BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Don’t expect the George Mason men’s basketball team to sneak up on anyone this season.
After exceeding expectations the past two years, the Patriots were picked to finish fourth here on Thursday by coaches and media at the annual Atlantic 10 Conference media day at the Barclays Center. One major publication, Street & Smith’s, tabbed George Mason to place second in a conference that placed three schools in the NCAA tourney last March and 27 teams in the last seven years.
“At the end of the day it is what we do on the court,” George Mason head coach Dave Paulsen said here Thursday after his team got one first-place vote.
Senior guard Otis Livingston II of George Mason was a preseason all-conference first team pick Thursday while sophomore guard Terry Nolan, Jr. of George Washington was named to the preseason all-defensive team.
Livingston averaged 17.3 points, 3.2 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game last season for George Mason, which is the only team in the country at the Division I level to return 100 percent of its scoring.
“I want to be the Atlantic 10 player of the year,” Livingston said in a telephone interview this week. “But the most important thing is to win. I want to go to the NCAA tournament, the Big Dance. I think the team has a pretty good chance of making it.”
Nolan averaged 9.1 points, 1.6 steals and 0.4 blocks per game last year for GW, which finished 11th in the conference.
“He has the potential to be one of GW’s all-time greats,” Maurice Joseph, the GW head coach, said of the Baltimore product.
The Colonials of GW were picked to finish 13th out of 14 teams Thursday, with the top three spots going to St. Louis, Saint Joseph’s and defending conference tourney champion Davidson.
George Mason finished seventh in the conference standings in 2016-17 and fifth last season. Several preseason polls have them in the top three this year.
“You can’t put too much stock in those publications,” Paulsen said. “You have to go out and perform. We should be pretty decent. We are not backing away from any expectations.”
This year the Patriots will once again put the ball in the hands of Livingston, who started every game last season.
“I thought he had a really good summer. He is having a phenomenal fall,” said Paulsen, who keeps detailed statistics of team scrimmages. “He is really defending at a high level. Right now in practice, he is functioning at a really high level.”
Livingston will be aided by the return of Jaire Grayer (12.3 points per game last season), Justin Kier (11.0), Gonar Mar (10.9) and Ian Boyd (7.7). The Patriots also welcome University of Virginia transfer Jarred Reuter, who averaged 3.8 points for the Cavaliers in 2016-17.
“He is the only transfer we have taken since we have been here and that is by design,” Paulsen, ready to begin his fourth season in Fairfax, said of Reuter. “He is just an awesome person. He is the perfect fit for who we want in our program. He is strong, he is competitive. He is a very good passer and has a very high basketball IQ.”
Grayer started 32 games last season.
“Jaire had a lingering foot issue that limited his effectiveness from mid-January on,” Paulsen said. “He battled through it. He had a procedure done in the spring; he did not do anything basketball related until (three) weeks ago. He is back to full practice.”
The Patriots were one of the youngest teams in the country last season. Livingston said the team benefitted from a three-game tour in Spain this past summer. Division I schools are allowed to make an overseas trip once every four years, and that can mean up to 10 extra practice sessions.
George Mason begins this season Nov. 6 at home against Penn while GW hosts Stony Brook of New York the same night. The Patriots were 16-17 last season and last appeared in the NCAA tournament in 2011.
The last time GW was in the NCAA field was 2014, and the Colonials were 15-18 last season. GW has to replace Yuta Watanabe, who signed a two-way contract this summer with the Memphis Grizzlies of the NBA.
Joseph, beginning his third season, was a former assistant under Colonials head coach Mike Lonergan.
“It’s a continuing growing process,” said Joseph, whose team has no seniors. “We are really excited about our future.”
The conference tournament, held last March at Capitol One Arena in Washington, moves back to Brooklyn in March, 2019.
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