ESPN Men's Basketball

College basketball's ultimate Cinderella story captured not only the American public's imagination but also a place in the American lexicon.

Since March, a new sports phrase has emerged to describe a certain type of underdog uprising: to "pull a George Mason." It's been used to tag the Edmonton Oilers' run from an 8-seed to the Stanley Cup finals as well as Portugal's surprising semifinal showing at the World Cup. Just the other week, a caller to a satellite sports-talk radio show wondered aloud if the Detroit Tigers' rapid turnaround made them the "George Mason of baseball."

However, all of this only serves to bleed the specialness and wonder out of what was a legendary, singular feat. Some folks might need a refresher of what a "George Mason" really is.

"This team was able to overcome three recent national champions -- Michigan State, North Carolina and Connecticut," George Mason coach Jim Larranaga said. "And Wichita State, although they're a so-called mid-major just like we are, they were a higher seed than we were. David isn't supposed to kill Goliath four times in a row, but that's exactly what happened."

Still, nothing will keep some from boiling GMU's achievement down to a convenient shorthand or from heaping expectations on the school and its home conference to repeat a brilliant postseason. What else does the Colonial Athletic Association have in its bag of tricks? And what'll the league do for an encore?

On the morning of Selection Sunday 2006, the CAA was a national afterthought that hadn't seen a second NCAA berth in two decades. By that evening, depending on which talking head you listened to, newly minted at-large No. 11 seed George Mason had either unfairly manipulated the RPI or was the beneficiary of a vast mid-major conspiracy.

Over the following three weeks, though, the league's postseason quartet -- two in the NCAA Tournament, two in the NIT -- proved itself on the court. The CAA almost had two teams in Round 2 of the NCAAs, as UNC Wilmington led George Washington by 18 before eventually falling in OT. Meanwhile, Old Dominion plowed through the NIT bracket on the way to Madison Square Garden. The Monarchs' final victory of the season came against league-mate Hofstra in the NIT quarterfinals.

But when you set the bar this high so quickly, it's virtually impossible to surpass or even duplicate the performance. After what happened in March, anything less than two NCAA bids, a Final Four appearance and placements deep into the NIT might be considered a step backward for the CAA. As such, the big hopes and big dreams of a year ago have been replaced by expectations management.

"Our goal will remain the same, to get multiple teams into the NCAA Tournament," CAA commissioner Tom Yeager said. "I don't think that coming up short of the Final Four would be a disappointment. That was such a special achievement, not just for the George Masons of the world ... I mean, holy cow, there are an awful lot of teams out there with absolute pedigrees that have never even made the Final Four in their history. No, not going back wouldn't be a disappointment at all."

And according to their ESPYS-nominated coach, "pulling a George Mason" isn't necessarily about results. It's more a state of mind.

"When I called timeout when we were down 16-2 against North Carolina [in the second round], we weren't talking about winning the game," Larranaga said. "I asked the players, 'How are we playing?' And they said, 'Not well at all, coach.' So we agreed to focus on just playing well.

"We've never been worried about the expectations that others place on our program. If we were influenced by all the outside pressure, we would have lost in the first round to Michigan State. It's like Phil Mickelson at The Masters ... he wasn't focusing on winning the tournament. He was always concentrating on the next shot, the next hole. That's a lot like what our approach has been all along, and we're not about to change it now."

– Kyle Whelliston

Hottest rivalry: Hofstra-George Mason
Aside from the occasional sparks thrown off by the NFC East's Giants and Redskins, New York and Washington aren't exactly a potent pair when it comes to rivalries. However, the ancillary towns of Hempstead, N.Y., and Fairfax, Va., are beginning to author an intriguing tale of conflict that's heating up the CAA.

Hofstra beat George Mason twice in the space of 10 days late last season, including in a CAA semifinal contest in which GMU scored only 16 points in the second half. Still, when Selection Sunday came around, CAA tournament runner-up Hofstra wasn't called, despite an RPI in the mid-20s. George Mason went instead, primarily on the strength of its regular season co-championship.

"Personally, I'm over it," said Hofstra coach Tom Pecora regarding the snub. "But we've got to keep the chips on our shoulders about what happened. It helps us keep our edge."

Because of the CAA's unbalanced schedule, that edge will come to its razor-sharp climax only once next season (barring a conference tourney rematch in Richmond) -- in Fairfax on Saturday, Feb. 10. Circle the date.

Hot team
Towson doesn't have much to show for its five seasons in the CAA: a 23-73 record in conference games and a solitary first-round win in the league tourney (in 2004 over William & Mary).

But last year, the Tigers began establishing themselves as a tough out. Gary Neal didn't play in enough games to qualify for any scoring titles, but the transfer's 26.1 ppg didn't go unnoticed -- or without some controversy. Neal was a central figure in the La Salle rape case; he transferred to Towson after being acquitted on all charges.

This season, it's more about basketball than off-court drama in Baltimore, and Neal won't be a one-man show. All-freshman guard Tim Crossin showed promising poise at the point, and 6-9, 250-pound juco transfer Dennard Abraham picked up the scoring slack when Neal suffered a late-season ankle injury.

Put it all together, and the Cats are poised for a breakthrough season.

Hot damn
This past February, BracketBusters viewers got a glimpse of how hot the CAA could be when the conference compiled a torrid 6-2 record over teams from the Missouri Valley, America East and MAAC.

Next February, all 12 CAA teams will participate in the ESPN-sponsored mid-major hoops festival. According to commissioner Tom Yeager, Delaware, George Mason, Georgia State, Hofstra, Northeastern and VCU will play at home, while the league's other six schools will play in BracketBusters road games.

– Kyle Whelliston

Put aside its status as the only league in the country with four 24-plus win teams and its gaudy 9-4 postseason record (if you can), and the CAA's smash-through 2005-06 season looked a lot like many of its previous campaigns: a core of tough, defense-first teams beating each other up in a down-to-the-wire league race that culminated in a series of free-for-all conference tourney death matches at the Richmond Coliseum. There's no reason to believe this type of scenario won't happen again in 2006-07.

A softer-than-usual underbelly of five teams -- William & Mary, James Madison, Georgia State, Delaware and Northeastern -- undergoing varying stages of rebuilding may drag the league's overall RPI down from its all-time high of No. 8 last year, but a nationally televised win by George Mason at Duke in December certainly would help even things out. (Not that we're expecting it, mind you.)

Casual fans scouting the league for "the next George Mason" probably won't be disappointed. Early speculation of this type centers squarely on Hofstra, the squad that knocked off George Mason in the CAA semifinals in the game that featured the infamous Tony Skinn incident.

This season, Hofstra returns a three-man senior backcourt of Antoine Agudio (17.2 ppg), Carlos Rivera (11.7) and crotch-punch recipient Loren Stokes (17.4 ppg). Proud Pride fans aren't just fancying their guard corps as the CAA's best; they're boastfully comparing their trio to high-major backcourt tandems such as those at Kansas and North Carolina.

And if the Long Island-based squad lives up to its potential, much of the New York metropolitan area might come aboard for the feel-good ride. There's a real possibility that once the NFL season is over and fans get tired of kicking around the hapless Knicks, the Pride of the CAA might end up with a big chunk of Big Apple sports media attention all to itself.

"We're ready for anything," said Hofstra head coach Tom Pecora. "I really felt that our guys handled themselves very well with the media demands this past March. We spend a lot of time talking about preparing for success and how to handle it ... it's not just a basketball lesson, it's good preparation for real life, too."

* * *

Last season was Northeastern's first in the league after graduating from America East, and the Huskies wasted no time in establishing themselves as a CAA force. NU finished with a 19-11 record and RPI of 90 while leading the league in points (75.2), assists (16.3 apg), rebounds (34.9 rpg) and blocks (7.8 bpg). The Huskies also destroyed eventual NIT semifinalist Old Dominion in the conference quarterfinals but still found themselves on the outside looking in when the NIT Legends Committee made its selections.

Team-leading scorer and runaway CAA assists leader Jose Juan Barea (21.0 ppg, 8.4 apg) graduated, as did the combined 17.3 ppg of production from senior mainstays Aaron Davis and Janon Cole, but it turned out that those departures were only the beginning.

In late March, while George Mason and Old Dominion were still active in the postseason, head coach Ron Everhart decided to try his hand at perpetual rebuilding project Duquesne of the Atlantic 10. Two months later, CAA Defensive Player of the Year Shawn James, a 6-9 sophomore who led all of D-I in blocked shots (6.3 bpg) last season, followed Everhart to the Steel City.

Now, Northeastern's sudden and unexpected overhaul will be overseen by Bill Coen, who spent the last 17 years assisting Al Skinner -- first at Rhode Island and then for the past nine seasons at Boston College. Coen prefers to look at his inherited glassware as one-quarter full instead of three-quarters empty.

"We do have a good senior inside-outside combo coming back," Coen said. "[6-3 guard] Bobby Kelly is a great shooter, and [6-7] Bennet Davis will be our go-to guy. We do have a plan that focuses on the long-term, but we do hope and expect to win a few games next season."

In addition to X's and O's, Coen's background contains other types of offense and defense. Before entering the basketball business, the soft-spoken coach spent three years as a programmer on Raytheon's Patriot strategic missile defense systems.

"Computer programming teaches you to think logically," Coen said of his former profession. "But you find that in basketball, that's not always the right approach."

* * *

It might turn out that the conference's greatest collective challenge next season will be to fill a leaguewide vacuum in the post. Fourteen of last season's top 20 rebounders are gone, a list that includes James (7.9 rpg), Old Dominion's 2005 CAA Player of the Year Alex Loughton (7.7 rpg) and Delaware's Harding Nana (CAA-high 10.2 rpg).

The mass exodus also claimed the leading rebounders from the upcoming season's presumptive favorites: Mason's Jai Lewis (7.8 rpg) and Hofstra's combined 15.1 rpg from Adrian Uter and Aurimas Kieza. Much of both teams' postseason prospects will be closely related to their success in redistributing all those missing boards; Patriot newcomer Daryl Monroe (a 6-7, 230-pound top-100 prospect) and 6-9, 260-pound Pride sophomore Chris Gadley (2.7 rpg in 10.2 mpg his freshman season) likely will be key figures in next season's CAA drama.

Two of the remaining six top-20 bigs from last season hail from Drexel: 6-10 senior Chaz Crawford and 6-8 junior Frank Elegar, whose combined 14.4 rpg instantly makes them the CAA's most seasoned and talented frontcourt. Ten of the Dragons' 11 conference losses last season came by seven points or fewer -- if the shooting and scoring improves at all (league-low 62.3 ppg and 39.0 percent FG shooting), Drexel might enjoy an interesting Selection Sunday in 2007.

Then there's the next generation of CAA beef, players like VCU's long-armed 6-7 Cameroonian import Franck Ndongo, UNC Wilmington's 6-9 College of Charleston transfer Jeff Horowitz and a 6-9 Finlander named Gerald Lee Jr., who likely will get minutes right away for ODU. A high-impact season for any of the above could tip the league race.

– Kyle Whelliston

2005-06 Standings
Team	League record	Overall record
UNC Wilmington*	15-3	25-8
George Mason*	15-3	27-8
Hofstra	14-4	26-7
Old Dominion	13-5	24-10
Northeastern	12-6	19-11
VCU	11-7	19-10
Drexel	8-10	15-16
Towson	8-10	12-16
Delaware	4-14	9-21
William & Mary	3-15	8-20
Georgia State	3-15	7-22
James Madison	2-16	5-23

* -- NCAA Tournament

A lot of teams will find themselves in guarded condition after they face Hofstra's dynamic backcourt.

Leading returning scorers
Player (Team)	2005-06 PPG
Loren Stokes (Hofstra)	17.4
Antoine Agudio (Hofstra)	17.2
Dominick Mejia (Drexel)	15.3
T.J. Carter (UNCW)	13.5
Juwann James (James Madison)	12.7

– Andy Glockner

The big CAA storylines

Delaware: Phil Martelli sidekick Monte Ross swoops in to rebuild after the Hens' six unsatisfying seasons under David Henderson. It won't be pretty for a while. Reminder: The inflatable Air YoUDee mascot might be 9 feet tall and have mad hops, but he has zero eligibility remaining.

Drexel: The Dragons' defensive efficiency was 13th in the nation (.899 points allowed per defensive possession). They placed center Chaz Crawford and point guard Bashir Mason on the CAA's all-defensive team last season, and both players return as seniors.

George Mason: The Mason Effect: Coach Larranaga had maybe a single toe in the door with sought-after juco shooting guard Andre Smith from Arizona, but after the Final Four run, the ink was as good as dry. Smith will have three years of eligibility remaining for the Patriots.

Georgia State: Memories ... the Panthers held George Mason without a basket for nine minutes in the second half and forced the Patriots into OT before falling 61-56 in a quarterfinal tooth-skinner that's become one of the great what-if games in hoops history. Now, GSU loses four starters and 40.9 combined ppg and will spend its second CAA season figuring out its own identity.

Hofstra: Tom Pecora, who became a staple of TV talk shows during the NCAA Tournament, turned down an offer from Seton Hall and signed a five-year extension to stay at Hofstra through 2010-11.

James Madison: The Dukes' Dean Keener era enters Year 3 without the expected senior core of Ray Barbosa and Cavell Johnson, who both transferred to UMBC, of all places. CAA Rookie of the Year Juwann James (12.7 ppg, 7.1 rpg) will need a lot of help that, in all honesty, simply won't arrive.

UNC Wilmington: Was coach Brad Brownell's semilateral move to Wright State a smart one? We'll know soon enough. In the meantime, Bobby Lutz's former top aide at Charlotte, Benny Moss, takes over Team Teal and gets to defend the league championship with returning leading scorer T.J. Carter (13.6 ppg) and former Wake Forest transfer PF Todd Hendley (10.6 ppg).

Northeastern: Bobby Kelly 's effective field goal percentage, a statistic that weights 3-pointers, led the CAA: His 53.5 percent mark from inside the arc and 44 percent figure from beyond it contributed to a sterling 64.3 percent eFG.

Old Dominion: During the 2006 NIT, Colorado and Manhattan found out what happens when you sleep on ODU. Despite the losses of inside-outside pair Alex Loughton and Isaiah Hunter (27.8 combined ppg), mini Drew Williamson and maxi Arnaud Dahi will look to put together senior seasons that will keep the CAA wide awake.

Towson: Crafty Pat Kennedy is two years removed from his worst season in 26 seasons as a D-I head coach -- a 5-24 disaster in his first campaign with the Tigers. This might be the year that Pat's Cats move to the CAA's upper division.

VCU: After Jeff Capel left for Oklahoma, Florida assistant Anthony Grant took over and promised an up-tempo style. Senior guards B.A. Walker and Jesse Pellot-Rosa will fit right in.

William & Mary: For the second consecutive year, a freshman phenom has left the Tribe. Future Virginia Cavalier Calvin Baker (team-leading 11.6 ppg in 2005-06) is the latest to declare: I'm never going back to my old school.

– Kyle Whelliston