2200 days of Brad Edwards

[Falco]

Can they just increase student fees already. Like this is a joke. Students will still enroll even if fees are increased by 10,20,30,40, even $50. I bet you could raise student fees by 250$ and the majority of students wouldn't even think twice about it.

 

[Falco]

Not happening. State has asked public universities to plan for a cut of 7.5%--so you can assume that tuition will be increased, maybe more than usual. And it's been mentioned before that the state is taking a very hard look at student fees for these sorts of things. Cabrera is on record as being against raising student fees. Also, I believe the initial announcement indicated that the plans were contingent on funding from private sources, i.e. donations.

Cabrera is a crock pot, he wont raise student fees $10, but he will make a point to accept international students at double the tuition.

 

[mkaufman1]

Cabrera is a crock pot, he wont raise student fees $10, but he will make a point to accept international students at double the tuition.

Mason has always been friendly to international students, and that isn't going to change. One thing has nothing to do with the other IMO.

Can they just increase student fees already. Like this is a joke. Students will still enroll even if fees are increased by 10,20,30,40, even $50. I bet you could raise student fees by 250$ and the majority of students wouldn't even think twice about it.

Mason has a lot of different students including those who pay their own way and work full time and don't get involved much in campus. I think a lot of students would not be happy about fees going up since many students already think tuition is high enough. Point being, student fees aren't going to go up for the sake of athletics or anything at this juncture.

 

[MasonSAE4]

According to the accounts website student fees are 1500 per semester (obviously depending on if full time or not.) Now I understand the fees being raised is off the table, but it seems silly to me to state that the bball program is the gateway to the university, but not be willing to raise the price 15 per head to make it competitive. I would wager that a consistently strong bball program would do far more for university recruiting than whatever they are spending money on right now for advertising. In theory since $400 of the student fee goes towards auxiliary services including the arena, more people in that arena could help offset the cost of that fee. Here's the chart:

http://studentaccounts.gmu.edu/wp-content/uploads/AuxiliaryStudentFee.pdf

 

[Falco]

Mason has always been friendly to international students, and that isn't going to change. One thing has nothing to do with the other IMO.



Mason has a lot of different students including those who pay their own way and work full time and don't get involved much in campus. I think a lot of students would not be happy about fees going up since many students already think tuition is high enough. Point being, student fees aren't going to go up for the sake of athletics or anything at this juncture.

I understand a few would be disappointed. However, everyone knows college is expensive. an additional $50 a year isn't going to make a big difference to the individual but will do a whole lot of good to the whole community.

 

[Five Two]

I would wager that a consistently strong bball program would do far more for university recruiting than whatever they are spending money on right now for advertising.

I don't think you need to place a wager on this. We are the case study (see 2006) for basketball being the best form of advertising.

 

[MasonSAE4]

I don't think you need to place a wager on this. We are the case study (see 2006) for basketball being the best form of advertising.

That's true, but I can't make an apples to apples comparison without knowing how admissions spends its money/how much we spend on advertising. Hard to quantify the effect of a practice facility. Would a million dollars towards that eventually be a better investment than a million on advertising? My guess is yes but there's no real way of knowing. All the ff did was prove that applications would spike with success.

My point is that you can look at that student fee in multiple ways. You could wait for debt payments at the school to come down from the construction boom, and that would free up some money, provided you choose to keep the fee steady and not lower it. You could front load the cost of renovating the cage into the student fee and wager that in the long run it will put more people in the arena and lower the student fee when EBA is more self-sufficient. It's all a gamble.

 

[Falco]

I don't think you need to place a wager on this. We are the case study (see 2006) for basketball being the best form of advertising.

Antidotal evidence. Look at Mason pre final 4 and post final 4. Admissions sky rocket when your major athletic teams are elite.

 

[Falco]

I've seen minor changes but nothing major. Our basketball facilities are outdated. Fundraising is slower then expected. Attendance at basketball games is down.

He gave an extension to a coach with a losing season, and who was down at the half to a d3 program. Everyone keeps saying next year is the year. But its going to be real tough to replace Jenkins and Moore.
I have faith in Paulsen but I don't understand the extension after a losing season. Promotions are earned.

I am glad to see TOC gone, and I am not saying Edwards is doing a bad job. I just want to see more at this point. If the program doesn't receive an auto bid in 3 years then its time to move on.

 

[mkaufman1]

I've seen minor changes but nothing major. Our basketball facilities are outdated. Fundraising is slower then expected. Attendance at basketball games is down.

He gave an extension to a coach with a losing season, and who was down at the half to a d3 program. Everyone keeps saying next year is the year. But its going to be real tough to replace Jenkins and Moore.
I have faith in Paulsen but I don't understand the extension after a losing season. Promotions are earned.

I am glad to see TOC gone, and I am not saying Edwards is doing a bad job. I just want to see more at this point. If the program doesn't receive an auto bid in 3 years then its time to move on.

Things don't happen overnight. Paulsen has to essentially rebuild a program and culture from scratch. Facilities don't get built overnight and aren't free. Edwards is already working on the practice facility and doing what he can to get more money into all sports. The fact you are commenting that the team (that is probably one of the youngest in the nation with 11 of 13 players being underclassmen) was down at the half but not giving them props for actually being able to turn the game around and blow out the D3 team is crazy. Also, Paulsen got an extension based on his outstanding work with what he was given in his first year, which was basically a bare bones team that lacked culture and accountability on and off the court. He also had to play freshmen over 30 minutes a game because the team had no depth at all.

An auto bid in 3 years? Mason joined the A-10 so they could potentially qualify for the NCAA tournament without needing an auto bid.

Trust the process and let Edwards and Paulsen do their work.

 

[GMUSig03]

Antidotal evidence. Look at Mason pre final 4 and post final 4. Admissions sky rocket when your major athletic teams are elite.

Do you have something against Dotals?

 

[Falco]

Things don't happen overnight. Paulsen has to essentially rebuild a program and culture from scratch. Facilities don't get built overnight and aren't free. Edwards is already working on the practice facility and doing what he can to get more money into all sports. The fact you are commenting that the team (that is probably one of the youngest in the nation with 11 of 13 players being underclassmen) was down at the half but not giving them props for actually being able to turn the game around and blow out the D3 team is crazy. Also, Paulsen got an extension based on his outstanding work with what he was given in his first year, which was basically a bare bones team that lacked culture and accountability on and off the court. He also had to play freshmen over 30 minutes a game because the team had no depth at all.

An auto bid in 3 years? Mason joined the A-10 so they could potentially qualify for the NCAA tournament without needing an auto bid.

Trust the process and let Edwards and Paulsen do their work.

I agree with you for the most part. But Paulsen had talent to work with last year. We had a fringe NBA player on the roster. And you are correct in saying facilities don't get built overnight, but I thought they would have started construction by now.

I don't know how to articulate my thoughts. I think Edwards and Paulsen can be excellent contributions to the Mason community. I still have faith. But now we are two years in and they no longer receive a free pass. Its time to start seeing drastic change.

And yes I meant to say an At-Large Bid. In my opinion the expectation should be an At-Large-Bid within three years. Anything shy of making the tournament next years warrants a reevaluation of the program

 

[mkaufman1]

I agree with you for the most part. But Paulsen had talent to work with last year. We had a fringe NBA player on the roster. And you are correct in saying facilities don't get built overnight, but I thought they would have started construction by now.

I don't know how to articulate my thoughts. I think Edwards and Paulsen can be excellent contributions to the Mason community. I still have faith. But now we are two years in and they no longer receive a free pass. Its time to start seeing drastic change.

And yes I meant to say an At-Large Bid. In my opinion the expectation should be an At-Large-Bid within three years. Anything shy of making the tournament next years warrants a reevaluation of the program

1) Mason did NOT have a lot of developed talent on the roster last year other than Shevon. The team lost Jackson Lockett Mayimba (well he never was available) Porter preseason, Holloway quit midseason, Marko was suspended for 4 games in the middle. Paulsen was forced to play several freshmen at 30+ minutes a night that he basically recruited in 4 months and had very little depth available as well. He then had to deal with Moore having an ankle injury in the middle of it. Freshmen are not going to play to a high level unless you recruit all americans. The fact he got 11 wins out of what he had last year is a miracle, he barely had a team. Joe Shannon basically summed up the 11 win season perfectly on here and that it was a miracle they won 11 games.

2) Edwards stated in his letter to season ticket holders they need 1.5 million to start construction. No clue where they are at, but until the money comes in, nothing will start.

You are going to have to be a little bit more patient with Edwards and Paulsen. They inherited a mess of a program and have to start from scratch. Next year should be a significant improvement continuing into year 4. Its too early at this point to fully evaluate them. Trust the process.

 

[Falco]

1) Mason did NOT have a lot of developed talent on the roster last year other than Shevon. The team lost Jackson Lockett Mayimba (well he never was available) Porter preseason, Holloway quit midseason, Marko was suspended for 4 games in the middle. Paulsen was forced to play several freshmen at 30+ minutes a night that he basically recruited in 4 months and had very little depth available as well. He then had to deal with Moore having an ankle injury in the middle of it. Freshmen are not going to play to a high level unless you recruit all americans. The fact he got 11 wins out of what he had last year is a miracle, he barely had a team. Joe Shannon basically summed up the 11 win season perfectly on here and that it was a miracle they won 11 games.

2) Edwards stated in his letter to season ticket holders they need 1.5 million to start construction. No clue where they are at, but until the money comes in, nothing will start.

You are going to have to be a little bit more patient with Edwards and Paulsen. They inherited a mess of a program and have to start from scratch. Next year should be a significant improvement continuing into year 4. Its too early at this point to fully evaluate them. Trust the process.

Well just keep being patient until its too late. People told me to be patient with Hewitt too.

As for the 1.5 million, that's on the AD to fundraise. He needs to do a better job. I don't understand why the Mason community is so complacent.

 

[Petey Buckets]

I agree with you for the most part. But Paulsen had talent to work with last year. We had a fringe NBA player on the roster.

I don't mean to pick on you specifically, but we need to purge the idea that Shevon was almost an NBA player from the boards. He didn't even make a Summer League team and only got one tryout. I'll always appreciate how he represented us well in our darkest hour, but ultimately he was a very limited player that probably wasn't as good as we all thought he was.

 

[Vurbel]

I don't mean to pick on you specifically, but we need to purge the idea that Shevon was almost an NBA player from the boards. He didn't even make a Summer League team and only got one tryout. I'll always appreciate how he represented us well in our darkest hour, but ultimately he was a very limited player that probably wasn't as good as we all thought he was.

Let me take the side of pessimist: He was a decent defender against non-elite competition (Duquesne isn't Kansas). He was a very good rebounder, but again, against non-elite competition. More often than not he was a liability on offense. When he played NBA competition he couldn't cut it. That's not a bad thing, very few do, and he got further than most, which he should be commended for. But lets be real, he wasn't the next coming of David Robinson.

 

[mkaufman1]

Well just keep being patient until its too late. People told me to be patient with Hewitt too.

As for the 1.5 million, that's on the AD to fundraise. He needs to do a better job. I don't understand why the Mason community is so complacent.

There is a huge difference between being patient with what Hewitt was doing and what Paulsen was doing. Hewitt inherited talented and a program that had success. Paulsen inherited crap and is trying to build it back up. I'm sorry you see it as essentially equivalent but its far from the same.

If you can't be patient or have more gripes, you might want to reach out to someone in the AD. If that doesn't suit you, there's plenty of BCS schools who might do things right in your eyes that you can root for.

 

[Herndon]

Antidotal evidence. Look at Mason pre final 4 and post final 4. Admissions sky rocket when your major athletic teams are elite.

.......there's a lot going on here. He was agreeing with you, for starters.

 

[Falco]

I don't mean to pick on you specifically, but we need to purge the idea that Shevon was almost an NBA player from the boards. He didn't even make a Summer League team and only got one tryout. I'll always appreciate how he represented us well in our darkest hour, but ultimately he was a very limited player that probably wasn't as good as we all thought he was.

Fair point.

 

[Falco]

There is a huge difference between being patient with what Hewitt was doing and what Paulsen was doing. Hewitt inherited talented and a program that had success. Paulsen inherited crap and is trying to build it back up. I'm sorry you see it as essentially equivalent but its far from the same.

If you can't be patient or have more gripes, you might want to reach out to someone in the AD. If that doesn't suit you, there's plenty of BCS schools who might do things right in your eyes that you can root for.

You're just a homer.