[ThePundit]

Since Jan. 21, Hofstra is the only team to beat George Mason, doing so twice in an 11-day span by an average margin of 10 points. Mason may look unbeatable to the country now, but Hofstra and its fans know better.

After Hofstra beat Mason, 77-66, at Hofstra Arena on Feb. 23, if someone had said that one of the teams on the court would advance to the Final Four, would he have been believed?

More interestingly, which of the teams would have appeared to have the best chance?

Hofstra, it turned out, was dumped on Selection Sunday, won two games in the NIT and tied the school record for wins in a season. It wasn't a bad fate, but it paled compared with that of Mason, America's darling.

"They're playing good ball right now," Hofstra guard Antoine Agudio said. "Sure, I guess it could have been us, but good luck to them."

Pride guard Loren Stokes was driving back to Long Island from his home in Buffalo and did not see Sunday's Mason-UConn game. But he and the other Hofstra players have been keeping a close eye on their CAA rival, picking up flaws in other teams' defenses.

In the Pride's 58-49 win in a CAA Tournament semifinal earlier this month, Hofstra held Mason to its lowest scoring output of the season, limiting the Patriots to 16 second-half points and 4-for-23 shooting.

"They're not doing their scouting reports and they don't know how to play certain players," Stokes said.

Stokes usually covered Tony Skinn when the two teams met, and he tried to force Skinn into the lane to make mid-range jumpers or go to the basket awkwardly without passing off to Mason's physically imposing front line. Agudio, who covered Lamar Butler, said too many defenders are trying to get over or slip through cracks in screens set for the outside shooter and are providing him open looks.

"I stayed with him. Wherever he ran, I ran right behind him," Agudio said of covering Butler, who is averaging 16.0 points and hitting 50 percent of his three-pointers in the NCAA Tournament but averaged just 10.0 points and had a three-point shooting percentage of 35.2 in the two games against Hofstra.

"We match up pretty well with them, and because they are in our conference, we know their stuff better than anybody," Agudio said.

Hofstra assistant coach Van Macon, who scouted Mason this season, said Hofstra's philosophy in its games was to stop the guards from getting open shots and take chances with 6-7 Will Thomas and 6-7, 275-pound Jai Lewis in the paint. "We decided we would rather give up twos than threes," he said.

Even inside, where Lewis and Thomas have led the Patriots this far into the tournament, Hofstra had an advantage with quicker center Adrian Uter and forward Aurimas Kieza. Macon said the plan on the glass was to seal off the two big rebounders and allow Hofstra's more athletic guards to collect the loose balls. Hofstra won the rebounding battle both times against Mason, something neither Michigan State nor Connecticut could claim in its tournament games.

[Lefty Noob]

"They're not doing their scouting reports and they don't know how to play certain players," Stokes said.

To some degree, I have a hard time believing that. Would a coach NOT do his homework and let the kids on his team down? Or is it more than the players aren't focusing and doing what they need to do to succeed? Either way, it sounds like these Hofstra guys are just begging the Florida guys to call them for advice. Wonder if they will.

[ThePundit]

Remember Lefty, with only 48 hours between games, there's not much time to do in depth scouting. Plus, you have to figure that Mason still wasn't taken seriously until now.

With a week in between games, Donavan is going to know everything about them.

[wvuauthor]

Yes, it is true that they only have 48 hours between games, but these coaches and their staff spend every second of that time getting prepared.

They have tapes on every DI team that is in the tournament, and have no problems getting a scouting report together. With that being said, there is only a day or two of practice to get ready...