By John Feinstein
Wednesday, March 15, 2006

The instant he did it, Tony Skinn knew he had made a horrible mistake. The sight of Hofstra's Loren Stokes crumpled on the floor of Richmond Coliseum was bad enough. The look on Coach Jim Larranaga's face when he took Skinn out of the game certainly left no doubt in his mind that he had done something awful.

But it wasn't until the next night, still in a state of semi-shock after the punch and his subsequent one-game suspension by Larranaga, that it really hit him just how badly he had lost control. He was watching the Colonial Athletic Association championship game between Hofstra and UNC Wilmington when ESPN showed the footage that had been making the rounds since the incident 24 hours earlier.

"When I actually saw what I had done, it was terrible," Skinn said yesterday, just before George Mason's early-afternoon practice. "I looked at it and said to myself, 'What the hell were you thinking?' I wish I had an answer to that question, but I don't. I've played basketball for a long, long time now, and I've never done anything like that. I turned the TV off after that. I just couldn't watch anymore."

Skinn delivered a sucker punch to Stokes's groin. It came with 55 seconds left in a CAA tournament semifinal between the Patriots and the Pride. Skinn, who had just hit a three-pointer that cut Hofstra's lead to 53-49, was trying to shadow Stokes as part of Mason's press.

"He didn't do anything to me," Skinn said. "We were jockeying for position, and it was physical like it had been the whole game. There's no excuse. I'm just relieved that it didn't cost us the [NCAA tournament] berth. If we hadn't gotten in, even if people said it wasn't because of me, I think that would have weighed on my conscience the rest of my life."

When the Patriots gathered in Larranaga's basement Sunday evening to watch the NCAA selection show, there was no question about who was the most nervous man in the room. All week long, Skinn's teammates had told him not to feel guilty, not to be concerned about what was to come, that they were all still behind him. He knew, though, that those were just words.

"It's what teammates do," he said. "If we hadn't made it, I really wonder if they wouldn't have thought, 'If not for Tony doing what he did, we'd have been there.' That's human nature. . . .

"When the first two brackets went up and we weren't there, I was sweating. I saw Air Force in there and I thought to myself, 'That could have been our spot.' I was looking at Coach L because he's been through this so many times to see if his face gave away anything, but it didn't. I just had to wait. When I saw our name pop up there when they showed the D.C. region, it was as if my heart stopped. Then everybody was hugging one another, and I'm pretty sure I shed a tear or two."

The fact that the Patriots will be playing Michigan State in Dayton, Ohio, on Friday evening in the first round of the tournament certainly was a relief, but it didn't put the incident completely behind Skinn. He is reminded of that each day in practice this week when he plays with the second team trying to help those who will start Friday get ready for the Spartans. He will be reminded of it again Friday, when he will spend the game at the end of the GMU bench in street clothes hoping that his teammates can pull off an upset and extend his college career at least one more game. And he is reminded of it when he thinks of the phone call he hasn't made yet: to Loren Stokes.

"I got his e-mail address right after the incident, and I thought about sending him an e-mail," he said. "Then I thought that wasn't right, that I needed to call him on the phone. So I got his number. Then I started putting it off. To be honest, I just didn't have the courage to pick up the phone. Then I decided I'd call him Sunday night to congratulate him on them getting a bid and tell him how sorry I was. But after we got in and they didn't, I really didn't think he wanted to hear from me this week."

For Hofstra, the announcement of the field on Sunday added insult to injury. Even though the Pride had beaten the Patriots twice in the last 10 days of the season, the committee decided that Mason's 15-3 conference record -- along with its late-February victory at Wichita State -- was better than Hofstra's 14-4 league record and its two wins over the Patriots. Larranaga thought both teams should have made the field. Skinn probably is right that Stokes doesn't want to hear from him right now. But, he says, he will pick up the phone and call at some point.

"It will be a tough conversation to have," he said. "There isn't much I can do except tell him how sorry I am."

Sadly, the incident has overshadowed the success that Skinn has found since arriving at Mason three years ago. Coming out of Takoma Academy five years ago, he wasn't academically eligible for an NCAA scholarship. He went to junior college in Texas for a year and then transferred to Hagerstown Community College to be closer to home and to try to get his grades up so he could get his associate's degree and be eligible to transfer to a Division I school.

"I had met [GMU grad] Jason Miskiri playing in the Kenner League during the summer [of 2002], and he had talked about Mason," Skinn said. "I decided not to play basketball that year so I would be sure to graduate. Fortunately, the coaches had seen enough of me that they still offered me the chance to come and play."

He worked his way into the starting lineup during his sophomore season and has been the point guard since. He has done well enough academically that he will graduate in May with a degree in communications. In a sense, he has dreamed about this week ever since his first year at Mason, when the Patriots lost the CAA championship game in the final seconds to Virginia Commonwealth.

"I hadn't really thought that much about the NCAA tournament until that game," he said. "We were so close that night. After that, all I wanted was for us to make it to the tournament. Last year, we were mediocre, but this year we just kept getting better and better. We all just knew we were going to make it."

They were all certain they were going to make it after Skinn hit a dramatic three with 9.9 seconds left at Wichita State to give the Patriots a 70-67 victory. That win got them national attention and seemed to clinch a spot, regardless of what happened in the CAA tournament. Then came the two losses to Hofstra, the second one punctuated by Skinn's low blow.

"Longest week of my life," he said. "I kept thinking that it was one thing for me to be punished for what I did, but it wasn't fair for my teammates, especially the other seniors, if they were punished too. Everyone on this team had worked so hard to get to where we were. The thought that I might have thrown it away like that weighed on me a lot."

Larranaga was convinced the committee would not have left his team out because of Skinn's absence for one game under any circumstances. He told Skinn that repeatedly. Still, seeing "George Mason" pop up on the TV screen Sunday was the only way for Skinn to be 100 percent certain that was the case.

"Happy as I am, it still doesn't feel the way it should feel," he said. "I'll do everything I can to help the guys prepare and be a cheerleader on Friday night. But I have to depend on them putting it together so I can play another game." He smiled. "The worst part of that is, I'm the one who put myself in this position. No one else."

It was time for practice. Skinn would be in green, playing with the second team. He hopes he gets at least one more chance to practice in a white jersey. And to walk on the court in a green-and-gold uniform.