I hope this NY Times article about my alma mater's men's basketball team doesn't carry the same kind of jinx that appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated does.

But the Final Four spotlight has gradually faded, and the players from that team have moved on. This season, the Patriots have flourished by reclaiming the program’s preferred role as a midmajor team with major dreams.

Their faces are not on magazine covers or bobblehead dolls, but the Patriots were 22-5, riding a team-record 12-game winning streak entering Saturday’s game at Northern Iowa. George Mason is No. 20 in the Ratings Percentage Index, ahead of teams like Villanova, Louisville and U.C.L.A., and it will probably receive an at-large bid to the N.C.A.A. tournament bid if it does not win the Colonial Athletic Association tournament.

“The Final Four team had their time, and what they did was great,” the junior forward Mike Morrison said, “but now we’re trying to make our mark.”…

“All of a sudden they’ve got a lot of guys on the floor with a great deal of experience and a great deal of confidence,” Virginia CommonwealthCoach Shaka Smart said. “They don’t get rattled.”

And perhaps that is how this team most resembles the one that reached the Final Four. With each win and each day that draws March closer, it becomes more apparent that when the N.C.A.A tournament begins, George Mason could become this year’s George Mason.