How much of an impact will Morrison's suspension have on this team?

The Patriots dropped a big one on Saturday in Norfolk and now try to regroup at home against William & Mary on Tuesday. We already know they will be without Mike Morrison after he picked up his 3rd and 4th career technical fouls Saturday but the suspension comes from the CAA per their guidelines, while George Mason University gave him the additional game. Lucky for the Patriots one of the two games is a non-conference game. However it could not have come at a worse time for Mason because after losing to ODU they now need a victory against William & Mary to help ensure they won't be playing a Friday game in the CAA tournament next month.

Morrison brings a fiery and charismatic attitude to the Patriot Center and often feeds off the home crowd. Although he might not always be leading Mason on the stat sheet, his alley-oops and dunks seem to always be a part of the many comebacks we have seen in Fairfax this year. Mason has won many games this season without Mike contributing much so to say this is a huge disadvantage might not be accurate. The issue as I see it is that the team has lacked stability all season long and this is just another speed bump at a bad time. When starters Ryan Pearson and Andre Cornelius were benched by Larranaga for the GW game, we saw no one else really step up when the team needed it. Might that be the resulting effect in this situation? The Patriots cannot afford to let that happen Tuesday night.

Make no mistake though, the Patriots can win without him, especially against a team like William & Mary that doesn't have much of an inside presence. However, Big Mike is great in transition and his ability to run the floor will be greatly missed against a slower Tribe team. Even if Morrison was playing in this one I'd still be saying this game is all about how Long, Tate, and Cornelius defend the Tribe's outside shooting. With or without Morrison another five point performance from Cam Long just isn't going to cut it, the scoring drought on Saturday was just plain awful. Someone else besides Long, Cornelius, and Pearson has to contribute on the scoreboard. The bench play for Mason has been up and down and they need to right the ship in this area if they want to finish in the top 4 of the CAA. Louis Birdsong and Johnny Williams will need to do more than they did against ODU, especially on the boards. The Patriots aren't a great rebounding team to begin with and now they won't have their 2nd leading rebounder against a team that loves to take a lot of outside shots. Perimeter defense will be more of an issue for Mason Tuesday night but they cannot allow the Tribe to get more three-point chances.