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For George Mason WBB, A Dream Season In Progress

Daniel FrankBy No Comments15 Mins Read

As the final seconds ticked off the clock Wednesday night in EagleBank Arena, Vanessa Blair-Lewis finally let a smile run across her face. She turned to face the bench, and the tension released from her shoulders, as Saint Louis slowed down the final possession of the game, in what was yet another 30-point win over an A-10 opponent for George Mason. The win moved Mason’s record to an astonishing 13-3 overall, 4-1 in conference play, matching their best ever start in A-10 play (the famed 2018 “Natalie Butler Season”). The lone losses have come at the hands of Maryland- by nine, ECU, and Rhode Island, all on the road. All but one were decided by single digits. The rest of their wins? Let’s just say it’s been dominant.

George Mason is winning by astounding margins: 24.5 PPG over non-conference opponents, and 32.8 PPG over conference ones. That’s UConn levels of absurd blowouts, that are becoming almost routine, night in and night out. Nationally, George Mason ranks 29th in the nation in margin of victory, ahead of nationally ranked teams like Colorado and Louisville. Mason’s scoring offense ranks 39th in the nation at 77.3 points per game, easily the best in the Atlantic 10. And while the Patriots have three different players averaging in double figures in scoring, only one is a starter (Sonia Smith). That’s not to say the starting five hasn’t been getting it done, because that couldn’t be further from the truth. One of the strengths of this Mason team has been jumping out to early leads, like the 10-0 blitz they had against Saint Louis Wednesday night, the 19-5 run to start against Davidson in their previous game, the list goes on and on. George Mason just happens to have the second-best bench in the entire nation, racking up 37.1 points per game. Combine that with the 40.1 points a night you get from your starting five, and what you have is a lethal offense that is utterly relentless and just comes at you, wave after wave.

But it wasn’t always this way in Fairfax. To understand the magnitude of how special a season George Mason is presently having, one must rewind to before Vanessa Blair-Lewis arrived at GMU. I tread lightly over Nyla Milleson’s tenure at Mason, because she was as lovely as a woman as you will ever meet. She was a great role model for her players, and welcomed me in with open arms when I started covering the team during the 2019 season. But unfortunately, that wonderful culture just did not translate into on the court success for very long. Following the 2018 WNIT appearance, in which the Patriots were led by UConn-transfer Natalie Butler, thing began to fall apart. In 2019, George Mason finished in 7th place, respectable, but a noticeable dropoff, especially while still having A-10 Player of the Year Nicole Cardaño-Hillary. As I wrote in 2021, what happened next, was a disaster.

“Unfortunately, the 2020 season is where it began to come off the rails. The Patriots posted a 9-21 record, including a 3-13 conference record finishing in 13th place in the A-10. It looked like rock bottom. It was not.

In the offseason, Nicole Cardaño-Hillary announced she was transferring from Mason to Indiana, where she has been a starter all year long for the top-10 ranked Hoosiers.

Finally, we come to [the 2021] season. The Patriots posted a 3-19 record, went winless in A-10 play, finished in 14th place, and lost their final 15 games of the season overall. No player on the roster averaged in double figures, as the young team seemed to struggle to find an identity all year long. Offense became a consistent problem too over the years, and that was punctuated [in the 2021 season].

George Mason ranked dead last in Division-I in field goal percentage entering their contest yesterday, shooting 30% from the field on the season. In addition, the Patriots ranked 326th in points per game at just a mere 50.5 points. In addition, they are 316th in scoring margin (-14.3), 324th in assists per game (9.3), and 315th in win-loss percentage (.143).”

It was bad. Really bad. I went to every single one of Mason’s home games during that stretch, in the midst of the raging pandemic. It really was the only time I left the house, as all my classes were completely online. It became an all-too painful routine: put on a mask, sit 40 feet away from the floor, turn on live stats, and watch Mason struggle to score 40 points in a game. If a loss was less than 20 points, that was worth celebrating. As long as I live, I’m not sure I’ll ever forget New Year’s Day 2021, when Mason lost to Fordham 62-32, a game they trailed 32-11 at halftime (and they misspelled George on the scorebug).

Nor will I forget when they scored 27 points in a loss to Rhode Island, the list simply just goes on. I don’t mean to beat a dead horse on the 2021 team, Lord knows they had enough obstacles to overcome. They were one of only a tiny handful of teams that also made it through the entire 2020-2021 season without a single COVID pause, an achievement worth celebrating in its own right. But folks, this team was not good.

Following that season, Nyla Milleson departed Fairfax, and in arrived Vanessa Blair-Lewis. As I wrote then, her resume spoke for itself.

“Her accolades and record certainly speak for themselves, as she has an overall coaching record of 293-235 (.555), including a 97-67 (.591) record at Mount St. Mary’s between 1998 and 2007, and 196-168 (.538) record at Bethune-Cookman between 2008 and 2021. Blair-Lewis’ career highlights include being named MEAC Coach of the Year four times, and NEC Coach of the Year one time, taking Bethune-Cookman to their first ever NCAA Tournament appearance in 2019, and posted four consecutive 20-win seasons in each of her final four seasons at BCU.”

Coaches will often say a lot of things at introductory press conferences. They want to appeal to the fans and boosters, knowing they need to drum up support, especially financially. You’ll hear things about how we’re going to be an exciting team or we’re going to win games, because of course coaches will say that. It’s the easiest PR trick in the book. But at VBL’s introductory presser, you could tell, she saw a vision. Admittedly at the time of her hire, I was probably as skeptical as anyone if George Mason would every be able to achieve success in Women’s Basketball, especially in the short term. A .500 record felt unattainable, let alone competing for A-10 championships. But I will never forget the goosebumps I felt when Coach turned to the players and said, “You’ve just signed up with a coach that’s crazy enough to believe that you can win. That’s absolutely crazy enough to believe, and do everything but make excuses, to do it.” You could hear a pin drop in that moment, because you could see the eyes of players who had just endured a dreadfully painful season, start to have a glimmer of hope for the first time.

Right out of the gates, you could tell things were different in 2022. George Mason won their first two games of the season, both on the road, taking down FIU and Loyola (MD) back to back, which included a Jazymn Doster game-winner with 5 seconds left in a game the Patriots scored the final 6 points in a row. The real catalyst of that season was Mason’s 75-71 upset of Florida, a team that went on to finish 21-11 and make the NCAA Tournament as a 10-seed.

The victory was Mason’s first win over a SEC school since 1996, and the first home win over a Power 5 school since 2015. After a 9-game losing streak derailed the season, Mason snapped that streak and more importantly, snapped an even longer streak with they defeated their rivals, GW, 52-46. The win marked their first A-10 win in 707 days, snapping a streak of 24 consecutive loses that dated back two seasons. And although that 2022 squad went on to finish in last place in the Atlantic 10, the Patriots concluded VBL’s first season at the helm with a stunning 65-50 upset of 11-seed Saint Louis in the 1st Round of the A-10 Tournament. The win was Mason’s first in the A-10 Tournament since 2018, and became the first-ever 14-seed to win a game in either the Men’s or Women’s A-10 Tournament.

The building blocks were laid that season, and they were built upon in the following year as well, as George Mason finished in 9th place in the A-10, finishing 16-15 overall, 8-8 in conference play. It was a season filled with ups and downs, and was bookended with a second victory in the A-10 Tournament in as many years, upsetting La Salle, 64-58.

The 2024 season was going to be about this bunch taking the next step. Mason added tremendous talent, both via the transfer portal and through their incoming freshman class. Despite this, the Patriots were selected to finish 8th in the Atlantic 10, a ranking that to me felt a little low, but not outrageous at the time. But boy, does it feel outrageous now. There is no better way to describe this season thus far other than a dream season. This is a year Mason fans could hardly have been able to conceptualize just three short years ago. How a team that ranked dead-last in scoring in the nation in 2021 is putting up nearly 80 points a game, and night in and night out flat-out demolishing their opponents.

When Mason opened the season with a 96-45 win over non-DI Bowie State, it was easy at the time for some to discount the margin as simply due to Bowie State being a lower classification. Mason then had semi-close games in consecutive fashion against Marshall, William & Mary, Pitt, and Robert Morris in which the Patriots led fairly comfortably the entire game, but it was never a blowout. To me, the turning point in this season was the game at American. Bender Arena has been a house of horrors for the Patriots historically, having not won there since 2006. Mason trailed 35-26 at halftime, shooting just 34% from the field and was 0/9 from three. What happened next can only be described as “flipping the switch.” The Patriots came out of halftime on fire, out-scoring the Eagles 16-8 to cut the deficit to one. The second half remained close throughout, but Mason closed the game on a 16-3 run to steal one from AU, 72-62. Down the stretch of the game, the Patriots showed a knack for hitting clutch shots at the right time, something that teams of year’s past were just never able to do. Paula Suarez hit a big three in the 4th Quarter that gave George Mason their first lead of the day. Taylor Jameson simply would not be denied diving to the basket, with the bucket that essentially put the game away.

That game was the first of a six-game road trip that lasted 30 days to conclude conference play. George Mason went 4-2 over that span, picking up DOMINANT wins over Coppin State and Mount St. Mary’s, and a gutsy come-from-behind win at Towson. The first loss came at Maryland by just nine points, in a game that the Patriots led by nearly double digits for three quarters. The other loss came at ECU, in a game that now very much feels like an aberration, as Mason shot 19% from the field, went 5/29 from three and 11/23 from the line. None of those players will ever shoot that badly for the rest of their lives.

When conference play rolled around, the Patriots were ready from the jump, taking an early 14-6 lead on La Salle, and never looking back, en-route to a 74-37 victory. George Mason picked up their lone loss of conference play on the road at reigning A-10 Regular Season Co-Champion Rhode Island, 70-68. The Ryan Center is one of the toughest places to play in all of college basketball, and the Patriots were only one basket short of taking down the Rams. The Patriots then bounced-back with a 101-75 shellacking of Duquesne on the road, on national television. In a game that may well cement Sonia Smith candidacy for A-10 Player of the Year, Sonia dropped 30 points on the Dukes, and gave an awesome interview postgame on CBSSN.

The Patriots followed up that win with arguably their most complete win of the season, a 79-41 complete dismantling of Davidson. Mind you, a Davidson team that entered 46th in the NET and 12-2 overall, and confidently in an at-large position. And George Mason dominated the Wildcats, wire to wire. And then the Patriots did nearly the exact same thing to Saint Louis one week later, except they did it from two instead of three. They hit just two triples in the first half, but still put up 47 points, and hit only 6 threes all game long. Mason still scored 91 points.

This season, and the progress that has been made over the last several years in Fairfax, have been nothing short of extraordinary. There are so many amazing stories on this team I could never hope to cover all of them, but there are a few names worth mentioning:

Taylor Jameson. A four year player, one of two players left from the 2021 roster. She knows how hard losing is, and what it takes to win. She knows how to play her role on the team, and understands it better than most anyone. She is just 95 points shy of 1,000 career points.

Jazmyn Doster. A fifth year player, the second of two players left from the 2021 roster. She is a force in the paint, plays with her heart on her sleeve, and is now 13th on the all-time Mason rebounding list at 609.

Zaza Walton. A redshirt-freshman who sat out all of last year with an injury, and has now been named A-10 Rookie of the Week twice already.

Kennedy Harris. A true-freshman who has been electric off the bench, and is always instant offense. The most confident freshman I have seen in years. She has been named A-10 Rookie of the Week three times.

Sonia Smith. The best player on the best team in the Atlantic 10? She might just be. A transfer from Sacred Heart, now in her second and final year in Fairfax, she is putting up career-best numbers, highlighted by a 30-piece she dropped on Duquesne a few weeks ago.

Paula Suarez. The junior guard who has developed from a cautious freshman to a sure-handed floor general who has no fear when driving the basketball.

This list could go on and on.

As for George Mason as a team, what comes next is anyone’s guess. A victory of UMass on Sunday would move the Patriots to 5-1 in A-10 play for the first ever. This year’s squad is only the 3rd time in school history Mason has started 13-3: in 2018, Mason fell to 13-4 after a loss to GW, and in 1975 (aka the 2nd year of the program), Mason finished the season 13-3. History is on the horizon for these Patriots, who show no signs of slowing down anytime soon. The Patriots sit tied for 3rd place in the A-10, and a double bye in Henrico for the A-10 Tournament is becoming a very real possibility. This is a team that has the pieces to make a run in March, no matter what tournament they wind up in.

I can’t tell you have many times I’ve pinched myself this season. A team that once couldn’t put up 40 in a game sometimes now is routinely putting that up by halftime. A team that couldn’t hit threes is now draining double digits of them. Teams that you used to be able to pencil in loses to, you can almost pencil in wins now. The manner in which Mason is beating teams right now is astounding. They will hit threes until you’re blue in the face. They will drive and hit mid-range jumpers with ease. They have had three consecutive games shooting over 50% from the field: that’s just absurd. And to do it all while just dismantling teams, good teams, is just astounding. I know I’m biased, but I know a good team when I see one, and this is a GOOD team. They’re so much fun, they’re such great people, and by all accounts, this journey is just getting started.

Long live all the magic they’re making.

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Daniel Frank is an alum of George Mason University. The 2024 season marks their 9th season at A10Talk, where they are proud to be the content lead for Women’s Basketball coverage, as well as a senior contributor for Men’s Basketball content. In addition, this season will be Daniel’s 25th year following GW basketball, and their 7th following George Mason. You can follow Daniel on X, formerly known as Twitter, @n1a2v3y4.

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