Exclusive Interview w/Dave Paulsen! (Excerpt)

[Herndon]

Could the argument be made that Hewitt inherited a nice car and kept the parts to the car? Held everyone (Pearson, Mo, Acorn, Allen, Arledge, etc) along with the two recruits Edwards and Gray and only lost Luke. I don't think the car necessarily turned into a Yugo, I just don't think Hewitt could drive very well. I think the roster Hewitt inherited vs. the one he left wasn't as big of a difference as a Lambo to Yugo.

Paulsen however sold some nice car parts. He couldn't hold onto Jackson (Providence), Porter (Nevada), CJ Jackson (Ohio St.), Lockett (NC State). With all that said, his car was still in decent shape having two future NBA D-Leaguers (Shevon, Moore) and an experienced Jenkins. To see where the roster is now, I'd say we upgraded vehicles but more like a Limited model vs. a standard model.



Jesus (Urbina) take the wheel!

Not bad, but to triple down on the metaphor, Paulson's also racing in a much tougher circuit than Hewitt was.

 

[GMUgemini]

We pray that these guys find a consistent shot this summer......

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Mar needs to get back to his freshman shooting (36% from the 4 is pretty damned good). Miller needs to shoot more from 3 (especially if he fancies himself a wing -- shot 33.3% last year which is not bad, but not good), Hartwell shot 45%, Kier 37%, Boyd was shooting 41% before the wrist injury (I won't count his poor shooting afterward). Greene needs to step it up or come off the bench.

Hopefully JDS can improve on his numbers from
last year, and Xavier Johnson can shoot at least as well as Miller his freshman season.

 

[masonjoe]

Paulsen recruited Juwan Howard while at Michigan, guess he spoke his language Lamar!

https://www.mlive.com/wolverines/20...higan-basketball-coaches-walk-into-a-bar.html

 

[Five Two]

So too had former graduate assistants under Fisher at Michigan, Dave Paulsen and Troy Amaris.

I didnt know grad assistants were allowed to recruit back then. I thought only the fulltime assistants were able to recruit off campus.

 

[Falco]

Comparing the two situations based on just overall records doesn't tell the story. Hewitt walked in with the best team on paper in the current conference. Paulsen had to rebuild the entire roster in a tougher conference. Hewitt had the CAA player of the year! 24 of Hewitt's wins were in that first season! The A-10 was pretty damn good in DP's first two years also..

I don’t want to defend Hewitt. I hated the hire from the start. But Hewitt was building a roster for the CAA. So, to expect him to compete in a really competitive A10 was foolish. The A10 put 6 teams in the 2014 NCAA tournament. (St Joes, vcu, Dayton, GW, St. Louis, UMass).

To put it in perspective, the A10 put 3 teams in the NCAA Tournament. (St Joes, vcu, Dayton) in DP's inaugural year.

 

[Mason2005]

I don’t want to defend Hewitt. I hated the hire from the start. But Hewitt was building a roster for the CAA. So, to expect him to compete in a really competitive A10 was foolish. The A10 put 6 teams in the 2014 NCAA tournament. (St Joes, vcu, Dayton, GW, St. Louis, UMass).

To put it in perspective, the A10 put 3 teams in the NCAA Tournament. (St Joes, vcu, Dayton) in DP's inaugural year.

Did you not watch any games during Hewitt era? Players were dribbling balls off their feet. They couldn't inbound to save their life. There were no set plays, just 1 on 1 offense. He tried to turn Jenkins into a wing lol. He destroyed any player development Corey Edwards and Vaughn Gray could have. Corey came in as a natural pg but dude would always pick up his dribble after crossing half court.... Durning an open scrimmage he passed the ball up the court to a players back side lol. Wow that was a crazy ride.

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[GMUgemini]

I don’t want to defend Hewitt. I hated the hire from the start. But Hewitt was building a roster for the CAA. So, to expect him to compete in a really competitive A10 was foolish. The A10 put 6 teams in the 2014 NCAA tournament. (St Joes, vcu, Dayton, GW, St. Louis, UMass).

To put it in perspective, the A10 put 3 teams in the NCAA Tournament. (St Joes, vcu, Dayton) in DP's inaugural year.

He had a roster that could have competed in the A10 in 2013-2014. Starting lineup that year was Allen, Moore, Sherrod, Jenkins, Copes. You look at their games against UMass, St. Louis, URI, St. Joes, they competed talent for talent with those teams. The year after that, he brought in Trey Porter, Isaiah Jackson, and Shevon Thompson (in addition to Erik Lockett who red-shirted and Therence Mayimba who was ruled ineligible -- but we were very excited about his prospects).

Also, building a CAA roster (whatever that means) doesn't explain why we'd lose games to Iona, Oregon State, South Florida (after dominating them for most of the game), a bad ODU team twice, Cornell, Charleston, and need a miracle 75 foot shot to beat Manhattan -- with the roster we did have (oh, and going 0-4 against Fordham in his two years in the A10).

Yeah, I don't buy that argument one bit.

 

[Falco]

He had a roster that could have competed in the A10 in 2013-2014. Starting lineup that year was Allen, Moore, Sherrod, Jenkins, Copes. You look at their games against UMass, St. Louis, URI, St. Joes, they competed talent for talent with those teams. The year after that, he brought in Trey Porter, Isaiah Jackson, and Shevon Thompson (in addition to Erik Lockett who red-shirted and Therence Mayimba who was ruled ineligible -- but we were very excited about his prospects).

Also, building a CAA roster (whatever that means) doesn't explain why we'd lose games to Iona, Oregon State, South Florida (after dominating them for most of the game), a bad ODU team twice, Cornell, Charleston, and need a miracle 75 foot shot to beat Manhattan -- with the roster we did have (oh, and going 0-4 against Fordham in his two years in the A10).

Yeah, I don't buy that argument one bit.

I agree with you. Hewitt was a horrible coach.

 

[Falco]

Did you not watch any games during Hewitt era? Players were dribbling balls off their feet. They couldn't inbound to save their life. There were no set plays, just 1 on 1 offense. He tried to turn Jenkins into a wing lol. He destroyed any player development Corey Edwards and Vaughn Gray could have. Corey came in as a natural pg but dude would always pick up his dribble after crossing half court.... Durning an open scrimmage he passed the ball up the court to a players back side lol. Wow that was a crazy ride.

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I agree with you. Hewitt was a horrible coach.

 

[Mason2005]

I agree with you. Hewitt was a horrible coach.

I agree with you also, this DP dude might not be much better lol.

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[Herndon]

I don’t want to defend Hewitt. I hated the hire from the start. But Hewitt was building a roster for the CAA. So, to expect him to compete in a really competitive A10 was foolish. The A10 put 6 teams in the 2014 NCAA tournament. (St Joes, vcu, Dayton, GW, St. Louis, UMass).

To put it in perspective, the A10 put 3 teams in the NCAA Tournament. (St Joes, vcu, Dayton) in DP's inaugural year.

This is fair, IMO. That said, the issue with Hewitt was never recruiting, it was everything else. If hewitt was still here, we'd have a much more impressive roster, and a worse team.

 

[Falco]

This is fair, IMO. That said, the issue with Hewitt was never recruiting, it was everything else. If hewitt was still here, we'd have a much more impressive roster, and a worse team.

How would DP's team hold up in 2013-2014 when six A10 teams made the tournament?

 

[gmubrian]

How would DP's team hold up in 2013-2014 when six A10 teams made the tournament?

Without doing any research, my knee jerk response would be he would have finished about 7th or 8th. He would have kept us close enough to have hope, but towards the end of the season, the roster’s shortcomings (no pun intended) combined with injuries and wearing down our overperfomlng roster would have wilted. They would have shown great heart, practiced flawlessly, and we would be proud of how they represented the school.

I expect that to be the rough outline of our story for the foreseeable future until something turns around on recruiting or a couple of our current recruits all live up to their ceiling at the same time.

PS. I am writing this while on my train that is now about 40 minutes late, meaning I will miss my son’s awards ceremony. So I might have a more negative viewpoint at the moment.

 

[GMUgemini]

How would DP's team hold up in 2013-2014 when six A10 teams made the tournament?

With the current roster or the roster that Hewitt had?

 

[FreeGunston12]

How would DP's team hold up in 2013-2014 when six A10 teams made the tournament?

Let’s see . . . He just finished 5th in the A-10 for the second year in a row. So . . . I’d say he would’ve finished about 5th(?)

Before you try and tell me that I can’t compare that way. Chris Mooney finished 5th that year (11th this year). Martelli finished 10th both years. Schmidt was 7th that year (4th this year). Mckillop finished 1st that year (2nd this year).

As stupid as trying to make that comparison is, the same coaches at the same schools (aside from Mooney) finished in about the same position last year as 14/15.

And as far as listing other meaningless coach stats on other threads, I don’t get the point you are trying to make. Yes, DP and PH have similar win percentages. The difference is Paul Hewitt trended way down. And no, I don’t buy the moving to the A-10 excuse. vcu made the same move, won 27 games (12 in the a-10) and finished 2nd in their inaugural year.

After moving to the A-10, Hewitt was 20-42 (8-26 in the A-10). DP is 65-67 (34-38 in the A-10) and trending up. Comparing the two is ridiculous.

 

[sleeperpick]

Let’s see . . . He just finished 5th in the A-10 for the second year in a row. So . . . I’d say he would’ve finished about 5th(?)

he would finish 5th in a great league when he only finishes 5th in down years in the A10 with the most/second most seasoned team? doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

 

[FreeGunston12]

he would finish 5th in a great league when he only finishes 5th in down years in the A10 with the most/second most seasoned team? doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Yes. Now read the full post I just edited.

 

[FreeGunston12]

he would finish 5th in a great league when he only finishes 5th in down years in the A10 with the most/second most seasoned team? doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

I really would welcome some quantitative logical criticism of DP. There are definitely legitimate bones to pick. I’ve tried to pick at them with criticisms of his assist-to-turnover ratios, turnover rate, offensive efficiency, etc.

But these comparisons and hypotheticals are just plain dumb.

 

[GMUgemini]

Yes. Now read the full post I just edited.

This is why I asked if Paulsen had Hewitt’s roster that year. If Paulsen had a back court of Allen, Moore, and Sherrod and a front court of Jenkins and Copes with a bench of Arledge, Marko, Holloway, Edwards, and Vaughan Gray he might have finished 5th. I mean, what has been holding us back? Size and athleticism right? Hewitt screwed up so many talented players.

 

[By George.]

Did you not watch any games during Hewitt era? Players were dribbling balls off their feet. They couldn't inbound to save their life. There were no set plays, just 1 on 1 offense. He tried to turn Jenkins into a wing lol. He destroyed any player development Corey Edwards and Vaughn Gray could have. Corey came in as a natural pg but dude would always pick up his dribble after crossing half court.... Durning an open scrimmage he passed the ball up the court to a players back side lol. Wow that was a crazy ride.

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I’m sorry but if we’re just talking about the eye test.... we still dribble the ball off our feet constantly. We had way too many unforced turnovers, many of them by our 4th year starting PG and 3rd year starting G. Inbounding the ball, we still don’t run true set plays from baseline out-of- bounds. We’ve been trying to turn Mar into a big man, when he was always best suited as a 3 not relied upon to crash the glass full time. Sounds like the bottom part of your point was more a reflection on Corey as a player than the coach. Are we not still iso ball? We run the high ball screen like 80%+ of the time (eye test) and then take what the defense gives us. Yes we kick out to the 3 a lot but probably shouldn’t given our 3 point shooting.

Here’s the way I see it, if you want to praise DP for our team chemistry, for building a program and not just a team and for being well respected around the A10, I can dig it. Otherwise, I’m still struggling to identify our offense, defense, out of bounds plays and his set plays after timeouts.

DP is about as genuine of a guy as there is. I’ve talked to him 50+ times...it’s a love/hate thing. This season is all on him, I hope he shuts all of us up.