfield. If he can become a consistent scorer on the wing it would do wonders to open things up for guys like Mike Morrison and Ryan Pearson who one would expect to be shouldering a lot of the scoring load this year.

UPDATE 9/2:

Wright said yesterday he got the results back from his MRI and "it's not looking too good" and the doctors told him he was most likely going to need arthroscopic surgery. How long this could set back Wright is something we probably won't know until we get closer to the start of the season.