2018-19 Schedule Thread

[dr. gunnie]

After talking it over with the family, we have decided not to drive the 12 hours to Destin for the Emerald Coast Classic to watch these games. If anyone is going and is interested in 4 front row tickets along the baseline, let me know.

 

[JPgmuswim]

After talking it over with the family, we have decided not to drive the 12 hours to Destin for the Emerald Coast Classic to watch these games. If anyone is going and is interested in 4 front row tickets along the baseline, let me know.

Can’t blame you on that decision.
I was offered courtside seats at vcu this year and was so excited about going to watch us crush them in their gym.....

Hopefully we can right the ship by then

 

[tblack33]

After talking it over with the family, we have decided not to drive the 12 hours to Destin for the Emerald Coast Classic to watch these games. If anyone is going and is interested in 4 front row tickets along the baseline, let me know.

I'm interested.

 

[sleeperpick]

ok this is pretty sick. 90s night vs Southern preview https://twitter.com/MasonMBB/status/1062081100267380736

 

[GMUSig03]

ok this is pretty sick. 90s night vs Southern preview https://twitter.com/MasonMBB/status/1062081100267380736

That was hilarious, wonder if any of the players know anything about family matters though

 

[gmutom]

That was hilarious, wonder if any of the players know anything about family matters though

I'm sure they're all aware of it since every show is pretty much available via syndication or streaming services. My son (15) has watched every episode of Seinfeld and The Office, and my daughter (13) has binged every season of Friends.

It's kind of surreal to hear them dropping lines like "These pretzels are making me thirsty," "That's what she said," and "We were on a break!"

 

[Five Two]

Mr Belding will be there on Saturday:
https://twitter.com/MasonMBB/status/1062412395979722752

I was going to start the game thread but did wanted to stay in my swim lane. so Washingtonian, can you start that thread soon? I don't want Mr Belding talk to be lost in the schedule thread.

 

[Leesburg Chankenstank III]

Mr Belding will be there on Saturday:
.

He may be the only one

 

[TweederGMU]

I'm starting to question Paulsen's recruiting abilities. We haven't landed a high caliber recruit where we know we are getting a star type player on both sides of the court. After this year I see us being a ho-hum team and nothing in the recruiting trails have us going after high caliber players.

I look at St. Joe's for example. After destroying Wake Forest today they are 3-0 with 3 sophomores and 1 freshman in their starting lineup with Charlie Brown averaging 20 points a game this year. Its known as a Basketball school with a rich history and every year they can compete to win the A-10 or be up in the top 4 for a spot in the Tourney. They are consistent year after year and win a lot of games, except for a crappy 2 years from 2009-2011. Phily is a rich recruiting area to pull from and seems their coaches can identify very good players and seem to fit a type to be able to shoot the ball and play defense.

After seeing recruiting results over the past few years from our coaches there's not much to be really excited about on the recruiting trail. Starting to think a change needs to be made somewhere where we need a real evaluator of basketball talent to come in and get our recruiting going to a higher standard.

Keeping pace on the recruiting trail in the A-10 has not been great compared to other programs IMO. In order for us to win more consistently need better talent coming in.

 

[gmubrian]

I'm starting to question Paulsen's recruiting abilities. We haven't landed a high caliber recruit where we know we are getting a star type player on both sides of the court. After this year I see us being a ho-hum team and nothing in the recruiting trails have us going after high caliber players.

I look at St. Joe's for example. After destroying Wake Forest today they are 3-0 with 3 sophomores and 1 freshman in their starting lineup with Charlie Brown averaging 20 points a game this year. Its known as a Basketball school with a rich history and every year they can compete to win the A-10 or be up in the top 4 for a spot in the Tourney. They are consistent year after year and win a lot of games, except for a crappy 2 years from 2009-2011. Phily is a rich recruiting area to pull from and seems their coaches can identify very good players and seem to fit a type to be able to shoot the ball and play defense.

After seeing recruiting results over the past few years from our coaches there's not much to be really excited about on the recruiting trail. Starting to think a change needs to be made somewhere where we need a real evaluator of basketball talent to come in and get our recruiting going to a higher standard.

Keeping pace on the recruiting trail in the A-10 has not been great compared to other programs IMO. In order for us to win more consistently need better talent coming in.

We should have kept the Virus to do just recruiting. If only we had had him recruit while he was still on payroll and not doing anything else. Then we could have DP do the teaching/run practices and manage the overall program as that is what seems to be his strongest areas. Finally, have Jollay/Gemini/GS2/Jim (or one of our other knowledgeable members) be the in-game general.

We would be unstoppable.

 

[GMUgemini]

Interestingly enough, Charlie Brown, Goanar Mar, and Jamal Hartwell were rated the exact same at ESPN when they were recruited (Scout Grade: 78, 3 stars).

 

[GSII]

IMO, There's a big difference between 2 and 3 star kids. Look at Hartwell this year and Mar last year. Ignore Mar from this year, but even though he is struggling its not b/c of talent level. I think that's more on the leadership of the program. Grayer was probably a 2 star and he was every bit of it. Talent, Physical, Etc, but a big part is consistency of how you play the game at that age. Some kids could be 3 and 4 stars, but the mental side keeps them at one and two. There's a reason DP's 3 star guys are playing a lot. His first class was a cornerstone so he owes them some respect. But it looks like it could cost us a banner year. Keir, 2 star, Otis 1 star, no offers. Look at their shortcomings? Kier can't dribble or shoot 3's, all mental. Otis, complete mental breakdown this year. Guess its hard to play when these 3 star guys show you up in practice yet you have the seniority and are DP's first recruiting class. Its amazing that Hartwell is as good as Otis is right now. Otis is feeling that and its mind f**ked him.

 

[GMUgemini]

AJ Wilson was also rated a 3 star by ESPN, although slightly under the other three (74). Ian Boyd (72 3 star).

In other words, if you composed a starting lineup solely by the recruit ranking it would be Hartwell, Boyd, Mar, AJ, Reuter. That might literally be next year’s starting five.

 

[JBiggs]

IMO, There's a big difference between 2 and 3 star kids. Look at Hartwell this year and Mar last year. Ignore Mar from this year, but even though he is struggling its not b/c of talent level. I think that's more on the leadership of the program. Grayer was probably a 2 star and he was every bit of it. Talent, Physical, Etc, but a big part is consistency of how you play the game at that age. Some kids could be 3 and 4 stars, but the mental side keeps them at one and two. There's a reason DP's 3 star guys are playing a lot. His first class was a cornerstone so he owes them some respect. But it looks like it could cost us a banner year. Keir, 2 star, Otis 1 star, no offers. Look at their shortcomings? Kier can't dribble or shoot 3's, all mental. Otis, complete mental breakdown this year. Guess its hard to play when these 3 star guys show you up in practice yet you have the seniority and are DP's first recruiting class. Its amazing that Hartwell is as good as Otis is right now. Otis is feeling that and its mind f*cked him.

So you're just going to ignore what Otis and Jaire have done to the A10 consistently for three straight seasons?

 

[dr. gunnie]

I'm interested.

I sent you a private message - haven't heard back.

Tickets are still available if anyone wants them. Looks like I can email them to you.

 

[GSII]

So you're just going to ignore what Otis and Jaire have done to the A10 consistently for three straight seasons?

Not in the sense you are trying to portray. I love both of these players and how they helped us exceed predictions each year. Beating predictions is old now. We want more and DP has helped create that excitement. Unfortunately, he is not delivering so far.

 

[Patriotsince81]

So you're just going to ignore what Otis and Jaire have done to the A10 consistently for three straight seasons?

I don't think anyone is ignoring what they have done but the fact is the best we have done is 9 - 9. That's okay, it's improvement, but not it's not great by any stretch of the imagination. This was the year great was supposed to happen. Still early, they may do that yet, but early returns are a bust.

 

[sleeperpick]

I sent you a private message - haven't heard back.

Tickets are still available if anyone wants them. Looks like I can email them to you.

hes in the Netherlands.. send me a private message and I can Venmo/paypal you for the tickets.. heading down Friday morning with 4 total attendees

 

[dr. gunnie]

The UMass website is showing our game at UMass on Jan 16th is now going to be on Eleven Sports (623 on Directv) / NESN Plus (628-1 on Directv).

It has not been updated on our website yet.

 

[gmujim92]

I'm starting to question Paulsen's recruiting abilities. We haven't landed a high caliber recruit where we know we are getting a star type player on both sides of the court. After this year I see us being a ho-hum team and nothing in the recruiting trails have us going after high caliber players.

I look at St. Joe's for example. After destroying Wake Forest today they are 3-0 with 3 sophomores and 1 freshman in their starting lineup with Charlie Brown averaging 20 points a game this year. Its known as a Basketball school with a rich history and every year they can compete to win the A-10 or be up in the top 4 for a spot in the Tourney. They are consistent year after year and win a lot of games, except for a crappy 2 years from 2009-2011. Phily is a rich recruiting area to pull from and seems their coaches can identify very good players and seem to fit a type to be able to shoot the ball and play defense.

After seeing recruiting results over the past few years from our coaches there's not much to be really excited about on the recruiting trail. Starting to think a change needs to be made somewhere where we need a real evaluator of basketball talent to come in and get our recruiting going to a higher standard.

Keeping pace on the recruiting trail in the A-10 has not been great compared to other programs IMO. In order for us to win more consistently need better talent coming in.

If you insist that higher-ranked players are “better,” and outside the top 50 I think that’s a major stretch...

It’s like a chicken vs egg thing: we need “better” players to win more, but we also need to win more to get “better” players.

Using Martelli as a comparison is apples to oranges from Paulsen. Martelli has been at SJU a long time and he has had down seasons, but he’s been to the tournament and won games so he’s a brand name to some extent in Philly even with Nova and Temple in the same city. Dave, of course, is four games into his fourth season.

Given that we haven’t danced since 2011 and basically fell off the face of the earth after Larranaga left, expecting our staff to consistently land highly-recruited kids is unrealistic. I think they’ve done pretty well recruiting to a program that has been mostly irrelevant for going on a decade now.

A kid like Jeff Dowtin was a perfect example. Paulsen was first to spot his ability and offer when he was still at Bucknell, and he recruited the hell out of Dowtin after coming to Mason, but the kid saw an opportunity to win big at URI and had confidence he was good enough to play there even though he was criminally underrecruited.

How good would we be right now if we had Dowtin? Scary good.

The truth hurts, but until we break through and get back to the NCAAs, we’re never going to win a head-to-head battle for a kid that has better options. Kids want to play big games in March and the most highly recruited ones will pick schools where they can do that.