Game 32: A-10 Tournament Opening Round, Saint Louis University, Wednesday, March 9th, 6:30 PM, ASN

[KAOriginal]

The anger over the D of the freshman is a little much.

There's a reason MOST first year players don't see the court this much in their first year, and that was even true under El Cubano even in the old days of the CAA.

On to next year.....

 

[GMUgemini]

The anger over the D of the freshman is a little much.

There's a reason MOST first year players don't see the court this much in their first year, and that was even true under El Cubano even in the old days of the CAA.

On to next year.....

I think that largely has to do with how bad their defense was against the bottom half of the league, or every time they had a big win they would follow it up with getting blown out of the water in the first half of a team with much less quality a few days later.

 

[GMUgemini]

Cut the freshman some slack - if you watched the quality wins - you saw they played defense during the games. I think that down the stretch they were tired. Yes - they have work to do both on offense and defense but it is a big adjustment going from High School to D1 College Athletics. It does not matter that prior to College they played and practiced all the time. The intensity of the work outs, the speed of the game, the size of the players, weight lifting in the morning then practice in the afternoon, all the road trips, then you throw in "College" - studying, class and the social life - things kids not playing D1 sports sometime struggle with and its a lot. I speak from experience - these guys were wearing down but this year will really pay dividends for next year and beyond.

Otis and Jaire (should have been on all A10 rookie team) played minutes that would wear a Senior out.

I really appreciated this teams effort and improvement this year - it was bumpy and up and down but I think we are headed in the right direction.

Just want to be clear that I'm not being super critical of the freshmen's defense. I was just saying that if they don't improve enough, Paulsen isn't going to keep playing them. And I think there is going to be a lot more competition for playing time in the back court next season than there was this season, which will ultimately be good for everyone.

 

[MasonFanatic]

When have we ever had freshmen who played starters minutes who were solid defenders? I don't remember (m)any of those at Mason. Yes, they need to get better, but there is no reason they won't.

 

[gmujim92]

When have we ever had freshmen who played starters minutes who were solid defenders? I don't remember (m)any of those at Mason. Yes, they need to get better, but there is no reason they won't.

Pretty sure the list begins and ends with George Evans.

Langley got a lot of steals, but you can't be a good defensive player when you play for a coach who wants the other team to score as quickly as possible.

 

[Jack Strop]

Keep in mind that Paulsen mostly played three guards in-game. Marquise, Otis, and Grayer and their substitutes Murell, Abrams, and sometimes, but rarely Tate. Murell didn't see many minutes either. Fatigue was certainly a factor. What do you do, go to the whip until all your horses drop dead?

In addition, if a defensive matchup wasn't good then what do you do? The A10 is guard heavy and we had 4-1/2 guards to work with. Do you put in three bigs? Sometimes we did, and got out-shot and frequently caught flat-footed.

I remember a lot of you rolling your eyes at Hewitt (God bless his mess) at recruiting nothing but 6'4" swingmen when we joined the A-10. He was right for doing that (but then again, even a broken clock is right twice a day). We'll have more guards next season and I'm positive a bit more success.

 

[GSII]

strop,
without Shevon in the paint, but more guards, will the approach on defense change to disrupt the opponenents guard play, or will we sag into the paint even more to get rebounds?

 

[Dawgs99]

strop,
without Shevon in the paint, but more guards, will the approach on defense change to disrupt the opponenents guard play, or will we sag into the paint even more to get rebounds?

For fu*ck sake with the defense man....every thread you bring this up.

 

[GSII]

For fu*ck sake with the defense man....every thread you bring this up.

u have nothing to add? keep moving then.

 

[disgruntled]

Langley got a lot of steals, but you can't be a good defensive player when you play for a coach who wants the other team to score as quickly as possible.

Wanted the opposing team to shoot quickly...not score quickly. His strategy relied on better conditioning and literally running the other team into the ground. This works with NBA caliber players (Gathers/Kimble) not so much with the guys he was able to recruit at Mason. I still remember the parachutes.

Looking forward to an improved team next year.