George Mason loses swingman to transfer
Sophomore guard/forward Luke Hancock has elected to transfer from George Mason University and will forego his final two seasons with the Patriots. Hancock, a two-year member of the team, plans to enroll at the University of Louisville.
Hancock appeared in 65 games during his career in Fairfax, earning All-Colonial Athletic Association third team honors this past season. The Roanoke, Va., native led the team and ranked third in the CAA in assists (143), while scoring 10.9 points per game, third-highest among the Patriots. Read more
Houston joins GMU staff
George Mason men’s basketball coach Paul Hewitt has announced the addition of Roland Houston to his coaching staff. Houston, an assistant at George Washington the past seven seasons, will join the Patriots in the same capacity. Additionally, Hewitt announced that Scott Lombardi will be retained as the team’s director of basketball operations.
“I’ve known Roland for over 10 years – he has extensive recruiting experience up and down the I-95 corridor,” said Hewitt, who was hired on May 2 to lead the Patriots. “He also brings with him 13 years of playing professional basketball overseas where he became fluent in French and Spanish. One of my objectives when filling out the staff was to bring someone who could expand the recruiting base beyond the U.S.” Read more
Mason tabs Hewitt to lead basketball program
Former Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt will be announced as the new coach at George Mason, school officials confirmed Saturday.
Hewitt, 47, has a 255-187 record in 14 seasons as a Division I head coach, including a 189-160 record in 11 seasons at Georgia Tech. Hewitt led the Yellow Jackets to the 2004 Final Four and has been to five NCAA Tournaments as a head coach, including one at Siena, where his teams were 66-27 in his three seasons.
Hewitt was fired by Georgia Tech after posting back-to-back-to-back losing seasons in Atlanta, including a 13-18 campaign in 2010-2011.
Hewitt succeeds Jim Larranaga, who was hired by Miami.
JMU women's lax rolls past Mason
The 10th-ranked James Madison women’s lacrosse team gave up the game’s opening goal but quickly took a 4-1 lead en route to a 21-7 win at George Mason Saturday evening.
In the Colonial Athletic Association opening game for both teams, the Dukes improved to 7-2 overall while Mason dropped to 2-7.
Senior Mary Kate Lomady (Abington, Pa./Abington) scored two of JMU’s first four goals as the Dukes tallied four goals in just over four minutes in the early going. Lomady finished with three goals and two assists, and the Dukes also got a three-goal, two-assist night from redshirt freshman Megan Piotrowicz (Plymouth Meeting, Pa./Plymouth-Whitemarsh). Read more
Tech’s bubble bursts again: Mason, VCU get at-large bids, UR, ODU, Hampton earn automatics
It’s a rite of Selection Sunday that Virginia Tech fans could do without.
The Hokies, with a 21-11 record, 11 wins in the ACC, two wins over NCAA Tourney participant Florida State, a win over #1 West Region seed Duke two weeks ago, were once again left out of the NCAA field.
George Mason (26-6) and VCU (23-11) from the CAA both got at-large bids, joining tournament champion Old Dominion (27-6), marking the first time the Colonial got two at-large bids into the tournament field.
Richmond (27-7), which won the Atlantic 10′s automatic bid, and Hampton (24-8), champs of the MEAC, also earned bids.
Hampton, the #16 seed in the West, will take on Duke (30-4) in its NCAA opener. Richmond, the #12 seed in the Southwest, takes on #5 seed Vanderbilt (23-10).
ODU, the #9 seed in the Southeast, opens with #8 Butler (22-9). VCU plays Southern Cal (19-14) in a play-in game for the #11 seed in the Southwest Region. Mason, the #8 seed in the East, takes on #9 seed Villanova (21-11).
The ACC landed four teams in the NCAA field – Duke, Florida State (#10 seed in the Southwest), North Carolina (#2 seed in the East) and Clemson (which faces Alabama-Birmingham in a play-in game for the #12 seed in the East).
Virginia Tech seemed to have played its way into the field as a fifth ACC participant with its 64-60 win over then-#1 Duke on Feb. 26 and then posting two wins in this week’s ACC Tournament, including a 52-51 win on Friday over Florida State in the ACC quarterfinals.
The win gave Tech a season sweep of Florida State. Tech also beat another bubble team that was given an NCAA bid, Penn State (19-14, the #10 seed in the West Region).
Losses in the final week of the regular season to Boston College and Clemson and a pair of losses to 16-15 Virginia were key blemishes on the Hokies’ resume, as was a relatively weak strength of schedule (74th among the 345 teams in Division I).
Selection Sunday: What it all means
Posted by afp on March 13, 2011 · Leave a Comment
OK, so ACC teams don’t get to play the likes of Georgia State in January and February. That said, the Committee has made it clear that it expects power-conference teams to play more challenging nonconference schedules than Seth Greenberg likes to put together.
That much should have been clear to Greenberg a while ago, but, well, here we go again. I think Tech had clearly played its way into the field this year (as I had thought last year), but the message has been sent. Read more
Filed under Blogs · Tagged with College Basketball, college basketball virginia, george mason, ncaa virginia tech, nit, odu, old dominion, richmond, selection sunday, seth greenberg, tony bennett, ur, uva. basketball, vcu