Mais Non, Mason

George Mason was the Cinderella team last year. They didn't win their conference's tournament. Naysayers said the CAA didn't deserve a second bid.

Then, Mason went and beat three teams that had recently won the NCAA tournament in recent years, by knocking out Michigan State, UNC, and Connecticut, only to lose in the final four to eventual winner, Florida. The UConn game, in particular, was amazing. While the Patriots leads the game, Connecticut managed to tie the game, and people figured they were going to win. After all, that's what the big boys do. They got knocked down, but odds are, they win if they can get back up. And yet, Mason stuck it out, punch for punch, and dominated UConn, refusing to get rattled by the team with superior talent but not superior heart.

This year, which featured one senior, did not do so well, and it came down to needing to win their conference tournament if they were going to get into the big dance, and then George Mason looked like the Mason of old, making it to the finals despite 14 losses in the season. And with three minutes left, they had a five point lead. A good experience team would have held that lead.

But VCU would have none of that. Eric Maynor would score to tie and key steals would eventually let VCU take the lead, and then George Mason would fall back 4 points, then 6 points, and then time simply wouldn't be there. Jim Larranaga knew he didn't have the team last year. Had they won, more than likely, Mason would have lost early. This was not likely to be a team that was going very far.

Tony Kornheiser points out that there's not much likelihood that any team will pull off a Mason this year. Getting to the final four for a mid-major is indeed an incredible feat, rarely seen, and Larranaga milked it for all it was worth with chants like "CAA stands for Connecticut Assassin Association" and they were going to knock of Jim Calhoun's team.

Tony's probably right. Teams like Davidson and Winthrop are trying to be the next Mason, but really, an elite eight appearance is as much as a good mid-major team is likely to hope for.

I suppose we can hope against hope that it will be great again. I, for one, like the underdog stories. I've heard radio commentary that claims the opposite, that audiences prefer to see the big teams do well, and it shows by the numbers, where as sports commentators love underdog stories.

And the great news is, especially in the first weekend, you're going to get these upsets. People's brackets are going to be messed up.

This year, though, it won't be George Mason messing up the brackets. These Patriots had their chance, but for a few minutes, and the excellent play of one Eric Manor of VCU, it's going to be VCU that represents the CAA and tries to see if they've got enough magic to propel them a round or two.