Game 8, South Fla, Dec 4th, 7 PM, MASN

[Walter]

we constantly go down on shitty teams.

Apparently its worse than I thought. We should not do that. Not that there is anything wrong with it.

 

[GSII]

I thought coaching was good tonight up to the tech. Maybe it was too easy knowing they couldnt shoot. One problem i have with Paul is he is not stern enough with poor play and accountabilty. If you can suspend players you should have no problem benching them. For 3 years We see the same mistakes and poor execution. Coachable. But not an able coach. f**k the
"needs to get his guys" bullshit. A good coach is one who can beat you with your own players.



When was the last time someone put an 18-0 run on us at home with us up dble digits?

 

[gmutom]

I thought coaching was good tonight up to the tech. Maybe it was too easy knowing they couldnt shoot. One problem i have with Paul is he is not stern enough with poor play and accountabilty. If you can suspend players you should have no problem benching them.

I don't disagree with your theory, but who would you like to see benched? We have no backup PG with Moore out, so we are limited there in terms of who we can sit. I honestly wouldn't have a problem starting Jenkins over J2. If this season is as lost as some people seem to think, we might as well get the freshman some valuable minutes instead of playing a senior who really contributes nothing on either end of the court.

 

[psyclone]

And when is the last time a visiting team takes 18 more free throws than the home team and outscores the home team by 16 from the line?

 

[gmujim92]

I don't disagree with your theory, but who would you like to see benched? We have no backup PG with Moore out, so we are limited there in terms of who we can sit. I honestly wouldn't have a problem starting Jenkins over J2. If this season is as lost as some people seem to think, we might as well get the freshman some valuable minutes instead of playing a senior who really contributes nothing on either end of the court.

Notwithstanding our obvious personnel shortcomings, this is one of the things that has always befuddled me about Hewitt: There just doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to his strategic and personnel decisions.

Jenkins was a beast last game. So not only does he not merit a start, he plays 8 minutes while J2 and Copes combine for 1 lousy point?

And we were killing them with the zone, primarily because they can't shoot at all. We could've simply stationed 4 of the 5 defenders in the paint and guarded Rudd, then dared their other players to shoot.

Instead, we abandon the zone and allow them to just start shredding us with penetration en route to an 18-0 run.

Sometimes it just feels like Hewitt's just throwing shit against a wall to see what sticks.

 

[Quentin Daniels]

Tough loss. I think the technical on Okoloji was legit, but it clearly wasn't intentional and one should have been called on the USF player for the shove.

There's talent on this team. A lot more then they're being credited for, but the mental toughness seems lacking.

 

[HoopsAdmin]

What frustrates me is that the team is absorbing the same mentality as our coach. While the players are responsible for performing, it's clear that Hewitt does very little during the game to shape the performance and provide the team with feedback, outside of timeouts and halftime. With a lack of leadership on the sideline, Hewitt sends a message to the team that how they are performing at the time is ok, and if it's not, he's still accepting of it. His lack of fire unintentionally lowers the team's sense of urgency.

God help me, I miss OCM's two-finger whistle to get the guy's attention. The stomping, the yelling. At least you could tell Larranaga cared and was passionate about what was happening. If you turned the ball over, you got instant feedback and likely were pulled to the bench.

 

[PDGL Hoops]

I think the issue is that we just stink. Plain and simple. You don't blow leads like this against a team who will finish in the bottom of their conference. No way we win another game until January -

 

[MasonFanatic]

I honestly didn't think coaching was the main reason we lost (this time, at any rate). We just have a group of upperclassmen who still don't know how to roll with the punches and fight back. They panicked instead, forced bad shots, and missed free throws. I also don't have a big issue with Hewitt not calling more timeouts sooner because his timeouts don't seem to achieve much anyway.

The defense was much better than the refs made it look.

I do wish we'd had the OCM here to blow a gasket after that string of one-sided officiating in the second half. Our guys needed to see a little fire, and that's just not Hewitt's style. And in spite of all that 5-on-8 nonsense, we were a couple of free throws by our seniors or a wide open Erik Copes 8-footer (weren't we all told last year that that's his shot now?) away from a win.

Can't complain about officiating or coaching too much when you go 11-19 from the line and lose by 2.

 

[GSII]

As for the AO tech...its all his fault. He got fouled upside his head on the offensive end but ref didn't call it. So he decided to hard bump into Collins...then pushes his foot into his back. He gave them four points and all the momentum with that bonehead decision.

Saddest part....Hewitt asking what happend.

 

[GMU_Polevaulter]

For those saying you can't blame the refs - what game were you watching?? Prior to AO's technical they were making Phantom calls and the calls did not go both ways - which is why the team was so frustrated and part of the reason I think they had the mental lapse - felt like they were doing what they had to win and the refs were giving the game away.

Usually Copes does foul and he does chop his hands down those last two calls he was straight up and not moving - one call on Marco - he did not even touch the player. On the other end they would hook J2 and J2 would get the call on him.
It was so bad - I thought the ref had money on the game and I rarely think refs matter because it goes both ways - not this game.

From what I saw at the game the team does have a leader and it's BA. Yes after the technical the team did fall apart and let SF come back and take a lead and get down by 5. I did see BA rally the troops and bring us back to tie the game. Up to the last 10 minutes that was the best BBall this team has played.

The question mark for me was why PH in the last 7 minutes of the game stopped driving the lane like he was doing in the first half and just started taking wild off balance shots - that was part of the problem as well as some quick turnovers and careless mistakes.

We did have our chances to win - a missed 1+1, and 2 missed free throws - damn shame we did not execute.

From what I saw - the team is close to being good - the defense was better then people here are giving them credit for and SF's big's were very athletic. Hard to stop a team from scoring when everything you do sends them to the line.

I think how good this team can be comes down to MM and his progression - if CE is off - GMU needs the option to allow BA to play off the ball - if this happens this team can finish in the 4-6 spot in the A-10 if not we end up in our preseason spot of 8th or lower.

 

[JimP]

I thought coaching was good tonight up to the tech. Maybe it was too easy knowing they couldnt shoot. One problem i have with Paul is he is not stern enough with poor play and accountabilty. If you can suspend players you should have no problem benching them. For 3 years We see the same mistakes and poor execution. Coachable. But not an able coach. f**k the
"needs to get his guys" bullshit. A good coach is one who can beat you with your own players.



When was the last time someone put an 18-0 run on us at home with us up dble digits?

I haven't seen any other A-10 teams blow 16 point leads this year, let alone on their own court. And we are a team with a ton of supposed valuable experience. Ugh.

 

[gmujim92]

For those saying you can't blame the refs - what game were you watching?? Prior to AO's technical they were making Phantom calls and the calls did not go both ways - which is why the team was so frustrated and part of the reason I think they had the mental lapse - felt like they were doing what they had to win and the refs were giving the game away.

Usually Copes does foul and he does chop his hands down those last two calls he was straight up and not moving - one call on Marco - he did not even touch the player. On the other end they would hook J2 and J2 would get the call on him.
It was so bad - I thought the ref had money on the game and I rarely think refs matter because it goes both ways - not this game.

I think how good this team can be comes down to MM and his progression - if CE is off - GMU needs the option to allow BA to play off the ball - if this happens this team can finish in the 4-6 spot in the A-10 if not we end up in our preseason spot of 8th or lower.

The refs did not lose this game for us. Please stop suggesting that they did. Making excuses after blowing a 17-point lead on your home floor is even more embarrassing than the choke job the team pulled last night. You have to own it at some point.

Also, we're not finishing fourth in the A-10. There are five teams -- UMass, Dayton, vcu, GW and St. Louis -- that are clearly better than us, and that doesn't include Richmond and St. Joe's that are probably better than us.

The absolute ceiling for this team is sixth place ... and we're gonna need help to get there.

 

[GMUSSTN]

Hey guys, I'm new here.

Anyway all this crap we are saying about Hewitt is the exact same crap GT fans were saying about Hewitt pretty much every year since they made the Championship Game. Seriously, look it up. This is how the guy coaches, this is how he is, and he's been this way for a decade. It's not going to get any better and we're pretty much in danger of the whole program going down the tubes because I don't see too many good recruits who want to come to a school who hasn't made the NCAA Tournament in 4 years and, oh, the last time they did it was with a coach who bolted.

Hewitt was fired for a reason, and Mason chose to ignore [those] reasons.

 

[Scythe]

The calls were a bit ticky tack in certain places, but in general the ref's weren't our problem and the calls were evenly distributed to both sides. We blew a lead by getting discouraged over a silly technical and never regaining a mental foot hold. No idea what can be done about it or what if anything Hewitt could've done. After the technical we started rushing shots and completely abandoned the teamplay that made us successful prior to the T.

 

[GMUSSTN]

Prior to the technical Hewitt had called off the zone that was working like a charm. Seriously, that was the best defense I've seen this team play. We should just run a zone the whole game if we're going to cover that well.

Hewitt abandoned the zone and that let USF get drives, which lead to stupid fouls, easy layups, and rushed playing on the offensive end. To me, it all comes down to that zone and a) why we gave it up in the first place and b) why we never went back to it to slow the game down when it was getting chippy.

 

[Masonman]

Great, the shot that beat us was a Wednesday Top Play on ESPN.

 

[DeepValue]

Does anyone have the individual plus & minuses for the game? I am particulary interested in Corey Edwards and Marko. It felt like Corey was doing a good job slowing Allen down in the first half. Although I am not a huge fan of Corey overall, sometimes you have to play your best matchups.

 

[GMUSSTN]

Great, the shot that beat us was a Wednesday Top Play on ESPN.

Of course it was. I can't remember the last time we were on ESPN for something positive.

 

[gmujim92]

Does anyone have the individual plus & minuses for the game? I am particulary interested in Corey Edwards and Marko. It felt like Corey was doing a good job slowing Allen down in the first half. Although I am not a huge fan of Corey overall, sometimes you have to play your best matchups.

DV, whether or not stats bear it out, this was by far Corey's best game of the season. He was terrific defensively and solid on offense.

Perhaps I'm wrong, but it felt like the big lead got away after Hewitt moved BA to the point and switched back out of the zone to the man defense.

If I recalled that incorrectly, apologies. I just don't know why we would've done that because as usual, Edwards was the only guard we had who could stop USF's guards from going right to the rim.