Game 5: AT Iona, November 23rd, 2 PM, NO TV

[Patriotfan49]

Haha, so you can compare me to a beaten wife, but I can't worry about your blood pressure. And last time I checked, we are 4-1, so how is that throwing crap in? In fact, before we laid our giant egg today, we were one win away from the best start in our program's history. Maybe, just maybe, things aren't as bad as you say they are.

I fully admit I try to be positive, not because I like Hewitt but because he is the hand we've been dealt. If he was fired tomorrow, I'd embrace our new coach with open arms. But because he's not going anywhere, I can't allow myself to get worked up over it.

Let's hope the coaches and players learn from today and bounce back against Princeton.

You can say whatever you want, but at least mine makes sense. You keep seeing the same thing, and same struggles....yet keep thinking its rosy, and going to get better. You just sound retarded when you keep talking about blood pressure because nobody is popping a gasket.

Good info, we are 4-1....but like I said given 4 of the teams we played, its not much of a testament. I am not harping on how bad things are, Im just saying Hewitt sucks and is an awful coach meanwhile the product on the court is mediocre and lackadaisical. If you are ok with that, which clearly you are....good for you. I want to strive for a bit more than that....but thats just me.

 

[GMUgemini]

We don't even need a great coach, we need a coach that can keep it simple and light a fire under these guys.

A team with Allen, Sherrod, holloway, Arledge, and copes (not to mention Marko, Gray, Jenkins and Moore all coming off the bench) has plenty of talent to make the NCAA with a good coach.

Do you really think the 2011 team was that much more talented than this group? I don't.

 

[Patriotfan49]

Yes, it's a short blurb, but you did notice their tone, and they weren't exactly talking about Iona taking out the trash. I'm calling it "the rest of the world's" view precisely because they didn't have any deep insight into the GMU program.

Again, most out of state newspapers wont have any deep insight into the visiting team. So not really sure what your point is.....

 

[Patriotfan49]

We don't even need a great coach, we need a coach that can keep it simple and light a fire under these guys.

A team with Allen, Sherrod, holloway, Arledge, and copes (not to mention Marko, Gray, Jenkins and Moore all coming off the bench) has plenty of talent to make the NCAA with a good coach.

Do you really think the 2011 team was that much more talented than this group? I don't.

Id actually say the team we have now is more talented as a whole than the 2011 team. But the 2011 team played much much better together as well as having a pretty deep passionate desire to compete and win.

 

[azgmu]

Again, most out of state newspapers wont have any deep insight into the visiting team. So not really sure what your point is.....

Some people seem dead-set on the idea that this is a lousy team, and we haven't even reached the start of the A-10 part of the season. My point is that the impression is home-brewed, not coming from someplace else.

 

[gmujim92]

Show me one college basketball expert or website that predicted we would be an NCAAT team. Hell, we were picked anywhere from 8th-10th in the A10. It's obvious nobody was as impressed with our four seniors and juniors as you were coming in. Seriously, other than Sherrod Wright, name one great player on our roster.

Saying we are an NIT-caliber team is not setting the bar low or disparaging our team. It just my evaluation based of the talent we have. Could a great coach make this an NCAA team? Perhaps. I guess we'll never know.

Ask around the A-10. Where we were picked has nothing to do with the talent on our roster, which is considerable, and everything to do with the fact that we have perhaps the worst coach in the league.

The only one even close to Hewitt on the "Do not want" list is Martelli, another guy who has been living for some time off one magical season.

 

[Leesburg Chankenstank III]

The only hope I had was that Hewitt also did well at Siena as well as GT, but that has gone out of the window.

 

[Patriotfan49]

Some people seem dead-set on the idea that this is a lousy team, and we haven't even reached the start of the A-10 part of the season. My point is that the impression is home-brewed, not coming from someplace else.

Id take the "home brewed" impression over the opinion of a writer who probably couldnt pull where GMU is located.

 

[azgmu]

Id take the "home brewed" impression over the opinion of a writer who probably couldnt pull where GMU is located.

So I take it you don't put much stock in the idea that you should at least wait until, say, the A-10 games start before giving up on the team?

 

[Patriot Lawdog]

Show me one college basketball expert or website that predicted we would be an NCAAT team. Hell, we were picked anywhere from 8th-10th in the A10. It's obvious nobody was as impressed with our four seniors and juniors as you were coming in. Seriously, other than Sherrod Wright, name one great player on our roster.

Saying we are an NIT-caliber team is not setting the bar low or disparaging our team. It just my evaluation based of the talent we have. Could a great coach make this an NCAA team? Perhaps. I guess we'll never know.

Tom, you don't think that the people making those predictions don't know who our coach is? And that plays no part in where we are picked? And if someone else was in that position we might be picked higher?

 

[GMUgemini]

So I take it you don't put much stock in the idea that you should at least wait until, say, the A-10 games start before giving up on the team?

This team can't even take care of the basketball against a team that doesn't press.

 

[azgmu]

This team can't even take care of the basketball against a team that doesn't press.

I can't argue until some of the games start showing up on TV.

 

[Patriotfan49]

So I take it you don't put much stock in the idea that you should at least wait until, say, the A-10 games start before giving up on the team?

Im not giving up on the team. But with the caliber of teams weve played so far and how weve played.......the inaugural A10 year may be a tough one. Seeing how we look not much different than last year so far, I assume the step up in competition may tough for a situation like ours.

 

[azgmu]

Im not giving up on the team. But with the caliber of teams weve played so far and how weve played.......the inaugural A10 year may be a tough one.

That's definitely true. But I'd like to believe that a team won't start 4-0 if they totally suck. Every team has off games.

 

[gmutom]

Tom, you don't think that the people making those predictions don't know who our coach is? And that plays no part in where we are picked? And if someone else was in that position we might be picked higher?

Who knows, lawdog? Could they factor it in enough to dock us a spot or two? Sure, I'll buy that argument. But I seriously doubt it's enough to predict we aren't an NCAA team. It's not that hard to analyze our roster. We have a lot of good players, but who other than Sherrod could start for a Top 20 team?

For all of Hewitt's well-documented faults, I'd say our start without Copes for all five games and Arledge and Allen for several games is pretty damn good even against some average teams. Today's loss was no doubt frustrating. Maybe we can use it as a springboard like the Creighton blowout in 2006.

 

[GMUJETS24]

I blame Copes and Arledge. Maybe its a good thing we loss, our players were starting to get overly cocky walking around campus.

 

[99 Patriot]

Id actually say the team we have now is more talented as a whole than the 2011 team. But the 2011 team played much much better together as well as having a pretty deep passionate desire to compete and win.

That 2011 team had a future conference player of the year, a future NCAA final four MVP, another first team conference performer in Cam and a veteran center in Morrison. You honestly think this years team is more talented?

 

[GMUgemini]

Who knows, lawdog? Could they factor it in enough to dock us a spot or two? Sure, I'll buy that argument. But I seriously doubt it's enough to predict we aren't an NCAA team. It's not that hard to analyze our roster. We have a lot of good players, but who other than Sherrod could start for a Top 20 team?

For all of Hewitt's well-documented faults, I'd say our start without Copes for all five games and Arledge and Allen for several games is pretty damn good even against some average teams. Today's loss was no doubt frustrating. Maybe we can use it as a springboard like the Creighton blowout in 2006.

How many of our players in 2006 or 2011 would start on a top 20 team? I'd bet somewhere between 0 and 2 between them. Will Thomas and Luke Hancock pretty much -- maybe Jai Lewis. But pretty much all of our other players would be coming off the bench, if not seeing garbage minutes or riding the pine.

 

[Patriotfan49]

That 2011 team had a future conference player of the year, a future NCAA final four MVP, another first team conference performer in Cam and a veteran center in Morrison. You honestly think this years team is more talented?

Understood, and its a weird angle I know. But the entire roster top to bottom, I think is more talented now than 2011. Talent and ability really are meaningless if you dont put it all together and maximize it and really doesnt have a constant effect on record or how you play.

Kinda like the Oakland A's. Is it safe to say the Yankees, Nats or Orioles etc had more talent than them overall.......yet the As go farther than them?

 

[GMUgemini]

Understood, and its a weird angle I know. But the entire roster top to bottom, I think is more talented now than 2011. Talent and ability really are meaningless if you dont put it all together and maximize it.

I agree with this. Look at who we had available last night -- Wright, Allen, Gray, Williams, Marko, Holloway, Jenkins, Moore. There's a ton of talent right there even missing Copes and Arledge.

Gray is a perfect example of what I think seems to be squandered basketball ability. Whenever he is dialed in, he looks like the best player on the team. With his size, strength, quickness, and the best looking shot on the team he should be dominating.

And then you have Johnny Williams, who is one of the more skilled big men we've ever had here, but is so passive he's invisible most of the time on the floor. He reminds me a lot of Monroe before his last season at Mason. Why this coaching staff can't motivate JW to be more aggressive on the glass and in the low post, I can't figure out.

Copes keeps getting into trouble.

Arledge appears to have quit on the team.

And Sherrod seems uninterested in playing defense.

That's a lot of squandered talent right there.