Game 6: GMU (2-3) at Paradise Jam - Buffalo (1-4) on Monday, November 21, at 1 PM.

[GMUSSTN]

Nope, I did not. Saw a team that finished with a losing record, 9th in the conference, and lost first round of the A10 tourney. While the year prior we had a winning record, 6th in the conference, and actually won a game in the A10 tourney. Don’t get me wrong we needed to make a change but can you honestly say that we are better off today than we were when DP got fired…

DP was nowhere near to bringing the kind of talent we needed to compete in the A10. CKE ceiling is still way higher. DP was a "do more with less" kinda guy but I'll take the higher ceiling, this MTE notwithstanding.

 

[GMU79]

"This was a disappointing ending to a disappointing trip," head coach Kim English said. "We have to go back to the drawing board. Losing Ronald [Polite III] wasn't ideal - we thought he was coming along at that position. I'm proud of Devin [Dinkins] for what he did stepping up into the point guard role. I'm proud of the steps Ginika [Ojiako] took down here. But we didn't get it done as a group, and it starts with our defense. We'll keep building our habits and building our discipline on our journey to becoming a team that does take care of the ball, gets great shots, contests every shot and limits opponents to one shot."

Sorry, Kim, it doesn't start with defense. It starts with you.
And maybe I'm wrong, but before the season, and even last season, KE talked about "if the players don't get it I didn't do my job teaching them," or something to that effect. I'm not hearing that now. Sounds a bit like Dave blaming the team.

 

[GMU79]

Y’all do know the president hires and fires the coach, right? The AD can make a recommendation but it’s Dr. Washington’s call. Barring something serious off the court, Kim isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

I disagree, for exactly that reason. The buck stops with Dr. W, and I don't think he likes what he's seeing.

 

[gmujim92]

Nope, I did not. Saw a team that finished with a losing record, 9th in the conference, and lost first round of the A10 tourney. While the year prior we had a winning record, 6th in the conference, and actually won a game in the A10 tourney. Don’t get me wrong we needed to make a change but can you honestly say that we are better off today than we were when DP got fired…

What a ridiculously simplistic take. Even Mason haters would’ve agreed Kim did a good job getting what he got out of a very limited roster until they ran out of gas at the end. Beat Maryland, Dayton, Bona and Richmond, took SLU to 2 OTs. Stop pretending there was no reason to feel optimistic about Year 2 with what figured to be a deeper, better team.

 

[GMU79]

Nope, I did not. Saw a team that finished with a losing record, 9th in the conference, and lost first round of the A10 tourney. While the year prior we had a winning record, 6th in the conference, and actually won a game in the A10 tourney. Don’t get me wrong we needed to make a change but can you honestly say that we are better off today than we were when DP got fired…

Nope, I can't.

 

[gmujim92]

I disagree, for exactly that reason. The buck stops with Dr. W, and I don't think he likes what he's seeing.

You don’t hire one of the youngest coaches in the country for his first HC position if you’re the type who thinks of pulling the rip cord 6 games into Year 2. I get the sense from your posts that you are very much anti-Kim, but you’re gonna be stuck with him for a while.

 

[DRK331]

What a ridiculously simplistic take. Even Mason haters would’ve agreed Kim did a good job getting what he got out of a very limited roster until they ran out of gas at the end. Beat Maryland, Dayton, Bona and Richmond, took SLU to 2 OTs. Stop pretending there was no reason to feel optimistic about Year 2 with what figured to be a deeper, better team.

And we almost beat Kansas (the eventual National Champions) last year. For the Kansas game, Mason was down 5 points with 3 minutes left to go on the road at Phog Allen Fieldhouse, one of the hardest places to win at in college basketball.

 

[Masonfan3]

What a ridiculously simplistic take. Even Mason haters would’ve agreed Kim did a good job getting what he got out of a very limited roster until they ran out of gas at the end. Beat Maryland, Dayton, Bona and Richmond, took SLU to 2 OTs. Stop pretending there was no reason to feel optimistic about Year 2 with what figured to be a deeper, better team.

I did feel optimistic about year 2 because we had a solid roster coming back, two really good freshmen, and a couple transfers that we needed. I am not optimistic after seeing us get blown out in two games, be down to an awful American team and then lose to two shitty a** teams. I (like everyone) expected to see improvement from last year but we have seen the opposite. Season is very young so there is still time but there needs to be significant improvement starting this weekend.

 

[JimP]

I did feel optimistic about year 2 because we had a solid roster coming back, two really good freshmen, and a couple transfers that we needed. I am not optimistic after seeing us get blown out in two games, be down to an awful American team and then lose to two shitty a** teams. I (like everyone) expected to see improvement from last year but we have seen the opposite. Season is very young so there is still time but there needs to be significant improvement starting this weekend.

Unless things somehow get turned around quickly, a lot of people will be wrong about this year's team. The league's coaches who picked GMU 5th must be pretty baffled looking at the scores of Mason's first 6 games.

 

[gmutom]

"But we didn't get it done as a group, and it starts with our defense coaching."

I fixed Kim's quote for him.

 

[GMUSSTN]

Unless things somehow get turned around quickly, a lot of people will be wrong about this years team. The league's coaches who picked GMU 5th must be pretty baffled looking at the scores of Mason's first 6 games.

"Baffling" is a great word here because I seriously do not know what's going on. The talent is there...everything seems entirely mental. Just completely out of sync. Like we had a Team Stroke and half our brain isn't working.

 

[GMU79]

You don’t hire one of the youngest coaches in the country for his first HC position if you’re the type who thinks of pulling the rip cord 6 games into Year 2. I get the sense from your posts that you are very much anti-Kim, but you’re gonna be stuck with him for a while.

Nope, I'm not anti-Kim. I'm just not seeing anything to be positive about right now. Even if he has brought in better talent than DP, so far he's looking a lot like Hewitt 2.0. All recruit. No coach.
I desperately want to be proven wronh, and will gladly eat crow if Kim turns this around.
And I never said "pull the cord 6 games into year 2." My point has been that Dr. W. seems like he wants to win and isn't the type of guy that will mess around too long to try to get it done. Kim won't be gone after this year, but if next year goes as this one has, I'd be watching out for the pink slip....Certainly after year 4.

 

[GMU79]

I fixed Kim's quote for him.

Well done.

 

[bravesfan]

Stop pretending there was no reason to feel optimistic about Year 2 with what figured to be a deeper, better team.

With what felt like a proper A10 recruiting class, too.

I knew they'd have to make up for Schwartz leaving, but wow, this regression is something else.

And I guess we won't have to be concerned about CKE taking a job at a bigger program next year...

 

[GMUgemini]

Basically we aren’t moving as a unit and so teams are exploiting it by getting the ball out to their guards way away from the basket (look at where Buffalo was passing the ball). Our players are playing a good five feet off the guards (because why guard them tight 30 feet from the basket right?) problem is there’s acres of space to set their screens and blow right past our players into the paint.

First things first is they need to move as a team and shrink the space. If they want to set their offense up 30 feet from the basket set up your defense there. It’s not like they can lob a ball over the top of your bigs into the paint 30 feet away before you recover anyway.

That’s the biggest thing I see is we are conceding all this space out front that let’s players get a head of steam and then there’s no one anticipating it and redirecting them anyway so just get up in those shorts and ball pressure them everywhere.

I also don’t know why we were letting them just walk the ball up the court today either. It’s not like setting up our half court shape did anything to stop them.

Edit: I’ll put it like this, do you think if Buffalo set up two guards isolated like they did against vcu that there wouldn’t have been about 15 turnovers and runouts for easy dunks in that game for the rams? We all know there would have been.

 

[tblack33]

I’m still perplexed we came in last place of this tournament. All the things that need to be completely broken and rebuilt have already been hashed out. The rebounding still concerns me the most with the size we have, we’ve got some guys who just don’t want it enough. I’m still on the Kim train long term but I think he needs some help and guidance, if the season ends up how it’s looking an assistant needs to get axed and we need to bring in a defensive minded, fundamentals focused assistant with a solid X and O background to help guide him behind the scenes.

 

[tblack33]

Also I tweeted about it but with the style of offense we claim to want to run I can’t for the life of me understand why we don’t press and trap and attempt to generate turnovers. We do look halfway decent when we are doing it, but our pansy half a** defense and terrible rebounding doesn’t put us in a good spot to do it. If we are as deep as we’re supposed to be, run dudes to the ground at 110% and keep a rotation going. No point in going 11 deep at the grandmas pace we are playing defense right now.

 

[Patriot Lawdog]

Basically we aren’t moving as a unit and so teams are exploiting it by getting the ball out to their guards way away from the basket (look at where Buffalo was passing the ball). Our players are playing a good five feet off the guards (because why guard them tight 30 feet from the basket right?) problem is there’s acres of space to set their screens and blow right past our players into the paint.

First things first is they need to move as a team and shrink the space. If they want to set their offense up 30 feet from the basket set up your defense there. It’s not like they can lob a ball over the top of your bigs into the paint 30 feet away before you recover anyway.

That’s the biggest thing I see is we are conceding all this space out front that let’s players get a head of steam and then there’s no one anticipating it and redirecting them anyway so just get up in those shorts and ball pressure them everywhere.

I also don’t know why we were letting them just walk the ball up the court today either. It’s not like setting up our half court shape did anything to stop them.

Edit: I’ll put it like this, do you think if Buffalo set up two guards isolated like they did against vcu that there wouldn’t have been about 15 turnovers and runouts for easy dunks in that game for the rams? We all know there would have been.

I agree with what you're saying here, but do you think CKE is worried that if guys push up to defend tighter on the perimeter they'll just get blown by like traffic cones? In your defense, things can't be much worse if we do push out further. One thing I've always hated is the bias against playing zone by certain coaches. Why not at least mix it in? What's the harm in showing a 1-3-1? I guess because our rebounding is bad, but it's bad when we know who to box out anyway....I think the main point here is we have to try something different defensively, no matter what it is. Must be me getting older, but I just can't stand teams that can't defend. Much easier for me to tolerate a clankfest than shooting almost 50% and losing.

 

[FlPatriot]

Not to be trite, but anything related to offense is just a 3rd or 4th priority right now. The defense is a calamity. We just shot 47% and 78% from the line and made 21 FTs and basically got smoked. Buffalo went 23-36 from inside the 3!!! That's semi impossible. At this point, you start your 5 best defenders or best defensive unit and go from there.

Buffalo had lots of five foot bunnies…we were not good defensively tonight. The best players by a long shot were Dinkins and Ojaiko and if Dinkins would stop turning his back on his assignment he’d be even better.

Lots of work for this team. Need a good three point shooter…even if he’s a spot up guy…we are not causing any pain from the perimeter.

 

[FlPatriot]

With what felt like a proper A10 recruiting class, too.

I knew they'd have to make up for Schwartz leaving, but wow, this regression is something else.

And I guess we won't have to be concerned about CKE taking a job at a bigger program next year...

Agreed, Schwartz was a quiet leader on this team last year. I get the feeling there is no steady hand on the floor this season.