Dragons open league season against George Mason

We got back on the court Monday night after nine days without a game. Cal State Northridge made the trip East to play Rider in a return game from last year’s ESPN’s BracketBusters series. A member of their staff called a few months back looking for another game while they were in the Philadelphia area. As I am sure you have heard by now, we don’t get a whole lot of home games, so we jumped at the chance to get a game in the DAC.

I figured it would be a tough game since Northridge won 20 last year and was expected to win the Big West this year, and it was. I thought our big guys did a real nice job on the glass, especially the offensive end. Kenny Tribbett, Evan Neisler and Yannick Formbor did a good job up front. Those guys may not be big-time scorers, but when they do what we ask them on the glass and on defense, we become a much better team.

Our guys struggled shooting the ball early and we missed some wide open shots, but our defense played well and led to some easy baskets and some free throw opportunities down the stretch. Anytime you can hold a team more than 20 points under their average, you know you did a pretty good job defensively.

On Saturday, George Mason comes to town as we open the CAA schedule. Mason is still one of the top teams in our league and Coach Larranaga will have his guys prepared to come up here and play in front of our fans. This should be a good test early to see where we are at this point in the season. The game’s at 4:30, so if you want to spend your day watching some basketball, come by the DAC and help the Dragons against the Patriots.