George Mason Jim Larranaga would probably like to avoid the question, but with his team riding a 15-game winning streak and owning the Colonial Athletic Association regular-season championship, the requests to compare this year's team to his 2006 Final Four team are inevitable.

"The teams are completely different in terms of body types," Larranaga began. "The Final Four had a couple of guys who were men -- Jai Lewis and Will Thomas."

They were bruisers on the inside, big time players and they were surrounded by three outstanding guards.

"All of them could shoot," Larranaga said, referring to Tony Skinn, Lamar Butler and Folarin Campbell.

This year's team has a different personality.

"This team is more balanced. It shoots from the perimeter. We don't do much down low. Ryan Pearson is our only inside-outside threat," Larranaga said.

But this is a veteran team with a leader in guard Cam Long and a will to win.

"The most important thing is the way we have played as a team," Larranaga said. "What is most important is you buy into the system and execute what you plan to do. They give great effort and like each other on and off the court."

Are they as good? Time, of course, will answer that, but this year's team played in a really tough CAA, one that had six teams win 20 games and all six were in the top 81 in the RPI.

"That's incredible," Larranaga said.

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