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Breaking down the 2011-2012 schedule

George Mason Basketball: Breaking down the 2011-2012 schedule

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Friday, September 02, 2011

Breaking down the 2011-2012 schedule

Last night the team released their schedule for the 2011-2012 season and if you've been following this blog there were no surprises of the listed non-conference opponents. That's because their is still a home non-conference game to be added.
"Mason may also add another home non-conference game, either in mid-November or December."
There is no way the school and the coaching staff would pass up a chance to add another home game, they obviously just haven't found a good match-up yet.  Although at this point with most schools having already released their full schedules I can't imagine their options are great.  I'm guessing it would be sometime in mid-November because as of now, they only have two home games slated for that month, one of which being the exhibition match against Lycoming. The preseason NIT games make it difficult to squeeze an extra game in but I'm sure they will find a team to come to Fairfax.

While the non-conference opponents won't wow you again this season, you can't discount how good potential wins against Virginia Tech and Virginia might end up being.  Those games have been getting some press as the better non-conference games within the ACC and will no doubt be excellent early tests for this revamped Patriots squad. Tech might be taking a step back this year from a team that narrowly missed the NCAAs but Virginia will be a much improved team as they have started to bring in some top recruits. Let's also not forget that success in the preseason NIT can bring them some really solid opponents at Madison Square Garden (Syracuse) during Thanksgiving time. Fans ragged on last season's schedule and it turned out to be a good enough resume to make the dance as an at-large and finish the season with an RPI of 24.

Bucknell was in the NCAA tournament last season and usually atop of the Patriot League standing year in and year out.  Radford and Manhattan are nothing to get excited about but wins are the resume are wins on the resume.  Duquense and Charleston are usually in the top 100 RPI and sometimes the top 75.  And there's always the Bracketbuster game to boost the team's RPI and resume.

The CAA slate is where the real excitement is as the team tries to repeat last season's success of a 16-2 record.  After the first conference game at Towson in early December the Patriots will have two tough roads games at ODU and Drexel in the beginning of January.  Since they only play Drexel once, that could an important stretch during conference play this season. Throw a road in at JMU and it could very well be their toughest month on the schedule.

After only playing VCU once in recent years they finally get them twice this season; both in the span of 11 days.  The Rams come to the Patriot Center February 14 and then Mason travels to Richmond February 25. The ODU, Drexel road games will be important in January but these two against VCU at the end of the season could really determine where the Patriots are in the final CAA standings.

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8 Comments:

Anonymous Taylormade703 said...

Has the women's schedule been announced?

10:49 PM  
Anonymous Guest said...

I wouldn't overlook the Duquesne and CofC games this year, Duquesne pushed us to overtime last year on their court, and CofC is returning Andrew Goudeluck and most of that team from the NIT run they made last year.  It's a pretty balanced schedule if you ask me, some obvious tough ones in UVA, Vatech, and potentially Syracuse.  Then there are some sneaky games like Duquesne, CofC, and Bucknell where some of those teams could make the game a little close for our liking.  Should at the very least be an interesting season.  One thing I like about this schedule is that there are a couple of "easier" opponents in between some of the bigger games for the most part.  I think where we will find out a lot about how our team is this season will depend on the January stretch of ODU, GSU, Drexel, and JMU to really get us into conference play.  If we can win 4 of our first 5 conference games, I think that will be a good sign that this team will be there at the end of the season.

1:36 PM  
Anonymous gmuhoops said...

Andrew Goudeluck was drafted by the Lakers in the 2nd round...

8:23 PM  
Anonymous Guest said...

hmmm...espn's roster said he was still there. That obviously changes things there, thanks!

10:31 PM  
Anonymous c hirsch said...

It has, and they will suck, like they do every year.

10:35 AM  
Anonymous Taylormade703 said...

Where is that schedule?  It's not on gomason.com.

6:04 PM  
Anonymous LamarB said...

Who's the all time freshman scorer in the history of GeorgeMason mens basketball program?

12:49 PM  
Anonymous LamarB said...

Who is the all time scoring leader for Freshmen at GeorgeMasonUniversity mens basketball program

12:50 PM  

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