Fire Dave Paulsen / Hire Tony Skinn

[gmujim92]

Giant Killers had an issue with his answer to "what's our offensive identity?" But I don't think it's that nebulous or hard to understand where he's coming from. He said, "we want to be an inside-out team." It's pretty clear he wants to play through his big and seems to want to run a 4-out (did it sound like that to anyone else?) and spread the floor. To do that, he's going to need a lot more shooters and Oduro is going to have to mature really fast.

I pretty much think this is what's going to happen, but my caution with that is you're going to have a massive recruiting class coming in if AJ and Kier both come back (assuming JDS or some other underclassman transfers) You'll have AJ, Mar, Calixte, Kier, and Greene all graduating. My concern is, with a massive recruiting class like that (8 freshmen and sophomores), and if Paulsen flames out and is fired, you're putting a potential new coach in a pickle of roster formation.

That's my biggest worry.

Granted, there's no really good time to have to rebuild a roster, but it'll be a big project deciding on whether or not you are going to recruit 5 commits or release some of them and go after your own players.

I see it the other way. If necessary, there would be no better time to wipe the slate clean and start over with a new coach after next ... lots of open scholarships for him to start bringing in his kind of players.

 

[JPgmuswim]

I see it the other way. If necessary, there would be no better time to wipe the slate clean and start over with a new coach after next ... lots of open scholarships for him to start bringing in his kind of players.

Didn’t Paulsen basically get that opportunity when there was a mass exodus? I get the point of a clean slate but recruiting and filling 8 spots when most likely being hired in April is tough, you may end up with a class like DP’s first one.

 

[Pablo]

Do you recall Coach L's first season at Mason (1997-98). He had 6 returning scholarship players (Ahmad Dorsett, Nik Mirich, Lee Brown, Avery Carey, Leighton Henry, and Nsilo Abraham, a D-I transfer who had to sit out the 1996-97 season.) The team was augmented with Westhead's recruits George Evans & Terrance Nixon (who was ineligible in 1997-98), and his own recruits: JUCO transfer Jason Miskiri, Erik Herring, & Tremaine Price. Miskiri & Herring were ineligible until the spring semester.

Senior Avery Carey's season ended in the first game when he injured his back. So, for the fall semester, Coach L basically had 7 scholarship players (including guard Leighton Henry who shot 16.2% from the field, 10.0% behind the arc for the season)) and 3 walk-on players.

The next season (1998-99), the active roster included D-I transfer Keith Holdan, freshmen Rob Anderson & "Q" Randall, and Avery Carey who received a medical hardship waiver. Carey's scholarship became available when Leighton Henry mysteriously departed the program.

And, of course, the team won the CAA championship in 1998-99.

 

[Falco]

Giant Killers had an issue with his answer to "what's our offensive identity?" But I don't think it's that nebulous or hard to understand where he's coming from. He said, "we want to be an inside-out team." It's pretty clear he wants to play through his big and seems to want to run a 4-out (did it sound like that to anyone else?) and spread the floor. To do that, he's going to need a lot more shooters and Oduro is going to have to mature really fast.

I pretty much think this is what's going to happen, but my caution with that is you're going to have a massive recruiting class coming in if AJ and Kier both come back (assuming JDS or some other underclassman transfers) You'll have AJ, Mar, Calixte, Kier, and Greene all graduating. My concern is, with a massive recruiting class like that (8 freshmen and sophomores), and if Paulsen flames out and is fired, you're putting a potential new coach in a pickle of roster formation.

That's my biggest worry.

Granted, there's no really good time to have to rebuild a roster, but it'll be a big project deciding on whether or not you are going to recruit 5 commits or release some of them and go after your own players.

Good point. Give the new coach something to work with lol.

 

[Bricker]

A few things:

1. It's fun to speculate, but why would Smart want to come to Mason? I'd give it an 0.5% chance of ever happening.

2. If Mason parts ways with Paulsen after the 2021 season, I think I would prefer a more "risky" hire. Bring us a very young, unknown assistant from somewhere who wants to prove himself. We've gone old and safe with the Pauls.... bring me a 30 year-old with a chip on his shoulder who can wow some recruits and build something new. Pay him $250K with heavy incentives on the backend. Why not? What have we got to lose?

3. I think DP lies awake at night and wishes he stayed at Bucknell. Dude walked into a dumpster fire at GMU, put it out, got rid of the smoldering wreckage and is now stuck in the bin because he didn't bring a ladder to get out.

P.S. - Speaking of coaching candidates, I love the Russell Turner mythology that has developed on the boards about his wife nixing the move to Fairfax. I doubt that's true. The guy probably decided he didn't want the job because he felt it wasn't any better than UCI. Also, has he made any noise at Irvine recently? I don't think he's the hot commodity we thought he was...

 

[mkaufman1]

A few things:

1. It's fun to speculate, but why would Smart want to come to Mason? I'd give it an 0.5% chance of ever happening.

2. If Mason parts ways with Paulsen after the 2021 season, I think I would prefer a more "risky" hire. Bring us a very young, unknown assistant from somewhere who wants to prove himself. We've gone old and safe with the Pauls.... bring me a 30 year-old with a chip on his shoulder who can wow some recruits and build something new. Pay him $250K with heavy incentives on the backend. Why not? What have we got to lose?

3. I think DP lies awake at night and wishes he stayed at Bucknell. Dude walked into a dumpster fire at GMU, put it out, got rid of the smoldering wreckage and is now stuck in the bin because he didn't bring a ladder to get out.

P.S. - Speaking of coaching candidates, I love the Russell Turner mythology that has developed on the boards about his wife nixing the move to Fairfax. I doubt that's true. The guy probably decided he didn't want the job because he felt it wasn't any better than UCI. Also, has he made any noise at Irvine recently? I don't think he's the hot commodity we thought he was...

1. Shaka isn't coming, negative percentage of it happening. I agree with you.
2. Doubt it although depends on the President. No idea who they'll have in. Also depends on if Brad makes the hire.
3. Not sure, I think Dave likes the challenge of new places which is why he moves on after so long. But I am sure he is finding the A10 to be a tough gig and hard to win. Its not for everyone.

Also Russell Turner for sake of comparison, has won almost 2/3 of his league games the last several years according to wikipedia and won 30+ games last year to get his team into the tournament. 2 NCAAs, 2 NITs 2 CITs over about 9 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Turner_(basketball)

 

[Falco]

A few things:

1. It's fun to speculate, but why would Smart want to come to Mason? I'd give it an 0.5% chance of ever happening.

2. If Mason parts ways with Paulsen after the 2021 season, I think I would prefer a more "risky" hire. Bring us a very young, unknown assistant from somewhere who wants to prove himself. We've gone old and safe with the Pauls.... bring me a 30 year-old with a chip on his shoulder who can wow some recruits and build something new. Pay him $250K with heavy incentives on the backend. Why not? What have we got to lose?

3. I think DP lies awake at night and wishes he stayed at Bucknell. Dude walked into a dumpster fire at GMU, put it out, got rid of the smoldering wreckage and is now stuck in the bin because he didn't bring a ladder to get out.

P.S. - Speaking of coaching candidates, I love the Russell Turner mythology that has developed on the boards about his wife nixing the move to Fairfax. I doubt that's true. The guy probably decided he didn't want the job because he felt it wasn't any better than UCI. Also, has he made any noise at Irvine recently? I don't think he's the hot commodity we thought he was...

I also like the idea of a young assistant. However, I don’t want a Blue Blood Assistant. I’m sure they have a great understanding of basketball due to their coaching tree. But, how hard is it to recruit a kid to go to Duke, Kansas.

I would like an assistant from a consistent but not dominate program. For some reason, WVU is sticking out in my head. I just read Larry Harrison’s bio. Impressive.

https://wvusports.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/coaches/larry-harrison/336

 

[By George.]

Giant Killers had an issue with his answer to "what's our offensive identity?" But I don't think it's that nebulous or hard to understand where he's coming from. He said, "we want to be an inside-out team." It's pretty clear he wants to play through his big and seems to want to run a 4-out (did it sound like that to anyone else?) and spread the floor. To do that, he's going to need a lot more shooters and Oduro is going to have to mature really fast.

I pretty much think this is what's going to happen, but my caution with that is you're going to have a massive recruiting class coming in if AJ and Kier both come back (assuming JDS or some other underclassman transfers) You'll have AJ, Mar, Calixte, Kier, and Greene all graduating. My concern is, with a massive recruiting class like that (8 freshmen and sophomores), and if Paulsen flames out and is fired, you're putting a potential new coach in a pickle of roster formation.

That's my biggest worry.

Granted, there's no really good time to have to rebuild a roster, but it'll be a big project deciding on whether or not you are going to recruit 5 commits or release some of them and go after your own players.

Issue being he didn’t really answer the question again, so our offensive identify is “inside out” or “post play” or “4 out”?

I don’t personally think the offense has to have a singular identify but it’s a question that many fans have asked us to to ask Paulsen about. He essentially answered he wants to be good at everything. I don’t feel that it’s necessary to harp on this question because injuries/youth do make it difficult to solidify a style. Fans were probably hoping he’d say something like, “we are a motion offense” but can’t imagine any coach is really answering that question in a presser.

I have a good grasp on the offense but also was curious how he’d answer it. We have reached the point of the season where Giant Killers make up the entire presser, if you have a legitimate question, let us know and we’ll try to get it answered. For reference, last presser had Bryan, Dom, Ron, Daniel, Natalie (VI Estate), 2 photographers loading pictures (one of which is XJ’s older brother), Brad and 2 Mason PR staff. No other media there. Brad rarely has missed a presser last couple years.

 

[Bricker]

I also like the idea of a young assistant. However, I don’t want a Blue Blood Assistant. I’m sure they have a great understanding of basketball due to their coaching tree. But, how hard is it to recruit a kid to go to Duke, Kansas.

I would like an assistant from a consistent but not dominate program. For some reason, WVU is sticking out in my head. I just read Larry Harrison’s bio. Impressive.

https://wvusports.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/coaches/larry-harrison/336

Yeah I could get behind this rout of a no-name but hungry assistant. Pay him $200K with a ton of incentives and let him loose.

 

[Bricker]

1. Shaka isn't coming, negative percentage of it happening. I agree with you.
2. Doubt it although depends on the President. No idea who they'll have in. Also depends on if Brad makes the hire.
3. Not sure, I think Dave likes the challenge of new places which is why he moves on after so long. But I am sure he is finding the A10 to be a tough gig and hard to win. Its not for everyone.

Also Russell Turner for sake of comparison, has won almost 2/3 of his league games the last several years according to wikipedia and won 30+ games last year to get his team into the tournament. 2 NCAAs, 2 NITs 2 CITs over about 9 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Turner_(basketball)

That's impressive. But is he still getting buzz when jobs open up or has he fallen off the radar? Genuinely curious.

 

[GSII]

Remember how we went cheap on a good coach? It didn't turn out so well. You can't honestly believe a coach would come here on 250k and have to earn the other 500k in incentives. Good luck cheap asses. No wonder we are shit.

 

[mkaufman1]

That's impressive. But is he still getting buzz when jobs open up or has he fallen off the radar? Genuinely curious.

not sure what his deal is, he might be waiting for a west coast job to open up at this point. Probably depends on his wife too.

 

[mkaufman1]

I also like the idea of a young assistant. However, I don’t want a Blue Blood Assistant. I’m sure they have a great understanding of basketball due to their coaching tree. But, how hard is it to recruit a kid to go to Duke, Kansas.

I would like an assistant from a consistent but not dominate program. For some reason, WVU is sticking out in my head. I just read Larry Harrison’s bio. Impressive.

https://wvusports.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/coaches/larry-harrison/336

That is a good idea. I was also thinking someone like a Brandin Knight from Rutgers. He’s been an assistant for 10 plus years, and just helped Rutgers get to where they need to be under Pikiell.

 

[tblack33]

Issue being he didn’t really answer the question again, so our offensive identify is “inside out” or “post play” or “4 out”?

I don’t personally think the offense has to have a singular identify but it’s a question that many fans have asked us to to ask Paulsen about. He essentially answered he wants to be good at everything. I don’t feel that it’s necessary to harp on this question because injuries/youth do make it difficult to solidify a style. Fans were probably hoping he’d say something like, “we are a motion offense” but can’t imagine any coach is really answering that question in a presser.

I have a good grasp on the offense but also was curious how he’d answer the question. We have reached the point of the season where Giant Killers make up the entire presser, if you have a legitimate question, let us know and we’ll try to get it answered. For reference, last presser had Bryan, Dom, Ron, Daniel, Natalie (VI Estate), 2 photographers loading pictures (one of which is XJ’s older brother), Brad and 2 Mason PR staff. No other media there. Brad rarely has missed a presser last couple years.

I was thinking about that this morning, if that really is his ideal gameplan, why aren't we sticking AJ on the elbow/free throw line more often and running the offense through him instead. AJ can be serviceable at everything Paulsen is looking for in an inside out game- he's got the range to shoot from there if they sag, can get to the rim off the dribble against slower bigs, and this is more of an assumption on my part but I think he's a serviceable passer? Why not drop it to him right on the free throw every time and have everyone moving around him on the 3 point line and see what happens? Can't be any worse than what we are trying now.

The above does leave AJ playing at the 5 which is not good for us defensively so maybe I just answered my own question. Can't see Calixte or Oduro being much help outside the 3 point line in a 4 out motion offense.

 

[GMUgemini]

I was thinking about that this morning, if that really is his ideal gameplan, why aren't we sticking AJ on the elbow/free throw line more often and running the offense through him instead. AJ can be serviceable at everything Paulsen is looking for in an inside out game- he's got the range to shoot from there if they sag, can get to the rim off the dribble against slower bigs, and this is more of an assumption on my part but I think he's a serviceable passer? Why not drop it to him right on the free throw every time and have everyone moving around him on the 3 point line and see what happens? Can't be any worse than what we are trying now.

The above does leave AJ playing at the 5 which is not good for us defensively so maybe I just answered my own question. Can't see Calixte or Oduro being much help outside the 3 point line in a 4 out motion offense.

The plan seems to be to develop Oduro to be that guy. Right now, he's figuring out what to do when he gets the ball there and sometimes he's going to have decent games (like going 5-7 against UMass from that spot) and some games where he's taken completely out of the game.

The problem is our offense is soooo predictable. Everyone knows when and where the screen is going to come and what's going to happen after the screen, so all they really have to do is slow or cut off the ballhandler and everything completely falls apart.

edit: Oh, problem number two is we have zero difference makers on the bench (although we've gotten Hartwell back, so hopefully we can get him some open looks off the bench). But when you have to bring in Mar, or JDS for any extended period of time it's like playing 5 on 4 basketball. It also doesn't help that Calixte isn't going to create his own shot getting the ball in the low post, so unless he's wide open or has a lane he's no danger to score (again like playing 5 on 4 basketball).

 

[tblack33]

The plan seems to be to develop Oduro to be that guy. Right now, he's figuring out what to do when he gets the ball there and sometimes he's going to have decent games (like going 5-7 against UMass from that spot) and some games where he's taken completely out of the game.

The problem is our offense is soooo predictable. Everyone knows when and where the screen is going to come and what's going to happen after the screen, so all they really have to do is slow or cut off the ballhandler and everything completely falls apart.

edit: Oh, problem number two is we have zero difference makers on the bench (although we've gotten Hartwell back, so hopefully we can get him some open looks off the bench). But when you have to bring in Mar, or JDS for any extended period of time it's like playing 5 on 4 basketball. It also doesn't help that Calixte isn't going to create his own shot getting the ball in the low post, so unless he's wide open or has a lane he's no danger to score (again like playing 5 on 4 basketball).

I can see Oduro getting there in the next year or two if he keeps developing. I think right now he's got the range to consistently hit from there, I question if he'll ever be able to develop the athleticism to beat anyone off the dribble to get to the rim but I can see him developing as a good inside out passer if that's what they focus on with him.

I wonder why we don't just ditch that lazy ball screen that never causes the switch to the mismatch we are looking for and just try a good entry pass there to start the offense every time instead. The ball screen seems like it just creates a traffic jam at the top of the key every time.

 

[mkaufman1]

I can see Oduro getting there in the next year or two if he keeps developing. I think right now he's got the range to consistently hit from there, I question if he'll ever be able to develop the athleticism to beat anyone off the dribble to get to the rim but I can see him developing as a good inside out passer if that's what they focus on with him.

I wonder why we don't just ditch that lazy ball screen that never causes the switch to the mismatch we are looking for and just try a good entry pass there to start the offense every time instead. The ball screen seems like it just creates a traffic jam at the top of the key every time.

I’m far from a basketball X and O guy, but the ball screen at the top, having their guy push our guards out, and the rest of the team stand around play that we watch over and over is extremely frustrating.

 

[gmutom]

If memory serves me correctly, I'm pretty sure we used Ryan Pearson in the role near the elbow to help facilitate the offense in his senior year. Once he started extending his range to beyond the arc, it made it very difficult for defenders to play off him. That created more room for him to dish to a cutter, penetrate or take a mid-range jumper. I don't see why we can't use AJ in that same way.

 

[By George.]

If memory serves me correctly, I'm pretty sure we used Ryan Pearson in the role near the elbow to help facilitate the offense in his senior year. Once he started extending his range to beyond the arc, it made it very difficult for defenders to play off him. That created more room for him to dish to a cutter, penetrate or take a mid-range jumper. I don't see why we can't use AJ in that same way.

He can do this playing the 4 as well, we almost never look high low from big to big. Watched a compilation video of Obi Toppin making high low one touch passes and I was salivating.

 

[gmujim92]

I can see Oduro getting there in the next year or two if he keeps developing. I think right now he's got the range to consistently hit from there, I question if he'll ever be able to develop the athleticism to beat anyone off the dribble to get to the rim but I can see him developing as a good inside out passer if that's what they focus on with him.

I wonder why we don't just ditch that lazy ball screen that never causes the switch to the mismatch we are looking for and just try a good entry pass there to start the offense every time instead. The ball screen seems like it just creates a traffic jam at the top of the key every time.

When I think of what Oduro can become (with a lot of hard work), I see Grant Golden: not a dynamic athlete, but big and wide with good post moves and solid basketball IQ.

If we could ever put enough 3-point shooting on the floor that teams can’t always go under ball screens against us, I think Oduro could become a great high-post facilitator feeding backdoor cuts like Golden does so well.

But it’s hard to spread the defense and create driving/cutting lanes when they know you can’t consistently hurt them with the 3. Lack of perimeter shooting has been by far our most lingering weakness during Dave’s tenure, and I never would’ve expected that.