Book closed on Cinderella story
Final Four appearance history, George Mason struggling
FAIRFAX, Va. -- George Mason arrives in Worcester to play Holy Cross tomorrow night as a 4-4 team. Jim Larranaga is doing his best to coach 'em up, but the final result will be out of his control. A coach can provide the blueprint for success, but either the players figure things out or they don't, and thus far they haven't.
"This club reminds me of my first team at Bowling Green," said Larranaga, "and it also reminds me of our first team here at George Mason. Because we had enough talent to win, but we needed to figure out how to use that talent."
A year ago at this time, George Mason was just another pretty good team from a so-called "mid-major" conference. When the Patriots came to Boston for their Colonial Athletic Association affair with Northeastern Jan. 2, the 1,208 Matthews Arena witnesses to George Mason's 71-68 triumph had no idea they were looking at a Final Four team. But two months and change later, the Patriots defeated Michigan State, North Carolina, Wichita State, and, finally, second-ranked and star-studded Connecticut. For the first time in modern NCAA basketball, a mid-major was in the Final Four. Larranaga and George Mason suddenly were exposed to the world.
They lost the national semifinal game to eventual champion Florida, but in the world of college basketball, getting to the Final Four is such an end in itself that it hardly mattered. Just putting a team on the floor for one of those Saturday evening semis is the fairy tale goal shared by thousands of eager high school mentors and college coaches in all classifications. Larranaga had been fantasizing about it ever since he had been a Virginia assistant for two such appearances in the '80s. And now he was here with George Mason, a school not used to hobnobbing with the college basketball gentry.
There will be no repeat. Some other year, well, who knows? But it won't be 2007.
"Last year," said Larranaga, "everyone had a role, everyone knew that role, and everyone executed."
This is not the same team. Gone from his 27-8 dragon-slaying squad are Jai Lewis, Lamar Butler, and Tony Skinn, three fifth-year seniors who combined for more than 4,000 career points and an equal number of wise on-court decisions. They have not been replaced.
"From the first day to the last, they were consistent in practice," said Larranaga. "Every day was the same. This year our players' roles have changed. You've given more responsibility to [returning starters] Will Thomas and Folarin Campbell, and they've been able to assume their roles. But the support guys are still trying to learn their roles."
The 2006-07 Patriots have two specific needs. They need to develop a second post presence to augment the wily 6-foot-7-inch Thomas, who is facing double and triple teams as he negotiates down there on the boxes, and they need a second outside shooter to help Campbell.
Larranaga believes he has the answer to one of the problems. John Vaughan is a 6-3 guard who was good enough to be on the CAA All-Freshman team two years ago, but he was a medical redshirt last year and is finding his reentry to college ball harder than expected. Larranaga has no choice but to exercise patience. "He's giving us a very good effort," said Larranaga, "but his shot has been erratic."
Thomas is scoring a steady 13.3 points a game, but he is doing this on a paltry 8.6 shots a game, which testifies to just how hard this 65 percent shooter must work to get the ball. A year ago he was the 1A to the burly Lewis's 1 in the post, and George Mason was extremely difficult to defend. "Lewis and Thomas were the two smartest low-post players I've ever coached," Larranaga said.
When Selection Sunday arrived, the Colonials were no lock for the NCAA Tournament. The CAA folk had no idea how much respect their league would be given.
"The team was over to my house for the show, and I gave them a little speech," Larranaga said. "I said that any one of about 40 teams could shock the world and that we were one of them. Kids understand numbers, and I pointed out to them that we were eighth in field goal defense. People had a hard time scoring against us. I told them we were 14th in field goal percentage. We took good shots. And I told them that our RPI [Ratings Power Index] was 26.
"I said that if we get in, it's not going to matter who we play or where we play, we could win. I said I've had 35 years experience in this business, and I knew we were good enough. We just had to get in."
Well, they did. And then serendipity intervened in the form of a favorable draw.
"First," said Larranaga, "we had Michigan State. We had played them the year before and they had only beaten us by 6 when Tony Skinn was just coming back to the lineup from an injury and was not at full strength. Then we had North Carolina, and they were young. Wichita State? We had beaten them on their own floor in the Bracket Busters."
OK, but what about Jim Calhoun's collection of first-rounders and assorted other draft picks? How did George Mason manage to upend vaunted UConn in the regional final?
We can start by saying that as good as the Huskies were, they were still young. Experience matters in college basketball. "Lewis, Skinn, and Butler were all fifth-year seniors," Larranaga said. "They were four years older than the guys they were playing against."
Thomas was just a sophomore, but he had something else showing up on the plus side. "Will Thomas had played against Rudy Gay seven times in high school and had never lost to him," said Larranaga. "And he was able to spread that message to his teammates."
It was also no secret that UConn never really had been able to jell all season, that it was a team Calhoun had not been able to reach. "A lot of times, when you get kids like they had, their No. 1 priority is no longer the team, it's themselves," Larranga mused. "Even if they aren't inherently that way themselves, they are constantly hearing that from their 'associates.' "
But UConn certainly was talented, and at the end of regulation had tied a game George Mason appeared to have won.
A lot of coaches would have gone into a technical frenzy, but not Larranaga. "We lost an NCAA Tournament game to Maryland by 3 in '01," he said. "And at the end of that game I was very, very disappointed with myself. Why? Because I made a mistake I vowed I'd never, ever make again. I started to X and O like crazy the last play we ran. That was a mistake. Because then all of a sudden you have players thinking too much, instead of just feeling. It should be, 'Just give me the ball and I'll score.'
"So in the huddle before the UConn OT, I didn't X and O anything. I just told them, 'There's no place else I'd rather be than here, playing UConn for the right to go to the Final Four. Just go out there and play the way you know how.' And they did. They played relaxed. I was having fun. They were having fun. They weren't feeling the pressure of the moment."
It helped that the game was at the
And now he's been asked to be a member of the Washington Speakers Bureau. "I'm really excited about that," he said. "Of course, it gave me a chance to tell them I've been writing to them and asking to join every year for the last eight."
Larranaga is soaking it all up, but it could be that the best ramification of getting to the Final Four is better job security in a league in which he is the only man standing from the CAA coaching roster of 10 years ago. The man still lives to coach, and right now he's got a team that desperately needs some guidance.
"Here's the thing," he said. "I'm looking forward to the moment when they do get it. There will be a moment when they'll say, 'Oh, that's what Coach is talking about.' And when they do, they'll be ecstatic."
Tomorrow at The Cross, he's not seeking ecstasy. A simple W over Ralph Willard's well-prepped gang will do. To borrow a phrase, Jai Lewis, Tony Skinn, and Lamar Butler aren't walking through that door any time soon.
Oh, and if you need to see last year's team, there is, of course, a DVD available.
Bob Ryan's e-mail address is ryan@globe.com. 
