By Marc Thaler
Managing Sports Editor

University of Florida was the only club to win all six of its tournament contests. Still, the Gators weren’t the biggest winners of college basketball’s celebrated three-week event.

George Mason University borrowed Cinderella’s glass slipper for an extended period of time, but ultimately gave it back. Nonetheless, the Fairfax, Va., school out of the Colonial Athletic Association left a lasting footprint on the NCAA men’s hoops tournament.

By the time the Final Four takes shape every spring, we’re supposed to be left with college hoops’ heaviest hitters. While the quartet of clubs changes each year, there’s always one constant: The power conferences lock up these coveted spots.

Smaller schools with lesser talent pools can have their fun in the tourney’s first two rounds. Beyond that, the games resemble a lineup featuring the usual suspects.

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Leave it to a team known as the Patriots to deliver results that, in this case, fly in the face of conventional college basketball wisdom.

Before this year’s tourney tipped off, one popular debate raged on. It involved the lack of respect teams from mid-major conferences received from the selection committee.

Respect, of course, being defined as the number of at-large bids given to teams that didn’t win their conference tourneys and competed in leagues perceived to be far weaker than the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big East, Big Ten, and so on.

George Mason certainly met this criterion.

Playing in the CAA? C’mon.

Surely, the team’s level of competition couldn’t be much better than a league foe from the local CYO. Yet these Patriots knocked off Michigan State, UNC, Wichita State and UConn on a magical run to the national semifinals.

“Most teams don’t get a chance to experience what they’ve been able to experience,” Florida head coach Billy Donovan told the Associated Press after the Gators beat Mason, 73-58. “In this tournament, they were able to inspire a lot of people.”

I caught Patriots Fever because the team advanced to the Final Four the right way.

First, George Mason made a national name for itself on the strength of tremendous play from a starting lineup boasting three seniors – guards Lamar Butler and Tony Skinn, and big man Jai Lewis.

At the highest level of today’s college game, it’s rare for a team to hang on to one senior, let alone three. George Mason, without NBA-lottery talent, provided a refreshing reminder that staying in school can pay in a different way.

Second, GMU head coach Jim Larranaga wouldn’t succumb to the pressure of winning at any cost.

When Skinn purposely hit an opponent below the belt during the CAA conference tourney, Mason’s mentor suspended his player for the first-round matchup with Michigan State.

Talk about teaching a lesson on the importance of hurting your team with foolish behavior.

Third, and perhaps most important, these guys just had fun.

The Patriots, following the lead of Larranaga, never took themselves too seriously once the national spotlight found them. They simply played with smiles, clearly hoping to savor the fleeting moment.

Without question, George Mason is the biggest winner in this year’s field of 65. Its impact on the game won’t just be celebrated on a single campus, the usual scenario when a wellknown school wins it all.

“I think we did something tremendous for college basketball and for teams out there who watched us play,” Skinn said. “We showed them that all you need is opportunity and a chance.”