Ryan Pearson named ESPN’s player of the week. George Mason is rolling.

[O's are Legends]

It’s about time they started to get some shine. I know there is a CAA thread but I’m just too excited right now.

Ryan Pearson-college player of the week. He’s also sharing the front page of ESPN’s college basketball section as they have a 2006 theme building up again.

ESPN - George Mason tops mid-major rankings.Current RPI of 23. Just outside the top 25 in the coaches’ poll and 7 spots outside the top 25 in AP poll.

Recapping a bubbly Saturday's early action,

George Mason 62, Old Dominion 45: How about some love for the George Mason Patriots? Entering the season, most observers pegged Old Dominion and Virginia Commonwealth as the Colonial's two main title contenders. Jim Larranga's team rarely got that sort of love. But after Saturday's double-digit home win over ODU, Mason is now 11-2 in league play, good enough to tie VCU for the Colonial lead to date. (VCU got a solid win at James Madison Saturday to move to 11-2, too.) That's especially impressive considering the unusual depth we're seeing in the Colonial this season. VCU, ODU, Mason, Hofstra and even Drexel are all solid, and more than one of them could eventually warrant consideration for an at-large berth by the time the season is over. If the past week -- which, besides Saturday's game, featured a 21-point win over Hofstra -- is any indication, Mason just might be the toughest of the bunch

Feinstein on Mason’s win over ODU and Goff’s article on the sold out win at Fairfax. (I was at the game and wished every game had this type of atmosphere.)

George Mason basketball: Ryan Pearson is scarred but not slowed by childhood accident - Post.

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It really is awesome when your team is playing well.

Mason’s next 4 games.

2/8 Tue 7:00 - at UNCW - MASN

2/12 Sat 5:00 - James Madison - CSN

2/15 Tue 7:00 - at Viginia Commonwealth - ESPNU

2/19 Sat 7:00 - at Northen Iowa – ESPN2

[Pedro Cerrano]

Can't wait for them to get a high seed in the tourney so I can bounce them early against a better power conference opponent.

[backwardsk]

Cornelius was on fire tonight with triples. Despite Hancock and Long's foul trouble, they were able to build out there lead to 10 points early in the second half and never looked back. Taking care of business on the road, especially in a place where they struggle, is a good sign. A lot of balance on this year's squad.

[O's are Legends]

Can't wait for them to get a high seed in the tourney so I can bounce them early against a better power conference opponent.

Good to see you back Billy Packer.

[Pedro Cerrano]

Good to see you back Billy Packer.

Eh, mid-majors are a nice story but you've had a grand total of two of them make a final four in recent memory (Mason and Butler).

Not impressed, sorry, and all you do is take away spots from better power conference teams that actually play real schedules.

[O's are Legends]

Eh, mid-majors are a nice story but you've had a grand total of two of them make a final four in recent memory (Mason and Butler).

Not impressed, sorry, and all you do is take away spots from better power conference teams that actually play real schedules.

I’ve already learned from the past it’s not worth getting into any type of college basketball dialogue or argument with you.

You can’t bunch in teams from the Great West or SWAC with the George Mason’s and Butler’s. Re: bold There will never be a tournament with the best 68 teams in the country so just get over it. For some lower lever schools, it’s worth making it in as a 16 seed only to get dumped by a 1 seed.

[Pedro Cerrano]

I’ve already learned from the past it’s not worth getting into any type of college basketball dialogue or argument with you.

You can’t bunch in teams from the Great West or SWAC with the George Mason’s and Butler’s. Re: bold There will never be a tournament with the best 68 teams in the country so just get over it. For some lower lever schools' date=' it’s worth making it in as a 16 seed only to get dumped by a 1 seed.[/quote']

Why not? If the ultimate goal is to make the Final Four, then they've realized roughly the same success as every other mid-major.

I believe mid-majors ruin the tournament. It would be so much better to watch if the 68 best RPI teams made it, but, like you said, that will never happen.

But people love to drool and gush over the story lines of some rink-a-dink team that gets a few upsets every year so they're here to stay.

[PrivateO]

Why not? If the ultimate goal is to make the Final Four, then they've realized roughly the same success as every other mid-major.

I believe mid-majors ruin the tournament. It would be so much better to watch if the 68 best RPI teams made it, but, like you said, that will never happen.

But people love to drool and gush over the story lines of some rink-a-dink team that gets a few upsets every year so they're here to stay.

At this moment, here are the following that I would consider "mid-majors" that are in the Top 68 in RPI. Should they be in the tournament or not (because you consider them "mid-major")?

23. George Mason, 24. Utah St., 28. UNLV, 29. Old Dominion, 34. St. Mary's, 36. Cleveland St., 28. UAB, 41. Memphis, 43. Southern Mississippi, 47. Missouri St., 48. Butler, 50. Harvard, 51. Drexel, 52. Wichita St., 54. Princeton, 55. Virginia Commonwealth, 56. Valparaiso, 57. UTEP, 59. Coastal Carolina, 63. Belmont, 64. Marshall

Notable teams from Big 6 conferences not in Top 68 in RPI:

Virginia Tech (68), Miami (72), Baylor (76), Maryland (79), USC (85), Colorado (90), Nebraska (92), Seton Hall (93), Akabama (98), Rutgers (100), Providence (101).

http://www.rpiforecast.com/live-rpi.html

It'd be a foolish task to convince me how any of the above should replace the mid-major teams in the tournament.

[Pedro Cerrano]

At this moment, here are the following that I would consider "mid-majors" that are in the Top 68 in RPI. Should they be in the tournament or not (because you consider them "mid-major")?

23. George Mason, 24. Utah St., 28. UNLV, 29. Old Dominion, 34. St. Mary's, 36. Cleveland St., 28. UAB, 41. Memphis, 43. Southern Mississippi, 47. Missouri St., 48. Butler, 50. Harvard, 51. Drexel, 52. Wichita St., 54. Princeton, 55. Virginia Commonwealth, 56. Valparaiso, 57. UTEP, 59. Coastal Carolina, 63. Belmont, 64. Marshall

Notable teams from Big 6 conferences not in Top 68 in RPI:

Virginia Tech (68), Miami (72), Baylor (76), Maryland (79), USC (85), Colorado (90), Nebraska (92), Seton Hall (93), Akabama (98), Rutgers (100), Providence (101).

http://www.rpiforecast.com/live-rpi.html

It'd be a foolish task to convince me how any of the above should replace the mid-major teams in the tournament.

Umm why are you trying to get me to argue against myself?

Of course if those teams are in the top 68 in the RPI they should make it. If you're trying to get me to argue that Maryland should be in over George Mason you've got the wrong idea.

My beef lies mostly with the suck teams from the suck conferences that automatically make it because they beat other suck teams in their suck conference tournament.

Sure, it's nice to go crazy and talk about Valpo beating Ole Miss but I'd much rather see a FULL SLATE of games that will likely be more competitive from Round 1 through the Final 4 than to hope for an upset here or there that will provide the rush of a shot of espresso.

[PrivateO]

Maybe I just misunderstood you then. I still disagree with you in that conference champions shouldn't make the tournament (i.e. teams from the MAAC, America East, Big West, Summit, etc.).

What makes the tournament so special is the chance to see these Cinderalls beat the big dogs of college basketball. I would guess that a majority of college basketball fans enjoy the automatic qualifiers.

[Pedro Cerrano]

Maybe I just misunderstood you then. I still disagree with you in that conference champions shouldn't make the tournament (i.e. teams from the MAAC, America East, Big West, Summit, etc.).

What makes the tournament so special is the chance to see these Cinderalls beat the big dogs of college basketball. I would guess that a majority of college basketball fans enjoy the automatic qualifiers.

Well, you like watching "special" basketball.

I like watching "good" basketball.

[Pedro Cerrano]

I wonder if Pedro realizes he has contradicted himself multiple times in this thread? Oh well.

You must have reading comprehension issues then. For years my stance has been that the top 64 (now 68) RPI teams should make the tournament, go do a thread search if you feel like it.

Now, I still believe that those mid-majors contained in that group would lose more often than not to power conference teams that are ALSO in the top 68 RPI, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't make it.

I just hate it when teams that have no business sniffing the jocks of the teams in the RPI 50-60 make it because they were able to beat Northwestern Idaho Tech in their conference final game.

Everyone loves when the little guy upsets the big guy,and I get that, it's fun to watch for me too. But I'd rather see 8 out of 10 games be competitive than 3 out of 10 games be competitive with perhaps one or two major upsets.

*As an aside, if your true definition of upset is a lower seeded team beating a higher seeded team, you'd see many more upsets using my idea...that can't really be debated.

[PrivateO]

Well, you like watching "special" basketball.

I like watching "good" basketball.

Whatever. You're clearly not swaying from your opinion so I'm not going to waste my time trying to convince you otherwise. I enjoy seeing the small conferences have automatic bids. No, their competition is not at the caliber of a major conference. I would rather see a team like Vermont (11-2 in conference) in the tournament over someone like St. Johns or Boston College, both of whom have .500 records.

[Pedro Cerrano]

Whatever. You're clearly not swaying from your opinion so I'm not going to waste my time trying to convince you otherwise. I enjoy seeing the small conferences have automatic bids. No, their competition is not at the caliber of a major conference. I would rather see a team like Vermont (11-2 in conference) in the tournament over someone like St. Johns or Boston College, both of whom have .500 records.

What is Vermont's RPI versus St. Johns and BC?

[PrivateO]

What is Vermont's RPI versus St. Johns and BC?

Vermont 81, St. John's 22, BC 42.

So yes, I'll admit that one wasn't a really sound example. I just picked a cofnernce leader from ESPN's standings and matched it up with two .500 teams in one of the Big 6 conferences.

Let me ask you something, though. In the NFL, do you think it was right that the Seahawks made the playoffs with a 7-9 record over the 10-6 Giants or Bucs?