Game! Of! The! Night! 11/25/2008: Mount St. Mary's at George Mason

Mount Saint Mary's at George Mason
Patriot Center - Fairfax, VA
7:00 PM EST

There's plenty of hot mid-on-mid action tonight. There's our game, for example, out in Bucknell as the Bison host Old Dominion, at which we'll all party like it's 2005. The best excuse for a city game in Boston takes place between Boston University and Northeastern -- lots of red and black there, so watch out who you're heckling. But do either of those games feature two teams coming off NCAA Tournament bids? Nooo. So our G!O!T!N! cameras are off to GMU.

George Mason (3-1), the school which I probably owe my gainful employment to after its magical Final Four run three seasons ago, isn't afraid to forget about the past. And when I say that I mean, exchange the beloved furry mascot Gunston with this hideous love child of the New England Patriot and Braveheart. (Here's a name for you: "Johnny Badacid.") On the court, however, there are hints of the three-headed monster that made 2006 such a success, this time in the personages of midsize 6-6 Louis Birdsong, bulky undersizer Darryl Monroe (as "Jai Lewis Jr."), and John Vaughan -- the man who spent that run on crutches -- in the backcourt. All three are in double figures scoring-wise, and the Patriots are 3-1 with wins over Vermont, Brown and East Carolina.

The NEC champion Mountaineers (1-1) nearly tipped Virginia Tech over the weekend, and earlier beat the Loyola (Md.) Fightin' Patsoses. The scoring leader for the Mount has been its 5-9 superdynamo Jeremy Goode, who's averaging 18 points over the first couple of games, but check out Jean Cajou, the 6-3 sophomore who came on strong down the stretch in 2007-08 and scored 19 in the close loss to VT. Cajou might be ready for a big performance -- he'll have plenty of supporters in the stands, being a Fairfax hometown boy.

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