Previewing George Mason at Charleston

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George Mason heads to the road for their final non-conference away game of the year at Charleston.  This is probably going to be the highest RPI team they have remaining on the schedule for this year and a win would definitely ease some worries as they are about to head into a tough CAA stretch of games. The Patriots had a big second half to put away Manhattan and they will need that fire once again. Mason really needs to shore up their perimeter defense to have a chance in this game because Charleston has an array of players who can all shoot the three.  They take a lot of long range shots (avg about 23 attempts a game) and nearly upset #4 Louisville last week with their success from behind the arch.  The Patriots' perimeter defense will be improved now that Andre Cornelius has two games under his belt but it will take a team effort on defense to slow down Charleston's back court players. However, like Mason, they cough up the ball a lot, giving the Patriots a chance to win the turnover battle.

On paper it looks as though the Patriots have the edge in the front court but as we saw against Duquesne they don't always capitalize on this advantage.  Mike Morrison's play has been inconsistent but overall is improving from the beginning of the season.  Ryan Pearson has been steady and had his second highest point total of the season against Manhattan.  Freshman Erik Copes continues to block shot after shot in his limited minutes.  The front court though, needs to be this team's strength and that hasn't always been the case so far.  Sherrod Wright and Vertail Vaughns production as starters could be better considering they don't have many other options on the bench. Hopefully Andre Cornelius will begin to add some outside shooting to that rotation.

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