Mason ditches game plan, falls to NC State in Charleston Classic Semifinals

                            

                             AP Photo/Mic Smith

The Patriots lost to NC State last night in the semifinals of the Charleston Classic, but it wasn't one of those well they ran into a great ACC type of losses.  Mason was playing well int he 1st half despite Mike Morrison and Ryan Pearson getting early fouls.  Luke Hancock was again looking like an All-CAA caliber player.  Down 7 at half time you would have expected another strong 2nd half out of the Patriots while making some adjustments during the break.  Unfortunately that didn't quite happen.  Tarik El-Bashir of the Washington Post puts it best:

"But instead of sticking to the plan, the Patriots veered from it, initiated one-on-one battles and took low-percentage shots. The result wasn't pretty. A two-point lead quickly turned into a 10-point deficit, and eventually a 78-65 defeat in the tournament semifinals Friday at Carolina First Arena.

"We got a little selfish," said senior Cam Long, who scored a team-high 16 points. "In the moment, everybody wants to get their shots. And that's what it came down to. We started to put ourselves in a position where we just let ourselves go. We started not sharing the ball with each other. We played right into the hands of N.C. State."

The one-on-one battles and the ridiculously poor shot selections are what really bothered me.  Larranaga is know for having developed smarter more patient teams.  This game shows me that the players just simply didn't listen to him after the lead from Wolfpack started to swell.  What happened to the whole team unity no-name on the back of the uniforms mentality?  When things get tough his team can't resort to having guys individually doing their own things and trying to win the game themselves.  Luke Hancock was doing a little bit of this, and as you can applaud his efforts it's not Larranaga basketball and it's not George Mason basketball, plain and simple.  Perhaps this why he was benched after the 8 minute mark in the 2nd half.  Hancock was also not playing great defense as a couple of commenters pointed out last night and today.

Another thing that bothered me was the substitutions in the 2nd half.  You can't help but wonder why a lineup of one starter and four bench players (two of which barely had any college minutes under their belts) were on the floor for so long in the beginning of the 2nd half with the game still very much in reach.  I know Larranaga loves to use these tournament games as a way to break in the young players and expose them to good talent, but did he really care about that more than winning this game? It's a long season, I get that, and the goal is to win the CAA but I can't help but scratch my head for not playing certain guys for extended periods of time so guys like Paris Bennett, Johnny Williams, Vertrail Vaughns, and Jonathan Arledge could get more experience.

Now for some positives out of this game. Cam Long and Luke Hancock looked great at certain times in this game showed their are capable of carrying the scoring load on nights Morrison and Pearson are doing so hot. Speaking of Pearson, he looked much better last night than he did in the previous two games and was aggressive on the boards.  Freshman Jonathan Arledge and Bryon Allen continue to look promising and hopefully them playing in this tournament will pay dividends later in the season.  You also have to be liking what you are seeing out of Vertrail Vaughns lately.  I didn't think he would be playing this much so early in the season but hes starting to show flashes of great play out both on offense and defense.

The Patriots will not play Wofford on Sunday at 5:30 pm on ESPNU

College Basketball Stats

As you can see from the stats breakdown the Patriots weren't murdered on the boards nor did they turn the ball over badly in this one.  But their poor shot selection from the field and from the three-point line are what stands out most in this analysis.