He'd be justified, but I would be shocked if he made (or let Brad make) a drastic move like that. My general concern is that the mens basketball program (and womans) isn't so much about winning, but having a nice team of players who serve the community. That stuff is great, but I'd like to see Mason in the NCAAs at some point in my life, again.
we will rightly be ranked lower than Duquesne, UMASS, Bona and URI, Dayton... Somewhere around 8-10 with Davidson and VCU although GW could beat us this year again since they got better and already did last year... Lasalle and St Joes also got infinitely better but them with Fordham are the only teams I am confident we are much better than
just trying to help you limit expectations so you can say we will come in 7th-8th and possibly be right... I mean St Louis, Richmond and Duquesne are all much better than us... outside that it gets much more even... I am sure people that watch the A-10 and aren't homers of any teams will probably agree that Mason is 7-10... but if predicting 4th gets your jollies going, I say good on you.
I don't think you're alone in the year 4 disappointment. We've hashed and re-hashed the reasons behind that season falling flat and it sucks. You're also not alone or wrong to have your patience just about worn out. My reason for optimism is the Cayman Island tourney last year. We boat-raced Nebraska and then came back to beat a New Mexico State team that lost a total of 2 more games the rest of the season. We know what happened to Jamal and Justin after that and we became a very one-dimensional team with limited play-making and very little depth. Yes, it's an excuse, but at least for a few games we saw what might be. Assuming we have a season, I think we can all see a team at least two-deep at every position without having to over-rely on any freshman to play a major role. Could that mean 40 minutes of aggressive, intense defense because guys don't have to rest while on the court? Could it mean fresher legs not just at the end of games, but at the end of the season? Here's hoping. If it doesn't and we're still seeing inconsistent effort and unimaginative sets then I'm confident these boards will call out the product for what it is.
Nebraska was was the 162 best team in the country and would have been much lower than that if they played in any conference lower than P5... NMST was pretty damn good.
You clearly haven’t spent much time actually looking at Duquesne’s roster if you think they’re clearly better than us. Their starting 5 is good but their bench is basically all freshmen and sophomores. Looking at it man for man I see no reason why we can’t be right there with them.
alright like I usually do and you deny. I will give you 2-1 odds $50 that Duquesne finishes higher in A10 than we do (proceeds to Mason general scholarship fund)... I might know more about Duquesne than you do about Mason. TDM, Sincere, Austin, Weathers, Hughes, Norman, and one freshman is all they are going to use regardless. Also have two freshman monster big men (one with 8 P5 offers and the other who had 5 A10 offers)... please school me on Duquesne and Dambrot Also Dambrot program turnaround>>>>>>>>>>>>> Paulsen program turnaround and they don't even have a home gym
Agreed on Nebraska, however we're still a school with few enough regular season P5 wins that beating any of them by 20 is a justified feel-good moment.
I get it, and you could even point to good performances against Dayton and beating VCU. But at the same rate, having a few games where the team looks great, doesn't make me optimistic. They had a weak out of conference and struggled in some of those games as well. I'm hopeful that with a senior laded team, assuming a season and good health that the team performs well. I am not even asking for much at this point, but I'm just really concerned that Mason is content with just being "okay". Its really all or nothing because in another year we'll have a very young team once again.
Duquesne was a one possession game the last two years when we were banged up and missing our best players. They are right with us.
Starting 5: Greene > TDM Miller > Austin AJ > Weathers Oduro < Hughes XJ < Carry Sixth man: Boyd PUSH Norman Also couldn’t possibly care less about their freshman big men offers. Bigs take time to develop and we likely will have a senior as our first big off the bench — how long has it been since we’ve been able to say that? Their roster is not at all clearly better than ours.
Look I’m with you on a lot of that, but I really hope you aren’t considering Boyd as a big off the bench. I know we used him as a 4 in the past but let’s be honest with ourselves, he’s not a big, he’s a large framed two guard.
Calixte will be our first big off the bench unless Henry is more ready than I expect Boyd will be the sixth man
"Bigs take time to develop". Mostly but not good ones.. Osun, Mitchell, French just a couple that spent very little time developing.. Harris had a better offer sheet than oSun and French
Norman>Boyd Carry>>XJ Hughes>>Oduro Weathers is their best player and All A10 2nd team >Miller Greene>TDM (two of the most streaky players in the country) AJ>Austin Yes I know Miller and AJ should probably be switched but Weathers is unfortunately better than both in the eyes of every non Mason fan so I just couldn't do it.
Ok but in your first post you said Dambrot is probably only gonna play the 6 veterans. So now I’m supposed to be worried about a couple freshmen bigs who are gonna get spot minutes off the bench?
I said and one freshman.. and then I told you who that freshman is "TDM, Sincere, Austin, Weathers, Hughes, Norman, and one freshman is all they are going to use regardless." read better