Game 17: GMU (15-1 / 3-0) vs vcu (11-5 / 2-1) on Saturday, January 10, at Noon.

[NewPatriot]

Mason climbed 10 kenpom spots from 86 to 76.

 

[GMUgemini]

I wish I could have seen this game live but having just finished watching it I will say this: vcu may have the edge on athleticism, but we have a big edge in discipline. That was a masterclass, especially in the second half, of team discipline and making the most of every single possession (I think that was the best 20 minutes of half court basketball I’ve seen in a long time. Even the 3s they missed were all good looks).

 

[jessej]

Here's my suggestion.


You have the 3 of the largest high schools in Virginia with a 5 miles of campus.

During conference play:


Have a Lake Braddock Day, A Robinson Day and a South County Day and give

start with the High School that the coaches from Harvard and North Carolina ae enshrined in their Hall of fames!!

In conjunction with the Admissions Office - have a Virginia High School A student game and do some recruiting. Then do the same for DC and Maryland.

Also, a High School football, basketball and baseball games. Those HS students wear their jerseys for free admittance. There are at least 5000 empty seats - do a controlled/selective giveaway with ulterior motives.

 

[jessej]

Postgame thoughts! (Actually in person for this one too)
...
9: Let's be real, we were never losing that game after the homie made that putt for 15k. Unimaginable things would've occurred if I were a college junior who suddenly got 15 grand after my school beat our biggest rival.

$10K after taxes

 

[Sport31]

More importantly than kenpom , we climbed 9 spots in Net to 68 which has more percentage influence of who gets in the tournament.

 

[GMU1983]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3jK5j0vxDg

 

[Leesburg Chankenstank III]

“George Mason were the bullies this game”

View: https://youtu.be/FR7tuUtRtKA?feature=shared

 

[GunstonsGhost]

Still buzzin. The Patriot Center was alive yesterday, but I wanted to comment on what Martelli was talking about at the end of his post game. He spoke for like two minutes about how the stadium should be packed for these games and how well our program is doing right now. He didn't have to say that, but he's right. Best turn out of the season, and obviously that's due to the number of vcu fans, but that's our ceiling right now ~6.3K.

I also saw the Richmond Time Dispatch produce a post game video. No shade to any of our media folks, but do we have any journalists in there from a news source that isn't just a podcast or whatever? Those are cool and all, but they aren't reaching anyone new.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H88Iiv_Csio


We at least need the local outlets giving some attention, Fairfax Times, Reston Patch, whatever. The NOVA mag should be a target too. They make a list every week of things to do on the weekend, GMU basketball should be on that list. This is definitely within the wheelhouse of the AD, and maybe this post should move over there, but more local coverage seems like an easy win. If we want better attendance we have to get in front of people and build awareness.

 

[tblack33]

Best 40 minutes of the year and not even close. Still riding high from yesterday. Very complete game, great defense when it mattered. Lots of good things to pull off tape today. Clean up the defensive rebounding a bit and we’re going to start blowing teams out in conference if we play like that. Dayton and SLU games loom large now, if we can hold on the games we should win those two games will very well determine conference champ, and are our only realistic path to the at large discussion.

 

[Masonman]

Great win today!!!! Crowd was great, passion was great, execution was great. The one play that defined our team for me was the Kanga foul. HARD, CLEAN, AGGRESSIVE. That play showed our toughness and that we weren't going to back down and roll over as we have in the past. Not a huge fan of talk because it's cheap but Kory Mincy was not backing down from anyone today and he let them know it. HUGE balls and toughness. What a joy to be part of!!!!!

The best part was going out for a celebration after the game. Driving home on 123 around 3:20 I had the pleasure of passing the vcu bus and gave them a nice one fingered salute. I know I should be better than that but it just seemed to fit the occasion.

Well done Mason, a possible program defining win under Tony Skinn. Nice!

What's the difference between a vcu grad and a pizza?
A pizza can feed a family of four.

How does a dumb blonde get into college?
She applies to vcu.

I commandeered Kory Mincy's wristband that he threw into the crowd during the end of game celebration!

 

[NewPatriot]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3jK5j0vxDg

Props to Martelli for calling out the Mason fan base at end of the presser. To summarize what he said:

Mason is a dam good team
The arena should be full to support the team
What else to you have to do on a Saturday afternoon.

Its pathetic that the opposing coach understands the assignment better than it's own students body and alumni.
.

My hope is this game triggers increase in attendance, media and support for Team 60. They deserve it

 

[GMU79]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3jK5j0vxDg

Good to see Martelli give props to our team and even encourage our fans to watch the games. Pretty classy.

 

[Masonman]

Marvin Lewis and staff did an excellent job hyping up and marketing this game. 6,370 is a strong showing, especially since school is still closed and only local students were around. Most of the food venues were open and I appreciated stumbling upon the Taco Booth that was right behind the Doc Nix band section! The crowd was indeed raucous. I don't believe Martelli's claim that vcu had 2,000-2,500 fans at the EBA yesterday.

 

[Leesburg Chankenstank III]

Yesterday was a success by all measures. Atmosphere, attendance, crowd interaction etc…

We can always strive to do better of course. But let’s not put a damper on a successful night because we’re not Duke overnight (or ever will be).

Keep winning and start making the tournament on a semi regular basis, and we’ll have more game days like yesterday.

Very proud of the fanbase and athletic department for a great showing and more importantly a great result!

 

[jkh1978]

Again heard no singing during the singing timeout lol. And the wifi was worse than usual; I don't know cause I sat higher than normal or so many more people on it.
There were lots of little things that I may not have noticed them all. I liked the camera in the tunnel when the team was first coming out. The extra spot lights. The dunk contest was better than rearranging boxes or dribbling between boxes that we normally see. So many box-based contests.

 

[2011WinOverVillanova]

Still buzzin. The Patriot Center was alive yesterday, but I wanted to comment on what Martelli was talking about at the end of his post game. He spoke for like two minutes about how the stadium should be packed for these games and how well our program is doing right now. He didn't have to say that, but he's right. Best turn out of the season, and obviously that's due to the number of vcu fans, but that's our ceiling right now ~6.3K.

I also saw the Richmond Time Dispatch produce a post game video. No shade to any of our media folks, but do we have any journalists in there from a news source that isn't just a podcast or whatever? Those are cool and all, but they aren't reaching anyone new.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H88Iiv_Csio


We at least need the local outlets giving some attention, Fairfax Times, Reston Patch, whatever. The NOVA mag should be a target too. They make a list every week of things to do on the weekend, GMU basketball should be on that list. This is definitely within the wheelhouse of the AD, and maybe this post should move over there, but more local coverage seems like an easy win. If we want better attendance we have to get in front of people and build awareness.

The Athletic Dept should really reach out to the Washington Post or are they not covering college much? What about the Athletic website?

 

[GMUgemini]

The Athletic Dept should really reach out to the Washington Post or are they not covering college much? What about the Athletic website?

Pretty sure they’ve gutted their sports section again. I know Steve Goff took a payoff (reported here earlier). He was one who would occasionally cover us. There were several other reporters who left around the same time too.

And they stupidly cover Tech and UVA as “local teams” even though they are nowhere close to DC. When you combine them with UMD and Georgetown, not a whole lot of bandwidth left for other teams.

The Athletic is owned by the New York Times now, and their sports coverage has suffered for it.

 

[jkh1978]

Should we be leaking strategy in video? https://x.com/MasonMBB/status/2010171413597237526?s=20
Defensive strategy: 1. GET THE f**k BACK

 

[Stoolguy]

Pretty sure they’ve gutted their sports section again. I know Steve Goff took a payoff (reported here earlier). He was one who would occasionally cover us. There were several other reporters who left around the same time too.

And they stupidly cover Tech and UVA as “local teams” even though they are nowhere close to DC. When you combine them with UMD and Georgetown, not a whole lot of bandwidth left for other teams.

The Athletic is owned by the New York Times now, and their sports coverage has suffered for it.

I will dm and email some local outlets this week myself to get some more coverage and build up some hype around GW.

Encouraging you all to do the same!! Email local news outlets until they don’t have a choice

 

[jruby]

The Athletic Dept should really reach out to the Washington Post or are they not covering college much? What about the Athletic website?

The post was there but it’s also the point: outlets like The Athletic aren’t going to cover Mason, so a big chunk of what used to be beat reporting just doesn’t exist anymore. If you want Mason coverage now, you’re basically relying on fan/local spots like A10Talk and a few other small outlets. I can tell you there's only a couple print publications left in NOVA. That’s the broader reality in Northern VA: most of the local news ecosystem is gone. What's happening at WAPO is truly too complicated to dig into on here. What’s left in a lot of places (Patch, etc.) which is basically AI-regurgitated press releases, they were doing it with software created by Aol which looks like “news” but isn’t real reporting long before chatgpt came along. Magazines in the area aren't really news, most all of it is paid advertorial passed of as editorial but was really paid for by advertisers themselves.

The biggest hurdle in this case is simple: the students weren’t even on campus they’re still on break. That’s a huge factor that often gets ignored. Spring classes don’t start until the 20th, and if you could add even 500–1,500 students, that could turn a game into a legitimately big crowd.


Mason’s long winter break eats up a massive chunk of the basketball season, and other schools are back much sooner so they get that student energy earlier.