The Patriots Confront a Tribe's Quest

By John Feinstein
Monday, March 10, 2008

RICHMOND

It has been 25 years since Jim Valvano coined the phrase "survive and advance" during his North Carolina State team's miraculous journey to the national championship. These days, it has become a cliche that every coach in every sport uses after any kind of postseason victory.

Sunday, at creaky old Richmond Coliseum, the term was not only apt, it was the only way to explain the manner in which George Mason and William & Mary advanced to Monday's Colonial Athletic Association championship game.

The Patriots made four field goals in the second half -- four-- and still beat UNC Wilmington going away, 53-41, in about as ugly an offensive basketball game as you can possibly imagine. The fifth-seeded Tribe, which appeared on the verge of being blown out by top-seeded Virginia Commonwealth on a number of occasions, got two big-time shots from Laimis Kisielius in the final minute and stunned VCU and its raucous fans, 56-54, to advance to a conference final for the first time in 25 years.

"When you get to this stage in postseason play, you have to be prepared to get punched in the mouth and get up off the floor," said William & Mary Coach Tony Shaver, who has taken more than a few shots during his five seasons at the school. "I thought our guys responded well every time we had to today."

William & Mary is now in the same place where George Mason was a year ago -- except that the Tribe has never been to the NCAA tournament. It has won three games, each in the final seconds, to get to the final. The Patriots arrived here a year ago reeling from a 23-point drubbing at Northeastern that ended their regular season and promptly became Mason circa March 2006 for three nights, before coming up just shy in the final against VCU.

Entering this year's event, William & Mary had lost six of its last seven games and was lucky to escape Friday against 12th-seeded Georgia State.

"Postseason is like a fresh start," said Kisielius, a Lithuanian who played two years of prep ball in Charlottesville before traveling east to Williamsburg for college. "When you're a senior, you understand that every game can be your last game. You want to play as long as you can."

Mason's key seniors, Will Thomas and Folarin Campbell, will not end their careers here, regardless of Monday's outcome. But after starting on a Final Four team two years ago, neither of them wants to finish in the NIT. Sunday, Wilmington decided it wasn't going to let Thomas decide the game, double-teaming any time the ball got close to him in the low post.

That created space in the lane for Campbell, who took advantage of it in the second half, constantly drawing fouls as he drove to the basket -- he made 9 of 14 free throws in the last 20 minutes -- and scored 11 of his team's 22 points.

"My shot wasn't dropping, so I had to do something to try to score," he said. "If Will's man had come to help I'd have dropped it to him, but he never did."

Mason won this game at the defensive end of the floor. It had no choice because with Dre Smith on the bench because of a sore knee, John Vaughan's shooting touch absent, Thomas double-teamed and Campbell just 3 of 11 from the field himself, the only option was to stop the Seahawks.

The Patriots did that because Coach Jim Larranaga decided to front wide-body center Vladimir Kuljanin because he had consistently hurt his team in Wilmington's two regular season wins both by scoring and passing the ball from the low post. Reserve Chris Fleming, who chipped in with some critical offense (3-of-3 shooting) helped admirably on Kuljanin, and the entire team did a good job of extending to Wilmington's perimeter shooters, the result being that the Seahawks, the best shooting team in the CAA during the regular season, made just 28 percent.

"They had a great defensive game plan," UNCW Coach Benny Moss said. "They fronted the post extremely well and attacked our shooters. Our effort was good enough to win, but our execution wasn't."

The best offensive execution in the building, by far, was that of William & Mary. The Tribe was a step slower than VCU at every position, and when the Rams came after them defensively, they struggled for long stretches.

"If we didn't have a couple of five- or six-minute stretches in a game where we didn't score, it wouldn't be us," said Shaver, who was 38-77 in his first four seasons but has patiently put together a solid basketball team. "We scored when we absolutely had to."

William & Mary's last drought lasted just less than six minutes and allowed VCU to turn a 51-43 deficit into a 51-51 tie. It seemed certain that Eric Maynor, who always seems to make plays when VCU most needs them, would make a play late and save his team again. Only it didn't happen that way. Kisielius drilled a three-pointer with 49 seconds left, only to watch Jamal Shuler answer it 11 seconds later with a falling down fadeaway that somehow found the net.

Shaver ordered a clear-out for Kisielius, and he dribbled the clock down against Michael Anderson before calmly hitting a short bank shot with three seconds to go for the game winner.

"It was just my turn," Kisielius said with a smile, referencing the fact that teammates David Schneider and Nathan Mann had hit winners the first two nights. "Coach called the play for me. I can't give you details though; we may need to use it again."

They very well might. Anyone who thinks George Mason is now a lock to win the championship is mistaken. A team on a roll such as William & Mary, a team that knows no one expects it to win, is a dangerous team.

Ask Michigan State, North Carolina or Connecticut what it was like facing Mason two years ago in March.

That said, Mason is where it wants to be. The seniors on this team have been to the Final Four, but they have never won a CAA title. They are also keenly aware that the only way they'll get into the 65-team field next Sunday is to win Monday night.

"Every team starts every season with one goal: to get to the Big Dance," Larranaga said. "We know now we're one game away from that."

It wasn't pretty, but no one from Mason cared about aesthetics.

"How many [field goals] did we have?" Larranaga asked when his team's second half offense came up. "Four? Really?"

Yes, four. But statistics simply don't matter at this time of year. All that matters is winning.

The Patriots need to survive one more night to advance to Selection Sunday with their dance ticket punched. It wasn't easy Sunday night. It won't be easy Monday night. Then again, when you get to March, it isn't supposed to be easy.