CAA Hoops previews Mason basketball for '09-'10

CAA hoops guru Michael Litos has started his previews for this upcoming season and slates Mason as #3:

""Key for Mason: Maturity, plain and simple. It is maturity on three levels: the junior (Cam Long) and the senior (Lou Birdsong) have to be leaders; the sophomores have to take that important step (Ryan Pearson, Mike Morrison, Andre Cornelius); and the freshmen have to be mature enough to be ready to play.

The talent is there, but a team with this construction of skill and youth risks becoming a band of individuals."

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Words you be hearing a lot this season: maturity, experience, and talent. I couldn't agree more with what Litos says in his analysis, as he points out the importance of Cam Long and Andre Cornelius this season:

""Every great team needs “that guy.” Long led the Patriots in scoring, assists, steals, and three point percentage, and finished second in rebounding and free throw percentage. In fact his three point accuracy (46-104, 40.4%) was third in the conference. Good enough, eh? This season, it may be about making big shots late""

On Andre Cornelius:

""He will be on the floor because he can distribute the ball and plays in-your-jersey defense, and he can get inside a defense to cause trouble. But if Mason is to be very successful on offense, one of two things will need to occur. First, they will have to get out and run (Larranaga is already talking about that). Or, somebody will have to shoot the ball consistently from deep or they will see 47 zones defenses that never leave the paint and we will see a lot of 56-52 games. Cornelius can trigger either option""

Read the rest of his post here.

Stay tuned for my own preview of this upcoming season.