Last year the Colonial Athletic Association media day darling was one team, George Mason, which was coming off a magical run to the Final Four.
This year it was one player, Virginia Commonwealth guard Eric Maynor, who propelled the Rams and the CAA into the national spotlight with a conference tournament title and an upset of Duke in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
“The thing I remember most is Eric Maynor’s two steals because we were in complete control of the game with just under two minutes to go,” said George Mason head coach Jim Larranaga of the Patriots’ three-game run in the CAA Tournament, in which they became the first No. 6 seed to reach the finals.
Maynor is this season’s CAA preseason player of the year, but the Patriots, who return their top six scorers, are picked to win the conference title.
“We’d play well, and then we’d lose it,” said Larranaga of last year’s up-and-down 18-15 season. “We had some games when guys weren’t looking for their shot, and then two games later they were looking to shoot.”
George Mason’s play in the conference tournament made up for missing both the NCAAs and the postseason National Invitational Tournament.
“The way we played in the CAA Tournament gave our guys more confidence than we had all year long,” said Larranaga, whose top returners are 6-foot-7 senior forward Will Thomas (13.3 ppg, 6.9 rpg) and 6-4 swingman Folarin Campbell (13.9 ppg, 3.8 apg), both preseason All-CAA selections.
VCU head coach Anthony Grant said the attention Maynor has received — he was the only player from a mid-major school on the U.S. team for the Pan American Games — has added pressure. But it’s also a compliment to the team, the coach and the conference.
“I don’t think anything’s wrong with it,” said Drexel head coach Bruiser Flint. “If you can have a person of that magnitude — and I’ve always been big on perception — if people perceive you to be good, they’re going to look at you a little differently. They also start to look at the rest of your players.”
Outof the rankings
» George Mason head coach Jim Larranaga said he’s not voting in this year’s ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll after participating last season.
“I don’t get a chance to watch those teams,” said Larranaga, who will continue to vote in the Mid-Major poll. “I’m basically basing my opinion on what I hear, rather than what I see or what I know. That’s just way too difficult, and I felt like my time could be better spent doing something else.”
