For a small public university in Fairfax, Virginia this kind of national media attention is no doubt very abnormal. The George Mason Patriots were underestimated from the beginning. Even their selection by the board to play in the tournament was criticized by American sportscasters like Billy Packer. George Mason was shrouded in some early controversy as well with the suspension of Tony Skinn after punching a Hofstra player below the belt in the midst of a CAA tournament loss. The Hofstras who beat the George Mason patriots twice in the final 10 days of the season were overlooked by the board for admittance to the tournament. It is reasons like this that not many people were paying attention to Mason when the tournament began on March 14th. It literally wasn’t until Denham Brown’s three point attempt overshot the rim as the final buzzer of overtime sounded that most of us could believe that George Mason University was going to be going to the semifinals. That win made them the first mid-major team to reach the Final Four since 1979 when Larry Bird’s Sycamores and an underestimated Penn team did it as well.
“We came in as an at-large [bid], when we got to the ‘Sweet 16’ we were an extra at-large and by beating Connecticut, we’ll be a double extra at-large,” Patriots coach Jim Larranaga exclaimed. “After 20 years of trying, I’m honored to be taking my own team to the Final Four.” There is something very heartwarming about a guy like Larranaga who never thought he would get here, finally doing it towards the end of his career.
Uconn was the popular pick to win it all this year despite the fact that no team that has lost in the first round of their conference tournament (like Uconn did against Syracuse this year) has won it all. They had the most talent than any other team in college basketball, Rudy Gay and Josh Boone would both probably be lottery picks if they came out this year. But, talent only gets you so far and you could see it on Sunday as Huskies just hadn’t the passion and drive that the Patriots did.
“We weren’t supposed to make the Tournament and we did,” said Mason point guard Tony Skinn, who scored 10 points and had pair of steals on Sunday. “We weren’t supposed to beat Michigan State and we did. We weren’t supposed to beat North Carolina and we did. We definitely weren’t supposed to beat UConn and we did. We don’t mind being a Cinderella.”
As usual sports personalities are already at work hyping this team up as comparable to a certain 1985 Villanova team and, even though this upset may not have ranked among those like the United States victory over the Soviet Union in the 1980 olympics, the 10 round “Buster” Douglas triumph over Mike Tyson in 1990, or the Red Sox 0-3 comeback in the ALCS in 2004, it is still one that sports fans will be talking about for years to come. But, were most people rooting for George Mason on Sunday, or were they rooting against the evil big market, overprivileged Huskies? The dichotomy of good vs. evil knows no boundaries. The freewheeling, crazy-hair-wearing Red Sox vs. the robotic, bureaucratic Yankee organization is the best rivalry in sports because of it’s rich history but also because of it’s good vs. evil undertones. And you could see these types of themes on Sunday: good vs. evil, altruism v.s selfishness and pride vs. privledge. With Mason at the line, up by 2 and less than 7 seconds to go in overtime the Huskies found themselves with no time outs and in one of the most obvious displays of a lack of team chemistry you saw no communication between the players. No communication on what would happen if they missed or made the free throw, or who would be taking the shot. Every player on that team had his own separate goals which were no doubt off the mark from Jim Calhoun’s. All the talent in the world is nothing without team chemistry and order. This year there is not 1 real powerhouse team in the final four, and that will hurt the ratings. Maybe this kind of parity will begin to effect the tournament in a negative way down the road because like Robert DeNiro says in A Bronx Tale, “There is nothing in life sadder than wasted talent”.