Game 8: AT Towson University, Wednesday, December 2nd, 7 PM, NO TV

[TwoFootTackle]

So we get clobbered vs teams that can shoot? You are right bc its a developing trend. uva, towson, colgate. We do nothing to disrupt a patient team who can find the open man. No wonder Colgate's coach has had his way with Paulsen in Patriot League. Just know some of our games will be losses before they are played. Davidson might beat us by 50, every year.

Colgate's coach Matt Langel's record vs. Dave Paulsen (Bucknell/George Mason)
2012: 0-2 (2-12 Patriot League)
2013: 0-2 (5-9)
2014: 0-2 (6-12)
2015: 2-0 (12-6)
2016: 1-0

I think saying that Langel "has had his way" is an overstatement.

 

[TwoFootTackle]

Was expecting games like this to happen this year. We'll overcome it.

What we as fans need an answer to is why the crap isn't Shevon playing more?? Seriously. I was at the Wright State game and he played barely played. Are you telling me the first real NBA prospect we have seen in the last 10 years isn't getting playing time?! This question needs to be answered.

Shevon is averaging 23.5 minutes per game this season and played 26 minutes against Towson. He played more last year, but he isn't playing as well this year.

 

[GMUgemini]

Shevon is struggling with the double teams
struggling to pass out or to make a move to the basket - seems like he gets frustrated and
stops following the play book and that leads to a turnover or a really bad shot.

The upper classman had some sloppy turnovers last night - traveling, offensive fouls,
traveling on a 3 pt shot - not to mention missed lay ups etc. etc. - same stuff from last year.

Hopefully they will continue to buy in and make progress......

He even struggles when the people doubling him are half his size (Manhattan, Wright State). This is a real issue he needs to figure out, because he's going to be doubled more often than he's not.

 

[GreenLantern]

Towson came to play and they took advantage of our weaknesses. Seems as if things go fine until we get a case of the fumblefingers, then they fall apart.

 

[Pablo]

Coach Paulsen: "Shevon, I'm going to turn you into the next Bill Walton".
Shevon: "Coach, who's Bill Walton?"
Coach Paulsen: "Bill Walton was a great passing big man. You're going to be patient with the ball, and make good passes."
Shevon: "But, Coach, I'm not a good passer. I like to get the ball in the post and drive to the basket before I get double or triple-teamed."
Coach Paulsen: "Don't worry, Shevon, I know how to develop big men. Did I tell you that one of my former players is in the NBA?
Shevon: "Coach, I'll do anything to help the team."

For the record, I think that Shevon is improving. But, I hate losing!

 

[99 Patriot]

Tough game to listen to last night. Seems the honeymoon is over for a lot of people here. I'm anxious to see what team shows up on Saturday to try and bounce back from this humiliation.

I'm also anxious for conference play to begin and to see how we scout and adjust to our competition. To me, Towson last night seemed like the third team (Colgate/Mercer) who scouted us enough to come in with a specific game plan of how to beat us. On the flip side, I'm not sure I've seen us adjust or do anything that shows we scouted for a particular opponent this whole season, but instead we play the same brand and style of ball each game. Out-of-conference that doesn't bother me a lot, but once we reach conference games I hope we'll see some game plans that try and exploit other teams weaknesses and limit their strengths.

 

[gmujim92]

So we get clobbered vs teams that can shoot? You are right bc its a developing trend. uva, towson, colgate. We do nothing to disrupt a patient team who can find the open man. No wonder Colgate's coach has had his way with Paulsen in Patriot League. Just know some of our games will be losses before they are played. Davidson might beat us by 50, every year. Again, just dont like the stale defensive approach. Might as well play zone.

I'm not sure why I'm trying to talk you down off the ledge, but damn, all defensive systems can be beaten by opponents passing the ball well and making shots. It's the very nature of basketball.

Will Wade at vcu has dramatically scaled back their full-court pressure and is even playing some zone now because he recognized that good teams can carve up presses and get nothing but easy baskets.

Does that mean they're immune to losing to teams that pass and shoot well? Uh, no.

I thought we understood that the guys DP inherited were -- other than Marquise -- not particularly adept defensively. Then you throw in five freshmen and expect them to be able to lock people down on a nightly basis?

There is nothing wrong with the system. Staying in front of your man and forcing him to shoot over you, instead of constantly switching and trapping, is a legitimate philosophy that will work once we have better (and more experienced) defensive players who are able to execute the way the coach wants it done.

Again, our coach's track record suggests he will get it done. He's known for defense. If we're still struggling after 5 or 6 years, I will concede the point to you. But until then, a little patience is in order.

 

[gmujim92]

On the flip side, I'm not sure I've seen us adjust or do anything that shows we scouted for a particular opponent this whole season, but instead we play the same brand and style of ball each game. Out-of-conference that doesn't bother me a lot, but once we reach conference games I hope we'll see some game plans that try and exploit other teams weaknesses and limit their strengths.

I could be totally off-base here, and I'm certain that DP is trying to win, but I don't know that we're at a point where the coaches can spend that much time preparing to exploit specific weaknesses in the opponent.

They're allotted only so much practice time. I'm willing to bet they spend the vast majority of it trying to fix our team's issues.

This is a long-term rebuild and we are still a very fundamentally un-sound team in many ways. Until that changes, it doesn't really matter what the opponent does -- we will be up and down like the stock market.

 

[Quentin Daniels]

Six Freshman on the roster, zero Sophs., just two Juniors (on scholarship) and three Seniors (healthy & on scholarship).

It's too early to tell if Paulsen will be a hero, a flop, or something in between. I'm willing to give him plenty of leeway before deciding though.

 

[GMUSig03]

So we get clobbered vs teams that can shoot? You are right bc its a developing trend. uva, towson, colgate. We do nothing to disrupt a patient team who can find the open man. No wonder Colgate's coach has had his way with Paulsen in Patriot League. Just know some of our games will be losses before they are played. Davidson might beat us by 50, every year. Again, just dont like the stale defensive approach. Might as well play zone.

Wright State shoots 40% on 3's (including the terrible showing in our game), good for 36th in the Nation

 

[liem.le.3388]

We won't win many games shooting in the 30% range. My theory is the best defense is putting the other team on tilt to score and keep up with your offense. Knowing the other team can't score would keep you loose. Our team is averaging in the low 60 pt range, sad.

Hopefully we can get some consistent scoring by conf schedule time or else we'll continue to see games like this. Also note we have 3 SGs coming in next year so Paulsen saw this as a need.

I also miss the days when we had bigs with grunt and attitude, Morrison type of bigs. Our bigs now just play bad defense, foul and mope about it.

 

[GMU92]

I also miss the days when we had bigs with grunt and attitude, Morrison type of bigs.

And George Evans. And Jai Lewis. And Will Thomas.

 

[Five Two]

On the flip side, I'm not sure I've seen us adjust or do anything that shows we scouted for a particular opponent this whole season, but instead we play the same brand and style of ball each game.

Agreed, which leads me to believe that the staff doesn't believe the players are ready for anything more than the basics at this point.

 

[CAA_Beat]

Really stellar observations here.

About as stellar as many of the comments in this thread. In not trying to start anything.

But I don't cover the A10, so I don't see GMU play regularly. But I do remember Holloway from past years and I do realize he was coming off a 6 game suspension.

I was simply commenting as an outsider I was surprised at their performances.

I hate to brush with broad strokes. But your comment kind of exemplifies what I've heard about this board.

Sorry for what I thought was a fair assessment.

Sent from my LG-D850 using Tapatalk

 

[MasonFanatic]

Towson hit more than a few tough shots last night. The same Towson team that was missing wide open looks in Charleston. Credit where credit is due, I don't think our defense was quite as bad as the numbers last night might imply. This was a perfect storm of Towson finally breaking out of a slump at the same time that Mason had an off night.

 

[liem.le.3388]

And George Evans. And Jai Lewis. And Will Thomas.

Yup those guys also. They wouldn't have allowed Towson 20 second chance points.

 

[Petey Buckets]

Now that I've had some time to digest the loss, I'm not nearly as upset about it as I was last night. We did a good job moving the ball and creating looks, but missed some bunnies around the rim and had trouble getting anything going from deep. Our leading scorer went 0-11 which also puts us well behind the 8-ball against any team. Some other takeaways:

- Towson's radio guy was very good, but he did two things that killed me. First, he mispronounced Marko's last name several different ways before he finally settled on goo-yah-nuh-neech for the rest of the game. Then he said Deandre was from Carrollton, Tessus.

- Speaking of Deandre, he had a really nice move where he caught the ball outside the three point line, drove in and hit a nice little floater. His contributions on offense have been limited to spot-up shooting so far, so this was good to see. He definitely has a ton of potential as a 6'7" guy who defends aggressively and can hit 3s.

- Shevon's deer-in-headlights routine against the double-team is a problem. It's too easy for other teams to render him ineffective. He lost playing time because he committed four turnovers yesterday, mostly against double teams. We can stop the NBA talk unless he makes drastic strides this year.

- We've been controlling the defensive glass very well so far this year (best DR% in the A-10), so I'm not sure if last night was an aberration or a regression toward what we should reasonably expect going forward.

- Even though Jaire was 0-11, the box score credits him with 4 offensive rebounds. It's good to see him try to get going in other ways when shots aren't falling. We need him to score to be competitive this year.

No point in getting too low about losses this year, even the bad ones. As far as I'm concerned, everything bad that happens this year is still Hewitt's fault.

 

[GSII]

Jim,
im not saying a full court press will fix it. But a quick trap in the corner or wing can disrupt an opponents flow. Just when they think they got a feel for our defense, bam a turnover.

I guess we will have to settle for games where we build leads when other teams miss jumpers. Then when they get hot, and they will bc our D lets them find their groove, we lose the lead. Or vice versa. Lame.

 

[gmujim92]

Jim,
im not saying a full court press will fix it. But a quick trap in the corner or wing can disrupt an opponents flow. Just when they think they got a feel for our defense, bam a turnover.

I guess we will have to settle for games where we build leads when other teams miss jumpers. Then when they get hot, and they will bc our D lets them find their groove, we lose the lead. Or vice versa. Lame.

I think this is a situation where these guys have to learn to crawl before they can walk.

I chuckle at people who are all about "mixing defenses" and "showing different looks" when their players are unable to consistently guard effectively in the most straightforward defensive system ever: man-to-man.

Perhaps a couple years down the road, if he has a roster athletic enough to get out and trap some, Paulsen will tweak the system a bit. He's obviously a very successful coach and I highly doubt he got that way by refusing to make adjustments when necessary.

He is trying to maximize the strengths of this roster and put the players in the best possible position to succeed. He knows this team better than me, you or anybody else posting here.

He also knows that before our players skip ahead to step G, they first need to master A,B,C,D,E and F.

 

[GMU_DCU]

Towson hit more than a few tough shots last night. The same Towson team that was missing wide open looks in Charleston. Credit where credit is due, I don't think our defense was quite as bad as the numbers last night might imply. This was a perfect storm of Towson finally breaking out of a slump at the same time that Mason had an off night.

I watched the game last night and have to disagree. The defense was lazy, seemed like they all had cement blocks on their feet. Towson got to the basket at will and either hit the layup, got fouled or dished out to an open man for the three. Saw Holloway drop off his man to double some guy in the paint a few times while the man he left got the ball back for an uncontested look just like the Hewitt era.