Another wild week awaits area hoops fans. The madcap, non-stop college hoops action of Thursday and Friday represents the pinnacle of sports viewing for many fans. Sneaking out of work, bracket in hand, for an extra hour of lunch is an annual ritual for many a weary office drone. At this point next week, our brackets will be hopelessly crumbled, highlighted and marked with cryptic marginalia. Right now, however, hope springs eternal. Don't forget to......

Selection Sunday is a few days away, and college hoops action is heating up inside the Beltway. With 2-4 area teams destined for this year's NCAA Tournament and local teams' success in recent years, it's safe to say that we're living in one of the country's college hoops hotbeds. Let's take a look at our area teams and make a few predictions along the way. In our first installment, we'll find out what went right......

By DCist contributor Hayden Alfano George Mason continued it's up-and-down season last night, blowing a 19-point second half lead and losing to Delaware, 73-68, in overtime. The loss dropped the Patriots to 10-5 overall and 2-2 in Colonial Athletic Association play. It's a familiar theme for the team, which led Georgia St. by 13 at the break last Wednesday but couldn't hang on, losing 66-64 at the buzzer. Those two troubling road losses sandwiched a......

A month ago, the Washington Redskins needed to win out the rest of their season and receive a ton of help from the rest of the NFC in order to make the playoffs. And it needed to start in the short week between a Sunday's loss to Buffalo and a Thursday night game with Chicago. And then it needed to start after Sean Taylor's funeral. And then it needed to continue despite losing starting quarterback......

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......

A day after Washington’s loss to…yes—hated rivals, the Dallas Cowboys, I find myself indulging in that oft-snarked out tendency of Redskins fans: the telling of sweet little lies. At least we didn’t get run out of the stadium, as we did against the Patriots. At least we didn’t collapse stupidly, like we did against the Eagles. At least the team we struggled with was a quality team (insofar as anything the NFC produces this year......

It took Joe Gibbs a few minutes to get to his point, but after only a couple cursory questions, he was able to say that, yes, the guys sure did “play their guts out” yesterday. It’s become a mantra of his, as though we’re rooting for a team of underdog high school kids and what matters isn’t whether they win or lose, but how they play the game. No matter the futility, the mind-boggling play......

We didn't come into this week eight matchup with the undefeated New England Patriots without some degree of hope. It's been suggested that someone has to beat New England this year. And we seem to recall that Tom Brady had not yet beaten us in his career. And Gibbs was out, doing his expectations management act, downplaying our chances, which he always does. And we were asked to compare this matchup to Michigan and App......

By no means am I strictly an NFL guy. When the lights dim after the Super Bowl each year, I seamlessly move with the seasons into the maelstrom of college hoops and then the long, drawn-out, slow-motion marketing fantasia that is the NBA. Over a lifetime, I’ve soured on baseball but stayed constant to soccer, the sport I participated in myself as a child, with engrossingly mediocre results. But then, the NFL comes around again......

Protest over national vs. regional chains, the never-ending debate over the place of cars and bicycles in our metropolises, professional sports scandals, remembering a solemn day, and being issued a search warrant - it all happened across our sites this week! Another banner week at Chicagoist started off with daily reports from food writer Lisa Shames on her attempt to eat only locally grown and raised foodstuffs all week as part of a farmers market......

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,......

Hoyas Bully the Irish Georgetown came into Saturday’s contest with Notre Dame after a successful, if underwhelming non-conference season. After starting the year with high hopes and a top ten ranking, three early losses pushed them off the national radar and out of the rankings. ND, however, was so hot they were smokin’, and riding a 12-game winning streak to a #17 ranking. But after a 66-48 thrashing of the Irish at the Verizon Center,......

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......

Midnight madness has come and gone, and area NCAA men's cagers are back at it. Georgetown looks to be the area's top team this year, starting the season ranked in the top 10, while Mason hopes to keep up the momentum from their Final Four run, GW tries to make their third straight NCAA tourney after losing 4 key players, Maryland hopes not to make a third straight NIT, and the rest hope to compete......

Down in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, there remain plenty of reminders that the Carolina Panthers haven't quite taken over as the top team in the region. Even at a tremendous distance from DC, Redskins flags still wave from the houses on Virginia Dare Road and autographed photos of Skins luminaries such as Brian Mitchell and Art Monk are still prominently hung on the walls of local BBQ joints. Of course, the distance to......

The George Mason University Patriots used to have a colonial looking fellow that led the cheers at sporting events, but it was felt that such a diverse school should not have a white male forefather type as a mascot. Instead, Mason decided to recognize its large and growing green muppet population, choosing as its representative the hirsute fellow seen at right. He's called Gunston, after George Mason's old home, and he became nationally recognized after......

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......

It was a hell of a ride, but George Mason's trip through the Big Dance has come to an end. The Patriots never quite got their game together against the Florida Gators, who go on to compete in Monday's Championship Game. Nothing to be ashamed of Mason fans; you guys had the last word among area teams this season. AP Photo taken by Darron Cummings.......

The sports pages this week have obviously been dominated by paeans to the little Patriots that could, in all their green and gold glory. Theirs is a worthy story, but it doesn't constitute the only roundball history being forged by local teams. On Monday, the number 2 seeded Maryland women's team defeated Utah in overtime to join two other ACC teams (Duke and North Carolina) in the Final Four. This marks the second time in......

So, in case you hadn't heard, George Mason is in the Final Four. As an 11-seed and member of the Colonial Athletic Assocation, the Patriots are the natural underdogs heading into Indianapolis. But in a tournament full of upsets, with four unlikely combatants -- Mason, UCLA, LSU, and Florida -- left standing, it's absurd to heavily favor one team or heavily discount the chances of another. This Final Four is the toughest to handicap in......

Ok, so everybody who has to file a tax return this year gets a little break, as April 15 falls on Saturday, placing the actual factual deadline on the following Monday, April 17. But for residents of the District (and a few northeastern states) Uncle Sam brings the extra generosity this year. As it turns out, folks that live in D.C., along with those in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont (suck it,......

Although the advent of the real-time Gawker Stalker map has freaked out certain celebrities who would prefer that their Us Weekly-devouring public not know that they're dining at New York's Tao or taking their fruit-monikered babies out for walks on Fifth Avenue, DCist has no qualms about letting its readers know where local celebs hang out. And there's no area celeb more freshly minted than George Mason University basketball coach Jim Larranaga, who just yesterday......

The George Mason Patriots are Final Four bound. After trailing by as many as 12 points in the first half of this afternoon's game, George Mason took the lead in the second period and took the top seeded Connecticut Huskies to overtime. Mason never trailed in the extra period and hung on to win when a last second Husky three missed the mark. The Patriots are the first 11 seed to make the Final Four......

George Mason continued its Cinderella run through the NCAA tournament last night, earning a berth in the quarterfinals with a 63-55 win over Wichita State at Verizon Center. George Mason came out hot, jumping to a 9-0 lead. They rode superb three-point shooting from Folarin Campbell, Tony Skinn, and Lamar Butler to 36 points in the first half, while putting together a stout defensive effort that held the Shockers to just 19 points on......

Three days ago George Mason was hoping to get their first ever NCAA Tournament victory. Now, after beating the UNC Tarheels 65-60 on Sunday, they are preparing for the Sweet 16 and a matchup with Wichita State. Down by 14 in the first half, Mason used an aggressive defense that forced a young UNC team into repeated turnovers and bad shots while taking advantage on the offensive end. The Patriots rode big men Will......

When George Mason's name was called on Selection Sunday, it turned more than a few heads (including DCist's). They were included over major conference clubs like Cincinnati and Florida St., and conference foe Hofstra, who had just beaten the Patriots in the CAA semis. They would also be playing without Tony Skinn, their second-leading scorer, who was suspended one game for punching a Hofstra player. Friday night in Dayton, Ohio, they proved they belonged, coming......

For George Mason, Selection Sunday was a relief. For George Washington, it was the worst-case scenario. The Patriots -- a bubble team thanks to two recent losses to Hofstra -- didn't have to sweat too long on Selection Sunday, as they were named the 11 seed in the second bracket announced. This was much to the dismay of CBS basketball announcer Billy Packer. The Patriots' regional will be played in Washington, but GMU has plenty......

It was a busy weekend for college hoops in the area. By and large, it was also a successful one. George Washington clinched the regular season Atlantic 10 title, beating Fordham 78-67 at the Smith Center Saturday night. Playing without injured forward Pops Mensah-Bonsu, the Colonials won their sixteenth straight game behind 19 points from sophomore guard Maureece Rice. His backcourt mates, Danilo Pinnock (17 points) and Carl Elliott (16 points) also stepped up in......

The long holiday weekend meant lots of local hoops action to go around for fans of every school. I spent the weekend in Philly, where Villanova has taken over the headlines from the rudderless 76ers. The Cats beat #1 UConn earlier in the week but were determined not to overlook Georgetown on Sunday, especially since the Hoyas also have a win over #1 to their credit this season. Unfortunately Georgetown couldn't match the energy and......

In the week since the NFL concluded its season with the Pro Bowl festivities in Honolulu, football fans have become reacquainted with their spouses and dependents, gotten out of their homes a bit more, and have been uncomfortably reminded of the National Hockey League’s non-existence. But even as the roar of the crowd and memories of another Patriots championship slowly fade, the front office of your Washington Redskins has been buzzing with activity. Tomorrow is......