The focus during No. 11 seed George Mason’s practices this week has been three words — “compete, compete, compete” — as it prepares to take on No. 6 seed Florida State in the program’s first NCAA Tournament game on Saturday.
“Even if mistakes are made in practice, even if things might not go 100% right, we have to be able to compete against our practice squad or our own teammates, because that’s what [the game is] gonna come down to,” graduate student forward Nalani Kaysia told reporters.
Kaysia credited her teammates who come off the bench with being intentional in helping the starters get better every day.
“I think that Page Greenburg and Faith Okorie have really been working extremely hard in practice and making us better, making us play defense, making us work on our offense, just day in and day out,” Kaysia said. “Just playing and giving 110% and working extremely hard, even when people aren’t in the gym and when we aren’t practicing.”
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During the regular season, junior guard Page Greenburg sometimes didn’t even take off her shooting shirt according to head coach Vanessa Blair-Lewis. However, she was a key part of the team’s Atlantic 10 Tournament run and averaged 6.3 points and 1.0 steals in 11.0 minutes per game over George Mason’s three games in three days.
About a week before the tournament Greenburg pulled Blair-Lewis aside and said she was ready to do whatever she could to help the team win.
“Teams wouldn’t really be expecting me to be a factor, given the point of [the] season, and I was just ready to step up,” she recalled saying. “And I know she believes in me, and she said to be ready. And so I was.”
Nearly two weeks since helping the Patriots earn an automatic bid, Greenburg is ready to help George Mason earn the program’s first NCAA Tournament win.
“I’m ready to just bring whatever is needed to help the team win,” she said. “And I think that’s all of our mentality. Whether for me on the defensive end, or shooting the ball, or bringing energy, I’m just gonna play as hard as I can every minute, every possession, to help us win.”
Blair-Lewis knows Greenburg is one of many on the bench that are staying ready.
“We all have a belief in our team well past the first starting five,” she said. “And we’ve needed that all season, with injuries and sickness and all the things that go on in a season, everybody has been charged to stay ready and be ready for these moments.
“Not just Page [Greenburg], but Faith [Okorie] and Trinity Massenberg, Nekhu Mitchell, all of them. And they all have had their role and their time during this season to step up and be accountable for us so that this team can continue to move on no matter who’s on the floor.”
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The depth of the team has been evident all season — George Mason has seven players averaging at least 5 points per game and nine averaging at least 10 minutes per game.
Kaysia and senior guard Paula Suárez spent some of the team’s first 18 hours in Baton Rouge watching NCAA Tournament games and soaking in the moment, the fact that their season isn’t over and that they’d soon be playing on TV as well.
Blair-Lewis has seen the excitement in her players’ as they look at the March Madness signage and enjoy the reality of the moment.
“Not everybody gets invited to this party,” she said. “So that excitement is real. And it should be … where you believe big enough that you can be on this stage. And I think once we hit the floor, you’ll see that team that we’ve seen every single day of the season. Not that it’s just another game, but this is the game that’s important.”
Suárez hopes George Mason’s energy and how it celebrated everything every player did in the A-10 Tournament continues because she believes the team’s togetherness led to its success.
Blair-Lewis sees the NCAA Tournament as another reset for a team’s record, similar to conference tournaments, with Florida State and George Mason both entering Saturday’s game 0-0.
“It’s a mindset when you get here,” she said. “You have to be in the mindset that we’re here not to just show up for the party and dance, but we want to keep the shoes on well past midnight.”
