2019 Recruiting

[Dawgs99]

I haven't seen anything in writing on any publication that leads me to believe we actually offered this kid. Best guess is we brought him in to see if he would be interested in a preferred walk on spot. We did this with a kid last year and he ended up getting an offer from Monmouth and taking that route. It's not uncommon for this late in the process to take a flier and see if you can convince a kid to walk on and see how he develops.

 

[GMUgemini]

I haven't seen anything in writing on any publication that leads me to believe we actually offered this kid. Best guess is we brought him in to see if he would be interested in a preferred walk on spot. We did this with a kid last year and he ended up getting an offer from Monmouth and taking that route. It's not uncommon for this late in the process to take a flier and see if you can convince a kid to walk on and see how he develops.

Was that George Papas?

Speaking of late 2019 commits, what’s going on with Blakney? I notice he still hasn’t committed anywhere yet, which is really odd since he has a decent offer sheet (or had anyway). Do you think he’s going to wind up prepping and reclassifying to 2020?

 

[JPgmuswim]

Was that George Papas?

Speaking of late 2019 commits, what’s going on with Blakney? I notice he still hasn’t committed anywhere yet, which is really odd since he has a decent offer sheet (or had anyway). Do you think he’s going to wind up prepping and reclassifying to 2020?

Good question about Blakney, I’d imagine that means he has to be reclassifying

 

[sleeperpick]

We could’ve had Paar. Dave likes Oduro better. We certainly weren’t taking both.

We’ll see which one ends up having a better college career.

Paar absolutely will. Dave wrong again

 

[gmujim92]

Paar absolutely will. Dave wrong again

Neither one of them has done much to justify such a declaration, but I guess we’ll see.

 

[sleeperpick]

Jahmir Young averaging 19.5 6 and 3 this year.... would much rather have that than XJ but DP knows best.

 

[tblack33]

Paar absolutely will. Dave wrong again

Oduro certainly looking like the better pickup than Paar at this point. Dude can barely get a run on a terrible GW team.

 

[sleeperpick]

Oduro certainly looking like the better pickup than Paar at this point. Dude can barely get a run on a terrible GW team.

10 and 6 being a feature vs 6.5 and 6 being the 7th option, Parr also shoots 18% higher from charity stripe and plays defense... so take what you will. I like defense

 

[Dawgs99]

Oduro certainly looking like the better pickup than Paar at this point. Dude can barely get a run on a terrible GW team.

Sleeper is never going admit he was wrong about Oduro....never going to happen.

 

[p8triotfan4life]

Sleeper is never going admit he was wrong about Oduro....never going to happen.

Of course not. Whoever takes that clown seriously? He's too busy giving AJ his nightly BJ's.

 

[sleeperpick]

Sleeper is never going admit he was wrong about Oduro....never going to happen.

Wrong about Kolek not wrong at all about Oduro. You guys aren’t looking if you still think that. Even DP the dufus starting to bench him after he gets torched 4 straight trips down on defense

 

[GMUgemini]

Should have taken them both.

Sleeper, is that Oduro’s fault? Seems to happen to pretty much all our players all the time.

 

[sleeperpick]

Should have taken them both.

Sleeper, is that Oduro’s fault? Seems to happen to pretty much all our players all the time.

Absolutely should have taken both... shoulda taken Young and XJ too. Oduros fault for never going straight up, being the slowest footed big man I can remember and getting called for Knees in the a** on defense because he knows he can’t defend anyone?! Idk man. I’m glad he’s a worker and seemingly knows he needs to be better. That’s a great step. But y’all all told me he worked with Butler and Cambpell this off-season and he would be much improved. He’s almost worse on defense this year. Love the kids offensive game but with no AJ to cover for him next year we are going to be put on a ton of posters. No center recruit is super troubling on a team that will lose two of 4 big men.

 

[mkaufman1]

Oduro is a solid player. He’s more offense than defense. He really struggles defensively against talented bigs in a league full of them. Unfortunately being in the a10, you find more complete guys than guys really strong on one side.

the problem like most of the talent on mason is they have guys who would be great 2nd or 3rd options. They don’t have the guy who has “it”.

If mason had another big who was really good on both ends and Oduro would come in for 15-20 minutes and supplement, that’s be great. Calixte doesn’t even play much anymore but he at least defends better than Oduro.

I don’t know if he is being coached all that well or what because it seems like the coaching overall for the entire team is deficient.

 

[GMUgemini]

The entire roster looks worse on defense, including AJ. Javon was a better defender his freshman year than he is now four years later.

Calixte was also a better defender his freshman season.

 

[gmutom]

Wrong about Kolek not wrong at all about Oduro. You guys aren’t looking if you still think that. Even DP the dufus starting to bench him after he gets torched 4 straight trips down on defense

Come on, sleeperpick, just admit you’re wrong. I get hating on Oduro is your thing, but I’ll take the word of almost every broadcaster who has done our games this year and raved about his offensive skillset. Today they even said he could be the top big men in the conference in a few years. Let’s keep in mind he’s only a sophomore.

Does he still play passively on offense? No question about it. Is he a defensive liability at times? Yep. Did he get abused by Osunniyi today? Absolutely, but so do most players in the league — including AJ.

The jury is sill out on our freshmen and Johnson has battled injuries, but the reality is we are a team without a star and I’d argue only five A10-caliber players: AJ, Miller, Javon, Oduro and Kolek. We have no true PG, three shooters at most, and no serviceable backup big men.

Trust me, Josh is not only the least of our problems, but he’s one of our better players. That might not mean much on a crappy team, but he’s still an upgrade over Reuter and many others Paulsen has brought in.

 

[sleeperpick]

Come on, sleeperpick, just admit you’re wrong. I get hating on Oduro is your thing, but I’ll take the word of almost every broadcaster who has done our games this year and raved about his offensive skillset. Today they even said he could be the top big men in the conference in a few years. Let’s keep in mind he’s only a sophomore.

Does he still play passively on offense? No question about it. Is he a defensive liability at times? Yep. Did he get abused by Osunniyi today? Absolutely, but so do most players in the league — including AJ.

The jury is sill out on our freshmen and Johnson has battled injuries, but the reality is we are a team without a star and I’d argue only five A10-caliber players: AJ, Miller, Javon, Oduro and Kolek. We have no true PG, three shooters at most, and no serviceable backup big men.

Trust me, Josh is not only the least of our problems, but he’s one of our better players. That might not mean much on a crappy team, but he’s still an upgrade over Reuter and many others Paulsen has brought in.

Lmao the announcers? Come on Tom. They also call Paulsen a terrific coach doing great things with a young team every single game. Do you agree with that as well? Better to watch the games in mute than the folks calling games this year. These guys do as little research on George Mason basketball as humanly possible.
Best center since Shevon doesn’t mean that he’s any good. I can see why you think he’s A10 quality and that’s fine, but he’s certainly not good enough for a person with a straight face to tell me I’m dead wrong. Being the worst defender on a terrible defensive team is very telling.

 

[gmutom]

sleeperpick, I definitely take what broadcasters say with a grain of salt, and I don’t believe at this point Josh will be the best big man in the conference in two years. But I also understand that he is working in a horrible offensive scheme that hinders what he can do and exploits what he can’t.

The next time one of our point guards passes it to him in the post will be the first. He frequently comes to the high post to set a screen, but our guards rarely if ever get him the ball on pick-and-rolls. More often than not in Paulsen’s horrible offense, he’s left to create almost every shot he takes. That’s not the strength of his game.

By no means am I comparing him to Will or Jai, but they had the luxury of several shooters that our opponents had to respect on the perimeter. That at least got them some space to operate and one-on-one matchups that they were able to exploit.

On defense, there’s no question he needs to play bigger and tougher. We agree completely there. That’s the part of his game I hope improves dramatically over the next two years.

 

[GMUgemini]

Paulsen doesn’t do anyone any favors on defense sticking them on islands. Our defense is not well connected and we aren’t really doing anything to force players into positions where help can come or even where they are less likely to score.

 

[gmujim92]

Oduro certainly isn’t alone in the A-10 as a big who can’t guard in the post 1 on 1 ... Tre Mitchell is the best offensive big in the league but he’s an absolute turnstile on defense.

As others have said, DP’s lack of a plan for team defense hasn’t helped any of our guys. All it has done is expose their individual shortcomings.