George Mason Basketball: 2018-19 season preview for the Patriots

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 09: Head coach Dave Paulsen of the George Mason Patriots looks on against the Saint Joseph's Hawks during the first half in the Quarterfinals of the Atlantic 10 Basketball Tournament at Capital One Arena on March 9, 2018 in Washington, DC.(Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images) /

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Expectations for George Mason this season

It’s for good reason that the Patriots are one of the favorites to win the A10 title this season. They have star-power, versatility, depth, and one of the league’s most under-appreciated coaches in Dave Paulsen. Even though there will be more competitive teams in the A10 this season than there was last time around, it’s hard to not see this Mason team improving their record and a 5th place finish. After all, what other team in the conference has all of their production coming back on the court? You guessed it: none.

Most pundits are tabbing the A10 as a one-bid conference this season (meaning the automatic bid via the A10 Tournament), but it’s not out of the picture for the Patriots to snag an at-large bid. They’ll have to win some resume builders against teams like Kansas State and/or Cincinnati and finish near the top of the conference – but those are totally reasonable things to expect from them. Besides, the A10 is averaging 3.8 Tournament teams per season since 2012, so there’s no reason to expect that trend will change so drastically for the worse, even if there aren’t any real “juggernauts” in the conference.

Next. Predicting all 32 conference champs for 2018-19. dark

The bottom line is that I’m confident the Patriots will find a way to make the Big Dance, whether it’s via cutting down the nets in Brooklyn or by winning over the selection committee. Simply put, people should be excited in Fairfax.

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