A-10 Previews

[GMUgemini]

If it is truly this simple why is it so hard for Paulsen?

I mean, it's not that simple, but we have won close games having 5 guards on the floor before in the inbound/foul close game situations. Switch out a guard for a big after the first FT for defense/rebounding. I mean, that part isn't difficult.

His best season (i.e. highest win total) was with Calixte and AJ at the 5 and Mar at the 4 (I mean literally that was our entire frontcourt roster). And that team was exposed on the inside because for half the season we had Grayer/Kier at the 4 and Mar was just a freshman (and playing the 5). I think our corps of forwards will be pretty good defensively this year.

The better questions to ask are, where will our shooting come from? Will we be able to stop dribble drive penetration from the perimeter? Will we limit unforced turnovers?

The team got better at the second question as the season wore on because Paulsen switched up the defense, the problem was it exposed the exterior. So I guess a fourth question is, what will our base defense look like and will we rotate out to shooters fast enough?

But, hey, Mike Moe also went from 39% FT shooting his junior year to 55% FT shooting his senior season. If Calixte can even get to 50/50, that will make this team a lot stronger. I'm sure he's working on it.

One concern I think the preview nails is Mar does not fight very well for rebounds on the inside. If he's going to be the starting four, that could be an issue, especially in close games where second and third chance points have killed this team before. It's something to watch for in the early season how that's going to be handled.

 

[sleeperpick]

I mean, it's not that simple, but we have won close games having 5 guards on the floor before in the inbound/foul close game situations. Switch out a guard for a big after the first FT for defense/rebounding. I mean, that part isn't difficult.

His best season (i.e. highest win total) was with Calixte and AJ at the 5 and Mar at the 4 (I mean literally that was our entire frontcourt roster). And that team was exposed on the inside because for half the season we had Grayer/Kier at the 4 and Mar was just a freshman (and playing the 5). I think our corps of forwards will be pretty good defensively this year.

The better questions to ask are, where will our shooting come from? Will we be able to stop dribble drive penetration from the perimeter? Will we limit unforced turnovers?

The team got better at the second question as the season wore on because Paulsen switched up the defense, the problem was it exposed the exterior. So I guess a fourth question is, what will our base defense look like and will we rotate out to shooters fast enough?

But, hey, Mike Moe also went from 39% FT shooting his junior year to 55% FT shooting his senior season. If Calixte can even get to 50/50, that will make this team a lot stronger. I'm sure he's working on it.

One concern I think the preview nails is Mar does not fight very well for rebounds on the inside. If he's going to be the starting four, that could be an issue, especially in close games where second and third chance points have killed this team before. It's something to watch for in the early season how that's going to be handled.

he went 16-17 in the year you are claiming was his best year and saying that should make us feel good about the lack of big men?! HUH?

Stop comparing Mike Moe to Calixte... only comparison is neither can shoot free throws. two completely different players. I like both but they are not in the same genre. you should give the comparison a rest.

This team screams .500 not because of talent but because of roster management combined with poor strategy. you will see. If Oduro needs 5-10 mins a game we are gonna be in for a long season. Roster management while all heathy is sketchy.. Imagine how screwed we are if Calixte, Aj, Jordan Miller or Mar misses any significant time...

 

[GMU1983]

Also love Calixte but he only a threat under the basket! No mid range jumper

 

[GMUgemini]

Also love Calixte but he only a threat under the basket! No mid range jumper

He’s been working on his mid-range game this offseason too!

Look, sleeper, I get it. If Calixte gets hurt, we are screwed. I’ve already said that.

All I’m saying is, is that at full strength, size and interior defense wont be this teams biggest concern. I really don’t understand why you’re fighting me about that.

 

[By George.]

The 18 year old Davidson kid who wrote this list and the paragraphs for each player should be stoned to death... (not really talking about our player rankings as much as some of the others)

Grant turns 21 soon, haha. He pretty much runs A10Talk, co-hosts HEY10 and knows a ton about the conference. Man should be praised for just doing a top 100, must have gotten boring as hell.

 

[Quentin Daniels]

Mike Moe shot 39.4% his junior year (I do believe we had the longest winning streak in the country that season). Moe was more athletic than Calixte is now, but that’s what he was, a strong defender, a good rebounder, and an awful FT shooter (his shot looked about as dire as Calixte’s did last year).

If we have to, we put our five best FT shooters on the floor at the same time and do offense-defense substitutions.

Caveat this w/Morrison was 48.5% the year before and 55% the year after. If I had to guess, I'd say this was probably impacted by his role changing on the offensive side from playing down low to the high post which opened things up for Ryan Pearson.

That 2010-11 team was money. If Larranaga doesn't leave for Miami and Hancock sticks around.....what could have been.

 

[GMUgemini]

Caveat this w/Morrison was 48.5% the year before and 55% the year after. If I had to guess, I'd say this was probably impacted by his role changing on the offensive side from playing down low to the high post which opened things up for Ryan Pearson.

That 2010-11 team was money. If Larranaga doesn't leave for Miami and Hancock sticks around.....what could have been.

Changing his role won’t change his FT shooting mechanics (he did have a dip in total ppg and being in the high post is definitely why). If I remember, they broke his motion that year in an attempt to fix it. He would hold the ball way out in front of his face and kind shot put it at the rim. He also had a really weird stance. Calixte’s motion was similar last year but with a hesitation, a little hitch, that made it even worse. Hopefully they’ve been working to fix it (it can’t really get any worse).

 

[Quentin Daniels]

Changing his role won’t change his FT shooting mechanics (he did have a dip in total ppg and being in the high post is definitely why). If I remember, they broke his motion that year in an attempt to fix it. He would hold the ball way out in front of his face and kind shot put it at the rim. He also had a really weird stance. Calixte’s motion was similar last year but with a hesitation, a little hitch, that made it even worse. Hopefully they’ve been working to fix it (it can’t really get any worse).

That's true. Fair point.

 

[GMUgemini]

I think our defense will be better next year provided our guards can stay in front of their guys.

For me, it’s are we going to be able to score against the better teams? We really struggled against vcu, St. Louis, Davidson, K-State, and Baylor specifically (and later St. Bonaventure in the second half of the season) and that cost us at least 3 potential wins. And then there are the matter of the turnovers.

 

[GMUgemini]

It’s almost October, guys, almost the time when we get to stop speculating and start arguing over what our eyes see or don’t see!

 

[Mason32]

It’s almost October, guys, almost the time when we get to stop speculating and start arguing over what our eyes see or don’t see!

Hasn't that been done already with the annual AJ hype?

 

[GMUgemini]

Hasn't that been done already with the annual AJ hype?

You mean with the Kenner highlight reels? I throw Kenner league play into the speculation category, becuase how that translates into actual games is “speculation.”

 

[sleeperpick]

You mean with the Kenner highlight reels? I throw Kenner league play into the speculation category, becuase how that translates into actual games is “speculation.”

funny you throw actual basketball into speculation but not the whispers you hear in your head about how good our team will be.

 

[GMUgemini]

A, I call that speculation too. B, is it will be or could be? Your binary brain is showing there. You are the only person on here who takes a question like can we score against a good defense and says “you know that person thinks we’re going to be a top 25 teams next year.”

 

[sleeperpick]

A, I call that speculation too. B, is it will be or could be? Your binary brain is showing there. You are the only person on here who takes a question like can we score against a good defense and says “you know that person thinks we’re going to be a top 25 teams next year.”

I have no idea what you are talking about. par for the course though

 

[GMUgemini]

I have no idea what you are talking about. par for the course though

You have no idea about what? Why you have a binary thinking brain. why you can’t see nuance in a speculative argument? Or can you literally not see the part in my post that says my main concern is our ability to score against better teams?

 

[sleeperpick]

You have no idea about what? Why you have a binary thinking brain. why you can’t see nuance in a speculative argument? Or can you literally not see the part in my post that says my main concern is our ability to score against better teams?

only post I commented on was your minor disses to AJ per usual about his dominance of Kenner League. You talk in circles. You also said Paulsen's best year at Mason was when he went 16-17 with no big men and how we need to duplicate that. pure silliness that was. no idea why you are bringing up not being able to score against better teams. I think that is pretty obvious to most people.

 

[allhailme]

This discussion sucks.

 

[GMUgemini]

only post I commented on was your minor disses to AJ per usual about his dominance of Kenner League. You talk in circles. You also said Paulsen's best year at Mason was when he went 16-17 with no big men and how we need to duplicate that. pure silliness that was. no idea why you are bringing up not being able to score against better teams. I think that is pretty obvious to most people.

It wasn’t a diss at AJ, but just said it is speculation that his Kenner League play will translate into real game situations.

As for two seasons ago, we won some pretty big games in conference play using Calixte and Mar in the post (including a game at vcu and a spanking of Dayton at home). No one is saying we want to have no options at the 5 again, the whole point in saying that was to refute the claim in the preview that interior defense is a big question mark. I don’t think it will be (it’s speculation so if I’m wrong, I’m wrong). Are we going to have a potent post offense? Probably not (again, I could be wrong).

I will say I got our win total that year wrong in my head when I made that post, but the team played their butts off in the second half of that year, finally beat GW, beat vcu on the road, slammed Dayton at home, beat St. Joes twice in spectacular fashion and played some really scrappy defense along the way even with only one real forward on the team. We’ve got Calixte, AJ, and Oduro who can play the 5, and Mar, AJ and even Miller who can play the 4. We aren’t in the same boat as two seasons ago.

Now if Oduro is as bad as you say he is and Paulsen stubbornly uses him as much as he used Reuter, our defense will probably look a lot worse, but who knows how much he’ll see the court, and what he’ll look like when he’s out there?

And finally, I’ve said all summer, a projected finish of 7th seems fair to me (9th seems a bit low, but Richmond’s talent does look enticing for them to finish ahead of us, so maybe 8th as a floor if Mooney can string that team together), but if we improve as much as we can we can finish maybe as high as 4th. Is 4th-7th/8th optimistic? Maybe, but it’s not like I’m projecting this team to run away with the conference.

Fair?

 

[sleeperpick]

It wasn’t a diss at AJ, but just said it is speculation that his Kenner League play will translate into real game situations.

As for two seasons ago, we won some pretty big games in conference play using Calixte and Mar in the post (including a game at vcu and a spanking of Dayton at home). No one is saying we want to have no options at the 5 again, the whole point in saying that was to refute the claim in the preview that interior defense is a big question mark. I don’t think it will be (it’s speculation so if I’m wrong, I’m wrong). Are we going to have a potent post offense? Probably not (again, I could be wrong).

I will say I got our win total that year wrong in my head when I made that post, but the team played their butts off in the second half of that year, finally beat GW, beat vcu on the road, slammed Dayton at home, beat St. Joes twice in spectacular fashion and played some really scrappy defense along the way even with only one real forward on the team. We’ve got Calixte, AJ, and Oduro who can play the 5, and Mar, AJ and even Miller who can play the 4. We aren’t in the same boat as two seasons ago.

Now if Oduro is as bad as you say he is and Paulsen stubbornly uses him as much as he used Reuter, our defense will probably look a lot worse, but who knows how much he’ll see the court, and what he’ll look like when he’s out there?

And finally, I’ve said all summer, a projected finish of 7th seems fair to me (9th seems a bit low, but Richmond’s talent does look enticing for them to finish ahead of us, so maybe 8th as a floor if Mooney can string that team together), but if we improve as much as we can we can finish maybe as high as 4th. Is 4th-7th/8th optimistic? Maybe, but it’s not like I’m projecting this team to run away with the conference.

Fair?

Completely fair. I am as big of an AJ fan as there is on here. He cannot play the 5. That is my existential issue with Paulsen's recruiting. Best athlete Mason has seen since I have been a fan (maybe Mike Mo?) and he is stuck playing out of position set to fail for the 3rd straight year. No comment anymore on Oduro as I agree with people on here we need to be supportive... But AJ will need to play a lot of mins at the 5 if Calixte gets tired or foul trouble or god forbid injured... Teams in our conference got a play one 6 foot 10 transfer that can spell minutes.. why does Paulsen go into each season with 1 capable center??!?

I think we are 8th or 9th I think people are seriously undervaluing Duquesne, Lasalle and Richmond and I think each of them are >= Mason and that is the second or 3rd tier of the A10 this year.

Fair?