Now the NCAA is cracking down on student-athletes Tweeting about things that they like. According to Coast-to-Coast Recruiting, the NCAA is cracking down and warning players not to tweet about their favorite brands. Apparently such a move might constitute an endorsement, despite the fact that more-often-than-not, they are unpaid and unsolicited.

Who hasn’t said, casually, “I love Chipotle!”?

That statement itself might be alright according to CNBC’s Darren Rovell, but following it up with “Go there,” as in, “I love Chipotle, go there,” would be a problem. Of course, if the statements are unpaid, it opens a giant can of worms. What other unsolicited and unpaid endorsements would an athlete be banned from?

Could a student-athlete tweet, “I love it at Villanova! Apply here!”? What if they wanted to spread the word about a charity that was important to them? Will there be an exception for that?

The NCAA once again has failed to consider the cream cheese.

On the plus side, it will be the first time that Randy Foye will play basketball on the first Monday in April, when his Clippers take on the Dallas Mavericks on April 2nd.

The move was forced by the challenges of scheduling a season on short-notice. The New Jersey Nets will be asked to play 14 of their first 22 games on the road, for example. The move isn’t likely some sort of power-play to stab the college game in the back. The NBA just simply doesn’t have many options.

What will viewers tune into? Smart money is on most people watching an NCAA Championship game over a regular-season NBA match-up, but sometimes money isn’t so smart.

Clippers/Mavs or Kentucky/UNC for a championship: What’s your call?

The rules for the NCAA are changing. Today, the NCAA Division I Board of Directors approved changes that allow conferences to add $2000 to scholarship offers, giving schools “the option of awarding scholarships on a multiple-year basis”, making poorly performing academic ineligible for post-season play, and changing basketball recruiting rules.

On the final note, college basketball coaches…

• Will now be able to contact a recruit via unlimited phone calls and text messages beginning July 15th between a player’s Sophmore & Junior year.
• Recruits can now take “Official” Visits beginning January 1during their Junior year.
• Evaluation Periods are altered now allowing 2 weeks in April and reducing July’s Evaluation period from 20 days to 12.

Yesterday, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Rules Committee recommended the adoption of an arc on the court to designate the restricted area, citing safety concerns. The intention is the limit the number of collisions that occur near the basket. According to committee chair Mike Brey, a “high percentage of coaches and administrators favored a visual mark on the floor.”

The arc would extend three feet from the center of the basket. The NCAA had experimented with a 2-foot arc during multi-team events in the fall, and while it made the calls easier for officials, the committee felt that 2-feet wasn’t enough space.

The marking is already in use at the professional levels in America and in Europe.

This is the second year in a row that the conference has suffered from a rash of early exits, but this downturn may be the exception rather than the rule. Since 2003, the Big East has produced eight Final Four teams, while the ACC produced six and the Big Ten 5. In addition to having the most Final Four teams in that span, the Big East is second in national championships with two, just one behind the leading ACC.

What happened the last two years, then? Did the Big East beat itself out of contention? Maybe. Even that sounds like a cop-out when you read it out loud, however.

Was the conference never that good to begin with?

The Big East went 29-16 against teams from BCS leagues and the eleven NCAA tournament entrants were 24-10 against the rest of the field. In fact, even with the early exits, the Big East may still end the season with more out of conference wins than any other conference.

What the Big East had this year was a lot of “good” teams — teams that could beat out-of-conference foes and scrap among themselves — but no truly “great” teams. It seems disingenuous to proclaim that because the conference received 11 bids to the dance, that all 11 schools ought to advance to the Final Four. That record number of entrants was not a sign of invulnerability, but rather it was a sign of depth.

While each of the Big East tournament entrants was given a tremendous amount of hype, the teams individually were not necessarily stronger than their opponent. While the depth of the conference was on display, individual match-ups are what ultimately determines who does and does not advance, and those match-ups were unfavorable for 9 of 11 last weekend.

Meanwhile, fans of the ACC claiming superiority over their three teams in the Sweet Sixteen have ultimately failed the lesson in logic. Almost every power conference has at least two teams remaining in the Sweet 16 — the ACC takes the prize by a single team — but only one conference saw 68% of its teams play at least one NCAA game.

While the top of the ACC is strong, it is (at this point) not significantly stronger than the other power conferences. Meanwhile, the Big East’s record number of bids shows that the middle and bottom of that conference is stronger than the others.

So while the Big East’s record number of NCAA bids was not followed by a record number of NCAA tournament wins, the conference is no fraud. It still lives up to it’s billing as the deepest conference in America, but without elite teams the conference will continue to struggle in March.

Please join us at tipoff (slated for 210p ET) to discuss the 9-Seed Jay Wright club take on 8-Seed George Mason.

Here’s the full transcript from Thursday’s Villanova Conference with the Press. Jay Wright, Corey Fisher, Corey Stokes, and Antonio Pena were present and available for questions.

THE MODERATOR: We’re joined by Villanova student-athletes Corey Fisher, Corey Stokes and Antonio Pena. Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Can you go through the experience of being in the Final Four a couple of years ago and playing on that level and just kind of having that to draw from, how much does that help or does it help at all at this point when you are kind of going through this again now?

ANTONIO PENA: It helps a lot. In that situation, we had leaders like Dante and Scotty and Dwayne Anderson and those guys. This time we get a chance to lead and show the underclassmen how to get it done.

COREY STOKES: It does help a lot. We had great leaders before us to teach us what it takes to get there and we’re talking to young guys and teaching them the same thing.

COREY FISHER: Yeah, it helps a lot us being there, seeing the guys lead and now us getting a chance, like Antonio said, leading.

For us being there, being under a lot of pressure and playing one of the biggest stages of college basketball and just telling the guys we’ve been there, just what it takes doing all the little things that count on and off the court.

Q. Corey Fisher, the expectations this year don’t seem to be as great at least from the outside world as they were last year in the Final Four. How do you view all that, and how do you plan to go about proving everybody wrong?

COREY FISHER: We can’t control none of that, what nobody is saying on the outside.

But like I said, we played good all year. We struggled down the end with losing a couple of games, but we feel we worked hard. And we had great practices coming out here and before this, and I think we’re ready.

We’re not going to talk. We’re just going to prove ourselves, and that’s starting with me, Antonio and Stokes and the coaching staff. And we know how good we are and that’s really all that matters is knowing how good we are.

Q. For all three of you, Jay over the years, has the way he’s coached been the same as your freshman year or does it change from year to year? How would you go about describing that?

ANTONIO PENA: It stays the same. He’s going to push the seniors, and he’s going to get the best out of them until they’re out of here. Every day is going to be a day where you have to learn. Every day is going to be a day where you have to teach other people.

But he stays the same whether you’re a freshman or sophomore, junior, you are going to get the same thing out of him every day.

COREY STOKES: Antonio Pena said it all. He’s on us every day. Even if we’re doing our best job, he’s just going to stay on us and motivate us because he wants us to be the best player we could be by the time we graduate.

COREY FISHER: They said it all. Just coming from freshman year, it stays the same, but you’re going to make some mistakes coming from high school to playing in the top college basketball league, and when you’re being a senior you’ve got to get it, gotta know everything and gotta help everybody and just being there, just gotta be the coach on the floor, and that’s pretty much what all the coaches teach us, and that’s something you just gain and just gain everybody’s respect.

As you mature through your four years that’s something you’ve got to be when you’re a senior, just helping others, not worrying about yourself, just helping others before you.

Q. Fisher, Coach talked after the Rutgers game, the South Florida game, he talked about your psyche and confidence. How hard is it for you guys to keep up that confidence? Because you all seem like you still have that under the face of some tough losses.

COREY FISHER: We have it. We are playing basketball. You’re going to win some games, you’re going to lose some games. And being — playing in one of the best leagues in the country in the Big East night out, night in, you’re going to go out and compete.

Like I said, we lost some games down the stretch, but our confidence was — everybody, when you’re losing, it’s tough. It’s like if you’re trying to achieve something, you’re not going to stop, you’re going to keep trying to get better, try to get to something you’re trying to achieve. And that’s something me, Antonio and Stokes is trying to do. I think our confidence is high right now. Like I said, we’re going to come out and let our game speak for itself.

Q. Corey Fisher, I know you had a lot of success in high school and in college as well and this year. How important is it for you to close out your college career on a high note and get over this past month and a half?

COREY FISHER: It’s real important. But I’m comfortable in what I’m doing on the court and off the court. And I’ve got two guys right here, seniors, too, just like me, we’re going to go out strong. And we’re just going to show that tomorrow.

And I think my four years have been great, and I know how good I am and my teammates know, and I’m just going to keep playing, continue to play basketball.

Q. Corey, you said your confidence is high right now. I’m wondering why, considering you guys have not played well the last couple of months. And in games like Rutgers, how far guys you have let big leads, lost big leads, what is it about having the big lead that you guys haven’t been able to hold?

COREY FISHER: About the confidence, we’re healthy now. I didn’t complain all year. My knee started bothering me going towards the end of the year. And Stokes got hurt. And Antonio got hurt. We’ve been playing hurt. Making no excuses. And about winning and losing, we played great teams.

Rutgers is a good team. And you can see in the tournament game they played St. John’s. It’s not about records; it’s how you play as a team. Just going down the stretch, we played good and we lost the lead, and we play in one of the best leagues in the country, and you could play any team night out, night in, it’s just who brings it, and that’s in the Big East you gotta bring it night out, night in.

Q. Corey Stokes and Antonio, we talked about the leadership you guys have carried based on what the Final Four guys, Dante and Dwayne, did. The losses from that are big, but what did you learn from that last year when the season ended on a disappointing note?

ANTONIO PENA: You know, we learned to bounce back from it. We learned that the most important thing is staying together, and whether we win or lose, we have to stay together as a team, and there’s going to be times where we have to go through it together. And that’s one thing that this year we hoped to give the sophomores just staying together and being positive at all times.

COREY STOKES: We just have a positive attitude, and we just did a great job after the loss last year. Me, Antonio and Fish, we got together and said we’ll take care of the young guys and lead them and always keep a positive attitude and work just as hard as we can.

Q. Antonio, how important is it for the guys, the inside guys, you and Mouph and Sutton, whoever is playing, that you guys establish yourself and don’t leave it all up to Corey, Corey and Maalik, and the guards tomorrow?

ANTONIO PENA: We played them last year and we didn’t leave it up to them. Our job is to come out there and play as hard as we can every night, whether we’re playing good inside guys or we’re playing a team that’s guard-oriented.

But our job is to come out and play every day for each other. So we’re going to do our best and just play together as a team, basically.

Q. Corey Fisher and Antonio Pena, after losing that game to South Florida in the Garden, what were the next few hours and days like for you? It must have been very disappointing to lose your last game in the Garden.

COREY FISHER: We were down, lost a game, can’t just keep worrying about that game. We came back. We watched some film, and we got better. We continue to play basketball, and that was the positive out of it.

We knew we were going to have games left, whether it was the NCAA Tournament, NIT, whatever it was. We knew we could come back with each other and continue to get better and play basketball.

So we kind of moved on from that, and, like I said, we had a big lead and we lost. And that’s something we gotta do better on. And as we keep continuing to practice, that’s the same situation we worked on in practice.

ANTONIO PENA: Like Fish said, we have a couple of days off, we watched film and we learned from our mistake. And the only thing to do better was to move on, and we have a new season starting now and we just hope to move forward and keep playing hard for each other.

Q. Corey Fisher, what’s your sense of George Mason? Obviously this is a team from a mid-level league. And how much do you know about them, and is there a sense of mystery with a team like this?

COREY FISHER: Kind of didn’t get to — a lot to watch them this year, but just knowing we played them last year in Puerto Rico, they’re undersized, but that’s kind of like us.

Sometimes, in the Big East, playing against bigger guys and we go small guards, with Stokes being 6’6″, can be a big one. Me and Maalik, and I know they’re like us, they like to pressure, get out. The guards get in the lane, kick out, shoot 3s, and they’ve got good post plays.

And I know it’s going to be a good game. We beat them at a buzzer with Isaiah Armwood hitting the shot at the buzzer to win the game, and I know they’ll come out to play and we’ll also do the same thing.

Q. Back to Jay. If a recruit — you were showing a kid around campus, would you describe Jay as an Xs and Os guy first and rah-rah second, or a rah-rah first and Xs and Os second? And has that equation changed at all in the four years?

ANTONIO PENA: What do you mean rah-rah?

Q. Talking about enthusiasm, uses assistants to do the Xs and Os. He’s the high priest, if you will.

ANTONIO PENA: He’s involved in everything. He’s not just leaving it up to his assistants to do anything. Coach Wright, he’s a mentor for me. He’s taught me so much, not only on the court but off the court, just teaching me how to become a man and teaching me the little things about basketball that everybody should learn.

So he is just involved in everything as far as Xs and Os and the rah-rah, as you said.

Q. Corey Fisher, before you had said that you knew you were going to play another game after the USF loss, whether it was the NIT or NCAA. Did the NIT ever enter your mind during that?

COREY FISHER: No, not at all. I was confident. My teammates was confident. The body of work that we did earlier in the season and throughout the season, like I said, we play one of the best leagues in the country. We went nine and nine. For a lot of people that’s not good. But playing in one of the best leagues, you can be satisfied with that, and we try to achieve for better.

But just knowing we have basketball left, and just the body of our work and the style of play we played, we knew we had a chance, a good chance, and we were real positive with making the NCAA Tournament.

Q. Corey and Antonio, you both said you got better after that loss in the ensuing days. How? What got better?

COREY FISHER: Number one, health. Just getting more time, getting in the cold tub and stretching and just everybody getting healthy.

Me and Stokes, Antonio and other guys playing through injuries, that was number one. Number two, just clearing our minds, just getting back to being ourselves. And staying as a family and not listening to nothing on the outside, and just getting a few days off just to practice and work on situations like that. Like having the lead in practice and things going against you and not playing when things are going bad. That’s something we worked on and I think we got better and it’s going to help us in tomorrow’s game.

Q. Fisher, you said a lot over the last few weeks, you made references to kind of blocking out what people say and not really being concerned. Do you think there’s people out there that kind of don’t look at what you guys have done in a fair way, and maybe have been unfair the way they’ve evaluated this team?

COREY FISHER: Yeah, you’re always going to get that. If we would have won them games, everything would have been different. They would have been talking about going into this tournament as we we’re hearing being the underdog. Being the underdog is good, but we don’t consider ourselves being the underdog. We know how good we are. We struggled late. If we would have won them games, then you might hear from somebody else, Villanova can win this, can win that.

But you can’t get into that. You can’t control that. And that’s — everybody has their own decision. Like I said, we’re going to continue to play basketball.

THE MODERATOR: We want to thank our Villanova student-athletes. Up next is head coach Jay Wright. Coach, a brief opening statement.

COACH WRIGHT: We’re very happy to be in the tournament, very happy to be in Cleveland, and just had a good practice over at Cleveland State. And ran into Buzz Williams and it was really nice to see him and not have to be thinking about playing them. I can tell all the Big East guys are a lot more relaxed, we’re not playing against each other.

But it’s funny I saw Buzz and George Mason. That’s kind of like a Marquette team, a really tough team to guard and very, very well coached and really tough, really mentally and physically tough. So we know we have a really tough game tomorrow and we’re looking forward to it.

Q. Jay, your team has been to a Final Four and last year had the disappointment of going out in the second round. What lessons do you think that the seniors will carry over from the Final Four team and from the disappointment of last year?

COACH WRIGHT: I think that they realize how fragile all of this is and how to appreciate every moment. The senior class, in their first year, went to a Sweet 16, and it was kind of a satisfying Sweet 16. Then they went to a Final Four, and I think last year they kind of felt like it just happens. You come to Villanova and it just happens.

And I think last year they learned it doesn’t just happen. It’s very, very fragile. And I do think this team is coming into this tournament and it’s because of our seniors with a great appreciation for being here and a respect for the process of preparing all the things we’re doing here today. It’s very business-like attitude this morning.

I really like that, and I’ve liked that about this team all year.

Q. Corey Fisher was talking about that the team is still really confident. During the time off you had between the Big East tournament and now, is that something you really had to work on with them was getting the confidence high, or were they there already?

COACH WRIGHT: I think those seniors have remained confident. But it is something that as a staff we have addressed, definitely. We had a lot of time. Time does heal wounds. The further you get away from the regular season and the more you’re engaged in this tournament, it seems that everyone’s mindset is about being in the tournament again.

George Mason, what a great game it’s going to be. How fortunate we are to be here. So there’s just a lot more positives now, a lot more confidence going into this game than there was a week and a half ago.

Q. Jay, you had mentioned before that kind of the feeling last year was this just happens at Villanova; you come to Villanova and you go to the Sweet 16. How much of an adjustment has this been for you to not — to not be so, I guess, bulletproof anymore?

COACH WRIGHT: You mean the season? Yeah. You know, I think we all get better at what we do based on our experiences. There was a confidence level, as a staff, that we all had in what we do.

We had had some success for a number of years here. I think I’ve learned and our staff has learned a great perspective about a long-term approach to your program.

You look at any successful programs, they’ve had great runs, and then what is — what defines a bad run.

I was reading there the New York Post yesterday and there was an article about St. John’s and what a great year they had and how they’ve been restored to prominence. I just happened to read that the record was 21-11. And it was the same as ours. In Philly 21-11 and Villanova is a horrible season. But that’s okay. I’m just learning. We’re all learning about. We’re all learning that that’s part of what you have to deal with.

And that’s what I’m most proud about this team. There’s a lot of things on the court, defense, rebounding, shot selection, I’m not happy about in the past. But I’m really proud of how these guys have handled expectations, how they’ve handled this run here, and I think they’ve put us — because they’ve handled it so well, they put us into a position to really enjoy this tournament and really be confident going into it.

Q. Jay, I’m guessing as a basketball lifer, as a coach, that you’re very conversant with the history of the tournament and how teams like George Mason have written their names into the book. Do you think your players are as conscious of how dangerous a team George Mason is and what their history is, or do you think it’s just another opponent to them?

COACH WRIGHT: I think usually players’ memories go back about three or four years. I think that’s about the extent of what they know about teams and the tournament.

I asked them a question today that they didn’t know. I can’t think of it. It shocked everybody. Oh. I asked them today in a meeting this morning if they knew what WFAN was in New York. None of them knew, not even the New York guys. So what the kids think of is unique.

But I think our guys played these guys last year and what they know about these guys is a respect. We were down 13 in that game. They know that. And they remember that. And we hit a pretty lucky shot to take a lead and at the end we had an unbelievable defensive position.

So their respect is simple. This team last year kicked us pretty good. We were lucky to win, and I think that’s what their perspective is.

Q. Jay, I take it you don’t feel 21-11 is a horrible season. Do you feel you’ve greatly underachieved this season? And because of that, how do you view the guys on this team?

COACH WRIGHT: I think you and I have talked about this. We never put a goal on where we want to be at the end of the season in terms of Final Fours, Big East championships. We always look at a season as a journey and we want to be the best team — I’m saying this to you for the 80th time, but we want to be the best we can at the end of the year given the circumstances, injuries, tough breaks, tough calls. That’s what a season is, is how you endure that. So going into the season if you would have asked me if we would have been better than 21-11, I would have said yes, I would have thought we would have been.

Having gone through what we have, the best I can do is evaluate how our guys have handled it. I think basketball-wise we could have done some better things. We could have been a better defensive team. I think we could have executed better offensively. But given everything we’ve been through, our schedule in the Big East, everything, I am extremely proud of these three seniors. The fact that everybody has stuck together and we’re in an NCAA Tournament right now and they’re fired up about playing and our team is confident in what we do, that’s what I’m excited about them. And that’s going to be their legacy in my mind.

Q. Jay, earlier you used your staff a couple times in a row, and there’s a page in your media guide, as you know, of your staff, except they’re somewhere else. So as a coach, how does that work? Do you guys have a meeting to decide how you’re going to approach these guys psychologically, and how has it worked for you over the term of these three seniors in terms of how you’ve coached this team? Has it altered at all? If not, how does it work?

COACH WRIGHT: We definitely — it’s very important that we all have the same mindset within the program. So we meet as a staff and I talk to the staff about what we want to — what’s the psyche of the team, because they have really good relationships with the guys. We even talk with the captains with the staff about what’s the psyche of the team.

And then we go into a team meeting and we all come to a consensus of where are we. We constantly evaluate perspective, where are we, what’s the reality. After the South Florida game, here’s the reality. We had a 16-point lead. We blew a 16-point lead. We didn’t have Mouph. We did everything right down the stretch. We missed a couple of free throws but then we made a bad play. That’s the reality. Where do we go from here? And then we address. We always talk about attitude, what’s our attitude going forward. And that’s constant after every game. It was after we got chosen for the NCAA Tournament. The same thing: Where are we?

The season’s over. We got a 9 seed. You know, we talked about it a few years ago, we were the last team in, which if we would have been this year we couldn’t have argued. But we went to a Sweet 16 that year. So this is where we are. What’s our attitude going forward. Everybody is healthy, we’re having good practices, we’re fired up, let’s go. New season.

Q. Are you more or less hands-on, the staff over the years?

COACH WRIGHT: That’s a good question. It changes each year based on the experience of the staff. Couple of years ago we had a lot of first-year guys. Pat Chambers got a job and Brett Gunning got a job, Eddie Pinckney got a job. This staff now, we’ve got a good core right now. They’ve got a good feel.

So a little bit less hands-on than maybe last year. But I’m usually very hands-on.

Q. Is there some level of achievement in terms of Eights, 16s and maybe even Final Fours, multiple Final Fours, that the Big East needs to justify the 11?

COACH WRIGHT: I love that topic. I don’t think how many Final Fours you get to how many final Eights determine how strong the conference is.

I think it’s very easy to evaluate. 11 teams throughout the course of the regular season were worthy of being the top 68 teams. I think that’s clear.

How the teams perform will, in the end, show if the league was top heavy or not. Did you have dominant teams? And I think that’s what’s great about the tournament. I think it really does show that. I don’t think how you perform in the tournament warrants discussion of whether you were worthy or not.

I think it’s really clear. I think the NCAA does a great job. They’re very transparent. They show you what the criteria is. And I think this year, more than any, I think they did a great — with 68 teams, this is my personal opinion, it’s a perfect number this year. I think it was pretty clear — I thought it was very clear.

In ’09, if you remember Connecticut, Villanova went to the Final Four. I think West Virginia, Louisville and Pitt were in the final Eights that year. I think that showed you had really dominant teams. We played Pitt to get in. Pitt was just as good as us.

We had dominant teams. And I think it will show.

Q. Corey Fisher was talking about a tougher time being the Final Four year when you lost six or seven in a row, he couldn’t remember what it was. Have you seen them use that experience as they’ve gone through? And how has in particular Corey maybe learned from it and matured from it and used it this time?

COACH WRIGHT: The Final Four team lost five in a row when they were juniors, and that’s what Corey was referring to. And Corey was a freshman that year. It was in the middle of the season. It was a little bit more disastrous than this year’s, believe it or not, because it was the beginning of the year and it looked like we were never going to come out of that.

And so I know Corey, the two Coreys and Antonio, have referred to that a lot with this team. And I think that’s given them confidence that, hey, we’ve done this before and we’ve come out of this before. And it’s definitely given them confidence.

One of the things I want to say about Corey Fisher, I think if Corey Fisher was at Villanova at the same time that Mike Nardi was at Villanova with Randy Foye or after Randy Foye and there wasn’t that line of Foye, Nardi, Lowery and Reynolds, he’s kind of at the end where everybody expects him to be better than all of them. I think he’s as good as any of them, but he’s at the end of the line and everybody expects him to be John Wall. And I’m just incredibly impressed at how he’s handled all this. There was an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer that was I thought pretty tough on a college kid.

But he’s handled it great. And that’s part of being a Villanova guard. It was a well-written article. I don’t have any problem with it. But it was tough on a college kid. He’s handled it great. And I’m just amazed at how he has handled the expectations, the pressure, some disappointment and injury, and I’m really proud of him for that.

Do I think he could have had a better senior year numbers-wise, yes, but he’s still our leading scorer, leading assist guy. Great leader for our team, and he’s battled through tendonitis. And I’m just proud as hell of him. As I said, it’s part of his legacy here at Villanova is that he’s really grown up as a man with a lot of pressure on him.

Q. When Fish was up here earlier, he said in the aftermath of losing to South Florida that they knew there was something else after that, whether it was here, and he also mentioned the other three-letter tournament. Did you ever bring it up to them, hey, this is a possibility, or did you ignore it, just bring it to the forefront? How did you address it?

COREY FISHER: We never talk about the NCAA Tournament during the season ever. And I don’t follow it. We have good people around us, Mike Sheridan, and our people, Bob. I know in the end they’re going to tell me where we are, so I don’t even follow it. So we never talked about it.

After we lost, we had a meeting the next day. And I said to them, Guys, whether we’re in the NIT, NCAA, it’s out of our hands right now. So what we can do is rest up, get healthy and get better in this next week, wherever we’re playing and be excited about playing.

After the meeting the assistant said to me, Coach, these guys know they’re not in the NIT, so don’t talk to them about it. I said, How do they know? Because I don’t follow it. They read this stuff, they watch, everybody’s saying we’re not close. I don’t do it. So they’re so much more informed. They’re watching ESPN every day. They’re on websites.

So they know, as I said, the NCAA is transparent. They know what the criteria is. Those guys follow it. They knew. So they never really did worry about it at all. I worried about it for a day after USF, and then when I started looking at the criteria, and we started analyzing it, we said, We’re going to be all right. Our resumé is good enough.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

George Mason is a team that is not afraid to take chances. In 2006, their coach called for the team to run a play with 10 minutes left in the game, and they continued to run that play for the next 25 possessions — until their victory over UConn was secure. Jim Larranaga knows a few things about basketball, and he will be preparing to cook up a game plan to confuse the Wildcats and throw the team off-balance, just like he did in Puerto Rico.

The last time these two teams met, Ryan Pearson was the high-scorer for George Mason, and he has improved from his average of around 11 points last year to 14.4 points and 6.8 rebounds per game. The 6’6″ junior forward is, however, only a close-second on the team in the points-category.

The scoring star of this team has been senior guard, Cam Long, who averages 15.3 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists. Long shoots 42.6% from 3-point range, and is the team leader in 3-point attempts. The third and fourth leading scorers (and regular starters) are sophomore forward Luke Hancock (10.7ppg) and Andre Cornelius (9.9ppg)  – but both were “banged up” in practice this week.

The fifth starter, Mike Morrison is perhaps your classic “glue” player. At 6’9″, the junior center is the tallest of the Patriots’ regulars, and will be tasked with matching up with Mouphtaou Yarou, most likely. Morrison is fifth on the team in scoring (6.7 ppg) and second in rebounding (5.3ppg).

Villanova, meanwhile, is expected to return to the three-guard lineup that earned them their hot start to this season. Maalik Wayns and Corey Fisher will both start and share duties at the point guard position, while Corey Stokes will play on the wing and Yarou and Antonio Pena will play the 5 and 4, respectively. With everyone healthy, Jay Wright will be able to go 9-deep on his bench in tomorrow’s game.

Villanova has a notable height advantage on the high end, with Yarou and Mo Sutton both checking in a few inches taller than GMU’s Morrison. That said, Cam Long is listed at 6’4″, and may be a tough match-up for Villanova’s smaller guards.

With nothing left to lose except their season, the Wildcats will hopefully discard the slowed-down, clock-killing “burn” offense, in favor of the more wide-open attack that has seen some success over the past few years. Key to any game, is being able to get the ball into the hands of Corey Stokes, something that happens far less often when the offense goes into “burn” mode.

Stokes is Villanova’s second leading scorer, but trails Corey Fisher by less than a point. He is, by far, the team’s best option from beyond the arc, shooting 43.4% from that range, and keeping defenders near the perimeter in the process. While Dominic Cheek and James Bell have both shown some ability to score from the perimeter (Cheek, remember, was a perfect 4-4 from deep in a game earlier this season), neither has had the opportunity to really fill that role.

Pena and Yarou, meanwhile, will be tasked with taking control in the paint, and they should at least have a size advantage down low. Moreso, perhaps, than scoring, Villanova will need a good performance from it’s bigs on the offensive glass. Pena, however, has been a contributor on offense, and his mid-range jumper will hopefully re-appear to convert some of those offensive rebounds into points.

Mason is a capable team from the perimeter, and Villanova must be quick to pick up their defensive assignments, or risk getting lit up from deep. The Patriots are also adept, however, at getting to the free-throw line, and do so at only a slightly lower-rate than the Wildcats. At the line, the Patriots shoot 69% as a team.

Assuming Villanova’s offense returns to normalcy on Friday afternoon, this could likely be a game that is decided on the free-throw line. George Mason gets to the line a good number of times in each game, but hasn’t been as efficient there as Villanova. The ‘Cats need to maximize their attempts from the charity-stripe, meanwhile, since about a quarter of their points this season have come in that fashion (and, frankly, we all watched as free-throw shooting bailed the ice-cold ‘Cats out against Robert Morris last year).

This will be the last chance for Villanova to flex it’s muscles and show the world that they can still win. By knocking off the 8th-seeded Patriots, they will earn themselves a Sunday showdown with the top-seeded Ohio State Buckeyes, a favorite of many to reach the Final Four, and perhaps win the title. A loss, however, would be the 6th-straight, and the ‘Cats would whimper into the off-season with their tails between their legs and a whole lot of questions to answer.

The game will tip off at 2:10 PM from Cleveland, Ohio and will be broadcast live on TNT as well as available on-line from March Madness On Demand.

Also: If you haven’t participated in our Blogathon yet, either by donating or pledging to donate a set amount, please consider it.  Not only does the money go to a good cause, but you can get a t-shirt or signed item as well (and it’s good karma for a team hoping to play in Newark next week).

As these things usually work, I also answered some questions that you will be able to read over at GMUHoops.com.

Villanova ended the nation’s second-longest streak of being ranked in the top-25 this season, our fans maybe began to take that status for granted; how did George Mason fans feel to see their team jump into the rankings this year?

It is definitely a sense of pride for people around the program and fans to be acknowledged like that by the coaches and media. Especially considering a lot of coaches and media members don’t watch many CAA games.  It’s not often you see a CAA team in those polls so it’s definitely a great recruiting tool as well.

Who is George Mason’s best weapon against Villanova: Cam Long, Ryan Pearson or Jim Larranaga?

All three are very valuable parts to overall essence of ‘team’ that has been the program’s brand this season.  But against Villanova I think forward Ryan Pearson will be the best weapon.  He has the ability to play inside and out and creates some mismatch problems for opposing teams with his unorthodox styles and left-handed shots.

Both teams will get great play from their guards so you’ll hear Cam Long’s name called a lot but I feel Pearson gives them an edge in the x-factor category.

What has been the hallmark of this George Mason team? What do they consistently do better than their opponents?

Efficiency on offense and taking care of the ball. Defense is Coach Larranaga’s calling card but their ability to put up points this season and not turn over the ball is what stands out.

They distribute the ball extremely well and are all unselfish when it comes to shot selection.  They get scoring from different places each game and you never know where it’s going to come from because of the team’s balance.

Are the Patriots looking at this game as a revenge-game for last year’s loss in Puerto Rico?

I would say so considering all but two freshmen were at that game last season.  It has to hurt that they lost to Villanova off an Isiah Armwood three-point dagger that turned out to be his only three-pointer made in the past 2 years.

Is there any common thread among George Mason’s losses? What went wrong?

In the beginning of the season they lost to NC State and Wofford because they were engaging in too many one-on-one battles and not handling the ball well.

In their recent loss to VCU we saw them play poor defense in the 1^st half, which they had been doing in a few prior games.  They gave up way too many open looks from the outside and VCU made them pay for it.

In some of the games before that they had dug themselves into a hole in the first half but had a huge rally in the second to come out with the victory.  They are a great second half team but sometimes they get a little too lax in the beginning of games.

Mason isn’t a tremendously big team, with Mike Morrison the tallest regular player at 6’9″, everyone else playing a lot of minutes seems to hover around 6’5″ or 6’6″. Size had been a problem for ‘Nova in year’s past. Do you expect trouble matching up with Yarou, Pena and Armwood?

I don’t think so because they haven’t had a size advantage over anyone this season. The only time is can be an issue on the offensive boards, an area where they sometimes get beat bad.

Another issue is depth because if Mike Morrison or Ryan Pearson gets into foul trouble they have very little experience at forward on the bench. They held their own against bigger teams like ODU, who leads the nation in rebounding margin, so they put in the extra effort to make up for it.

Is it good or bad that most people immediately think of that 2006 Final Four run when they hear George Mason?

It gets tiring to fans but it was an incredible run that will always be talked about in college basketball. It’s  better than hearing people say “who?” when you’re talking about George Mason basketball.

The players on the floor this season were drawn in to the program because of that run and they are now the highest seed in school history.

If George Mason wins, do you think they can beat Ohio State?

I don’t think Mason would match-up with Ohio State who is a team that has a lot of weapons.  Jared Sullinger would pose a ton of problems down low.

However the Buckeyes are not that experienced and a team like George Mason that plays so well together can sometimes overcome a big talent mismatch.  It would not take a miracle but it would take an excellent shooting and mistake free game by the Patriots to cause the upset.

Thanks again to Ryan for answering our questions. Check back tomorrow for a game preview.

According to Ashley Fox of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Jay Wright has been working with the team to get them sharp and back on track during the time off:

To ensure that the Wildcats are “right,” Wright treated the three days leading up to Sunday night’s announcement of the field of 68 like a training camp. He reviewed all of the basics with the team. Offensive and defensive sets. Rotations. Inbounds plays. End-of-game situations. For the first time in a while, everyone practiced, even Mouphtaou Yarou, who is still sore from the fall he took in the Big East tournament loss to South Florida but was on the floor when Wright was simulating plays.

Wright has not commented on the efficacy of his “burn” offense (but I will, keep an eye out for that this week), but he has said that he wants them to “remember who they were” when they opened the season 16-1.

Unlike last season’s tournament in Puerto Rico, a loss to George Mason this time, would mean the end of the road. No consolation games. Nothing more. Just final exams.

So will the ‘Cats be ready? According to multiple sources, they are at-least expected to be healthy. Corey Stokes’ toe feels fine, Fisher’s tendinitis is expected to be under control by Friday and it has been noted that Mouphtaou Yarou will be 100% for friday’s game.

Hope that they stay that way too, because injuries only encourage this team to play away from it’s own strengths, to get tentative, make bad decisions, and lose to opponents they should be able to defeat.