George Mason opens CAA play with a blow out victory over UNCW

Coming into the game most thought the Patriots would work the ball inside where they had a significant advantage over UNCW's front court.  That wasn't really the case last night as Mason started firing threes in the early minutes and connecting on almost all of them it seemed.  During a 6 1/2 minute span the Patriots made 7 of 8 three pointers, including Vertrail Vaughns hitting 3 consecutive ones in 63 seconds. Bench players led Mason in scoring for the first time this season after being called out by Larranaga after the GW game for not playing solid both ways. Vertrail Vaughns and Isaiah Tate combined for 8 of 9 shooting from behind the arch and each had career nights in scoring. I honestly thought Mike Morrison and Ryan Pearson would be the stars in this one and not Mason's guards but I guess when you are left that wide open so often how can you pass up that shot opportunities? Senior guard Cam Long is now 2 points shy of a career 1,000 points at George Mason after a quiet night finishing with 5 points.  Andre Cornelius and Mike Morrison were quiet as well and I don't think it's a bad thing because this team is more dangerous with a continuous balanced attack.  

The coaching staff had to be pleased with the defensive efforts of the "Green Team" who to this point haven't had trouble scoring but just needed to stop their guys from scoring to get more playing time.  The efforts from the bench have been spotty this season but the more games like this we see the more confidence one has to have in this team's ability to stay atop the CAA.  I still need to see the bench perform like this against a better opponent before I'm ready to call this team "deep".  Midway through the season I might come back to this post and laugh that I once questioned the team's depth but we'll see how things unfold.  

NCAA Basketball