George Mason Basketball: Recent pickups add to strong offseason rebuild
They’ve flown under the radar since the head coaching change but George Mason Basketball has found a way to likely be competitive next season in the A-10.
In the Atlantic 10 Conference, there were two teams that had surprising coaching changes in VCU and George Mason Basketball. Both of their respective head coaches went to power conference programs, with Kim English leaving the Patriots for Providence and Mike Rhoades going to Penn State from the Rams.
Based on online talk from the past couple of months, VCU has done just fine this offseason. They hired Ryan Odom, who just led Utah State to the NCAA Tournament. He was able to bring in some major additions, including guards Sean Bairstow and Max Shulga from Utah State but also former top-100 big man Roosevelt Wheeler and Jason Nelson, the starting freshman guard from Richmond.
George Mason didn’t have the kind of flashy moves. Their new head coach is Tony Skinn, who did start on the Patriots Final Four squad in 2006 but is an assistant without a national resume. And outside of Virginia Tech starting transfer Darius Maddox, none of the other additions move the needle nationally. But just because they don’t make headlines, doesn’t mean that the Patriots didn’t make some good moves this offseason.
Other key transfer pickups include big man Amari Kelly (7.8 ppg and 5.5 rpg at UNC-Wilmington), Keyshawn Hall from UNLV, and Jalen Haynes, who averaged 14.6 ppg at East Tennessee State. Plus, they return both Ronald Polite and Malik Henry from last season.
George Mason got two more commitments, one in this and the next recruiting class. Baraka Okojie rounds out the current roster, a 6’3 point guard from Canada that’s both a capable passer and a defender. And then, the Patriots added three-star ball-handler Justin Begg, one of the top prospects out of the state of Texas in the 2024 class. Now, the A-10 program is good at that position going forward, which was an area of weakness under the previous regime.
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When Coach English left for the Providence job, it looked as if George Mason Basketball was doomed for a long-term rebuild. But new Coach Skinn has done a good job setting the team up well to compete next season and beyond. Time will tell how he does on the sideline during games but on paper, it’s been a good job so far.