Fire Dave Paulsen / Hire Tony Skinn

[Pablo]

On the surface, yes it does look like a complete joke, and the hire may ultimately fail, but what does this have to do with what I said?

Sorry, but I'm not buying this - https://www.wbir.com/article/sports...coach/51-6eef1259-85a6-48e1-acb2-0a30b0160cea:

"5. Why bother to pay a search firm $120,000 to get a coach if AD White is just going to hire Heupel away from the place where White was just at?

White told reporters Wednesday he didn't enter the search with Heupel already in mind. He said he only zeroed in on Heupel after determining the qualities he wanted in a UT coach."

 

[Patriot8]

Sorry, but I'm not buying this - https://www.wbir.com/article/sports...coach/51-6eef1259-85a6-48e1-acb2-0a30b0160cea:

"5. Why bother to pay a search firm $120,000 to get a coach if AD White is just going to hire Heupel away from the place where White was just at?

White told reporters Wednesday he didn't enter the search with Heupel already in mind. He said he only zeroed in on Heupel after determining the qualities he wanted in a UT coach."

Don't buy it then. I work here in Knoxville, at UT, with Athletics. I know that White didn't reach out to Heupel until 5 days into the search, after being turned down a number of times by candidates like James Franklin, Matt Campbell, Billy Napier, Tony Elliott, and others. At the end of the day, his best remaining candidate happened to be the guy he had worked with at UCF. It's an unfortunate optic, but that's how the search played out.

I'm sure this board is tired of hearing about Tennessee, unless it's the occasional Rick Barnes mention, so i'll turn it back to search firms. On the surface, they look like a waste of money or an unnecessary expense, but not every AD has the network to just flip through their phone and find a guy, or they don't have the time to setup interviews, run background, etc. It's the convenience of having viable options presented to you, with everything you need to know before you personally interview a candidate.

 

[sleeperpick]

Don't buy it then. I work here in Knoxville, at UT, with Athletics. I know that White didn't reach out to Heupel until 5 days into the search, after being turned down a number of times by candidates like James Franklin, Matt Campbell, Billy Napier, Tony Elliott, and others. At the end of the day, his best remaining candidate happened to be the guy he had worked with at UCF. It's an unfortunate optic, but that's how the search played out.

I'm sure this board is tired of hearing about Tennessee, unless it's the occasional Rick Barnes mention, so i'll turn it back to search firms. On the surface, they look like a waste of money or an unnecessary expense, but not every AD has the network to just flip through their phone and find a guy, or they don't have the time to setup interviews, run background, etc. It's the convenience of having viable options presented to you, with everything you need to know before you personally interview a candidate.

I mean people have to look at search firms like companies use technology Value Added Resellers (VARS). pay an extra 4-10% for them to go find technologies that help solve problems you or a search firm finds... don't see how a search firm is such a crazy idea to some folks. Search like firms are involved in MANY parts of life.

 

[By George.]

Take y'all's dumbass volleyball commentary elsewhere, this is the I hate Paulsen thread.

Not even hate, just understood that he’s not equipped to win at this level. Not at any point of DPs time here has By George said to each other “ok, this is our guy, this is who will lead us.” Not ONCE. We’ve been encouraged at times and have seen growth, sure. Watching walk on’s get scholarships is kinda cool too. We like him, he asks us how our kids are doing when he sees us and was thankful we went to the Cayman Classic but the fit has never felt right. He’s not DMV at all.

This is not to take away from his legacy as a coach etc, this experiment just didn’t work. We fear what a lame duck season looks like and we’d bet on it happening given he finishes this year at current pace.

 

[bravesfan]

It's an unfortunate optic, but that's how the search played out.

Is it unfortunate, though? As the AD of a SEC school, if you aren't getting turned down because you went after the best candidate out there ... it's because you're Alabama and you hired 'em. He's not doing his job if he's not swinging for the fences.

I remember Debbie Yow talk about how Mark Gottfried was the only candidate NC State "offered a contract to." Even though it was well known that Shaka Smart and others turned them down.

 

[Patriot8]

Is it unfortunate, though? As the AD of a SEC school, if you aren't getting turned down because you went after the best candidate out there ... it's because you're Alabama and you hired 'em. He's not doing his job if he's not swinging for the fences.

I remember Debbie Yow talk about how Mark Gottfried was the only candidate NC State "offered a contract to." Even though it was well known that Shaka Smart and others turned them down.

I meant that it was unfortunate that he ultimately had to hire the coach he had just worked with, compounded by the search firm angle. I don't have a problem with how he ran the search, or who UT eventually ended up with, but it does give people the ability of saying "he was just going to bring this guy all along" even if that's 100% completely false. People will run with that, just like people ran with the McDonalds bag recruiting story, which also never happened.

 

[bravesfan]

I meant that it was unfortunate that he ultimately had to hire the coach he had just worked with, compounded by the search firm angle. I don't have a problem with how he ran the search, or who UT eventually ended up with, but it does give people the ability of saying "he was just going to bring this guy all along" even if that's 100% completely false. People will run with that, just like people ran with the McDonalds bag recruiting story, which also never happened.

Yeah, I hear you. Goodman is well known for hating search firms. He crapped on Mason for using one when they hired Paulsen. Oddly enough, he stated that they got that one right...

 

[tblack33]

Not even hate, just understood that he’s not equipped to win at this level. Not at any point of DPs time here has By George said to each other “ok, this is our guy, this is who will lead us.” Not ONCE. We’ve been encouraged at times and have seen growth, sure. Watching walk on’s get scholarships is kinda cool too. We like him, he asks us how our kids are doing when he sees us and was thankful we went to the Cayman Classic but the fit has never felt right. He’s not DMV at all.

This not to take away from his legacy as a coach etc, this experiment just didn’t work. We fear what a lame duck season looks like and we’d bet on it happening given he finishes this year at current pace.

Yeah you are right, no malice towards the dude from me whatsoever, despite some of my rhetoric sometimes. You hit the nail on the head, he's just not our dude.

 

[mkaufman1]

Not even hate, just understood that he’s not equipped to win at this level. Not at any point of DPs time here has By George said to each other “ok, this is our guy, this is who will lead us.” Not ONCE. We’ve been encouraged at times and have seen growth, sure. Watching walk on’s get scholarships is kinda cool too. We like him, he asks us how our kids are doing when he sees us and was thankful we went to the Cayman Classic but the fit has never felt right. He’s not DMV at all.

This not to take away from his legacy as a coach etc, this experiment just didn’t work. We fear what a lame duck season looks like and we’d bet on it happening given he finishes this year at current pace.

The more I think about it, this is just spot on. I'm just in disagreement on the lame ducking.

 

[By George.]

A10 Talk might have the 5 dumbest A-10 (experts) as a part of the group. When they aren't absolutely blowing Davidson or vcu they are 100% wrong about everything else. Hell our insider actually thinks a womens basketball team from Lousiville will beat the Louisville mens team. Bunch of dummies on that site

Although I don’t agree with your opinion about A10Talk, we just had a Giant Killer debate about if UConn’s women’s team would beat Mason’s men’s team and 8 of the 11 contributors said yes. So yeah.

 

[Patriot8]

Although I don’t agree with your opinion about A10Talk, we just had a Giant Killer debate about if UConn’s women’s team would beat Mason’s men’s team and 8 of the 11 contributors said yes. So yeah.

Those are 8 idiots.

 

[Dawgs99]

Me and 4 other dudes I played college football with could beat UConn for a half....maybe a quarter now I'm getting old.

 

[sleeperpick]

Although I don’t agree with your opinion about A10Talk, we just had a Giant Killer debate about if UConn’s women’s team would beat Mason’s men’s team and 8 of the 11 contributors said yes. So yeah.

I mean Sue Bird said the men’s club team at UConn was the best team they played during their championship reign... and Auriema routinely scheduled scrimmages with them before the season because of that. Masons really bad.... but hopefully better than the UCONN club team that beat the UConn women’s team

 

[Pablo]

Although I don’t agree with your opinion about A10Talk, we just had a Giant Killer debate about if UConn’s women’s team would beat Mason’s men’s team and 8 of the 11 contributors said yes. So yeah.

Years ago, Trish Halpin's husband would post to the old message board. When Trish played (the holder of all of Mason's records for blocked shots), he said that Debbie Taneyhill recruited him and some other guys who played in high school to scrimmage against the women's team (a practice started by Pat Summitt at UT).

I agree with sleeperpick that the UConn women's team would not beat Mason's men's team.

 

[Pablo]

Don't buy it then. I work here in Knoxville, at UT, with Athletics. I know that White didn't reach out to Heupel until 5 days into the search, after being turned down a number of times by candidates like James Franklin, Matt Campbell, Billy Napier, Tony Elliott, and others. At the end of the day, his best remaining candidate happened to be the guy he had worked with at UCF. It's an unfortunate optic, but that's how the search played out.

I'm sure this board is tired of hearing about Tennessee, unless it's the occasional Rick Barnes mention, so i'll turn it back to search firms. On the surface, they look like a waste of money or an unnecessary expense, but not every AD has the network to just flip through their phone and find a guy, or they don't have the time to setup interviews, run background, etc. It's the convenience of having viable options presented to you, with everything you need to know before you personally interview a candidate.

I appreciate the response. BTW, as a Penn State alum, I wonder why James Franklin was not interested given the speculation that he wanted to return to the SEC?

 

[sleeperpick]

I appreciate the response. BTW, as a Penn State alum, I wonder why James Franklin was not interested given the speculation that he wanted to return to the SEC?

Because Tennessee is a hell hole right now. About 6-7 jobs better than Penn St and Tennessee certainly is not one of them

 

[GMUgemini]

The more I think about it, this is just spot on. I'm just in disagreement on the lame ducking.

He shouldn’t be lameducked. But if they are trying to save 200k on the front end, I hope they are willing to invest it on the backend (meaning willing to pay 800k-900k to whoever replaces him). In other words, I want to see an ambitious hire to signal they are finally willing to really to go all in.

If they go cheap on both sides of the lameduck, I don’t think they’ll bring many people back unless they get lucky.

 

[sleeperpick]

Years ago, Trish Halpin's husband would post to the old message board. When Trish played (the holder of all of Mason's records for blocked shots), he said that Debbie Taneyhill recruited him and some other guys who played in high school to scrimmage against the women's team (a practice started by Pat Summitt at UT).

I agree with sleeperpick that the UConn women's team would not beat Mason's men's team.

Don’t get me wrong Paige Bueckers is probably more offensively talented than any of our guards but Mason would beat them by 40+. Calixte Oduro Jordan and AJ would have an absolute field day inside.

 

[Pablo]

Speaking of women's basketball:




Rhody WBB

@RhodyWBB
·
3m

HALFTIME

Rhody holds George Mason to just one field goal in the second quarter to go into the locker room up 38-9.

Catherine Cairns leads all scorers with 15 points, all from long range. Marta Vargas is the second Ram in double figures (12) after the first 20.

 

[gmubrian]

Not even hate, just understood that he’s not equipped to win at this level. Not at any point of DPs time here has By George said to each other “ok, this is our guy, this is who will lead us.” Not ONCE. We’ve been encouraged at times and have seen growth, sure. Watching walk on’s get scholarships is kinda cool too. We like him, he asks us how our kids are doing when he sees us and was thankful we went to the Cayman Classic but the fit has never felt right. He’s not DMV at all.

This is not to take away from his legacy as a coach etc, this experiment just didn’t work. We fear what a lame duck season looks like and we’d bet on it happening given he finishes this year at current pace.

So your post kind of made me think about "liking" Paulsen. I should say that don't know him personally at all. I met him and shook his hand exactly one time literally 5 minutes before Mason staff pissed me off for the last time and I walked away. I thought I would like Paulsen personally, but I am beginning to think maybe not so much based on his public statements, the lack of taking responsibility for the product on the floor and the way he gets our hopes up over and over again with grand statements about how good the team will be this year just to find out he doesn't know what the F he is talking about.

I did get to know Hewitt a little bit personally through interacting with him many times. I really liked Hewitt at a personal level if I didn't agree with his life view and coaching style.

I hate both of their coaching styles and I seem to find them more and more similar after every game. I have even grown to cringe when Paulsen calls a timeout at inopportune times (like Hewitt), sometimes killing momentum, or to draw up an inbound and play that won't work. If I compare apples to apples, though, and go by the statements they make publicly, I am finding Paulsen's public statements to be more annoying than Hewitt's.