Fire Dave Paulsen / Hire Tony Skinn

[gmujim92]

I'll take a stab - Dave's a choir boy good guy who attracts other choir boy good guys... not the gritty in your face type tough guys (dogs).

This is clearly what he was suggesting.

 

[hoops10]

So what I saw last night, pretty good effort, they tried, a little more energy, ie Calixte finally did something, but here is the problem. There is just not nearly enough talent on this team. Quite frankly, DP should clearly know the type of player it is going to take to win. This nonsense about finding underachieving players and turning them into studs is BS. So to me the question is why cant we get better players. I wish I new, I am just a frustrated fan who would like to understand more of what goes on behind the scenes. Maybe I should'nt be asking this question. Nevertheless, its about wins and unless we can have a team we are proud of, the fans are going to throw in the towel. Its time for the university to decide what are their goals.

 

[gmujim92]

Haven't posted very much, partly because of the team's performance and partly because the constant back and forth between the polar opposites on these boards has become tiresome. People are more interested in knocking the other side down than having constructive debates on what needs to be done to get better. Anyway, feel free to skip as I know nothing (and I apologize for all the spelling/grammar errors), but some of my thoughts on Dave and the program... just things I want to put out there to help me feel better about this season which is spinning out of control. I'm not a fire a coach as soon as things go a little south type of guy. I would rather give them time to fix it. Having said that, this year has turned me from the "keep Dave and let him figure it out", to "it might be time to bring someone else". This isn't just about the wins and losses this year, but a few things over the past few years that has put serious doubt in me that Dave is the guy to lead our program to the top of the A10.

First, some things I give credit to Dave and the staff:

He took over at a really low time. We were a mess after Hewitt - both on the court and off. We didn't have the pieces in place to compete with the rest of the A10. Dave was able to build us from the bottom to middle of the pack over a few seasons. It was a slow build, but it was done solid without rushing out and signing every transfer off the streets. He had a plan and stuck to it. It worked for the first few years and we got better and better to the point where we competed for top 4 spots in the A10.

He has brought in high character kids that the school and the athletic program can be proud of. I love our players.

He is able to find players that are under recruited and not getting offers at the A10 level and get them playing at an "average A10" player level. This is also one of the biggest downfalls.

Now, the bad:

My number one problem is he hasn't been able to go from finding those under recruited guys to finding more A10 level guys. Our guys currently raise their game to play at the A10 level and have maxed out. To take that next step, we need those A10 type kids that once maxed out might be power 5 type players. We haven't had anyone on the post season all A10 first team since joining the A10. You gotta land a special type player every now and then if you want to be in the top of the A10. I think your odds are much lower of doing that when your competing with the America East and CAA for players instead of the A10 or CUSA.

We haven't used our scholarships effectively. While it's a nice story to see our walkons over the past two years get a scholarship, I would much rather use them on someone that can actually help us win games. I don't think you want to build a program with transfers, but grabbing one to fill an immediate need would be more effective than giving it to a walkon in my opinion. He tried once and got burned with Reuter. Wouldn't have been as bad if he didn't hype him up to being an all A10 type player. Plus, we don't recruit the bigger bodies that are needed to compete at this level night in and night out. Our big guys don't look like other big men in this league. The two we have are young and softer. I got excited to hear him talk after last season about needing to upgrade and get more physical big men... then with our 3 scholarships we sign two guards and a thin forward. Ugh! (Nothing against those three, want nothing but the best for them and I'm rooting for all three of them).

Another big problem - no seniors. It seems like we've had only one senior on the court over the past 3 years (Otis). This isn't all of Dave's fault, but you win at this level with experienced guys who stick it out and improve. Two years ago, no seniors. Last year we only had Otis when Grayer bailed. This year two of our seniors are both out. Again, that's not all on Dave, but you're not going to win with freshman and sophomores.

I'm not really an X's and O's guy, so I'm not going to critique Dave on his in game decisions and philosophies. I'll leave that to the people on here that know a lot more about it than me.

We really haven't met expectations over the last few years. A few years ago it was the "two year process" which didn't get us to the postseason. Last year we had a senior preseason A10 first team player and a down A10, still couldn't sniff the postseason. This year is a major step back... just think it might be time.

Sorry for the rambling.

Not surprisingly this is a fair and reasonable assessment. I don’t see how anyone who is objective on this issue can blame the coach for guys getting hurt, but he’s the head of the program and he’s ultimately responsible for its success or failure.

I also don’t think anyone has suggested the current performance is somehow acceptable or where we want to be. It clearly isn’t.

The difference is I think Dave has done enough to deserve one more year to fix it. If having that opinion makes me some kind of escaped mental patient who gets off on massaging my nipples, so be it.

 

[gmujim92]

So what I saw last night, pretty good effort, they tried, a little more energy, ie Calixte finally did something, but here is the problem. There is just not nearly enough talent on this team. Quite frankly, DP should clearly know the type of player it is going to take to win. This nonsense about finding underachieving players and turning them into studs is BS. So to me the question is why cant we get better players. I wish I new, I am just a frustrated fan who would like to understand more of what goes on behind the scenes. Maybe I should'nt be asking this question. Nevertheless, its about wins and unless we can have a team we are proud of, the fans are going to throw in the towel. Its time for the university to decide what are their goals.

Most of our fans threw in the towel several years ago. I really don’t think the opinion of the few who are left is gonna move the needle with the administration either way.

 

[Pablo]

Not surprisingly this is a fair and reasonable assessment. I don’t see how anyone who is objective on this issue can blame the coach for guys getting hurt, but he’s the head of the program and he’s ultimately responsible for its success or failure.

I also don’t think anyone has suggested the current performance is somehow acceptable or where we want to be. It clearly isn’t.

The difference is I think Dave has done enough to deserve one more year to fix it. If having that opinion makes me some kind of escaped mental patient who gets off on massaging my nipples, so be it.

I noticed that you were quick to praise Lamar on twitter for his tweet, so evidently you agree with him. I'm also in the camp that Paulsen should probably get to coach next season when he will have 3-5 seniors. If he can get AJ and a healthy Kier to return for another season, then the team should be very competitive.

 

[gmujim92]

I noticed that you were quick to praise Lamar on twitter for his tweet, so evidently you agree with him. I'm also in the camp that Paulsen should probably get to coach next season when he will have 3-5 seniors. If he can get AJ and a healthy Kier to return for another season, then the team should be very competitive.

I didn’t praise or criticize Lamar’s Tweet. That said, I do agree we need to get tougher and more aggressive and that’s one of the issues I’ve had with our program since L left.

Even when our teams weren’t that great, our guys used to take no shit from anyone. They played with an obvious chip on their shoulders. I’d like to get back to that ASAP.

 

[Pablo]

I didn’t praise or criticize Lamar’s Tweet. That said, I do agree we need to get tougher and more aggressive and that’s one of the issues I’ve had with our program since L left.

Even when our teams weren’t that great, our guys used to take no shit from anyone. They played with an obvious chip on their shoulders. I’d like to get back to that ASAP.

Sorry, I must be confusing you with someone else:






Jim McConnell

@jmcconnell70
·
2h

Strong candidate for the Hall of Fame of subtweets

Quote Tweet

Lamar Butler

@Butler2two
· 2h
I'm not a HC in college. But if I were, I'd want to have a culture of dogs. Dogs want to play with other dogs. Be coached by dogs. Dogs know a dog when they see one. You are what you attract.

 

[gmujim92]

Sorry, I must be confusing you with someone else:





Jim McConnell

@jmcconnell70
·
2h

Strong candidate for the Hall of Fame of subtweets

Quote Tweet

Lamar Butler

@Butler2two
· 2h
I'm not a HC in college. But if I were, I'd want to have a culture of dogs. Dogs want to play with other dogs. Be coached by dogs. Dogs know a dog when they see one. You are what you attract.

Meaning gets lost in translation sometimes on Twitter

 

[KAOriginal]

The search committe for the new Pres met this morning to go over "Announcement Regarding Interviews by the Presidential Search Committee for the Position of President of the University."

There's step 1 to DP's removal....

 

[MasonSAE4]

Not surprisingly this is a fair and reasonable assessment. I don’t see how anyone who is objective on this issue can blame the coach for guys getting hurt, but he’s the head of the program and he’s ultimately responsible for its success or failure.

I also don’t think anyone has suggested the current performance is somehow acceptable or where we want to be. It clearly isn’t.

The difference is I think Dave has done enough to deserve one more year to fix it. If having that opinion makes me some kind of escaped mental patient who gets off on massaging my nipples, so be it.

What's the genesis of all this nipple rubbing talk recently? I'd run a search for "nipples" but I think I might crash the server trying to load all of PiKapp's old posts.

 

[GMUgemini]

What's the genesis of all this nipple rubbing talk recently? I'd run a search for "nipples" but I think I might crash the server trying to load all of PiKapp's old posts.

it's something I think sleeperpick said about Paulsen apologists that Jim has turned into a running joke

 

[G M U]

Since joining D1 basketball at Bucknell in 2008 (12 YEARS) DP has had four 20 win seasons. Three of those 20+ win seasons came with Mike Muscala and then his lone 20 win season here with Moore and Jenkins. Sure, 20 wins is an arbitrary number but it's what most would deem a successful season and DP has achieved it 4 times with either an NBA level talent or G-League level talent on the roster. I'm not sure I get the phrase: "DPs done more with less."

 

[Patriot Lawdog]

Not surprisingly this is a fair and reasonable assessment. I don’t see how anyone who is objective on this issue can blame the coach for guys getting hurt, but he’s the head of the program and he’s ultimately responsible for its success or failure.

I also don’t think anyone has suggested the current performance is somehow acceptable or where we want to be. It clearly isn’t.

The difference is I think Dave has done enough to deserve one more year to fix it. If having that opinion makes me some kind of escaped mental patient who gets off on massaging my nipples, so be it.

I would also add that giving one more year to "fix" it (making the NCAA is what that means to me) would also be more fiscally responsible which some people hate to hear, but is a reality given our economic makeup as a university. If that doesn't get accomplished then I think it's a consensus for everyone as to what needs to happen.

 

[Falco]

I would also add that giving one more year to "fix" it (making the NCAA is what that means to me) would also be more fiscally responsible which some people hate to hear, but is a reality given our economic makeup as a university. If that doesn't get accomplished then I think it's a consensus for everyone as to what needs to happen.

This is the only logical explanation to bring back DP next year. He accomplished literally nothing.

 

[sleeperpick]

it's something I think sleeperpick said about Paulsen apologists that Jim has turned into a running joke

Would love to take credit but it was resident expert petey buckets

 

[gmubrian]

I am not advocating one path or the other (fire Dave after this season or not), I am just analyzing the interesting situation that Brad is in...

Brad's signature hire is spiraling down.
Brad extended him twice early on, which was probably a reasonable thing to do given we were trending in the right direction and the way the contract was written, but that has now created the current timing.
Our new university president is expected to be hired any day now.
There are reasonable arguments for keeping Dave another year (financial, hasn't screwed up completely, clean, respectable program).
I don't know that there are enough arguments to justify Dave's firing with two years left on his contract (slow progress, one, presumably down year).
It is generally agreed that you absolutely have to make a decision at the end of next year, with one year remaining on Dave's contract. You either have to renew him for another 5 or so, to give recruits confidence he will be around, or you need to fire him.
This leaves Brad in a tough situation.

Brad can do what most of us expect will happen, and give Dave one more year. The downside of this is that he has to go to the new president less than 9 months after the new president starts and tell him Dave has to go. Maybe he can befriend the new president and convince him that he, Brad, is doing a good job. Just wondering where he has room to impress, though. The fan base is continuing to dwindle. As far as I can tell, the donations are not significantly increasing. He has potentially nepotistic hire in DG on his record. Where is he going to get money from or a project to impress the new president. Maybe something baseball or soccer would, but it wouldn't me since men's basketball is really all that matters at Mason. I see a reasonable chance that neither Brad nor Paulsen makes it into the following year and Brad does not get to choose the next Mason HC. A lot depends on who the new president is.

Most likely path I see, though, is that Brad stays around to hire Paulsen's replacement at the end of next year. I hope Paulsen does turn it around before then to avoid another rebuild, but I don't have a lot of hope for that to actually happen based on what I have seen to date.

Now, If Brad wanted to be really bold and wanted another swing at the signature hire, he could try to make the case to the BOV before a new president is in place. I don't think that Brad is that bold given his track record, and secondly, I don't know that he could make a strong enough case that the BOV would buy, UNLESS, there is a home run hire, the likes that no-one thinks would be available next year. The coach would have to be a near unanimous home run, or be very good and such a good deal (for some unexplained reason). He might save his job in that scenario if the new coach came in and made a splash in the first year. It is a risky move, though.

 

[gmujim92]

Since joining D1 basketball at Bucknell in 2008 (12 YEARS) DP has had four 20 win seasons. Three of those 20+ win seasons came with Mike Muscala and then his lone 20 win season here with Moore and Jenkins. Sure, 20 wins is an arbitrary number but it's what most would deem a successful season and DP has achieved it 4 times with either an NBA level talent or G-League level talent on the roster. I'm not sure I get the phrase: "DPs done more with less."

Sometimes it’s a question of timing.

The loaded team Paulsen left behind at Bucknell after rebuilding that program won 4 consecutive Patriot League regular-season titles and won 89 games while posting three straight seasons of 20 or more wins. There’s no reason to think they would’ve done any worse had he stayed there instead of taking on a dumpster fire in Fairfax.

 

[G M U]

You can give the 89 games and 4 consecutive Patriot League titles to DP but then you'd have to give Hewitt his 20 win season in 2016-2017, is that how this works?

 

[Pablo]

UNLESS, there is a home run hire, the likes that no-one thinks would be available next year. The coach would have to be a near unanimous home run, or be very good and such a good deal (for some unexplained reason). He might save his job in that scenario if the new coach came in and made a splash in the first year. It is a risky move, though.

Are we in agreement that if Texas fires Shaka Smart after this season, and he's interested in and affordable to Mason, this is a "near unanimous home run"?

 

[gmujim92]

You can give the 89 games and 4 consecutive Patriot League titles to DP but then you'd have to give Hewitt his 20 win season in 2016-2017, is that how this works?

If you’d like. Hewitt recruited the two best players on that team even though he had no clue in the world how to coach them.