Game 3: Mount St. Mary's University, Friday, November 18th, 7:30 PM, NO TV

[Junkees9]

I was disappointed the most by the lack of defense. We must have allowed at least 15 to 20 layups, most of which appeared uncontested. Mt. St. Marys never showed they could hit outside shots with any consistency and we let them drive repeatedly to the hoop. Not a good effort.

 

[MasonSAE4]

And somebody else never subbed in the last 5 minutes in a fairly big game. It was against UConn if I remember right.

Those were five well conditioned upperclassmen in a big game, probably playing on adrenaline. This was an early season game against a lower conference opponent and two completely tired underclasmen contributing nothing while one of the starters sat on the bench for a long stretch. I'm a fan of Dave, but I'm not going not criticize him because a decision worked out for Laranaga eleven years ago. People seem to be losing sight of what's fair criticism. One camp calls for Paulsens job after a close loss early season, the other yells "trust the process" after the slightest criticism of Dave. You can be a good coach and botch some decisions.

 

[hoops10]

This team is totally lacking in talent,
that is on paulson and his recruiters. the bench is full of inexperienced guards, most of who will not get enough playing time to develop. where are the big men? who is supposed to get rebounds? for whatever reason we are not acquiring a10 calbre recruits. so this will be a another long year, and well forget next year.
So how many years will it take? problem is attendance will continue to dwindle, if they keep losing.

Not sure how other schools lure and sign quality players, but Edwards and Paulson need to go back to the drawing board. Patience does have its limits.

 

[JimP]

I was disappointed the most by the lack of defense. We must have allowed at least 15 to 20 layups, most of which appeared uncontested. Mt. St. Marys never showed they could hit outside shots with any consistency and we let them drive repeatedly to the hoop. Not a good effort.

Zone? I have no problem with Paulsen playing primarily man to man, but why does GMU need to play almost solely man to man? Sometimes a zone is called for.

 

[gmujim92]

This team is totally lacking in talent,
that is on paulson and his recruiters. the bench is full of inexperienced guards, most of who will not get enough playing time to develop. where are the big men? who is supposed to get rebounds? for whatever reason we are not acquiring a10 calbre recruits. so this will be a another long year, and well forget next year.
So how many years will it take? problem is attendance will continue to dwindle, if they keep losing.

Not sure how other schools lure and sign quality players, but Edwards and Paulson need to go back to the drawing board. Patience does have its limits.

Congratulations, almost every word of this post is total bullshit.

 

[GMUSig03]

I watched most of the game, and my biggest take away that I haven't really seen emphasized by other's comments yet, is that Paulsen it still "trying out" players. He has to see who can play and contribute, and I think he is prioritizing that and using these games as exhibitions to a certain extent as preparation for the conference schedule and beyond.

This is something Coach L would routinely do, until we got to the point later on that our non-conference schedule actually mattered for at-large purposes.

We still have, what, 11 freshmen and sophomores? We've played 3 games, and are very nearly 3-0, be patient.

 

[Pablo]

I'm not going to panic, but I have lowered my expectations for the program. I'm hoping that Coach Paulsen will eventually turn it into a middle of the pack A10 program.

Hopefully, he will exceed my expectations. In the meantime, I will appreciate the players' effort and hope that Paulsen will be more flexible defensively in the future.

 

[Patriot Lawdog]

Congratulations, almost every word of this post is total bullshit.

Everyone seems to think we don't have any shooters. I still think that it's way too early in a lot of guys careers to say this. Tons of guys who were great shooters in HS take a year or two to adjust to the increased pace of play....

People need to relax and realize we weren't getting an at-large bid. Can't believe people are comparing this to Hewitt. We had great experienced players when he arrived. The cupboard was almost full not basically barren how he left it. I agree Dave needs to be more flexible at times, but he has a learning curve as well.... The Chris Mullin comparison is really funny. If you can't see the differences in the 2 situations then I don't know what to say.


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[GMUgemini]

This team is totally lacking in talent,
that is on paulson and his recruiters. the bench is full of inexperienced guards, most of who will not get enough playing time to develop. where are the big men? who is supposed to get rebounds? for whatever reason we are not acquiring a10 calbre recruits. so this will be a another long year, and well forget next year.
So how many years will it take? problem is attendance will continue to dwindle, if they keep losing.

Not sure how other schools lure and sign quality players, but Edwards and Paulson need to go back to the drawing board. Patience does have its limits.

To be fair, we out rebounded them by 15 last night.


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[PoorManProfit]

G Mas won't win a DI game until the fire that f**ktard in admissions.

 

[Petey Buckets]

Really frustrating loss. We couldn't keep MSM out of the paint. Looking at the box score it shows Wray (#5) only had four offensive rebounds, which feels low, because I'm pretty sure all four of them must have resulted in put-backs. Jalen would step off Wray to challenge the guard that we couldn't keep out of the lane, then Wray would be there to clean up the mess if the shot missed.

Jalen played one of the best games of his career but got punked on the game-winner. He was anticipating a handoff back to the guard that inbounded the ball and was shading hard. Wray spun baseline and no one was there to contest.

It looked like our gameplan was to abandon the 3 (like we did against vcu last year) and drive/backdoor cut them to death. It almost worked, but it did lead to a bunch of momentum-killing charges.

The negatives have already been covered in-depth in this thread, so I'll throw out some positives:

- Kier is gonna be a good one. On Jaire's three he set an impromptu screen that looked like it wasn't part of the play design - in the middle of his cut he found himself in front of Jaire's man. Late in the game he corrected Deandre when Deandre was on the wrong side of the floor. Then he hit two free throws with less than a minute left in overtime to tie it up. He's the kind of player that will do a lot of things that don't show up in the box score, and it's easy to see why Paulsen loves him.

- "Onions" Otis canning that 3 at the end of regulation was a beautifully designed and executed play. Three-point shooting is murdering us but it's nice to know they might be there when we absolutely need them.

- Deandre played well. My guess is that his benching was because Paulsen wants him to play more assertively on both sides. Too often he becomes passive, allowing long stretches to go by without making his mark on the game. Against MSM he had a nice drive to the basket, hit a baseline jumper, rebounded well, and recorded two blocks. He's still a crazy high potential player, but he needs to start realizing that potential or the younger guys are going to pass him by.

- Temara looked good. Missed a couple bunnies but played solid defense and looks just as bouncy and athletic as promised. Paulsen yelled at him to breathe after he missed a layup. It'll be interesting to see if the game slows down for him this year and he can harness his physical talent.

I'm not panicking. Wasn't expecting much in the win column this year anyway. This is two games now that could have easily broken the other way if we get a couple bounces.

 

[sleeperpick]

Hey everyone. Thought I'd come back in a little more limited way to talk some basketball. My thoughts so far:

1) Everyone who thought we would be better after having lost Shevon Thompson was always deluding themselves. And another thing, underestimated the loss of Marko as well, who not only could hit that tailing three, but had court vision and allowed us to play the high-low game (which is something sorely lacking this year).

2) Just like last year, we won't know who this team is until they've played at least 10 games. A lot of new faces, plus both Moor e and Jenkins are adjusting to a different system. Everyone needs a little patience.

3) The freshmen look like freshmen. Kier and Tamara (and to a lesser extent Boyd) look like the only ones who might help this team at one point this season, but they will screw up a lot too.

4) Not sold on small ball plus Paulsen's conservative system. Only way a 4 guard lineup works in a half court system is if you can put 4 shooters on the floor at the same time. We don't have the shooters and Paulsen isn't going to try to press for turnovers and run. I'd rather see two forwards out there and a return to a high-low/pick and roll offense, even if Temara or Relvao aren't ready yet.

5) This loss today was all about becoming too easy to guard. All those offensive fouls were a result of a lack of confidence to shoot even when they were. You could see the hesitation and the. The inevitable desperate drives to the basket. The other team just packed it in and dared Mason to shoot over them. They went 2-9 from long distance.

6) I said at the end of last season that this team will go as far as their defense will take them. And they are marginally better on defense, but Otis is still limited. We are playing a lot of freshman. When the opposing team pulls Jenkins off the low block, there is no one to cover for him and that basically opens up huge driving lanes and so they are going to struggle if they can't keep opposing guards in front of them.

Jenkins was so afraid to foul at the end of that game, it basically cost us the win.

7) The sky is not falling. Calling for Paulsen's head is premature. If we are worse in game 29 than we were tonight, we will have a problem. But just like last year, I think we will see improvement.

8) Expect the exact same thing next year without Jenkins and Moore. And until we can find some consistent shooters, this team isn't going anywhere.


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Jenkins looked over and asked the coach three times if he should foul. I didn't see a definitive answer from Paulsen

 

[Bison137]

Does anyone believe that Coach Paulsen will be more flexible defensively in the future?

Extremely unlikely.

 

[Vurbel]

if they keep losing.

They. I remember a time when we said "we." The virus lingers.

 

[Vurbel]

Everyone seems to think we don't have any shooters. I still think that it's way too early in a lot of guys careers to say this. Tons of guys who were great shooters in HS take a year or two to adjust to the increased pace of play....

People need to relax and realize we weren't getting an at-large bid. Can't believe people are comparing this to Hewitt. We had great experienced players when he arrived. The cupboard was almost full not basically barren how he left it. I agree Dave needs to be more flexible at times, but he has a learning curve as well.... The Chris Mullin comparison is really funny. If you can't see the differences in the 2 situations then I don't know what to say.


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If we hired Paulsen rather than Hewitt we...ahhh, nevermind.

 

[Falco]

jamion christian Is now 3-0 againts Dave pAulsen coaches teams

 

[stimes]

This team is totally lacking in talent,
that is on paulson and his recruiters. the bench is full of inexperienced guards, most of who will not get enough playing time to develop. where are the big men? who is supposed to get rebounds? for whatever reason we are not acquiring a10 calbre recruits. so this will be a another long year, and well forget next year.
So how many years will it take? problem is attendance will continue to dwindle, if they keep losing.

Not sure how other schools lure and sign quality players, but Edwards and Paulson need to go back to the drawing board. Patience does have its limits.

Amen, Paulen talks a good game but it's time to see through him. We gave him an extension for a losing season. I thought rewards were based on merits. He has a nine guy rotation, where guys can't get into a rhythm. We are playing small ball with no full court press, or fast breaks. He is truly delusional if he thinks we can win this way. He has at least three guys on the court who can not defend. I love Otis, but he needs to take pride in his defense. He plays the most minutes and gets abused by his man every game. Abrams needs to be on the court period. If he's in the dog house let him out, we need wins. It's time to go zone, we don't have the personal to play man to man. It's time for change.

 

[GMUgemini]

Mount St. Mary's just won the Northeast Conference Championship against St. Francis (PA.) 71-61. They're going dancing.

 

[Falco]

Mount St. Mary's just won the Northeast Conference Championship against St. Francis (PA.) 71-61. They're going dancing.

Just joking but wouldn't it be nice this time of year if we were in a joke conference and we could pretty much guarantee that we will be dancing

 

[psyclone]

Mount St. Mary's just won the Northeast Conference Championship against St. Francis (PA.) 71-61. They're going dancing.

The Mount was 1-11 at one point in the season, with their one win being against us, playing 7 top 100 teams on the road. Likely lots of "guarantee" games in there.

They finished 14-4 in their conference and 19-15 overall after their tournament wins.