Believe It, Patriots Are Elite

WASHINGTON —  George Mason, the Cinderella from the Washington suburbs, is one improbable win from the Final Four.

With a 63-55 victory over Wichita State in the Washington Regional semifinals Friday at Verizon Center, George Mason became only the fourth 11th-seeded team ever to reach an NCAA tournament regional final.

“Everyone was saying we weren’t even supposed to be here, and now we’re in the Elite Eight,” said guard Lamar Butler, who flashed eight fingers at the television announcers as the game ended. “It was just an adrenaline rush from my head to my toes. An awesome feeling.”

Playing only 20 miles from their campus in Fairfax, Va., the George Mason players had plenty of support from a crowd waving “Go Mason” placards and students in the nosebleed seats.

But as short as the drive is, George Mason’s road to the Final Four suddenly looks a lot like a federal worker’s commute.

It’s not the miles, but the traffic that might be a problem.

The Patriots (26-7) face top-seeded Connecticut on Sunday for a trip to the Final Four in Indianapolis, and this is the spot where all but one 11th-seeded team’s journey has ended.

Louisiana State in 1986 is the lowest-seeded team ever to reach the Final Four.

For the other two No. 11s to get this far -- the 1990 Loyola Marymount team led by Bo Kimble after the death of Hank Gathers and the 2001 Temple team -- the road ended in the Elite Eight.

Who among these loose and laughing George Mason players is to complain?

They were a controversial pick even to make the NCAA field of 65 after losing in the Colonial Athletic Assn. semifinals -- and just as critically, losing point guard Tony Skinn when Coach Jim Larranaga suspended him for one game after he kicked an opponent in the groin in the loss.

“Once Selection Sunday came and we got picked, we saw what all the critics were saying, that we didn’t need to be in the tournament,” Skinn said. “But we knew we were capable of playing with anybody in the country and just needed a chance to go out and prove ourselves.”

The Patriots’ victory over seventh-seeded Wichita State might have been the easiest of their three NCAA tournament games.

They reached the Sweet 16 by upsetting two teams that went to the Final Four last season, Michigan State and a rebuilt North Carolina team that was nevertheless the defending champion.

In Wichita State, they faced a team they already had defeated last month in an ESPN Bracket Buster game in Wichita, Kan., a game George Mason won, 70-67, on a late three-point basket.

This time it wasn’t close after three minutes, as George Mason jumped to a 9-0 lead on three consecutive three-point baskets.

George Mason led by as many as 18 in the first half and by as many as 19 in the second, and made eight of 16 three-point shots -- including seven of 11 in the first half.

Wichita State (26-9), held to 31.3% shooting and three of 24 from three-point range, got as close as seven in the final minute, but never really threatened.

Folarin Campbell, who made three three-point baskets in the first 4 1/2 minutes, led George Mason with 16 points. Skinn and Butler each had 14, including two three-point baskets each, and Will Thomas added 10 points and had 10 rebounds.

George Mason, which had never won an NCAA tournament game before his season, is a little school only in terms of basketball pedigree.

With more than 28,000 students, many of them graduate students or commuters, it is larger than Duke.

But Duke is done. George Mason is not.

Larranaga said the team’s giddy attitude is carrying the players.

“We’re having so much fun, it’s not like we’re in a situation where we’re nervous or have any kind of fear,” he said. “As long as we can just continue to do that, anything is possible.”