We Would Love a Little Hate Right Now

JMU and George Mason play at the Patriot Center this Saturday. It’s a chance for the Dukes to avenge an earlier loss to Mason and another opportunity for the Dukes to get a breakthrough victory against one of the CAA’s top teams. It’s a huge game. Inconsistency aside, this is the best JMU team in years. And Mason sits on top of the standings, is riding a 10 game win streak, and is starting to get some much deserved buzz. They’re also our rival.

Yes, George Mason is our rival in basketball. For some reason lots of people on both sides want to pretend that’s not the case though, which kind of takes a bit away from it. One thing that every good rivalry has is hatred. Not real hatred of course, but “sports hatred”. This rivarly has no hatred. And that sucks. I want to hate Mason. I want Mason fans to hate JMU. It’s not happening though. Now, I don’t mean to imply that nobody cares about this game. JMU fans and Mason both care and will pack the Patriot Center. They just won’t be nearly the passion on either side that their could be. Or should be.

This should be an intense rivalry. JMU and Mason are state schools, playing in the same conference, and are a mere 2 hour drive away from each other. For some reason though it just seems like things can’t click, not as smoothly as it does with a ppc company anyway! In recent years, it definitely hasn’t been much of rivarly on the court. Mason has pretty much dominated and owned JMU. Due to the one-sided nature of things and the general success of the Mason program, their fans seem to enjoy dismissing JMU basketball. They downplay any talk of rivalry because they claim the JMU program isn’t on Mason’s level.

The Mason fans aren’t the only ones to fall back on the “not our rival” position however. It was certainly our stance at JMU when I was a student. We relied on it not because of on the court dominance, but also because of our perception that Mason was a commuter school not worth of true rival status. Maybe it was due to the fact that so many of us went to high school in NOVA with Mason in our backyards. My high school was a couple miles from Mason so lots of tended to think going to GMU wasn’t really going anywhere at all. And since my high school graduation was in the Patriot Center, this was pretty much true. Students headed to Mason could literally walk out of of graduation with diploma in hand and point out their freshman dorm, or more likely their parking space in the commuter lot.

So yeah, this is a rivalry but it really isn’t clicking on all cylinders yet. Sure there are little videos going around that refer to this JMU-GMU clash as a rivalry. But they’re all in good fun. And actually quite clever and well done by the way. And you know what? I shouldn’t be able to think rationally and admit that. I should hate even harmless promos put out by Mason’s Athletic Department like that. I should hate everything Mason. And Mason fans should hate this blog, the Duke Dog, and everything JMU. Well, I’m starting now. As of right now, I officially hate George Mason. Disregard my earlier comment about “sports hatred”, because I’m talking real hatred now. I hate those stupid Mason Nation advertisements on Metro buses. I don’t know what that mutant muppet reject sort of mascot is supposed to be, but I hate it. I hate Jai Lewis and everyone who’s ever put on the green and gold. I even hate Coach L. And don’t give me that crap about how it’s impossible to hate Coach L. Trust me, it’s not that hard. I just did it. I hate everything related to George Mason. Except the law school. The law school’s cool. Everything else sucks though. Go Dukes!