George Mason Basketball

George Mason's Marquise Moore is rewriting the definition of a point guard.

The senior leader for the Patriots is averaging 17.9 points and 3.7 assists, but Moore's 10.5 rebounds per game are breaking the mold of a primary ball-handler.

The point guard is the heart and soul of a basketball team. A team can get by without a center, a wing-forward or any other position, but it's almost impossible to consistently win without a quality point guard. He calls the plays, runs the offense, drives the lane, passes the rock, shoots the three, spearheads the defense, breaks the press, sets the tempo, etc.

The only thing a point guard doesn't do is crash the glass.

Until now.

"If you don't fit the quintessential stereotype of how a position is played, you have to be elite at something," George Mason head coach Dave Paulsen told Bleacher Report. "Marquise is elite in his ability to get to the rim, to get to the foul line and to get to the defensive glass."

Despite standing just 6'2", Moore's 8.74 defensive rebounds per game rank third in the nation, according to NCAA.com. The only other player shorter than 6'6" who is averaging at least 6.8 per game is Notre Dame's 6'5" frontcourt wrecking ball, Bonzie Colson.

According to KenPom.com, Moore is corralling 26.4 percent of possible defensive rebounds while on the court, which puts him in uncharted territory for his size.

Dating back to 2006-07, there have been just two other players shorter than 6'5" with a defensive rebounding percentage of 24.5 or greater—Gardner-Webb's 6'3" Joshua Henley and Radford's 6'4" Javonte Green. Neither of those Big South players was a point guard. Rather, they were the de facto power forwards in four-guard starting lineups who ranked among the shortest in the nation in average height in their respective seasons.

But even taller point guards have been unable to match what Moore is doing. BYU's 6'6" Kyle Collinsworth had six triple-doubles in 2014-15, and he only grabbed 22.4 percent of available defensive rebounds that year. UCLA's 6'6" Lonzo Ball has been lauded as the next Jason Kidd because of his triple-double potential, but his DR% is merely 14.1.

No matter how you slice it, Moore is one of a kind—a shrink 1 in the golden age of the stretch 5. And he might be just the catalyst we need in order to fully embrace positionless basketball.

If anything, Moore is being generously listed at 6'2". I'm a flat 6'0" on a good day, and I was standing shoulder to shoulder with him following his 16 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, two steals and one block in a recent win over Davidson.

He spent the majority of the night chasing Jack Gibbs around the perimeter, limiting Davidson's star scorer to just 12 points and two three-point attempts—his fewest numbers of attempts in a game since December 2015.

But even when ball screens forced him to switch onto 6'8" Peyton Aldridge, Moore kept fighting. During one Davidson possession in the first half, he repeatedly denied an entry pass to Aldridge in the paint, spun around and boxed out the man half a foot taller than him and snagged one of his 10 defensive rebounds.

"I'm a 6'0" guard, but I'm pretty strong," Moore told Bleacher Report. "I just try to use my strength, try to make them work for it. It's not that easy to post me up."

Moore has recorded a double-double in each of his last four games and now has 16 on the season. He has at least 10 points and eight rebounds in all but one game since the beginning of January, and the lone outlier in those 13 contests was due to a stomach virus.

It's hard to believe this is the same guy who was held without a single rebound (or assist) in the season-opening loss to Towson.

"After the first game this year, I'm like, '''Quise, we're not going to win if you don't rebound,'" Paulsen said. "Since then, he's had a greater level of focus on the need to get on the glass."

That's an understatement. Less than one month later, he had a triple-double (17 points, 16 rebounds, 10 assists) in a win over Penn.

Consistently drawing the opposing team's best perimeter player has been both a blessing and a curse.

On the one hand, it's exhausting. Moore is already expending a ton of energy on offense as George Mason's primary ball-handler, averaging 7.3 free-throw attempts per game as one of the most aggressive, driving guards in the country. Playing through contact on one end of the floor before tailing three-point shooters like Gibbs at the other end is something of a CrossFit workout that Moore endures for 34.9 minutes per game.

Moreover, guarding the player who generally takes the most shots might be the worst possible formula for getting into position for defensive rebounds. Save for the occasional bizarre ricochet off the rim, it's almost impossible to contest a three-point attempt and be the one to get the rebound from it.

But the best perimeter shooters tend to be the least interested in crashing the offensive glass. As a result, for the majority of possessions on which Moore's guy isn't the one taking the shot, he can seek out the ball without worrying about boxing anyone out.

Focus your eyes on Moore during defensive possessions, and it feels like you're watching a free safety rather than a point guard. His head is always on a swivel—which he credits to his days of playing cornerback and running back. From the day you start playing organized basketball, you're taught on defense to always keep an eye on your man and an eye on the ball. But Moore takes that principle to an admirable extreme.

"You need to really know when the ball is going to go up," Moore said. "Having to guard their best player is hard sometimes. You gotta chase him around, and then after that you don't really feel like crashing. But I just try to make an effort every possession just when the ball goes up, just go after it."

Sounds simple enough, and yet he's the only one doing it with any semblance of regularity.

Because of his commitment to crashing the defensive glass, Moore is on a short list with some of the greatest power forwards of the past quarter-century.

According to Sports-Reference, only five players in the last 24 years have averaged at least 17 points, 10 rebounds and three assists per game in a season. Three of those five players are 6'11" 1997 AP Player of the Year Tim Duncan, 6'9" 2003 AP Player of the Year David West and 6'10" 2016 No. 1 overall draft pick Ben Simmons.

Moore will need to keep up this pace for another couple of weeks to officially join those CBB legends, but his nightly contribution through the first 27 games has been almost unfathomable.

"I don't know in 23 years of coaching if I've had as physically as dominant a player in a guard's body," Paulsen said. "Never did I know that he would put up the numbers that he has on the defensive glass. But he's strong. He's tough. He's got a nose for the ball, and he's obviously really athletic, and he has embraced that."

Perhaps the only thing that kept him from putting up numbers like these in previous years was the presence of 6'11" center Shevon Thompson. Mason's big man from Jamaica averaged 16.6 rebounds per 40 minutes over the course of the past two seasons, ranking top 12 in the nation in both offensive and defensive rebounding percentage each year.

Moore did record three double-doubles last season, but there weren't that many rebounds to be had. With Thompson now out of the picture, the Patriots have been thriving with a four-guard lineup that Moore's presence on the defensive end allows them to play.

This past Tuesday, The Ringer's Jason Concepcion published an article titled "We'll Never See Another Rajon Rondo." Concepcion notes that while some may try to play the same style, "Three-point shooting is simply too important. A perimeter player who can't space the floor is a liability."

But (early-career) Rondo is exactly the player Paulsen told Moore he can become.

"When I talked to 'Quise at the beginning of the year, I asked him, 'Do you have an NBA jump shot?' He looks at me and he's like, 'Well...' And I said, 'No, you don't. Neither did Rajon Rondo. Neither did Elfrid Payton. But don't focus on the things you're not good at yet. Be the dominant attack-rim guy. Be the guy who gets to the foul line. Be the guy who brings the motor every single possession defensively on the glass. Then the NBA people can figure out on their own terms what to make of you.'"

Here's the thing, though: Moore is starting to make perimeter shots.

He entered February 0-of-20 from three-point range in his previous 46 games, but he is 8-of-16 from downtown in his last six contests.

It's not the prettiest jumper you'll see, but that's never going to be his primary source of offense. It just needs to be effective enough to keep the defense honest—to reopen the lanes that opponents have been trying to clog.

"Teams have been sagging off me, but I've got a lot of confidence in my shot right now," Moore said. "I've been working on it. I don't know if teams are going to adjust. Right now, they're still playing me down in the paint, but I'm going to keeping shooting it if it's there."

He was already an anomaly before he was making three-pointers.

Now he's the 6'2" total package.

Whether you want to consider Moore a point forward, a power guard or something else altogether, he's a versatile stud who has George Mason playing its best basketball since Jim Larranaga left for Miami six years ago. And as the NBA continues to embrace small ball, his unique combination of skills and drive could be a valuable commodity.

That isn't to say he's likely to be drafted in June, but George Mason does know a thing or two about Cinderella stories.

All quotes and information obtained firsthand, unless otherwise noted.

Stats are courtesy of KenPom.com, NCAA.com and Sports-Reference.com.

Kerry Miller covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter: @kerrancejames.

George Mason's firing of head basketball coach Paul Hewitt opened one of the premier mid-major jobs in the country. It appears school brass is looking to rejuvenate the program by targeting a coach with an awfully familiar last name. 

Continue for updates.

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George Mason Reportedly Finalizing Deal with Dave Paulsen

Monday, March 30

Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski reported that "George Mason is finalizing deal to hire Bucknell coach Dave Paulsen, sources tell Yahoo."

Steven Goff of The Washington Post cited multiple sources who have said it's a done deal:

https://twitter.com/SoccerInsider/status/582633821763403777

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George Mason Target Jay Larranaga Declines to Become Candidate

Friday, March 20

According to sources cited by Wojnarowski, "Celtics assistant Jay Larranaga has declined to become a candidate at George Mason." Wojnarowski's sources noted that Larranaga is "committed to Boston and (his) NBA coaching career."

Wojnarowski reported on March 16 that Larranaga was near the top of George Mason's list for its next head coach. Larranaga, 39, has been a Celtics assistant coach since 2012 and has elevated to the position of lead assistant under Brad Stevens. He has also served as a coach on the Irish and Ukrainian national teams.

Wojnarowski's report indicated the program will emphasize head coaching experience in its search, but may also target Miami assistant Chris Caputo. Caputo served as an assistant coach at George Mason prior to following Jim Larranaga to Miami in 2011.

It seems the athletic department is looking to find someone with tangential ties to the Jim Larranaga era. Larranaga spent 14 seasons as the Patriots head coach from the 1997-98 season to 2010-11. He led the team to five NCAA tournament berths, including a surprising Final Four run in 2006.

George Mason fell out of the national purview under Hewitt, failing to make the tournament in all four of his seasons. The team has gone a combined 20-42 since joining the Atlantic 10.  

Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter.

Paul Hewitt's four-year run at George Mason is over. The university let Hewitt go Monday morning, less than a week after the Patriots finished a 9-22 campaign. 

“Mason made a significant commitment to its athletic programs, especially men’s basketball, when the university moved to the Atlantic 10 Conference two years ago,” George Mason Director of Athletics Brad Edwards said in a statement. “The university has high expectations for the program and thus determined a change was needed."

Hewitt, 51, succeeded Jim Larranaga after the 2010-11 season after being let go by Georgia Tech. He went a combined 46-26 in his first two years at the school but struggled mightily when the program moved to the Atlantic 10.

George Mason has gone a combined 20-42 over the last two years, including an 8-26 mark within the conference. The Patriots won just four games since the beginning of the 2015 calendar year. It's been a disappointing fall from grace for a program that was a regular postseason fixture under Larranaga, with a 2006 Final Four berth.

Will be a broadcaster -->RT @gmuhoops: Paul Hewitt has been fired at George Mason http://t.co/fNK92iWFn9 pic.twitter.com/1z7YzZZ21X”

— Doug Gottlieb (@GottliebShow) March 16, 2015

Before taking the George Mason job, Hewitt had an 11-year run as the head coach of Georgia Tech and spent three years at Siena. He currently has a career 321–251 record and has made six NCAA tournament appearances. The peak of his professional career was a national runner-up run in the 2004 NCAA tournament.

Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter

Two more college basketball leagues get their conference tournaments started Saturday, while many others play out toward their conclusions.

Here's a sampling of what's happening Saturday in college hoops from a basketball betting perspective, with odds and trends courtesy of OddsShark.com.

The Colonial Athletic Association begins its tournament Saturday in Richmond with three quarterfinal games; they'll narrow the field down to two with a pair of semifinal games Sunday, and Monday night they'll play the conference championship game, awarding an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament.

On the CAA tournament betting board, top-seeded Northeastern is listed as a 2-1 favorite, followed by second-seeded Delaware at 11-5, fourth-seeded George Mason at 5-2, fifth-seeded Drexel at 4-1, third-seeded James Madison at 7-1, sixth-seeded William & Mary at 10-1 and seventh-seeded Hofstra at 35-1.

Due to some postseason banishments, only seven teams of 11 CAA teams will play in the conference tournament.

The Summit League tournament gets going Saturday in Sioux Falls with four quarterfinal games. Then Sunday they'll play two semifinal games. And the Summit League championship game, with an invitation to the Big Dance on the line, will be played Monday night (8 pm ET, ESPN).

Last year South Dakota State, as the two-seed, defeated fourth-seeded Western Illinois to win the Summit League tournament.

As for this year, third-seeded North Dakota State leads the betting on the Summit League championship board at odds of 5-4. Top-seeded SD State comes next at 7-5, followed by Western Illinois and Oakland at 4-1, IPFW and South Dakota at 35-1 and UM-KC and IUPUI at 75-1.

Also, Saturday conference tournament play continues at a dozen different sites across the fruited plains, and many major conferences wind down their regular seasons with key games.

Among them is a good rivalry game out of the Big East as No. 5 Georgetown hosts No. 17 Syracuse.

Also Saturday, No. 11 Florida visits Kentucky; No. 13 Oklahoma State hosts No. 9 Kansas State; No. 16 St. Louis hosts 21-7 LaSalle; and No. 15 Marquette visits 16-13 St. John's. At 20-9, Boise State— trying to snare an NCAA at-large bid—hosts 21-8 San Diego State; No. 8 Louisville hosts No. 24 Notre Dame; 22-8 Missouri visits 18-11 Tennessee; No. 18 Arizona hosts 20-10 Arizona State; 22-8 Southern Miss hosts 20-10 Central Florida; and No. 3 Duke pays a visit on 22-8 North Carolina.

What a long, strange trip it's been for George Mason basketball this season. 

The story of the 2012-13 season for the Patriots so far this season has been consistency, or rather, a lack thereof. Never before have I seen a team with such a split personality.

On the one hand, you have the good George Mason team.

This team gives one of the best teams in the country everything it can handle. This team scratches and claws their way back to a victory in a hostile environment. This team blows out lesser opponents without thinking twice about it.

On the other hand, there's the bad George Mason team.

This team lets games slip away in their own building. This team looks sluggish, beaten, and tired on the road. This team allows lesser opponents to take them down to the wire, even at home.

The scary part is that this Jekyll and Hyde effect is starting to take place within the same game recently.

So the million-dollar question surrounding Mason basketball becomes, what's the problem?

I, along with many Mason fans, worried about what the loss of Ryan Pearson and Mike Morrison would mean for this team. It wasn't so much the loss of points that worried me—I had rationalized how their production would be made up—but rather the loss of the leadership that these two provided the team with last season.

Every great Mason team has that leader you can point to. The one who is vocal on and off the court, who wills their team to victory when the chips are down and who gives their team that killer instinct when they have an opponent on the ropes.

I'm talking about guys like Lamar Butler, Cam Long and of course Pearson and Morrison. These were the guys who made sure that Mason came out ready to play every day, no matter who the opponent was.

And sure, some of this seeming lack of motivation at times can fall on head coach Paul Hewitt as well. It's his job to make sure his team is fully prepared to play, no matter the situation.

But when you watch Mason games, do you see that definitive leader on the court, who not only takes charge of a game hanging in the balance, but makes sure his team is ready to do so as well?

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to crucify our players for this. Being that type of leader can be difficult, and the reasonable fan understands that Mason is still in the early stages of this two-year odyssey with virtually the same bunch.

Really, the frustration that fans have had with Mason is that the talent is clearly there. It's not like they are a team who is just overmatched night in and night out by their opponents; that would make struggles almost understandable.

But instead, Mason has freshman Patrick Holloway, who is becoming a star before our very eyes. They have Jonathan Arledge and Corey Edwards, who have made amazing strides over the course of the first half of the season. They have Sherrod Wright, who will have a legitimate case by season's end to be CAA Player of the Year.

And yet, despite all of these players with fantastic upsides, here they sit at 9-7 overall and 2-2 in conference play, and you can point directly to effort as the culprit.

Allowing a team to score 54 points in the second half in your building and outrebound you 48-25 is a lack of effort, plain and simple.

Now, can Mason turn this around? Of course they can. As I said before, clearly the talent level and ability to perform is there.

And let's not forget, the last Mason team to start conference play 2-2 rattled off 16 wins in a row en route to a victory over Villanova in the NCAA Tournament.

Do I expect this year's version of Mason basketball to match that feat? No. You have to be some sort of crazy to ever expect a stretch of domination like that.

But do I think that this team can go on a similar run? Absolutely. 

Look, I'm a diehard fan and as frustrated as any other supporter of Mason basketball, but we all need to take a step back for a moment and realize that there is still a ton of basketball yet to be played.

The narrative of this season has not yet been completed. Whether or not this story has a happy ending, though, will rely solely on how much Mason's players want it to.

For George Mason basketball opinions, news, and updates, follow Joe Campione on Twitter @jcamp459