George Mason capped a successful holiday week by beating South Carolina yesterday to take third-place in the Old Spice Classic in Orlando, Fla. Will Thomas paced the Patriots with 22 points and 11 rebounds, solidifying his place on the All-Tournament team. George Mason kicked off their tournament with an 87-77 win over 18th-ranked Kansas State. John Vaughan's 21 points led the team, which put all five starters in double figures. Folarin Campbell's 25 points made......

The mid-November start to the NCAA basketball season tends to get lost in the universe of sports coverage. This is probably due to the staggered opening nights around the country, but can also be attributed to competition with other sports -- college football entering its stretch run, the NFL in midseason, even the NBA's opening weeks garner more attention than college hoops. We're not about to let this exciting time slip through the cracks. With......

After a thoroughly dominating March, the Florida Gators cut down the nets for the second straight year. Meanwhile, in the DCist Reader-Staff Bracketfest, reader Seth Rappaport had the honor of cutting down the virtual nets. Seth built a commanding lead with perfect first round brackets in three of the four regions, then dealt his finishing blow by picking a perfect Final Four. Coming in second was our own Hayden Alfano, bracket manager extrordinaire. Thanks Hayden,......

By DCist contributor Hayden Alfano Georgetown is the area's last hope for this year's NCAA men's basketball title. The Hoyas advanced to the Sweet 16 with a 62-55 win on Saturday over Boston College. After a first half in which he scored just two points and was saddled with two fouls, Georgetown center Roy Hibbert dominated the second 20 minutes. Hibbert finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds, and added the assist on this Patrick......

College basketball fans on the Hilltop and in College Park are pleased, while the ones in Foggy Bottom probably wish they hadn't turned on the TV. The Hoyas pounded Belmont and will face Boston College, while the Terps handled Davidson and will face Butler, and the Colonials were clobbered by Vanderbilt, losing by 33. And over at the DCist Reader-Staff Bracketfest, Kyle Mahaney is in the lead, having picked every game except Butler over......

It starts at 12:20 p.m. this afternoon. Tip-off. For some, the pinnacle of sports fandom rests in these next few days. They are epic: 12 hour days that capture some of the very reasons why we watch sports. The NCAA Tournament has the most exhaustive field in major U.S. sports, giving 65 teams a shot at glory in the national spotlight. Year after year, the Big Dance provides buzzer beaters, star turns, Cinderella stories and......

After all the hype and hope, the seeds are planted and the brackets are being filled out: it's March Madness. Seven (!) area teams made the Big Dance: Georgetown, GW, Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech, VCU and ODU. We'll preview the field in the coming days and also announce our first-ever DCist Reader-Staff Pool. In the meantime, we're salivating (and we assume local bar owners are too). There's a potential second round Maryland-Old Dominion matchup,......

Mason's Magic Slips Away For 38 minutes Monday night, the George Mason Patriots did what they needed to do to complete their improbable four-game run through the Colonial Athletic Association and make a return trip to the NCAA Tournament. They lost it all in 14 seconds. That’s how long it took for Virginia Commonwealth’s Eric Maynor to steal the ball from Dre Smith, drive downcourt, hit a layup while getting fouled by Gabe Norwood,......

A weekend full of college basketball saw all four major D.C. area programs hosting games against teams ahead of them in the respective conference standings. Two emerged with convincing wins, while two others suffered disappointing losses. On Saturday, Georgetown leapfrogged No. 11 Marquette into second place in the Big East with a 76-58 victory in front of an announced 17,867 at the Phone Booth. Jeff Green helped break open a close one around the six-minute......

Colossal Meltdown for GW Any time you blow a 20 point second half lead, it makes for a particularly ugly loss. GW's 74-65 loss to USC in the John Wooden Classic on Saturday qualifies as such. This one was just plain nasty. Two minutes into the second half, GW held a commanding 36-16 lead against their counterparts from USC. Up until that point, the Colonials had played sparkling defense, protecting the basket while forcing the......

The BB&T Classic has been pitting local college hoops teams against each other for 12 years, sporting a name change and some changes in format over the span. The three-game event at the Verizon Center opened with consummate Cinderella team George Mason against Bucknell, followed by George Washington against hotly tipped Virginia Tech, and concluding with resurgent Maryland against Notre Dame. While those are nice matchups, you may have noticed two things missing: local bragging......

This entry was written by DCist contributor Hayden Alfano The clock finally struck midnight for George Mason. The greatest Cinderella run in the history of the tournament came to an unceremonious end Saturday night, as Florida beat the Patriots 73-58 in Indianapolis to advance to the national championship game. After a competitive first half that saw the Gators take a five-point lead into the break, Florida's Lee Humphrey hit a trio of three-pointers to break......

This entry was written by DCist contributor Hayden Alfano Playing as they do in the poorly-regarded Atlantic 10 conference, George Washington is often overlooked when the conversation turns to D.C. hoops, particularly since they play in the long shadows cast by Georgetown and Maryland, two successful programs in the nation's "power" conferences. But the Colonials may just be the best the area has to offer. With an 81-62 over Rhode Island on Saturday, GW ran......

This post was written by DCist contributor Hayden Alfano Maryland's men's basketball team took a serious hit Monday with the announcement that senior shooting guard Chris McCray has been ruled academically ineligible and will miss the rest of the season, thus ending his career at Maryland. McCray has captained the Terps each of the last two seasons, and with 15.2 points per game, was the team's leading scorer. He's also one of the team's few......

This post was written by DCist contributor Hayden Alfano When John Thompson III replaced Craig Esherick as head coach of Georgetown's men's basketball, Hoya alums and other Washingtonians expected a swift return to the top for the storied program. With an 87-84 win over top-ranked and previously-undefeated Duke Saturday afternoon at MCI Center, the Hoyas announced to the entire country that they're back. After controlling most of the game and leading by as much as......

This entry was written by DCist Sports newest contributor, Hayden Alfano George Washington made its case as the best team in the area last night with a 78-70 win over Maryland in the BB&T Classic. After a sloppy first half in which the teams seemed to be feeling each other out, Maryland's Chris McCray hit back-to-back-to-back three pointers in a span of 45 seconds to tie the score at 51 and keep the Terps close.......

(DCist would like to welcome our new college basketball correspondent Hayden Alfano) Maryland’s men’s basketball team used a full-court press defense to force 22 Minnesota turnovers, pulling away in the second half for an 83-66 victory over the Golden Gophers last night as part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Travis Garrison paced the Terrapins with 18 points, becoming the fourth player to lead the team in scoring in the first six games. Regardless of the......

It's DCist's favorite time of the year, and we're not talking about our office's summer hours which begin next week. No, it's the NBA off-season, baby! Stat and fantasy geeks everywhere get to OD on rumor and innuendo tomorrow night when the NBA holds their annual draft. This may be the deepest draft in recent memory, so expect to hear the phrase "tremendous upside" more than you heard that crappy Rob Thomas song last week......

(Editor's Note: DCist would like to welcome another new member to our Sports staff. Hayden Alfano will be covering the local college hoops beat as well as assisting in our upcoming coverage of the 2005 NBA Draft.) After a grueling season, college basketball coaches have little time to relax. The recruiting trail beckons, and they lay awake at night worrying if any of their players will declare early for the NBA Draft. Local hoops coaches......