Men’s Hoops is still 'outside looking in' the Top 25

Junior Andre Cornelius and the Patriots won last week at VCU and Northern Iowa for 13 straight, but they still were unable to crack the Top 25 this week. (John Powell)

Entering the week, Mason Nation had not only high hopes, but expectations of finding their Patriots in the Top 25 in either the AP Poll or the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll. Those expectations proved to be incorrect.

The George Mason Men’s squad (23-5, 14-2) is coming off a week in which they picked up two quality road wins against rival VCU on Tuesday and non-conference Northern Iowa on Saturday. Those two victories were the 12th and 13th in a row for the Patriots, the longest active winning streak in the nation. Their last loss came Jan. 8 at Old Dominion.

Entering last week, Mason was 30th in the AP Poll and 26th in the Coaches Poll. In this weeks’ rankings, they improved to 27th in the AP but remained in the 26th slot in the Coaches. Unfortunately for the Patriots, only one team near the bottom of the Top 25 lost last week, St. Mary’s. Although St. Mary’s fell from the rankings, St. Johns jumped the Patriots and entered the Top 25 after defeating Pittsburgh, leaving Mason outside looking in for the second straight week.

The Patriots lack any wins over ranked opponents and did not have a great showing in their pre-season tournament in Charleston, in which they dropped games to N.C. State and Wofford, two teams that are far from the NCAA Tournament discussion. Their strength of schedule is 63rd in the nation.

However, the CAA is a highly valued mid-major conference due to the success of Mason, VCU and ODU, which has given the Patriots’ run to the top of the conference standings credibility. Plus, the 13 consecutive victories shows that they are playing well at the right time and should not be judged on losses back in November.

The RPI Poll continues to be the only rankings friendly to the Patriots, where they currently sit in the 20th slot. ODU sits not far behind at 27th and VCU finds themselves squarely on the bubble with an RPI ranking of 55. The CAA has a legitimate chance of scoring three teams in the Big Dance depending on how the conference tournament shakes out.

Despite still not being ranked in the Top 25, the Patriots are projected as a seventh-seed in the latest NCAA Tournament brackets. Even if their two wins last week weren’t enough to crack the national standings, they seem to have been enough to lock up an at-large berth.

They have two more games before heading to Richmond for the CAA Tournament, both against teams under .500 on the season. They host Northeastern (10-18, 5-11) on Thursday at 7 p.m. and travel to Georgia State (11-16, 6-10) where they play Saturday at 6 p.m. Winning either contest will ensure the Patriots with the top-seed in Richmond.