George Mason Women's Basketball

I'm writing about women's college basketball today and specifically about the George Mason University team. (I'm sure you figured that out by the title.) The boys and I attended a game in January where The Moose and Luigi both caught T-shirts thrown to the crowd after the Patriots made threes, and Pedro Tulo participated in an on-court challenge where he raced another kid in putting on a giant basketball jersey, shorts, and shoes before attempting a shot. Although Pedro Tulo lost, he also got a T-shirt for his efforts. Mason won by 20, and the kids had a great time. 
 
Based on the kids' schedules since winter break ended, we haven't been able to attend a George Mason men's or women's game until Sunday. We didn't realize this until we arrived, but Sunday was Mason's annual Pink game in support of breast cancer awareness. Mason wore these incredibly cool black and pink uniforms.

Many people in the crowd wore pink as did the entire Mason coaching staff. I was and still am extremely impressed by Graduate Assistant Riley Childs who was on the floor passing basketballs to the team during warmups while wearing huge pink heels. Awesome.

The game itself was very competitive. The University of Massachusetts has a solid team and an impressive freshman point guard Yahmani McKayle. She is my favorite type of player. A fast point guard who passes well and finishes around the basket. While she can make threes (she shoots 40% from 3), she's more effective driving the basket and either dishing the ball to a teammate or making shots around much taller players. While I'm probably dating myself, she reminded me of Damon Stoudamire or Nick Van Exel. She finished with 21 points and 8 rebounds.

Possibly my new favorite player in all of sports is Mason senior guard Paula Suarez from Pamplona, Spain. She is what college sports, especially basketball, used to be all about. This is her fourth year at Mason, and she has improved in nearly every category each season. Plus, she did this.

At a stop in play but not during a timeout, Suarez just casually walked over towards the UMass bench to listen to the opposing coach give instructions to his players. I love the look McKayle gives her (might need to zoom in)! She's Mason's point guard and truly leads the offense. It also helps that Suarez scored 34 points with 12 assists in the two games we saw her play. 

George Mason is in an interesting position. The team is 23-3 and 13-2 in conference after winning 76-66 over UMass. You would think that would be enough to be an NCAA tournament team, but the current projections have them as one of the first teams out. The Atlantic-10 conference is fascinating. Despite that conference record and winning 11 straight games, Mason is behind Richmond, who is 22-5 with a 13-1 conference record and a 12-game winning streak. Saint Joseph's just lost to Richmond and is now 11-3 in conference with a 20-5 record. In my book (yes, I have a book), all three should make the tournament. Mason plays Saint Joseph's next week. What makes things more complicated is that Mason's leading scorer, Kennedy Harris, is injured and has barely played the last few weeks. However, between Suarez and Nekhu Mitchell (pictured above) and Louis Volker having career highs on Sunday, I like their chances.

Photo of Mitchell and the Mason uniforms by Rafael Suanes/GMU