Game 4: GMU (2-1) at Paradise Jam vs Boston College (2-1) on Friday, November 18, at 8:00 PM.

sleeperpick

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Can we re open the locked thread? Would love to bump some Ronnie Polite being decent against glorified D2 American PGs after watching this shit tonight. He was BAD on both ends. Abused defensively and lost offensively. Yuck yuck yuck. Maybe the hip is flaring? Or maybe he’s just glaringly awful at defense and not very good offensively unless he plays a shitty PG. A10 doesn’t have many shitty PGs so something to watch out for.
 

mkaufman1

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GIVING DAY 2023
Can we re open the locked thread? Would love to bump some Ronnie Polite being decent against glorified D2 American PGs after watching this shit tonight. He was BAD on both ends. Abused defensively and lost offensively. Yuck yuck yuck. Maybe the hip is flaring? Or maybe he’s just glaringly awful at defense and not very good offensively unless he plays a shitty PG. A10 doesn’t have many shitty PGs so something to watch out for.
Done
 

JimP

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Can we re open the locked thread? Would love to bump some Ronnie Polite being decent against glorified D2 American PGs after watching this shit tonight. He was BAD on both ends. Abused defensively and lost offensively. Yuck yuck yuck. Maybe the hip is flaring? Or maybe he’s just glaringly awful at defense and not very good offensively unless he plays a shitty PG. A10 doesn’t have many shitty PGs so something to watch out for.
Dinkins played within himself tonight. Made FT's. Played decent D. Looks like the best PG option IMO.
 

GSII

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GIVING DAY 2023
Wow...had to go on a jog after that shit show.

The Good: Dinkins.
The Bad: The Coaching

I know (hope) these players have better college abilities that what they showed. But we want to run a stupid nba style offense as if we got nba prospects to show off. MFers, just coach a system that wins games and leave nba schemes, to nba coaches. You are putting these players in situations they aren't good enough to handle. You said you were gonna bench guys that made mistakes. Look no further than the very first possession. Turnover. Then as game went on, yall let Polite get 20 pts shot on him in first half before finally doing something, despite being down 28pts. But it was too late. WTF are we doing on offense? This free play BS gotta go! One thing is obvious, Oduro is a puppy.

Welcome back Virus.
 

GMUgemini

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Oldest team we’ve had in a long time and not a single senior playing like they know what they’re doing. Oduro, Ticket, Cooper all extremely underwhelming to the point that I wished English told Cooper we weren’t holding a scholarship open for him. Oduro needs to concentrate on what made him a good college player last season and forget the NBA (because it is not happening). Not sure what Ticket’s problem is, but he needs to shake some cobwebs loose or something. Bailey is the only one halfway competent in the starting 5 right now and I thought he’d be a better on ball defender than he’s been so far.

Polite isn’t the answer, nor is Singleton, and Dinkins isn’t ready. We are going to be limited because we are limited at point guard.

Felton is supposed to have been our defensive guru (our defense sucks).

Tomlinson is supposed to be our offensive genius (our offense looks disjointed

English wants to play an NBA style without having any NBA caliber players…he’s either going to learn to be a college coach or wash out real quick.
 

JimP

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Oldest team we’ve had in a long time and not a single senior playing like they know what they’re doing. Oduro, Ticket, Cooper all extremely underwhelming to the point that I wished English told Cooper we weren’t holding a scholarship open for him. Oduro needs to concentrate on what made him a good college player last season and forget the NBA (because it is not happening). Not sure what Ticket’s problem is, but he needs to shake some cobwebs loose or something. Bailey is the only one halfway competent in the starting 5 right now and I thought he’d be a better on ball defender than he’s been so far.

Polite isn’t the answer, nor is Singleton, and Dinkins isn’t ready. We are going to be limited because we are limited at point guard.

Felton is supposed to have been our defensive guru (our defense sucks).

Tomlinson is supposed to be our offensive genius (our offense looks disjointed

English wants to play an NBA style without having any NBA caliber players…he’s either going to learn to be a college coach or wash out real quick.
Yep, get back to basics Oduro and then.make $$ in Europe.
 

mkaufman1

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GIVING DAY 2023
Wow...had to go on a jog after that shit show.

The Good: Dinkins.
The Bad: The Coaching

I know (hope) these players have better college abilities that what they showed. But we want to run a stupid nba style offense as if we got nba prospects to show off. MFers, just coach a system that wins games and leave nba schemes, to nba coaches. You are putting these players in situations they aren't good enough to handle. You said you were gonna bench guys that made mistakes. Look no further than the very first possession. Turnover. Then as game went on, yall let Polite get 20 pts shot on him in first half before finally doing something, despite being down 28pts. But it was too late. WTF are we doing on offense? This free play BS gotta go! One thing is obvious, Oduro is a puppy.

Welcome back Virus.
Agree w you other than virus. Polite needed to come out sooner. He was being abused. Oduro was lost.
we didn’t run many plays down 20 plus, a lot of run up court and chuck a three.
 

phoenix-arizona

All-American
B3D578B5-43BD-49F6-B214-17081748E095.png
 

GMU79

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GIVING DAY 2023
Oldest team we’ve had in a long time and not a single senior playing like they know what they’re doing. Oduro, Ticket, Cooper all extremely underwhelming to the point that I wished English told Cooper we weren’t holding a scholarship open for him. Oduro needs to concentrate on what made him a good college player last season and forget the NBA (because it is not happening). Not sure what Ticket’s problem is, but he needs to shake some cobwebs loose or something. Bailey is the only one halfway competent in the starting 5 right now and I thought he’d be a better on ball defender than he’s been so far.

Polite isn’t the answer, nor is Singleton, and Dinkins isn’t ready. We are going to be limited because we are limited at point guard.

Felton is supposed to have been our defensive guru (our defense sucks).

Tomlinson is supposed to be our offensive genius (our offense looks disjointed

English wants to play an NBA style without having any NBA caliber players…he’s either going to learn to be a college coach or wash out real quick.
Somehow I don't think President Washington is happy either. Remember when he put the rest of the A10 "on notice?" If KE doesn't turn things around pretty quickly, English may not see a year 5...or 4.
 

Earl the Squirrel

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Agree w you other than virus. Polite needed to come out sooner. He was being abused. Oduro was lost.
we didn’t run many plays down 20 plus, a lot of run up court and chuck a three.

The Justyn Fernandez double dribble with 1 minute, when he was all by himself, was an appropriate end to a miserable night. Last year we had such a great start, culminating with the UMD win, before we went sideways. Remember how great it felt to be 5-0 after the Maryland game?

This year we've started flat and it's not clear things are going to get a whole lot better.

Time to roll a fatty...
 

HoopsAdmin

Administrator
Staff member
A sad a** effort, all around, gents. I’d like to be positive and think this is where we bottom out, and it’s all upwards from here - but it’s hard to feel that way. I’m not a coach, but if I was, I’d bench the “veteran” starters against Belmont to send a message. I’d probably bench myself while I’m at it. Unacceptable to have this team look so unprepared and soft.
 

Earl the Squirrel

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Somehow I don't think President Washington is happy either. Remember when he put the rest of the A10 "on notice?" If KE doesn't turn things around pretty quickly, English may not see a year 5...or 4.
In CKEs defense, he is recruiting above his pay grade (better than any coach we have had since Larranaga) so I'm confident we'll be ok, but it may take another year or two to get this train really rolling, but this game sure is fickle and tough.

It will iron out "rising stars" coaches if they do not produce. Anyone remember Todd Bozeman? Heck, even if you are young AND produce you can get kicked to the curb as soon as you stumble (e.g., Steve Lavin). Bozeman started out as a Mason assistant, got the Cal job at an early age, had success, then found himself coaching 9 year olds 10 years later, after getting drummed out. He's now holding a clipboard as an assistant on Rhody's bench, after a 10+ year stint at a college backwater, Morgan St.

Even guys who have been around, can recruit, and have strong resumes (e.g., Martelli) are vulnerable and can be tossed without hesitation. When the sharks (i.e., donors) smell blood in the water...as soon as there is any weakness, the clock starts...tick-tock...tick-tock.

CKE knows all of this, of course. He took the $$$ and now - for the next two-three (2-3) years - finds himself in a fight for his professional future. I'm still betting on coach, but it's also possible he winds up on the Rhody bench with a clipboard in 10 years.
 

gmutom

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GIVING DAY 2023
I had a late dinner planned at a restaurant with some friends tonight, so I was watching the game on my phone for the first 15 minutes. I was so disgusted with how terrible and disjointed we looked, I turned the game off and didn’t check the score until it was over.

My primary question is how can a team with so many seniors look so lost? Youth is not our problem. The only conclusion I can come to is roster management, strategy and chemistry, because this team lacks all three. Our players looked lost on the court, beginning with Josh Oduro —who was supposed to take a step forward and become an A10 POY candidate. Tonight, he looked like a scared version of his freshman self.

Right now, we just have a bunch of players thrown on the court together like they are playing a pick-up game at the YMCA. If Kim English is the coach we thought he was, he better start to figure some shit out with the schemes on both ends of the court and the rotations, because our issues start with him.
 
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GMUSSTN

Starter
GIVING DAY 2023
When they made that social media post about the whole team going out on a catamaran and snorkeling and spending a day at the beach it had me wondering...that stuff tires you out. Being in the sun all day zaps you, especially when you're as far south as they are. Seems to me a nice quiet day around the hotel might have been better for the quality of play than taking advantage of the finer points of island living.

The bad news is that even if that is the excuse, they aren't any less tired than they were after doing all that. Probably pretty shitty for me to even accuse that of being the problem but man I'm grasping at straws here to figure out how we laid so big of an egg.

This team isn't doing the things that you don't have to be talented to do. Rebounding, playing defense, moving off the ball, FREE THROWS. All these are things you can get good at even if you suck and they help you when the shots aren't falling. Our FT% is unacceptable and we are getting trounced on rebounding. Something needs to change and quick.

I've said my piece.
 

dr. gunnie

Administrator
Staff member
11/18/22 - the day the bloom fell off the rose for me

That was one of the worst Mason performances I’ve seen and it was against a crap Boston College. At least when we would get blown out by vcu, they were good.

Kim no longer gets a free pass. If this were Hewitt or Paulsen they’d be getting 10x the criticism. Oduro looks absolutely awful. All that talk about the NBA is laughable at this point. Our point guard position is as unsettled today as it was last year. Our two returning upperclassmen who couldn’t miss at Kenner all summer look like me shooting 3’s so far. It seems to me we’ve decided to switch how we rebound and it’s been an absolute failure. We look soft, undisciplined, and lost.

Now we find out if it can be fixed. I’m not optimistic. Kim hasn’t shown me anything other than the ability to recruit and some social media savvy. When it comes to on the court adjustments or X’s and O’s, I haven’t seen it. Will the players even respond to him? They seem way more buddy/buddy with him and a lot less of a typical coach/player relationship. Obviously I hope I’m wrong, but if we look this bad against a bad Boston College, what are we going to look like against SLU and Dayton?

I hope I look back at this post and laugh at the end of the season. In an effort to show full transparency, there is some gambling bitterness attached here as well.

Anyone want to buy my Tulane tickets?
 
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