Lowly Towson Tigers visit Patriot Center this Saturday

While this is definitely a down year for the CAA as a whole, perennial bottom-feeder Towson is enduring one of the worst seasons in Division I college basketball history.  It's been more than a calendar year since the Tigers won a game and have a current losing streak that is only bested by an NJIT team that lost 59 straight. They however were going through a transition from Division II, what's the Tigers excuse? This is what prompted me to be so critical of George Mason's game against them earlier this season. It was a game where the Patriots jumped out to a big early lead and then seemed to get disinterested in finishing off a vastly inferior team. The team we are currently seeing now from Paul Hewitt and company is a far cry from what we saw in that game. Mason could probably bench their entire starting line-up and beat this Towson team by at least 12 or so points.  But realistically the Patriots can't lose their focus in this game and I'd like to see them continue to limit the mistakes and make good shot selections. It will be a great game to give some of the younger players more minutes, such as Vaughn Gray, Corey Edwards, and Jonathan Arledge.  I'm assuming Erik Copes is still going to be held out of this one because why rush him back for this game?

The numbers on Towson this season are scary bad, which I guess isn't surprising.  Their leading scorers average 11.5 and 11.2 points a game and as a team they shoot only 36.5% from the field (#343 nationally out of 344 teams). They are dead last in every single shooting category I could find among CAA teams and average more than 18 turnovers a game.   Against Drexel earlier this season they lost 60-27 which prompted this tweet from Seth Davis: 

Towson scored 27 pts vs Drexel to lose its Div I record-tying 34th straight game. One of dozens of teams with NO business competing in D-1.
— Seth davis (@SethDavisHoops) January 5, 2012

It's hard to disagree with that statement.

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UPDATE: Looks as though Erik Copes will indeed be held out of this one:

I don't believe Erik Copes practiced today, which would suggest he'll miss Towson game. Perhaps return for the 3 games next week #masonmbb
— Steven Goff (@GMUWashPost) January 20, 2012

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