2016 Recruiting

[gmujim92]

Well Davidson won the A-10 regular season with a bunch of underrated, deceptively athletic kids, so no saying we can't do the same.

 

[gmujim92]

imo its not so much infrastructure as it is perception of our program. the car salesman pretending to be a Mason Head BBall coach really put us back more years than we'd like to admit. We have, unfortunetly, been thru this before with Westhead. Question is can DP do what the OCM did. Its a question every Mason fan is wondering deep down.

Infrastructure goes hand-in-glove with perception of our program -- especially when we get recruits on campus. We're not the gigantic fish in the little tiny pond anymore. In order to be consistently good in the A-10, we have to be able to sign kids who have other quality suitors, and facilities is one piece of that puzzle.

If a tiny private liberal arts school like Davidson can build a new practice facility, we need to get that sh!t done yesterday.

 

[BBFAN]

Hello passionate Mason fans! I have held back from posting on your board to this point. I would like to share a few random thoughts on coach Paulsen first hand. I witnessed a Bucknell program that had very little talent when he came on board as the coach. I remember him saying in a sarcastic kind of way that a former assistant coach was a better player at the time than most of the team! I use this comparison in a way that you people kind of feel about your team in a way. I have been a huge college basketball junky for many years. I watched DP style very closely while at Bucknell and his style would probably turn away a lot of the players that were on the team period! I feel his recruiting at this level will be very challenging to say the least coming from a very slow tempo Patriot League up to A10 will be a huge jump for not only him but also the coaches he brought with him. His players must buy into his system first and foremost or it will be bench riding period. He really struggled to recruit point guards he seemed to always go for a great shooter first and try to make a pg out of them. I was never impressed with the results great kids but not a pure point guard more of a combo. I look back at one great recruiting class followed by a down couple years with the exception of Ayers and then another good player in Hass but alot of roll players across the team really used an 8 man rotation at the most but with a half court offense and that stay at home defense it worked ok many times.. It however was boring to watch very predictable and some nights just plan ugly! I am not trying to drag you guys down just stating the facts! He can coach but it will be interesting to see if he opens up his offense at all or tries to run the same thing that he did at Bucknell against much more athletic teams!

 

[GSII]

umass has John Kennedy as an alum and Davidson has money + some Curry guy. We are located in the richest area of the world so i guess it takes time??Wonder what other schools' financial challenges are who are in less affluent areas.

 

[GMUSig03]

Hello passionate Mason fans! I have held back from posting on your board to this point. I would like to share a few random thoughts on coach Paulsen first hand. I witnessed a Bucknell program that had very little talent when he came on board as the coach. I remember him saying in a sarcastic kind of way that a former assistant coach was a better player at the time than most of the team! I use this comparison in a way that you people kind of feel about your team in a way. I have been a huge college basketball junky for many years. I watched DP style very closely while at Bucknell and his style would probably turn away a lot of the players that were on the team period! I feel his recruiting at this level will be very challenging to say the least coming from a very slow tempo Patriot League up to A10 will be a huge jump for not only him but also the coaches he brought with him. His players must buy into his system first and foremost or it will be bench riding period. He really struggled to recruit point guards he seemed to always go for a great shooter first and try to make a pg out of them. I was never impressed with the results great kids but not a pure point guard more of a combo. I look back at one great recruiting class followed by a down couple years with the exception of Ayers and then another good player in Hass but alot of roll players across the team really used an 8 man rotation at the most but with a half court offense and that stay at home defense it worked ok many times.. It however was boring to watch very predictable and some nights just plan ugly! I am not trying to drag you guys down just stating the facts! He can coach but it will be interesting to see if he opens up his offense at all or tries to run the same thing that he did at Bucknell against much more athletic teams!

Thanks for the input, interestingly enough your criticism of Paulsen reminds me a lot of the criticisms that were levied at Larranaga while he was at Mason, so I'll take it!

 

[liem.le.3388]

Thanks for the observations and input BBFAN. Our prior coach couldn't even draw up a simple inbounds play or manage his time outs so I'm confident Paulsen is an upgrade for us. Also like us normal folk and our careers, we grow into our next upgraded positions and use our experiences as our foundation. I still have high hopes for Paulsen even losing out on a few recruits. The one we did get Temara looks like a good one. Athletic 6'9 bigs don't grow on trees.

 

[JimP]

I appreciate BBFan's input, but two NCAA and two NIT's for Bucknell in the last 5 years sounds pretty exciting to me. Winning is exciting - it'll be fun to score more points than the other team again.

 

[BBFAN]

He will roll up his sleeves and make your kids work hard no doubt about that! And I am sure he will change the culture of the team it may take a couple years so hang in there! And by all mean he did not let the Bucknell cupboard bare when he left as his freshman class from last year was very good and the kids coming in this year appear to have a chance to be very good. I hope it works out well for you guys! I will be watching how things progress down your way and may even stick my nose in on a game or two..

 

[JimP]

He will roll up his sleeves and make your kids work hard no doubt about that! And I am sure he will change the culture of the team it may take a couple years so hang in there! And by all mean he did not let the Bucknell cupboard bare when he left as his freshman class from last year was very good and the kids coming in this year appear to have a chance to be very good. I hope it works out well for you guys! I will be watching how things progress down your way and may even stick my nose in on a game or two..

I went to a Bucknell game a few years ago...nice arena and a fun atmosphere. The Bison crushed Holy Cross. It was year 1 of the Hewitt fiasco and I spent the hours proceeding the game horrified as I watched a talented GMU team struggle to beat an awful Towson team on the hotel TV. Drank a lot of beer before I entered the friendly confines of Bucknell's basketball arena.

Another GMU-Bucknell moment I recall from a few years back - hitting up Brion's Grill (GMU bar in Fairfax) after a game and seeing on the ESPN scroll that Bucknell had defeated Vanderbilt. Gives me some hope!

 

[Pablo]

Verbal Commits ‏@VerbalCommits 9m9 minutes ago
2016 East English Village Prep (MI) G Karmari Newman has received an offer from George Mason. (HT @PrepHoopsMI) http://verbalcommits.com/players/karmari-newman…


Status: Undecided

Year: 2016 (HS SR)

Position: Shooting Guard

Height: 6-3

Hometown: Detroit, MI

High School: East English Village Preparatory Academy

 

[Washingtonian]

Verbal Commits ‏@VerbalCommits 9m9 minutes ago
2016 East English Village Prep (MI) G Karmari Newman has received an offer from George Mason. (HT @PrepHoopsMI) http://verbalcommits.com/players/karmari-newman…


Status: Undecided

Year: 2016 (HS SR)

Position: Shooting Guard

Height: 6-3

Hometown: Detroit, MI

High School: East English Village Preparatory Academy

St. Bonaventure and Duquesne also in the running from the A-10.

 

[mkaufman1]

Verbal Commits ‏@VerbalCommits 9m9 minutes ago
2016 East English Village Prep (MI) G Karmari Newman has received an offer from George Mason. (HT @PrepHoopsMI) http://verbalcommits.com/players/karmari-newman…


Status: Undecided

Year: 2016 (HS SR)

Position: Shooting Guard

Height: 6-3

Hometown: Detroit, MI

High School: East English Village Preparatory Academy

 

[Pablo]

Verbal Commits ‏@VerbalCommits 1h1 hour ago
2016 Kennedy Catholic (PA) F Sagaba Konate has committed to West Virginia. (HT @KCFanSection) @sagaba50 http://verbalcommits.com/players/sagaba-konate…

 

[gmujim92]

This came as a surprise, but Mason is among the final 4 schools in the running for 6-7 wing Josh Hall, who originally committed to Rice but re-opened his recruiting in August.

The other 3 schools are Nevada, UNC-Wilmington and Georgia Southern. I'd like to think we compare favorably to each of them, but you never know what a teenager is looking for in a school/program.

Also interesting is that Josh plays at Genesis Academy in Lynchburg, where he's a teammate of another 2016 Mason target, PG Greg Williams.

A package deal would be tremendous.

 

[Pablo]

1. Josh Hall ‏@Josh33Hall 6h6 hours ago
   Decisions.... #Final4
   
   
   
   
   

 

[psyclone]

This came as a surprise, but Mason is among the final 4 schools in the running for 6-7 wing Josh Hall, who originally committed to Rice but re-opened his recruiting in August.

The other 3 schools are Nevada, UNC-Wilmington and Georgia Southern. I'd like to think we compare favorably to each of them, but you never know what a teenager is looking for in a school/program.

Also interesting is that Josh plays at Genesis Academy in Lynchburg, where he's a teammate of another 2016 Mason target, PG Greg Williams.

A package deal would be tremendous.

Have you seen him Jim? Is Hall an under the radar kid?

 

[Pablo]

http://hoopseen.com/index.php/news/hoopseen-20/item/3644-josh-hall-down-to-4-sets-decision-date:

"He also has official visits planned to Nevada on October 9-11 and George Mason on October 14-16. Shortly after those visits, Hall hopes to have a decision.

'I want to have a decision on November 6th, the day before our first home game.'"

 

[liem.le.3388]

That is an interesting time for him to come visit, Andre Wesson mentioned scheduling a visit mid Oct also. A battle for our future SF position.

 

[A.-Siegfried]

Not sure how "under the radar" he is when he had offers from legit Power 5 schools. But it also makes me wonder what happened that he would decommit from Rice and his Final Four is CAA, A-10, Mountain West and Sun Belt. Doesn't add up...but hey...I'll take it!

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recruiting/player-Josh-Hall-155893

 

[GMUgemini]

Not sure how "under the radar" he is when he had offers from legit Power 5 schools. But it also makes me wonder what happened that he would decommit from Rice and his Final Four is CAA, A-10, Mountain West and Sun Belt. Doesn't add up...but hey...I'll take it!

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recruiting/player-Josh-Hall-155893

Rice has a new basketball coach, so I'm sure that's the reason he decommited, and I'm also sure Cincy, Kansas State, Nebraska and Ok St. have all moved on.