Reann Ballslee (real name Ray Allen) was announced as the winner of the university's Ms. Mason competition during Saturday's basketball game between the Patriots and visiting Northeastern. The crowd loved it, as you can see in the video link below. Allen's big win is already causing controversy on the Mason campus, long known as one of the more conservative Div. I schools and voted "No. 1 national university to watch" by U.S. News & World Report recently.

Allen performs in a popular drag queen show at local clubs, and won the Ms. Mason competition over two other women in voting done by email.

Allen said he decided to enter the Ms. Mason contest this year as a joke, a last hurrah for his senior year. Soon he had donned a silver bra and zebra-print pants and was lip-syncing to Britney Spears's "Womanizer" at the qualifying pageant Feb. 9, overseen by Miss Virginia 2009. Competitors included a government and politics major from Chesapeake and a Chi Omega sorority member who told the school newspaper she should win because "I have pride in Mason to the point where my towels are green and gold."

Video here.

Oh, and one of the school's more notable alumni is Karl Rove. Wonder how he's taking the news?

Drag Queen Wins Ms. Mason [Connect2Mason]
George Mason Chooses Drag Queen As Homecoming Queen [WowOWow]
Work That Tiara, Boy! [Washington Post]

NOTRE DAME FIGHTING IRISH

1. Thank God We Don't Need a Shirt Solidarity Day. It is no secret that last fall Notre Dame football was pretty dismal. After an 0-3 start, I received the following email from Student Government:

We all know that this year's football season has not begun as we would have liked. Rough losses at home and on the road have left the nation wondering what has happened to Notre Dame football. The national media has portrayed our season as over and our team as the worst team in the NCAA. It is time for this negativity to end.



This is our team. Those are our friends, our classmates, and our roommates. It is time that we rally around our team and show them that we support them through thick and thin. This Thursday, September 20th, we encourage everyone to wear The Shirt as a sign of solidarity and support for the football team. As it says on the front, we can come "together as one," and battle the adversity of an 0-3 start. The season is still young and by no means over. Let's put the first three games behind us, and prepare for this weekend.

At least basketball is doing well enough so as not to necessitate one of these "morale boosters."

2. George Clooney Loves ND Basketball! He's nominated for an Oscar, yet he still finds time to watch Notre Dame and tell Regis that they were up at the half. Clearly God and George Clooney are on our side and I'm not sure which one I like better. (Kidding. It's totally Clooney).

3. Rooting for Notre Dame is Rooting Against ESPN. By now we are all familiar with Dana Jacobson's "f*ck Notre Dame...and touchdown Jesus...and regular Jesus" rant. It took place at the Mike & Mike roast, which also featured such "distinguished" "talents" as Trey Wingo, Mark Schlereth, Charlie Weis, Dick Vitale and Frank Caliendo. Since Weis is only associated with the football program (and eating), rooting for ND basketball is ostensibly rooting against the WWL Overlords. Go Irish! — Andrea Reiher

GEORGE MASON PATRIOTS

1. They've Been There. All right, so "experience" is incredibly overrated; after all, the Mason team that made the Final Four run had none of it whatsoever. But having been there is better than not having been there, right? Still on this team from the '06 run is point guard Folarin Campbell (no relation to Jason), and much more important, forward Will Thomas, who is - in my humble opinion - the best player in the conference. If you'll recall, Thomas was the guy who outplayed some kid from UConn named Rudy Gay in the regional final.

2. F— It, I'm Expecting Them to Win. When I wrote these here tidbits about Mason for Deadspin two years ago, I absolutely didn't expect Mason to win their first round game. They were playing Michigan State — who had the likes of Shannon Brown, Maurice Ager and Paul Davis - without their point guard Tony Skinn, who was suspended for punching a player in the man-bits during the CAA tourney. This year, they won the CAA tourney without uppercutting anyone in the balls, they're healthy, on fire, and —- as previously mentioned - experienced. This isn't some bull 15 seed. This is a team that can play with anyone (except UNC. They're good). Especially if that someone is a Big Ten team. Or Notre Dame.

3. Santa Claus Is Some Bull. My favorite Patriot is easily guard Andre Leaward LaVaé Smith, based solely on his name. A 26-year-old undergrad buddy of mine and Dre were in the same NCLC 375 class last semester. NCLC 375 is better known as Hip-Hop Literacies. The topic of discussion one day was "urban myths." Some genius in the class offered up "Christmas" as a myth. The teacher responded with something to the affect of, "Well, Christmas itself isn't a myth, it's real, but I suppose Santa Claus would be considered an urban myth." An eager-to-impress student disagrees: "Well, actually St. Nicholas was a real person who dropped treats down people's chimneys in the Old Country," Dre, for the first time all semester, raises his hand: "Not in my hood!"

The point here is that Andre Leaward LaVaé Smith ain't lookin' for no hand-outs, because in his hood, shit doesn't come free. You have to earn your treats. — Chris Mottram

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2. F— It, I'm Expecting Them to Win. When I wrote these here tidbits about Mason for Deadspin two years ago, I absolutely didn't expect Mason to win their first round game. They were playing Michigan State — who had the likes of Shannon Brown, Maurice Ager and Paul Davis - without their point guard Tony Skinn, who was suspended for punching a player in the man-bits during the CAA tourney. This year, they won the CAA tourney without uppercutting anyone in the balls, they're healthy, on fire, and —- as previously mentioned - experienced. This isn't some bull 15 seed. This is a team that can play with anyone (except UNC. They're good). Especially if that someone is a Big Ten team. Or Notre Dame.

3. Santa Claus Is Some Bull. My favorite Patriot is easily guard Andre Leaward LaVaé Smith, based solely on his name. A 26-year-old undergrad buddy of mine and Dre were in the same NCLC 375 class last semester. NCLC 375 is better known as Hip-Hop Literacies. The topic of discussion one day was "urban myths." Some genius in the class offered up "Christmas" as a myth. The teacher responded with something to the affect of, "Well, Christmas itself isn't a myth, it's real, but I suppose Santa Claus would be considered an urban myth." An eager-to-impress student disagrees: "Well, actually St. Nicholas was a real person who dropped treats down people's chimneys in the Old Country," Dre, for the first time all semester, raises his hand: "Not in my hood!"

The point here is that Andre Leaward LaVaé Smith ain't lookin' for no hand-outs, because in his hood, shit doesn't come free. You have to earn your treats. — Chris Mottram

As DC Sports Bog discovered, George Mason's dubious Final Four T-shirts have a picture of the Superdome on them. The Final Four is in San Antonio this year. Explained a seller:

Because it has the Final Four logo on it the design had to be approved by the NCAA and they didn't even catch the mistake. Bad news is that there isn't enough time to negotiate the rights to use the Alamodome on the shirt. A redesigned shirt will have half a basketball in place of the dome to resemble a dome. It doesn't look bad and will get posted tonight sometime. The good news is that the shirts with the wrong dome are already made and on their way here so the vendor is giving us a discount for the mistake which we will pass on to customers.

The funny part about this is that they don't consider anything even slightly strange about a T-shirt that draws the path to the Final Four for George Mason; that's actually the least ludicrous part of the T-shirt. Quite a feat.

Mason On The Road To New Orleans [DC Sports Bog]

Suffice it to say, William & Mary is not inherently known for its athletics. (Though their football program boasts Mike Timlin, Steve Christie and Marv Levy.) They've never made the tournament before, and this is the first season they'll finish above .500 this decade. (And that only barely, at 17-15.) Like our Illini, they've had some trouble with their mascot; they changed it from "the Indians" to "the Tribe," which, uh, is better, we guess.

The school itself is the real reason we're excited about a possible NCAA tourney berth. It was founded in 1693; Thomas Jefferson and George Washington went there. That's a bit more impressive than Karl Rove. The school's current chancellor is Sandra Day O'Connor, which is even more impressive when you consider the last two chancellors were Henry Kissinger and Margaret Thatcher.

And it's possible you might be able to fill out their name in your tournament bracket. Sorry George Mason: Tough to root against that.

Ho. Lee. Shit. [Gheorghe: The Blog]

One real problem with Gunston; Gunston did absolutely nothing to inspire fans. Said Associate Athletic Director for Marketing Andy Ruge to the Washington Post: "We need to develop a mascot with a strong image. It would be nice if a freshman could see him and go, 'Hey, that's our mascot' instead of going 'What's that?' " Ruge stressed that Gunston wasn't being "offed," but just reassigned "to children's functions." Ah, good ol' nightmare fuel.

By the way, this isn't Gunston (it's the Cavaliers' mascot Moondog), but we found it in the same Realests post and it's the funniest thing we've seen all day.

Main Mascot, Gunston, Looks Like A Goner [Washington Post]
Gunston: George Mason's Bastard Child [The Realests]

Lewis is attempting to make it as a tight end though, uh, he hasn't played organized football since high school. Not that it's necessarily stopping Jeremy Bloom, the pin-up boy skiier who was drafted by the Eagles. We are continually amazed by the overthinking that goes on in NFL offices sometimes. (Chuck Klosterman touched on this in his "The Texans are idiots for not drafting Reggie Bush" piece from over the weekend.) Teams are so obsessed with tools and size and speed and what-not, that the act of having actually played football is somehow of less importance. And you know what's weird? More often than not, they're right.

Lewis Signed By Giants [Washington Post]

But this has been as exciting a tournament as we can remember, pretty much every round, every day, every timeslot, every game. But both GMU-Florida and LSU-UCLA were bland, depressing blowouts, difficult to watch after halftime. That we would have come so far for so little seemed wrong, incongruous, some sort of cosmic cheat. That the ratings — insert usual "Neilsen ratings are pointless and outdated" disclaimer here — for the Patriots-Gators game were down eight percent from last year's Illinois-Louisville game somehow dented the story more; maybe people weren't as caught up in this as we thought.

But at least we had a Sunday evening baseball game. Baseball! That will cheer us! Oh. A three-hour rain delay. Nevermind. At least we'll catch the score on SportsCenter in the morning. What? Is that Stuart Scott doing another poetry slam? Aw ...

It's a difficult morning to be in love with sports. We'll do our best to snap out of it by lunchtime.

Cinderella Mauled By Gator [Deadspin]

Hey, double technicals. Green of Florida and Skinn of George Mason. I really hate to see double technical fouls called without someone getting punched. It just seems pointless.

Big steal by Taurean Green. 2:30 to play, the lead is 14. Hey, thanks George Mason. At the very least, you captivated a nation, knocked off UConn and bad rapper Ed Nelson, told Billy Packer to blow it out his ass, and gave us all a team with character and balls to support. Be proud.

Sidney Green and Yannick Noah are going to get as much airtime on Monday night as they did from their own careers.

So Florida's in... and I think they're going to be really hard for anyone to beat. I'll be back in a bit for the second game. It tips at 8:51.

The good news is that if any team can handle this, it's George Mason. They were down against UNC, they were down against UConn, and they handled it. Handle it again, fellas.

Just as Billy Packer says a 3-ball woudl be valuable to Mason, Tony Skinn steps up and hits one. The Patriots are clinging.

And Florida answers with a 3. Ugh.

Just as Jim Nantz warns that George Mason could come out and light things up, Florida hits two straight three balls to push the lead to 11.

Make that lead 15 at the 15:00 timeout. Mason has yet to score here in the second half, and they're now facing their biggest deficit of the tournament.

And now Mason's taking bad shots. Not like them. The lead is 17. Uh oh.

Mason's got a chance to take the lead here, on an 18-9 stretch. They don't do it, but it's very difficult to picture them ever being out of striking distance in this one.

If you looked just at uniforms, you'd easily be able to tell which team was in the big conference, and which team was in the smaller conference. Mason's uniforms are pretty ugly.

Craig Littlepage catches a George Mason player who goes barrelling into the press table. Someone should get a picture, frame it, have Littlepage autograph it and send it to Billy Packer.

Florida hits a three, and then Mason turns it right back over on the inbounds pass. Not to go all Doug Collins on you, but closing out the half is so important.

They escape without further damage, and Florida takes a 5-point lead into the half. We should have a hell of a 2nd half here.

Campbell hits a wild, out-of-control lay-up over Joakim Noah. God appears to be rooting for the Patriots. But Brewer answers with a quick three for Florida, so maybe God's not watching.

Prediction: If Florida wins and moves on, you are going to be so damn sick of seeing Taurean Green's father Sidney that you'll consider having him killed.

George Mason's doing a pretty nice job getting the Gators to take jumpshots. Florida isn't really helping themselves with their shot selection, though.

George Mason can't hit a shot right now. They're cold outside, and finding Noah difficult to deal with inside.

I think the idea of posting at every TV timeout may have been overkill. We're going to downshift a little bit here.

We may have a new batch of commercials here. I've seen most of these before, but for the most part, they're not the ones that have been pounded into my skull. No three-hour tewerrrrrs yet.

And we've got a 7-0 George Mason run. The lead is now just 3.

Joakim Noah block's Mason's first shot. That's not a good omen. Butler than has to rush and take a bad shot at the end of the shot block... and of course, he drills it. Not a good omen for Florida. Both teams may lose.

Florida runs off 5 straight. Their big men are doing it up.

Jai Lewis is so smooth. What incredible touch for a big man.

6 offensive rebounds for Florida already? That's a litle frightening.

13-6 Gators, and they're at the line for one more. Still feeling each other out a little bit, still trying to shake off the nerves.

And listen, I hope you're rooting for George Mason. If you're not, there are only a few good excuses for you.

1) You could win a life-changing sum of money in a pool if Florida wins this game. Not just some money. Not just enough to get you drunk. But a lot of money.
2) You attend Florida University, are related to someone on the team, are having sex with someone on the team, or are Billy Donovan's maid.
3) The movie "Hoosiers" somehow ruined your life, and you now hate all underdogs.
4) You can't get over the fact that George Mason himself was actually a slaveowner.
5) You're the guy that George Mason guard Tony Skinn punched in the balls.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=2355822
6) You enjoy murdering puppies.

There may be some others, but I can't think of them. Otherwise, I think you have to root for George Mason. Or your soul is an empty, rotten, thing.

Here comes basketball.

Anyway, there are apparently other teams in the Final Four this year, though we didn't notice. Nice thing is: It's impossible to overhype George Mason; no such thing as George Mason fatigue.

But will they win? Here's a look at some predictions for college basketball's final weekend.

• Dick Vitale: Florida over LSU
• Jay Bilas: LSU over Florida
• Andy Katz: Florida over LSU
• Daily Quickie: Florida over LSU
• Seth Davis: Florida vs. LSU (no prediction, wuss)
• yoco: college basketball: UCLA over George Mason
• Deadspin: George Mason over UCLA. What's WRONG with these people? Have they not seen George Mason play in this tournament? Have they forgotten? This is the best team we've seen over the last two weeks (followed closely by, well, Florida, actually). Let's take this all the way.

Your picks are encouraged in the comments, because that's what we're doing here today.

The interview appears to be a couple of years old, and it features Packer in his typical frothing-out-the-mouth lunatic form. Highlights include:

• Packer claiming (sarcastically, we hope) that he and his wife sing Christina Aguilera songs to each other before they go to sleep.
• He says, straight up, "there's no reason to get a college diploma. It doesn't matter."
• He taunts George Mason graduates as "those with a 400 SAT."

This is the guy who is going to broadcast the biggest moment in Mid-Major history this Saturday, a guy who openly mocked GMU's entry into the tournament. And he's cheerily mocking George Mason for being a school for idiots. Man. Saturday's gonna be great.

You can hear the whole interview right here. The sound quality is a little rough, but you can get the gist.

Billy Packer Interview [WJFK]
Junkies Radio [WJFK]

He was there for the big win over Connecticut, nearby when national reporters make their first visit to campus and even has been enjoying some provost-sponsored days off from school.

When we were at the University of Illinois in the mid-90s, the football team was coached by Lou Tepper and the basketball team was hitting the NIT every year, despite the expectation of at least a little success. But to be a student at George Mason and a sports blogger at the time of the most unexpected, glorious run in recent NCAA tourney history? That's just sublime. Jerk.

Saved By The Blog [AOL Sports]

Until George Mason, anyway. Which is why the Patriots probably aren't too offended that Nike's Niketown Web site is selling merchandise for every Final Four team ... except theirs. Don't worry, guys; the actual George Mason wouldn't have liked sweatshops either.

Niketown [Nike]