George Mason travels to UNCW looking to match longest winning streak in the Larranaga era

The Patriots take on UNCW tonight and with a victory would tie the longest team winning streak during head coach Jim Larranaga's 14-year tenture.  The record, as I jinx it with this post, is 11 set back during the 1983-84 season.  This is a game where Mason can't lose their focus, despite all the media hype they have been receiving. Just this morning there is an AP article describing this year's George Mason team getting back to where the 2006 team was. Here is a quote from Ryan Pearson:

"Even when I go to my classes, my professors still bring up the Final Four,'' said junior forward Ryan Pearson, who on Monday was named the Colonial Athletic Association's player of the week. "And I'm like, 'I wasn't a part of that. I want to make my own history here."

Certainly the success from this year's team is going to have all types of media outlets comparing them to that 2005-06 team and they are just going to have to deal with it. And although it gets me giddy to see them placed here in a bracket projections,  I do still think the comparisons are unfair on these guys. Hopefully that should be motivation for them to make their own history as Pearson said. I'm sure Pearson and the rest of the team know they still have a lot of work ahead of them.

Heading into this game against UNCW the Patriots are clearly looking like the best team in CAA right now. The offense has been upstoppable and they currently lead the conference in field goal and three-point shooting percentage. Andre Cornelius has been deadly from behind the arch lately hitting 13 treys over the last 4 games. Meanwhile Ryan Pearson has had his way with some of the better CAA front court players and Cam Long continues to build his case as an All-CAA type player. Together this team has become so much of an efficient offensive monster that you rarely can take notice to how well they are doing defensively.

The Seahawks on the other hand have struggled this season and last time these two teams met were on the wrong end of an 80-52 beat down.  However in their last game on Saturday against William & Mary they put together an efficient offensive showing of their own in a 91-81 victory. Does this have me worried about tonight's game? No, but it just shows that Mason can't expect to sleep walk through this one.

[Photo Credit: Amp Photography]