Let’s make the first one easy. Mull and then Mull (with a little help from UNCW SID and all-around good guy Joe Browning), has two preview articles to get you ready for Mason’s trip to The Dub. I could do no better in a million years, so hit the links for the preview info.

This one is interesting for many reasons: last year’s first meeting was won by Mason something like 158-23. I may off by a bucket or two, but it wasn’t close. The second game was a barnburner. John Vaughan went back door to hit the winning layup in a gets-you-off-the-couch pretty move.

Also, The Dub was the choice for this year’s basement and Mason third or fourth; however, The Dub clearly comes in playing better basketball. Mason gets Ryan Pearson and Andre Cornelius back; the game is at Trask.

Translation: this one is going to be fun. I can only hope the Spirit of the Hecklers comes alive, because Trask is a can’t-miss building when it’s full and rocking.

Mason has no answer for John Fields, who scores 14, boards 12, and blocks six shots in his CAA debut. But the Patriots have too many skilled 6-7 guys to close out the Hawks shooters.

Chris Fleming 72, Vladie Kools 70

Side note: Jim Larranaga told me a great Fleming/Kuljanin anecdote. CAA semis, Kuljanin’s senior year. That was the game Fleming–who might’ve scored 20 points ALL SEASON–scored like eight points in six minutes. Running downcourt, Kuljanin asks Fleming where he learned those moves, that it was unexpected. Fleming responds: “from you, on tape.”

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Here’s what I have to say about Old Dominion. I’ve watched them twice on teevee and once in person. There is a revision in the theory behind their struggles. The problem isn’t that their guards cannot shoot.

The problem is that their guards don’t play smart. Marsharee Neely and Trian Illiadis are the only two that move well without the ball. The others seem to stand and wait for a post man to get free on the block. That’s pretty easy to defend.

Also, many times when ODU runs a play, either Gerald Lee or Frank Hassell is posted, one on one on the block with his man sealed on his hip. I don’t know that the guards ever threw the ball into them despite the advantage. Heck, Darius James even drove right at the big man a few times. That’s nose-crinkling bad play.

Yes, Gerald Lee has missed easy ones and they aren’t the greatest shooting team. But they make enough shots. The guards just have to play smarter.

We’re also going to add a postulate to the theorem that the CAA is a guard’s league. It reads: you have to have a stud, and he needs to handle the ball. If your stud is a big man, you’d better have someone whose entire existence is to feed him the ball. Otherwise your stud is rendered weak.

All that said, ODU is going to drill the Fightin’ Montays. The home folks will be happy and Blaine Taylor will magically reacquire his coaching skills around 10:00pm Saturday night.

ODU 76, Delaware 59.

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The High Nooner is another interesting showdown. Nobody is playing better basketball than The Tribe. Shaver’s bunch is 5-2 and it isn’t a mirage. I don’t check SOS and RPI yet because we’re still way too early, but my gut says it’s 5-2 against one of the top three schedules. Plus, they got Ken Brown back for a 13-minute tune up against Longwood the other night.

VCU may skip the whole “bus ride” concept and simply run to Williamsburg. The Rams are playing fast and most effective when four guards surround Larry Sanders.

This one is about pace, but more importantly imposing your will. VCU is 28th in the country with 73.9 possessions per game and W&M is #334 (61.7). However the Tribe is also the most efficient offensive team in the country.

W&M leads the conference in three pointers made and percentage, and VCU leads the nation in three point percentage defense. W&M hasn’t beaten VCU in the regular season since Josh Clark punted the basketball into the upper bowl; and VCU lost its last CAA tourney matchup to the Tribe.

OK, I’m done. You get the picture.

Fast guys 76, Slow guys 69.

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In the most vanilla game of the weekend, Drexel hosts Northeastern. Oh, this has the potential to be the best game of the weekend–two defensive-minded teams battling it out. But Drexel has done exactly as expected, and so has Northeastern. I’ll take experience here.

Janning 18, Fouch 15 (OT).

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Georgia State at James Madison. This is another case of two different teams butting heads to open the season. I swear the conference schedule-maker knows something the rest of us don’t. It’s eerie how so many of these games have subplots.

The Panthers are the team everybody always thinks is going to be very good, but never actually wins games. The are the CAAs version of the old Vitale-ism “All Airport Team.” JMU is the team that always has five injured players and will never win because of the Curse of the Lefthander, which was made worse with a bad case of Shermdillards.

This means nothing but we’ll mention it anyway: it’s supposed to be a slushy snow in Richmond, which means up in the mountains of Harrisonburg it will probably snow–the southern kids hate that. (And Andrey Semenov will play.)

Madison 69, State 60.

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The final game on the slate is an easy call. Charles Jenkins could benchpress either Troy Franklin or Brian Morris (or both)–the Tigers have nobody to guard the league’s most dangerous player. This is a game where you will see why Mull coined “power guard” in tribute to Jenkins’s ability.

Plus, Towson has looked good the past two games with Josh Thornton swishing it from everywhere. He cannot keep that up.

The point here is teams becoming what they truly are: Hofstra has scuffled about the past couple of games, and Towson has looked good. Both teams will drift towards the middle of “how they play,” and I’ll take the talent.

HU 74, Towson 68.