Valid point, Chris!
299 Days of English
- Thread starter Pikapppatri8
- Start date
OP
- Thread Starter
- #42
Who the f**k is Chris?
By George.
Starter
This really doesn’t happen much, we have a good pulse on the Mason Twitter world and for the most part we’re all fluffy pillows. Nobody really tweets at players negatively, a couple times people have questioned plays here or there but haven’t really seen fans target players much if at all.
I'd prefer for both of them to stay, at least for now for a few reasons. One, with Miller and Kolek gone we are short on shooters, and Hartwell is nothing if not a shooter. If your starting five is, in fact, going to be Polite, Cooper, Schwartz, Gaines, Oduro. This is your bench:
XJ, Hartwell, Gray, Henry, Mbaye, Jones, Frazier, Gadsden
That's four freshman who haven't played, Frazier and Henry who played limited minutes last year, and then XJ and Hartwell. If Hartwell winds up being our 7th or 8th player (maybe Frazier is our 6th man, Henry, Mbaye, or Jones is our 7th) I'd be fine with it. If he gets beat out for playing time by the freshman, I'd also be fine with that.
XJ might beat out Polite for the starting PG spot. IF his inexplicable dropoff had to do with some lingering knee issues, maybe being healthy we get the XJ we thought we were going to get last year after a pretty damn good freshman season. We just don't know right now. If he gets beat out for playing time by Gray and Polite, so be it.
I'm not going to lie, I'm kind of hoping that Mbaye or Jones comes in flying and takes that 4 spot and we get something like: Polite, Cooper, Schwartz, Mbaye/Jones, Oduro. Gaines as your 6th man and defensive specialist; Hartwell or Gray as your shooter off the bench; Henry as primary backup to Oduro. To me, that's your best case scenario for rotation.
I don’t hate that. I personally think that Gaines is going to flourish here and surprise us and crack the starting rotation (still can’t figure out who’s spot he takes though) but that’s not a terrible 8 deep lineup. I would be happy if that’s what we rolled out, depending on how we allocate the minutes.
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From Tony Bennett's staff? Can't be a bad thing.
Yes, that is true. I guess sometimes in our fandom's desire to win, we do forget that these are kids whose lives are being affected.
I appreciate what you said.
We’ve had teams full of people who wanted to be here over the past 10 years and haven’t won squat. I’m not insensitive to the impact of recruiting over guys who have done the right things and aren’t looking to leave, but this isn’t intramurals — and an argument could be made that it’s to the benefit of both sides if players find a program in which they can contribute instead of being glued to the bench.
Pablo
Hall of Famer
IMO, Mason is fortunate in having a player like Hartwell on the team. And, if he stays for the 2022-23 season, he won't count against Mason's scholarship limit and will be just the second Paulsen recruit to complete his eligibility at Mason.
Why?
Pablo
Hall of Famer
He checks all of the boxes IMO: character, leadership, hard worker, and most importantly - he's one year away from earning his degree here.
Not looking to start a fight or offend anyone, but unless you are either close to Jamal personally or a program insider, these are things you’re assuming.
Exactly. Everything I have heard is Hartwell is one of the hardest working guys on the team. You NEED guys like that on your team to push others around them to get better everyday.
Pablo
Hall of Famer
I am clueless on why you or any other Mason fan would object to my praise for Hartwell. So, let's agree to disagree.
Not objecting, just curious how is it you’ve come to know his character, leadership abilities, work ethic and academic standing. If you are related to Jamal please know I mean no offense toward him personally.
What are Hartwell’s knocks? He’s undersized. Shot selection isn’t the best and he’s not a great defender?
Our entire guard core has been underwhelming defensively. I think a lot of that had to do with our scheme. Let’s see if what happens next season before we start chucking some of these players overboard.
As for shot selection, that can be mitigated and or get better. He’s a shooter for sure. He’s not going to be able to necessarily create his own shot, but with better off ball movement, better use of screens, and ball movement we can get him open in good spots and his numbers can go up (he shot better than 36% from 3 last season, which is nothing to sneeze at).
XJ, I don’t know. Again, we will have to see with him. But he was explosive as a freshman and strong. And a lot of us were pretty high on him going into last season and then he fell on his face. A lot of reasons there could be for that.
The other holdovers (Frazier and Henry) everyone seems to like, or at least hopeful for.
And then there are the incoming freshmen DP recruits (Gray, Gadsden) we just don’t know anything about really other than Gray has a history of injury and Gadsden looked a little like Miller in the highlights and is known for his defense.
If it’s true that Hartwell won’t count against our scholarship limit after this season. Even better.
Our entire guard core has been underwhelming defensively. I think a lot of that had to do with our scheme. Let’s see if what happens next season before we start chucking some of these players overboard.
As for shot selection, that can be mitigated and or get better. He’s a shooter for sure. He’s not going to be able to necessarily create his own shot, but with better off ball movement, better use of screens, and ball movement we can get him open in good spots and his numbers can go up (he shot better than 36% from 3 last season, which is nothing to sneeze at).
XJ, I don’t know. Again, we will have to see with him. But he was explosive as a freshman and strong. And a lot of us were pretty high on him going into last season and then he fell on his face. A lot of reasons there could be for that.
The other holdovers (Frazier and Henry) everyone seems to like, or at least hopeful for.
And then there are the incoming freshmen DP recruits (Gray, Gadsden) we just don’t know anything about really other than Gray has a history of injury and Gadsden looked a little like Miller in the highlights and is known for his defense.
If it’s true that Hartwell won’t count against our scholarship limit after this season. Even better.
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