A Cinderella Sequel? 20 Years Later, George Mason Looks Ready for More March Magic

FAIRFAX, VA — Sitting underneath the 2006 Final Four banner that never would have been stitched without his veteran leadership as a player, Tony Skinn, now in his third season as the head coach of George Mason's men's basketball program, can't help but get a little introspective.

"Time waits for no man," he said. "Just to think about the fact that what we did was two decades ago. I'm enjoying every moment."

Yes, believe it or not, this March will mark 20 years since George Mason's unprecedented Cinderella run to the Final Four as a No. 11 seed. That stunning overtime upset of a Rudy Gay-led No. 1 seed Connecticut squad in the Elite Eight remains to this day one of the ultimate "I remember where I was when" moments in NCAA tournament history.

With Skinn now the head coach of the Patriots, with his fellow starting guard from that run, Lamar Butler, also on the current staff and with former head coach Jim Larrañaga presently enjoying his first year of retired life, the stars have finally aligned to pay proper tribute to that team, with a reunion celebration planned at Eaglebank Arena for the weekend of Dec. 13.

"We did something special 20 years ago, and it's just not been celebrated the right way," Skinn said. "But with me being at the helm, just having a moment to be able to recognize, you know, that banner is sitting in our gym. Not a lot of people have that banner. And we have a chance to bring Coach L back and just galvanize our crowd."

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When they announced plans for that "20th Anniversary Commemoration" in September, though, who could have known the Patriots would also be celebrating the best start to a season in program history?

George Mason had never started a season 6-0 prior to this one.

Subsequently getting to 7-0, 8-0 and 9-0, then, has been even further uncharted territory.

Yet, here they are, already starting to eye up that 2006 slipper to see if it still fits.

"It's a resilient group," Skinn said. "A coachable group. These guys have been phenomenal, just learning so much, so fast. We haven't had a bad practice, to be honest."

What's particularly wild is that they've done it almost entirely without their preseason first-team All-A10 senior point guard, Brayden O'Connor, who has not played since suffering a foot injury 15 minutes into the season.

Mason had already undergone an absurd amount of roster turnover from last year's 27-9 (15-3) Atlantic-10 regular season co-champion squad. O'Connor was the only one of the nine leading scorers from that team who returned, as 11 players in total were lost to either graduation or the transfer portal.

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The walking boot hasn't broken B.O.'s stride as a leader and co-captain, though, embracing his unofficial role as a temporary assistant coach by still being one of the prominent voices in practice. They hope to have him back on the court by early January.

"There are certain guys we had that weren't as vocal (before the injury)," O'Connor said. "It was a big emphasis that coach put: Next man up. Now that I'm out, that's 30 minutes gone, and guys got to step up into their roles. ... And I think everybody has stepped up. I'm definitely proud of them."

By far, the biggest step up came from Kory Mincy—the point guard who started every game last season at Presbyterian before choosing a new home in which "starting point guard" was the only job that wasn't up for grabs.

Though he was named a co-captain before the season and Coach Skinn talks now about having eight or nine starters on his roster, Mincy was on the bench for the first few minutes of GMU's season opener against Wofford before O'Connor's injury.

"Regardless of starting or not, the biggest thing for me was just to continue to execute the game plan we had for that week and get the win," Mincy said.

And after O'Connor went down, Mincy went nuclear.

At the start of play on Tuesday, he was leading all A-10 players in both minutes per game (34.6) and points per game (19.6).

He hits threes from the logo. It only took eight games for him to set GMU's all-time record for consecutive made free throws, besting Otis Livingston's previous mark of 34 in a row. And he converts circus shots at the rim on a comically regular basis.

"People look at them as crazy, but I just look at them as another shot I take in the gym," Mincy said. "I'm in the gym all day, every day with Coach Lamar (Butler) and Coach Lou (Hinnant), so those types of shots we work on. I shoot 100 of them daily."

As great as this start has been for Mincy and the team, though, they know it's only that: A start.

A start against a fairly unremarkable schedule, we should probably note, thus far devoid of a KenPom top 100 foe. They did call dozens of high-majors and simply couldn't find any takers outside of Virginia Tech, who they'll face this Saturday. Such is life for a mid-major fresh off a 27-win season.

But seeing that Final Four banner every day throughout this start has been more than just a reminder of ancient history for this group.

It's the promised land to which they fully intend to return.

"Knowing that the head coach was somebody who played on that team and has been to that level of somewhere where I'm striving to be, it definitely gave me that extra edge to want to come here," Mincy said. "I feel like with B.O. coming back, we win the A-10 and we're one of the most dangerous teams in March Madness. Just want everybody to watch out."

"Yeah, we got to beat Skinn," O'Connor said. "We got to get them to stop talking about 2006. Start talking about 2025-26."