2019 Recruiting

[GSII]

We are only missing one assistants position. Bryson took Kelly's spot right? Simpk should be top assistant or Associate Head Coach. Then we add Lamar Butler and the boards rejoice! Plus, Butler leads TBTMasonNation team to a Championship and the boards crash!

Reality is we need a big man and it isn't looking good for this year. It sucks b/c every year something is missing. A piece here or there that could really help us win a few more games each year is always a year away. Guess it's really a 5 year season.

 

[gmujim92]

Every time I see someone post something about holding a scholarship for next year, I throw up a little in my mouth. Not using all 13 scholarships is like playing poker against the rest of the table, only they get to use all 7 cards to make their hand and you get to use 6. There is no reason not to use an available scholarship on a grad transfer - they are here one year and that scholarship becomes available the next year. Even if they never play one minute - you are in no worse position than you were holding the scholarship.

And Jim - the big difference with the Reuter reference is that the board didn't set those expectations, Paulsen did when he said he's an all A-10 type player. I think if you bring a player in and don't proclaim him the next great Mason big man, the expectations are far less on these boards.

My guess is they won't use it and it will go to a walk on for a year like they did last year with Nick. While it's a nice move, it doesn't help you win games.

I wonder how much not having a full staff hurts during all of this with one spot available and a short time to fill it? I'm grasping there is a coach/grad transfer combo that maybe we can snag, but that is a huge long shot.

From a team chemistry standpoint, you aren’t going to bring in a grad transfer who has no chance to outplay the guys you already have. It’s his last year of eligibility — he’s not going to be happy sitting on the bench and only getting in at the end of blowouts. That helps nobody.

Also, the 13th scholarship is almost never used on a contributing player. Unless our staff can sign somebody this spring/summer who is clearly capable of being in the rotation from Day 1, better to just pocket it and have it available for a sit-out transfer if one comes available.

 

[sleeperpick]

From a team chemistry standpoint, you aren’t going to bring in a grad transfer who has no chance to outplay the guys you already have. It’s his last year of eligibility — he’s not going to be happy sitting on the bench and only getting in at the end of blowouts. That helps nobody.

Also, the 13th scholarship is almost never used on a contributing player. Unless our staff can sign somebody this spring/summer who is clearly capable of being in the rotation from Day 1, better to just pocket it and have it available for a sit-out transfer if one comes available.

I mean currently we have 10-11 contributing players on scholarship.. Oduro and Daddy should both RS... why not sign someone who can play day 1

 

[GSII]

I mean currently we have 10-11 contributing players on scholarship.. Oduro and Daddy should both RS... why not sign someone who can play day 1

Only Jim Jun Un can approve such logical questions for public posting.

 

[GMUgemini]

Except that we all complained about doubling the opposing 5’s all year long, which led to open perimeter shots. So I don’t think you can look at the opposing 5’s stats to evaluate Calixte’s defense.

I think Calixte could hold his own defensively, but he just wasn’t given much of a chance to prove that last year. Conversely, if the defensive rotations were better, doubling the post wouldn’t have been such a problem either.

Collapsing in the ball in the post is the very definition of a pack line defense. The doubling wasn’t the problem, it was when they doubled, where the double was coming from and the rotation back out to the shooters that was the issue.

As an example, against UMass, Pierre would set up
In the corner and Holloway would roll to the elbow on that side. Pierre would feed Holloway the ball and Pierre’s man would immediately leave him to double Holloway who immediately kicked it back out for a wide open corner 3. They did that about 4 times in a row and we didn’t adjust to that play. It wasn’t the double that was the issue, it was how fast we doubled him (why 12 feet from the basket?) and where the double was coming from (the defender of their best shooter). Instead, everyone was screaming to wait for Holloway to put the ball on the floor and try to make a move.

Our rotations were slow and our doubles were predictable. Also, being undersized, they are ineffective because if you’ve got Otis doubling a guy who is 6’10 he just passes right right over his head (unless Otis timed it perfectly and got to him on the bounce and could strip the ball).

Calixte (and even AJ — if he times his jumps correctly and stops falling for the ball fake) will be able to defend most 5s just fine. Our offense might be in trouble though if our shooting is as bad as it was last season.

 

[dr. gunnie]

From a team chemistry standpoint, you aren’t going to bring in a grad transfer who has no chance to outplay the guys you already have. It’s his last year of eligibility — he’s not going to be happy sitting on the bench and only getting in at the end of blowouts. That helps nobody.

Also, the 13th scholarship is almost never used on a contributing player. Unless our staff can sign somebody this spring/summer who is clearly capable of being in the rotation from Day 1, better to just pocket it and have it available for a sit-out transfer if one comes available.

We are going to have to agree to disagree, because I pretty much disagree with every point you are trying to make... and if you ever want to play shorthanded poker like you want us to play shorthanded next season with only 12 scholarship players instead of 13, let me know!

 

[GMUgemini]

We are going to have to agree to disagree, because I pretty much disagree with every point you are trying to make... and if you ever want to play shorthanded poker like you want us to play shorthanded next season with only 12 scholarship players instead of 13, let me know!

Depends on who the last scholarship player is. If it’s Temara 2.0, a walk-on can play the scout team just as well...

 

[sleeperpick]

Calixte did a decent job defending all of those players actually. Defending the 5 hasn't been our issue. Look at Josh Cunningham, Hasahn French, Santos-Silva, Osun, and Langevine's numbers against us, they aren't that great. We did have a lack of size problem against opponents 4s, which Toppin was last year. Miller was great, but he was getting pushed around defensively. And really poor shooting and turnovers led to a lot of easy buckets for certain teams (SLU, vcu particularly). Also, rotating on 3-point shooters.

Yeah, Calixte isn't a double-double machine, but he's going to be just fine on the defensive side of the ball. He holds his own. We need people who can score on the other side.

I will absolutely agree with you that our problem isn't necessarily against 5's.... we seem to be really bad against wings and guards which is funny because that is all Paulsen recruits...

Now to be accurate Josh Cunningham went 15 and 5 in that Dayton game with pretty much all of that coming in the first 4 mins of the game... Then Dayton just tried to hoist 3's from the 28 foot line (Dayton much better athletes than us but Grant is such a crappy coach)

Langevine got URI 15 pts 14 boards... would call that great IMO.. you must be hard to please... lucky thing we caught the rest of their team completely asleep and got the victory

Santos-Silva sat pretty much the entire second half in both games against us.... Osun is a true freshman that will probably start to give us nightmares this season... and we just let everyone else on St Louis score on us... little time to let French..

 

[dr. gunnie]

Depends on who the last scholarship player is. If it’s Temara 2.0, a walk-on can play the scout team just as well...

If we have some 6’8” guys with DI college basketball experience walking around campus that want to walk on, I’m all for it. I know the campus has changed a lot since my days there, but back then those guys weren’t around.

 

[sleeperpick]

If we have some 6’8” guys with DI college basketball experience walking around campus that want to walk on, I’m all for it. I know the campus has changed a lot since my days there, but back then those guys weren’t around.

there are kids that play every day at the RAC that are "currently" better than Oduro and we gave him a scholarship... not saying Oduro won't become a decent enough player worthy of a scholarship... but he would not be the best player at the RAC on any given day at this moment.

 

[gmujim92]

We are going to have to agree to disagree, because I pretty much disagree with every point you are trying to make... and if you ever want to play shorthanded poker like you want us to play shorthanded next season with only 12 scholarship players instead of 13, let me know!

If we wind up needing a contribution from whoever would’ve been holding that 13th scholarship, it probably means the season has gone completely to hell and this discussion will be moot.

Even vcu doesn’t regularly play more than 11 guys. There just aren’t enough minutes to go around in a 40-minute college game. So again, recognizing you have a much more extensive coaching background than anyone else here, what is the point of signing somebody just to take up space on the bench (and probably be pouty about it while doing so)?

I’d like to think if the staff found someone they thought could contribute right away and wanted to be at Mason, they’d sign him up.

 

[dr. gunnie]

My view is, we are extremely thin next year for our big men. It's almost a certainty that one of them will miss some time next year due to injury. Now, let's say while that guy is out, we get in foul trouble. We are screwed. By signing a big guy grad transfer, at least we have a big man that we can put in to give us some minutes, some fouls... that's all I'm asking. If it helps us in just one game... heck, if it helps us get or defend 2 points in one game, it's worth it to me. The flip side is not using the scholarship which does not help us at all - there is not one benefit to not using a scholarship that I can see and saving it until 2020-21, because signing a grad transfer means that scholarship will become available anyway the following year.

And I don't assume any guy you would bring in would be pouty. I've never coached basketball, but in other sports I've had many kids that didn't play much or didn't play at all and they were excellent teammates. Do our walk-on's pout?

But as I said earlier, we will have to agree to disagree. You aren't going to change your mind - I'm not going to change mine. Why bother? It's like discussing politics on facebook - nobody wins!

 

[Mason2005]

If we wind up needing a contribution from whoever would’ve been holding that 13th scholarship, it probably means the season has gone completely to hell and this discussion will be moot.

Even vcu doesn’t regularly play more than 11 guys. There just aren’t enough minutes to go around in a 40-minute college game. So again, recognizing you have a much more extensive coaching background than anyone else here, what is the point of signing somebody just to take up space on the bench (and probably be pouty about it while doing so)?

I’d like to think if the staff found someone they thought could contribute right away and wanted to be at Mason, they’d sign him up.

I'm not sure why you are bringing up 13th man. We need a big that could win the starting spot and would def get a min of 20 minutes a game. Reuter was terrible (most of the time) and Paulsen started him over Calixte. Calixte probably isn't the answer so there is a starting spot available. If the staff can't sell that we are in big trouble.

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[gmujim92]

I'm not sure why you are bringing up 13th man. We need a big that could win the starting spot and would def get a min of 20 minutes a game. Reuter was terrible (most of the time) and Paulsen started him over Calixte. Calixte probably isn't the answer so there is a starting spot available. If the staff can't sell that we are in big trouble.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

Sure thing, just go out and pluck one off the “available big man” tree.

 

[dr. gunnie]

I'm not sure why you are bringing up 13th man. We need a big that could win the starting spot and would def get a min of 20 minutes a game. Reuter was terrible (most of the time) and Paulsen started him over Calixte. Calixte probably isn't the answer so there is a starting spot available. If the staff can't sell that we are in big trouble.

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Agree. The fact that we all just assume that we couldn’t land anyone who was more than just a body kind of shows how low it is for us regarding recruiting. We have a ton of minutes available - basically all of Reuter’s are up for grabs. I’m not suggesting we should be winning a battle against Kentucky or UNC, but things can’t be that bad where we can’t sell a serviceable big man some time, can they?

 

[sleeperpick]

Sure thing, just go out and pluck one off the “available big man” tree.

it is very odd man.. you think so highly of Paulsen for so many things.... but actually getting a big man that will pan out is just ludicrous to even think to become possible. Bigs transfer from better programs than ours every single day... (just check Verbal Commits)... didn't one just leave Indiana for Lasalle yesterday? Paulsen can't even get a phone call with these dudes that commit to shittier programs than ours

 

[Mason2005]

Sure thing, just go out and pluck one off the “available big man” tree.

Not sure why you being sarcastic with this statement lol. Yes! We should be able to find a big man with what we can offer. Every other A10 school has the ability to....There is still a lot of off season left so I'm not going to draw any conclusions yet. In DP I still trust kinda lol.

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[gmujim92]

it is very odd man.. you think so highly of Paulsen for so many things.... but actually getting a big man that will pan out is just ludicrous to even think to become possible. Bigs transfer from better programs than ours every single day... (just check Verbal Commits)... didn't one just leave Indiana for Lasalle yesterday? Paulsen can't even get a phone call with these dudes that commit to shittier programs than ours

Moore picked La Salle because he knows he will have zero competition and will start from Day 1.

Is he better than Calixte? I don’t know and you don’t either, despite your amazing talent evaluation skills.

He did very little at Indiana, which is why he’s no longer there. Maybe he just sucks.

But I would be shocked if a legit, immediately eligible big transferred to Mason.

 

[gmujim92]

We should be able to find a big man with what we can offer. Every other A10 school has the ability to...

Oh really? Do tell.

 

[Leesburg Chankenstank III]

I think I know what is going on. Jim is DP's agent. And you can't blame him for protecting and talking up his client. It's what you want your agent to do.