Maryland won each of its first three games. On a surface level, the season was off to a good start. But the Terrapins had only covered in one of those contests and consistently slipped at KenPom -- from 18th in the preseason to 26th following a 68-57 win over Vermont last week.
That suggested the Terrapins weren't performing to expectations.
On Wednesday, it caught up to them.
Final score: George Mason 71, Maryland 66.
The Patriots were 12-of-24 from 3 while shooting 44.8% from the field. D'Shawn Schwartz finished with a game-high 24 points, nine rebounds and three steals.
"We think we're supposed to beat everybody; it's not that way," said Maryland coach Mark Turgeon. "It's too hard. We didn't vote ourselves 20th [in this week's AP poll]. And so you take everybody's best shot. We don't know how to handle it yet."
For the purposes of the CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings, Maryland — which has been removed from Thursday morning's updated Top 25 And 1 — is the story. But what happened Wednesday night was more about George Mason.
It's such a cool deal.
George Mason has not been to the NCAA Tournament since 2011 and never finished better than fifth in the Atlantic 10 in six seasons under Dave Paulsen. So the school fired Paulsen last March and replaced him with 33-year-old Tennessee assistant Kim English, a former standout at Missouri who subsequently played in the NBA. English was raised in Baltimore and went to high school 60 miles away from George Mason's campus, only 40 miles away from Maryland's. And in just his fourth game as a head coach, this Maryland native led George Mason to its first ever win over Maryland's program, and he did it on Maryland's campus.
"That's what he came here to do — to build this program up and win games like this," said Schwartz, a transfer who played the past four seasons at Colorado, where English was an assistant from 2017 to 2019. "In the locker room, we talked about doing nothing different from our first three games. Our standard is our standard, and that's what we play to."
Top 25 And 1 rankings
Rk | Teams | Chg | Rcrd | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Hunter Sallis got 16 points off the bench in Monday's 84-57 win over Alcorn State. The Zags' next game is Friday against Bellarmine. | -- | 5-0 |
| 2 |  | Jaime Jaquez Jr. finished with 20 points and eight rebounds in Wednesday's 98-63 win over North Florida. The Bruins' next game is Monday against Bellarmine. | -- | 5-1 |
| 3 |  | Ochai Agbaji finished with 25 points and six rebounds in Friday's 88-62 win over Tarleton State. The Jayhawks' next game is Thursday against Stony Brook. | -- | 5-0 |
| 4 |  | Brandon Slater made four 3-pointers and finished with 23 points in Tuesday's 100-81 win over Howard. The Wildcats' next game is Saturday against Tennessee. | -- | 3-4 |
| 5 |  | Tyler Harris made four 3-pointers and finished with 18 points in Tuesday's 90-74 win over Saint Louis. The Tigers' next game is Friday against Western Kentucky. | -- | 4-0 |
| 6 |  | Trevor Keels finished with 18 points, seven rebounds and four assists in Tuesday's 92-52 win over Gardner-Webb. The Blue Devils' next game is Friday against Lafayette. | -- | 4-1 |
| 7 |  | Tre Mitchell finished with 16 points and seven rebounds in Wednesday's 62-49 win over Northern Colorado. The Longhorns' next game is Saturday against San Jose State. | -- | 5-1 |
| 8 |  | Kendall Brown finished with 19 points and five rebounds in Wednesday's 92-47 win over Central Arkansas. The Bears' next game is Saturday against Stanford. | -- | 4-2 |
| 9 |  | Chris Lykes made four 3-pointers and finished with 26 points in Wednesday's 93-80 win over Northern Iowa. The Razorbacks' next game is Monday against Kansas State. | -- | 4-1 |
| 10 |  | Trevion Williams finished with 20 points and 13 rebounds in Tuesday's 96-52 win over Wright straight. The Boilermakers' next game is Saturday against North Carolina. | -- | 5-1 |
| 11 |  | Jaden Shackelford finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds in Tuesday's 73-68 win over South Alabama. The Crimson Tide's next game is Friday against Oakland. | -- | 4-1 |
| 12 |  | Marcus Sasser made five 3-pointers and finished with 18 points in Tuesday's 67-47 win over Virginia. The Cougars' next game is Monday against Butler. | -- | 3-1 |
| 13 |  | Oscar Tshiebwe finished with 24 points and 16 rebounds in Tuesday's 80-55 win over Mount St. Mary's. The Wildcats' next game is Friday against Ohio. | -- | 5-0 |
| 14 |  | Alex Barcello made four 3-pointers and finished with 25 points in Tuesday's 81-49 win over Oregon. The Cougars' next game is Saturday against Central Methodist. | -- | 5-0 |
| 15 |  | Armando Bacot finished with 24 points and 12 rebounds in Tuesday's 94-83 win at College of Charleston. The Tar Heels' next game is Saturday against Purdue. | -- | 3-1 |
| 16 |  | Jared Rhoden finished with 16 points and five rebounds in Tuesday's 67-65 win at Michigan. The Pirates' next game is Monday against Ohio State. | -- | 3-3 |
| 17 |  | Michigan missed 12 of the 15 3-pointers it attempted in Tuesday's 67-65 loss to Seton Hall. The Wolverines' next game is Friday against UNLV. | -- | 4-1 |
| 18 |  | E.J. Liddell finished with 13 points and four assists in Monday's 89-58 win over Bowling Green. The Buckeyes' next game is Thursday at Xavier. | -- | 4-1 |
| 19 |  | Olivier Nkamhoua finished with 23 points and eight rebounds in Sunday's 94-62 win over East Tennessee State. The Vols' next game is Saturday against Villanova. | -- | 6-0 |
| 20 |  | Jabari Smith finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds in Friday's 93-65 win over Louisiana Monroe. The Tigers' next game is Friday against USF. | 1 | 4-0 |
| 21 |  | Tyler Polley finished with 17 points and three rebounds in Wednesday's 93-40 win over Long Island University. The Huskies' next game is Saturday against Binghamton. | 1 | 4-0 |
| 22 |  | Illinois committed 26 turnovers in Monday's 67-66 loss at Marquette. The Illini's next game is Monday against Cincinnati. | 1 | 4-1 |
| 23 |  | Kyle Lofton finished with 17 points and five rebounds in Sunday's 69-60 win over Canisius. The Bonnies' next game is Thursday against Boise State. | 1 | 5-0 |
| 24 |  | Storm Murphy made four 3-pointers and finished with 17 points in Monday's 65-39 win over Radford. The Hokies' next game is Thursday against St. Francis (Pa.). | 1 | 3-2 |
| 25 |  | Boogie Ellis finished with 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists in Tuesday's 78-61 win at Florida Gulf Coast. The Trojans' next game is Monday against Dixie State. | 1 | 4-1 |
| 26 |  | Colin Castleton finished with 15 points and 16 rebounds in Sunday's 71-55 win over Florida State. The Gators' next game is Thursday against Milwaukee. | NR | 6-0 |
