Game 1: Colgate University, Friday, Nov 13th, 7 PM, MASN

[933127]

The outside shooting was as expected.....a lot of nerves and no real improvment from last year's fairly poor outside shooting. That said, I can't remember I saw a bunch of perimeter players with such a bunch of ugly shooting form. I winced when most of them lofted up a long shot.....they remind me of guys I played against in JV high school ball, not A-10 shooters, in their form alone. Now I know it doesn't matter the form if the ball goes in, but boy do some of these guys make Patrick Holloway look like Bobby Hurley.....

The ugly shooting form was the very first thing I noticed in all the freshmen players when I was at the open practice back on October 24th. This is probably the reason why they were all lightly recruited with very little D1 offers. Very flat shot, no elevation, all of them are shooting FORWARDS instead of shooting UP.

However with Paulsen being such a stickler for fundamentals, I'm sure he will tweak & fix their shooting form in due time.

 

[phoenix-arizona]

So, if that was a noose, what about the noose around the banana. Was the person that drew it a racist against minions or something?

Again, it's all about context. There's no historic racism about nooses around bananas. But linking apes, monkeys, bananas, towards blacks, has historical context.

 

[Vurbel]

This being a drawing. An extremely offensive drawing, but an anonymous drawing regardless.

You've got a pretty sheltered life there kiddo.

It's not about just some drawing that some random person did and some other random person gets ruffled by it. It's the fact that it is there, and it could be systemic of something larger. That is what is being addressed. It's the whole micro vs. macro situation.

 

[GSII]

how do we know this was not drawn by the person in the video?

 

[Quentin Daniels]

It could be systematic of something larger? I mean no actual evidence needed, but it could be. Absolutely no indication of it at all or history of it or indication of it but could be.

So the reaction isn't knee jerk at all or Cabrera afraid of campus crybullies like those at Mizzou. It's just it could be.

Gotcha.

 

[phoenix-arizona]

I love that we are debating how awful it was that the president took maybe five minutes to discuss an issue of potential racism.

 

[Vurbel]

I'd rather address something that "could" have meaning, than do nothing and when something happens say "gee, shucks, I guess I should have been proactive."

 

[gmujim92]

It's just more PC bullsh!t, right up there with "safe spaces," "trigger words" and the rest of the nonsense being churned out by a generation of thin-skinned millennials.

Just like false rape claims (such as the ones at Duke and U.Va.) do immeasurable harm to the effort to address sexual violence on college campuses, going out of our way to identify cases of "potential racism" makes many people tune out in frustration and that hurts the victims of real, actual racism.

I wasn't alive during the early days of the civil rights movement, but I've read enough U.S. history to know that the people who risked their lives to protest government-sponsored racism of the Jim Crow South didn't do so because they had been "marginalized" or had their feelings hurt.

We still have plenty of actual racism in the world. Why not try to actually do something about that instead of getting pissy about some stupid anonymous drawing?

 

[Bricker]

What really puzzles me (and I'm not that old, still < 40) is how desperate younger people are to be victims these days. It's the oppression olympics and they need a participation ribbon. Pure narcissism and the ability to kickstart a career with social media is also a bonus.

I spent a few minutes going through the twitter feed of the person who originally posted the video. After just a few minutes of reading, it's obvious this person is an activist and very heavily involved in these types of causes-- which is fine.

However, their desire to "participate" after the whole Mizzou thing is pretty clear. These kids want media attention. They want to "prove" that "these things happen at G. Mas too"-- just look at the hashtags that are being used. I liken them to an illegal drug task force facing budget cuts. If it's a slow week, they're gonna have to go and shake dow the usual suspects to justify their existence.

Cabrera is smart enough to get out in front of all of this. But it's also important to note that this cause can (ironically) turn into bullying really fast.

Mason has always been a diverse campus, and I was fortunate enough to have professors and fellow students who would engage in debates and discussions that helped me grow as a person and learn about different students' perspectives.

Unfortunately, I have a feeling that talk like this would get kids swiftly kicked out of school these days. I can imagine things getting out of hand very quickly. Say you were working the door at a private fraternity event and some uninvited kids show up. You tell them it's a private event and you have to be a guest of a member to get in. But one of them is from Papua New Guinea and complains. Next thing you know, you're booted out of school and can't get a job because someone said you hate New Guineans. The school isn't going to put it through a proper review. They can't afford the bad publicity. You're gonna get branded a racist and tossed. Sorry for ruining your life. kid!

If they can't find enough real racists, they're going to manufacture them. I know that probably sounds horrible, but it's true. So I'm taking every single one of these "events" with a big ol' grain of salt. I can only hope for a Welch-McCarthy-like shake up to this insanity before it goes too far...

 

[GSII]

Bricker,
You hit the nail on the head. Young people want to be given something, in this case and many others its to be a victim and or show that they matter. The problem is deep. Are we adressing it? Some kids are growing up without confidence. This is partly why I hate everyone gets a trophy crap.

 

[Vurbel]

The bottom line is who has a problem with anything Cabrera said? I'm not talking about the venue or the timing or the place or anything like that, but the actual words said?

 

[Quentin Daniels]

I'd rather address something that "could" have meaning, than do nothing and when something happens say "gee, shucks, I guess I should have been proactive."

Let me know if you'd ever like to address something that "does" have meaning and you can come with me to Thomazeau next time. Start saving your pennies and taking your malaria pills now.

I think a week of carting your own water, eating plantains and rice three meals a day, sweating your balls off and being grateful that you have it while those around you don't would do some of you crybullies a world of good. Caution - no wifi there so you can't log your microaggressions.

 

[Leesburg Chankenstank III]

Just like Cabrera taking seriously an event that probably wasn't that big of a deal, we are now now making big deal about his 5 minute speech that would have been forgotten about in less than 24 hours unless somebody brought it up here on the boards.

Just like people having a desire to become victims, others have a desire to have artificial outrage at anything that doesn't jive with their world view.

Let's be honest, it works both ways and most of us are caught up somewhere in the middle.

 

[KAOriginal]

What really puzzles me (and I'm not that old, still < 40) is how desperate younger people are to be victims these days. It's the oppression olympics and they need a participation ribbon. Pure narcissism and the ability to kickstart a career with social media is also a bonus.

This why we do talk about Cabrera's speech. Because it was given to make people feel better and to look "responsive."

We have become such a society of "victims"...that that's the only way to feel validated and important. The Sandra Flukes, the girl on Fox wanting free tuition, the Missou kids....and so on and son.

No one wants to get anywhere by ACTUALLY doing something.....they to get ahead because they were somehow offended, or victimized, or some other reason than actually accomplishing something.

Heck we don't even know who put up the darn picture....maybe it was done to garner attention?

I cry for society.....

 

[gmutom]

I did find it a little forced after Cabrera got done talking when Michael Rudy yelled, "White walk-on basketball players matter!"

 

[Saul Pewitt]

Pshhhh....Cabreara doesn't care. He fired a black coach and hire a white one.

Where my, I mean Coach Hewitt's, public apology and social justice rally? This Paulsen guy hasn't even won a game at Mason yet and Coach Hewitt once made it all the way to the national championship game in case you hadn't heard.

 

[CHRISTOPHER JAMES JOLLAY]

I see both sides of this issue. I completely agree with Jim's larger, macro points, but also completely am fine with Cabrera doing what he did and whatever the students did on the concourse. On a side note I had the pleasure of meeting the new diversity head (or whatever they're called) at Mason, dude from Michigan named (I think) Julian. Really nice guy, talked to him in line in the Gold Room.

On another side note, there is nothing that offends me, really, at all. Except maybe the fried chicken, black stereotype. As my black friends (I have two and a half, three and a half depending on how my stalking of Jeff Grayer goes) can tell you, a Bojangles is far more likely to go out of business for temporary replenishment if Jollay and his kin come through than it is if any collection of black persons come through.

I know this is a lot to digest, and mostly pointless. So if the mods choose to edit this, well, f**k you mods.

 

[BandWagon18]

Do people in the quest for justice and equality sometimes take it too far? Yes, like blocking media from public spaces or the various things that happen on Tumblr. I have the feeling that the people who are most vehemently against the recent university protests see that in certain media outlets and form opinions without actually knowing what's going on for sure. This leads to righteous anger and unfounded stereotypes.
The idea of the "PC police" going around and telling white men what to do is an illusion. These protestors and organizers are not anti-white. They have a goal of justice and equality for everyone so they analyze the situation, find places where that isn't the case, and form an escalating plan of action to achieve their goal. Oftentimes, the media only captures the various movements at their most escalated stage, leaving people in the dark as to what's been tried before and giving the impression that they unfoundedly erupted out of nowhere.
Bottom line: the protests at Yale, Mizzou, Clare McKenna College vis-à-vis racism are not symptoms of a fragile, whiny, entitled, sniveling group of "crybullies". These are not the "oppression olympics" and being marginalized certainly isn't something people joke about. These protests and activist students (and I know many) are rightfully picking up where their forebears left off. If you're curious about their line of thinking, ask them. I promise, they'll appreciate it. Don't outsource that to the media and the talking heads.

 

[Vurbel]

I'm not sure how we went from student's expressing themselves to talking about kids getting trophies, but ok.

 

[TwoFootTackle]

Looked a lot like like PH's tenure. Bad basketball. Bad coaching. Maybe it will get better...

Can you be more specific? Bad coaching means different things to different people, so what does it mean to you?