In a unique circumstance, I was able to attend a practice with a couple of others.
I’ve been away from the happenings of the program for a few months. From the preseason polls and popping in here on a rare occasion I went in with a pretty reserved opinion. I left with a hell of a lot more optimism about our program than I expected. The Hewitt hangover is a nasty one.
Felt like I was watching one of the Championship Coaching series live (for any of you that coach and have gone there).
Appears to be keen on fundamentals, with a nice ball screen offense and laser focus on the individual defensive tendencies.
Paulsen is quick to correct players regardless of their tenure and status, but with the right balance of what to do to correct.
A few of the freshman look ready to contribute – Otis looks great.
I realize it was one practice and their opponents are pretty good as well – but imo Marko is due a big year. Very vocal, playing with confidence, and seemed to act the part of a senior leader well.
No clue where Mason ends up in the A10, but I will not be surprised if they end the season above most of the polls.
First time I met him and have watched him coach - nice to see a real coach in action.
To me, the amazing thing about great coaches -- and this is something that's being BIG TIME ignored by the preseason prognosticators -- is that they somehow get teams to perform to a higher level than their individual skills suggest is possible.
Like they used to say about Bear Bryant: "He can take his players and beat yours, and he can take your players and beat his."
From one of the earlier practice reports, I loved how DP was busting balls because guys weren't
catching the ball strongly with two hands. That is the kind of stuff that eventually becomes learned behavior, but only after you've done it correctly about 10,000 times. It's also the stuff that's going to make a huge difference when the real games start and our guys are getting guarded for real.
Can anyone imagine our former coach ever stopping practice to emphasize such a fine detail? No, me neither. It's one reason why our program became a turnover machine in his 4 years at the helm. Lack of emphasis on
the little things.
No more soft-a** "players coaches" for me. Players who are worth a damn want to be coached and to be put in the best possible situation to succeed. They'll get plenty of both from DP.
The rest can go to vcu for all I care. F em.
Bill Rohland @BillRohland 
Mason Basketball @MasonMBB 
