George Mason slide deepens: Patriots blown out at George Washington

George Mason coach Tony Skinn put it bluntly: “This was not a good week for George Mason Basketball.”

This, after the Patriots lost their second straight on the road, 72-53, at George Washington, on Friday night.

Road games are tough, sure, but for a Mason (21-5, 9-4, NET: 91) team that started the week on the periphery of the NCAA Tournament bubble, back-to-back losses to teams with sub-.500 records in league play, just devastating.

GW (15-11, 6-7 A-10, NET: 85) led by two at the break, got the lead to double-digits four minutes into the second half, and the game didn’t get closer than seven the rest of the way.

Masai Troutman led the Patriots with an A-10 season-high 15 points (5-of-8 FG) to go with five rebounds and two assists.

“I thought we did a pretty decent job in the first half, but they came out with the intensity level and toughness in the second half that we didn’t match,” Skinn said. “This is the same team that’s won a lot of games this season and we just have to stick together down the stretch and regroup against Dayton at home.”

NCAA Tournament resume

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Quad 1: 0-1
Quad 2: 1-2
Quad3/4: 19-2
Non-D1: 1-0

Key

Quad 1: Home (1-30), Neutral (1-50), Away (1-75)
Quad 2: Home (31-75), Neutral (51-100), Away (76-135)

Metrics

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Topline

• RPI: 44
• ELO: 63
• NET: 91

Result-based

• KPI: 46
• SOR: 60
• WAB: 67

Predictive

• BPI: 83
• KenPom: 95
• BartTorvik: 125

Average: 74.9
NCAA Tournament seed projection: nowhere near

Key remaining games

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• Quad 1: @VCU (19-6, 10-2 A-10, NET: 48), March 3
• Quad 1: Saint Louis (24-1, 12-0 A-10, NET: 16), March 7