A-10 Previews

[gmujim92]

I’ve wanted to not say this but it’s unreal how overrated Ian Boyd is to this program. Super pumped on his buzzer beaters but If he is your stud 6th man are you that competitive to begin with? Very unpopular opinion I know

He was shooting 40+% from 3 last year before he hurt his wrist. Think we might be able to use a guy like that?

 

[sleeperpick]

He was shooting 40+% from 3 last year before he hurt his wrist. Think we might be able to use a guy like that?

Of course as a nice 3 and d option 4th off the bench of a good team. See Jim I don’t think he is a bad player but he’s not the missing piece to this clusterf**k of a roster. We need him as a bench piece but he’s not this major lost that doomed the season.

 

[gmujim92]

Yes but if any of their starters go down, they are screwed. Had they lost Osun for the entire year, they’d be cooked. Same would be true if they lost Lofton.

But they do have a legit starting 5 and we don’t.

I feel like we're in the same boat as Davidson, losing a starter and their likely 6th man. Their top line is better than ours, so they have more conference wins, but they are way underperforming expectations missing Frampton and Pritchett.

Only on this board could one of our own fans compare our best player to a decent role player in another team. I assume you typed your last post with a straight face. FFS.

 

[gmujim92]

Of course as a nice 3 and d option 4th off the bench of a good team. See Jim I don’t think he is a bad player but he’s not the missing piece to this clusterf*ck of a roster. We need him as a bench piece but he’s not this major lost that doomed the season.

And you accuse me of confusing my opinion for fact?

 

[sleeperpick]

A healthy Ian Boyd and Justin kier makes us middle pack A-10. We would have 2-3 more wins than now. Still not top 5 by any stretch of imagination. You’ll say I’m wrong and I’ll point to the plethora of hate you gave me at start of season and before it even started for me saying we aren’t good. Could have seen being average from a country mile away

 

[sleeperpick]

And you accuse me of confusing my opinion for fact?

“Sleeperpick you don’t know Jack because pre season ken Pom means nothing” Jim

me: we are much worse than the bad I predicted.

Jim: our strength of schedule will get up to high 100s

me: we are mid 300s like I said and you called me stupid.

Jim: we didn’t play a soft non conference we are that good. You are such a hater you should never ever go to a. Game again

me: Jim this team is not good

 

[sleeperpick]

Only on this board could one of our own fans compare our best player to a decent role player in another team. I assume you typed your last post with a straight face. FFS.

True about kier

but frampton and pritchard>>>>>>>>>> Boyd

 

[GMUgemini]

Of course as a nice 3 and d option 4th off the bench of a good team. See Jim I don’t think he is a bad player but he’s not the missing piece to this clusterf*ck of a roster. We need him as a bench piece but he’s not this major lost that doomed the season.

I mean, isn't being a 6th man the definition of a bench player? Outside of XJ (and now Hartwell) there isn't a single bench player on this roster you'd ask to score even a single basket, let alone take a meaningful shot at the end of a game. I wouldn't predict how many more wins this team would have had Boyd and Kier been healthy, because it's an entirely different team.

Jim, I'm not comparing player for player, I'm comparing relative use. Frampton played 31 mpg last season and took 266 3pt shots -- that's a huge volume of Davidson's 3s -- 298 total shots (which is about how many Kier took his sophomore season). Filling his void has been a struggle. You add to that also losing Pritchett on the season, and what everyone considered a very good team (Davidson was picked to finish 2nd) will be lucky to finish better than 8th.

 

[sleeperpick]

I mean, isn't being a 6th man the definition of a bench player? Outside of XJ (and now Hartwell) there isn't a single bench player on this roster you'd ask to score even a single basket, let alone take a meaningful shot at the end of a game. I wouldn't predict how many more wins this team would have had Boyd and Kier been healthy, because it's an entirely different team.

Jim, I'm not comparing player for player, I'm comparing relative use. Frampton played 31 mpg last season and took 266 3pt shots -- that's a huge volume of Davidson's 3s -- 298 total shots (which is about how many Kier took his sophomore season). Filling his void has been a struggle. Davidson was picked to finish 2nd and they won't come close (will be lucky to finish better than 8th).

Not at all to your question towards me. Big difference between 6th man and 8th man to most teams. Boyd isn’t a 6th man on a top tier A-10 team.

 

[GMUgemini]

Not at all to your question towards me. Big difference between 6th man and 8th man to most teams. Boyd isn’t a 6th man on a top tier A-10 team.

He'd probably be the seventh man on a completely healthy Mason team -- word was Miller was coming off the bench in practice before Kier's injury -- even if Miller started, Greene is probably ahead of Boyd on any guard rotation. Outside of Dayton and vcu, I bet he's the 7th option on every single team in the A-10.

 

[sleeperpick]

He'd probably be the seventh man on a completely healthy Mason team -- word was Miller was coming off the bench in practice before Kier's injury -- even if Miller started, Greene is probably ahead of Boyd on any guard rotation. Outside of Dayton and vcu, I bet he's the 7th option on every single team in the A-10.

Not a healthy St. Louis or Duquesne either off the top of my head. I also would say Richmond but that would get me hammered on here. Definitely better than Fordham lasalle st joes or umass but that’s not saying much. Bona also only 5 good players so definitely there as well.

 

[GMUgemini]

Given your estimation of Paulsen’s coaching ability, how confident are you that your estimation of Boyd’s ability is the correct one? Even still you’ve named at best 4 teams who would play him fewer minutes than he would be getting here.

 

[sleeperpick]

Given your estimation of Paulsen’s coaching ability, how confident are you that your estimation of Boyd’s ability is the correct one? Even still you’ve named at best 4 teams who would play him fewer minutes than he would be getting here.

There’s how many teams in this league and how many are absolutely horrible? Think about it. GW, Mason, lasalle, Fordham, umass, st joes and lasalle are awful. If you take pride in having a better roster than 2 teams with first year coaches, one with a second year coach, and 2 other horrible teams that their coaches will be fired soon I don’t know what to tell you. On teams better than us only Bona would play Boyd solid minutes off the bench. To me that case is pretty damn easy to see. Can’t prove that to an absolute degree but watch a St. Louis, Dayton, vcu , Duquesne, Richmond and even Davidson team fully healthy and tell me Ian Boyd is a 6th or 7th man on those teams. He’s not. We focus too much as a fan base on the shitty teams that we are better than. Loser and complacent attitude all around

 

[sleeperpick]

Sad roster with 3 injured (1 unknown if they could even play d1 basketball). 2 guys (mar and jds) who should be limited to 1 minute each per game, calixte and Oduro who if morphed together would make a quality A-10 player (unfortunately science hasn’t made that possible yet) Miller who has spirits of being really good, Hartwell who is decent, XJ who is good but needs time, and two bonafide A-10 starters in AJ and Javon.
This is not a well put together roster just isn’t.

 

[KAOriginal]

Remember Reuter was supposed to be a SR this year. If he had been 100% and everybody else was healthy...I can see why Paulsen saw a bright future and this would have been "the year."

But man..the injury/health bug has just killed us.

 

[GMUgemini]

Remember Reuter was supposed to be a SR this year. If he had been 100% and everybody else was healthy...I can see why Paulsen saw a bright future and this would have been "the year."

But man..the injury/health bug has just killed us.

Yes, if whatever was physically wrong with Reuter was fixable. From an basketball IQ perspective, he provided from that spot exactly what this team needed, but he was just incapable of physically keeping up and was more of a liability than anything else (couldn’t secure rebounds, couldn’t get any lift and got way too many layups blocked at the rim).

Even without that fantasy lineup and you go on the assumption that we have two legit starters, AJ and Javon, Kier gives you three and once you have that critical mass, I bet Miller looks a lot better when defenses have to deal with both Javon and Kier as 1 and 2a scoring options from the wing. Hartwell and XJ and Boyd off the bench as 6-8 in whatever order you want to put them also looks a lot better. We still have the problem at the 5, but at least Oduro has looked a lot better than sleeper said he would, so there is that.

Is it a top 4 team this year without a legit big? Nope. But it’s a lot scrappier and probably takes a few games they shouldn’t win this year if everyone stayed healthy and locked in.

 

[sleeperpick]

Yes, if whatever was physically wrong with Reuter was fixable. From an basketball IQ perspective, he provided from that spot exactly what this team needed, but he was just incapable of physically keeping up and was more of a liability than anything else (couldn’t secure rebounds, couldn’t get any lift and got way too many layups blocked at the rim).

Even without that fantasy lineup and you go on the assumption that we have two legit starters, AJ and Javon, Kier gives you three and once you have that critical mass, I bet Miller looks a lot better when defenses have to deal with both Javon and Kier as 1 and 2a scoring options from the wing. Hartwell and XJ and Boyd off the bench as 6-8 in whatever order you want to put them also looks a lot better. We still have the problem at the 5, but at least Oduro has looked a lot better than sleeper said he would, so there is that.

Is it a top 4 team this year without a legit big? Nope. But it’s a lot scrappier and probably takes a few games they shouldn’t win this year if everyone stayed healthy and locked in.

LOL a lot better. can't guard a soul, can barely jump and has a decent mid range game. give me Chase Paar 10/10 times.

 

[GMUgemini]

LOL a lot better. can't guard a soul, can barely jump and has a decent mid range game. give me Chase Paar 10/10 times.

Why would you want Chase Paar? He’s not helping this team or ever sniffing 1st team A10.

Yeah he’s a lot better. You said you could go into the RAC and find 10 students better than Oduro playing on any day.

 

[gmubrian]

https://www.blackburnreview.com/2020/02/04/thats-enough-fordham/:

"This article from the NY Post in 2015 is one of the best ever written about Fordham basketball. It states simply this: Fordham was precisely where they belonged in the MAAC in the early 90’s, and the powers that be played themselves out of the perfect situation, and should be blamed for the state of the program today. When the opportunity was there to move back to the MAAC from the Patriot, they came here, to the A10, and 25 years later (five years after this article was written) the decision is still the wrong one.

So that brings us to present day, and the current coach, Jeff Neubauer, who is currently in the midst of his fifth season. After winning 15 games in the A10 in his first two years and finishing a respectable 8th in the conference, the Rams are back in the comfortable basement where all their furniture resides: winners of 7 conference games over the past two seasons, and destined for a last place finish if St. Joe’s wasn’t in the midst of a total rebuild.

When Neubauer took the job in 2015, he naturally said all the right things. He talked the talk, downplayed the obvious challenges Fordham has at recruiting and (more importantly) keeping talent on campus. He mentioned he wanted to install a defensive mentality at Fordham, which he has, but that doesn’t mean much when his last four teams couldn’t manage to score more than 66 points per game. And so here we are again, 7-14 overall, 1-8 in the A10, destined for the same crash course that countless other Fordham teams have faced since joining this league 25 years ago. He also dismissed talk in 2015 that Fordham was considering moving conferences:

"So whether you want to blame the tiny gym they play in, the competitive recruiting landscape of NYC, the decades of mismanagement by the athletic department, or the transfer market for making it easier to escape this hell than ever before, one thing is for sure:

Fordham doesn’t belong here anymore, and quite possibly never did. Twenty five years is a long enough time to see that not only will the A10 be in a better place without Fordham, Fordham will be in a better place without the A10."

I just got around to reading this. Holy cr@p if that doesn’t read eerily like our situation in many ways that it is scary looking towards our future in the A10. There are some differences, like our facilities seem better even though they are spending more (no one seems to know where, though), but I see at least as many similarities with Fordham if not being very close to our situation.

Some items that ring similar about situation when initially joining:

• Jumped to A10 when they were acquiring teams to fend off becoming less relevant due to departures
• Leaving a conference where we were pretty darn successful
• Moved to A10 when the at the time administration didn’t value athletics enough
• AD that said stupid and contradictory things

Looking at our present situation and their history:

• Track record of coaches coming in and showing a flash of hope and falling back to the bottom.

• Difficulty in recruiting

• Suffering a lot of transfers

It is a cautionary tale that we (well the AD and his bosses) should keep in the back of our minds if we don’t turn the corner soon. The gist of the article is that Fordham missed their opportunity to be successful in the A10 and should leave. I hope that isn’t our fate as well that we blew it on our initial attempt and are thus branded a perennial A10 bottom feeder.

 

[FreeGunston12]

I just got around to reading this. Holy cr@p if that doesn’t read eerily like our situation in many ways that it is scary looking towards our future in the A10. There are some differences, like our facilities seem better even though they are spending more (no one seems to know where, though), but I see at least as many similarities with Fordham if not being very close to our situation.

Some items that ring similar about situation when initially joining:

• Jumped to A10 when they were acquiring teams to fend off becoming less relevant due to departures
• Leaving a conference where we were pretty darn successful
• Moved to A10 when the at the time administration didn’t value athletics enough
• AD that said stupid and contradictory things

Looking at our present situation and their history:

• Track record of coaches coming in and showing a flash of hope and falling back to the bottom.

• Difficulty in recruiting

• Suffering a lot of transfers

It is a cautionary tale that we (well the AD and his bosses) should keep in the back of our minds if we don’t turn the corner soon. The gist of the article is that Fordham missed their opportunity to be successful in the A10 and should leave. I hope that isn’t our fate as well that we blew it on our initial attempt and are thus branded a perennial A10 bottom feeder.

I would imagine money spent on basketball in Fairfax goes a lot further than NYC. I'm not sure what percentage of money spent would be directly related to cost of living.

Similar to how free agents in professional sports consider income tax, I'd image there are a lot of other variables that should be adjusted for when we consider money spent around the conference.

I'd love to see each school's money spent adjusted for their area and then compared. I believe Mason is in the 3rd most expensive city in the conference (Fordham, GW).