Giant Killer Updates

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By George.

By George.

Starter
Also, last 20 years (2000-2019) still give me George Evans as best player.

I do wonder what Luke would have turned into if he continued to work on his game around the basket. Went to L’ville and settled for playing around the arc. What a crazy story, such a nightmare
 

GMUgemini

Hall of Famer
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
That impacted one tournament appearance. I’d put hiring Hewitt as the prime candidate for that award. We are still digging out from the effects of that one event.

Yeah, Hancock was a sophomore. Had we retained L he most likely doesn’t transfer and you’ve got him for two more seasons plus Bryon Allen and Sherrod Wright (anyone else would have killed to see those three starting together)?
 

FreeGunston12

All-American
That impacted one tournament appearance. I’d put hiring Hewitt as the prime candidate for that award. We are still digging out from the effects of that one event.
I guess my language wasn't specific enough. I meant singular as in something that happened once and wasn't suffered over an extended period of time (such as a hire). Perhaps I should've said acute? Or just unfortunate / bad luck, versus a bad decision. I dont know.

Reason being: with Hancock, we may have kept things respectable against Ohio St. Without him, anyone paying tangential attention to our program, saw the blowout and probably figured that we were just a joke of a program. Pretenders.

Then coach L and Hancock leave, and we kick off the Hewitt era as pretenders. He does nothing to change that. Here we are almost ten years later, trying to get back to being respectable.
 

mkaufman1

Administrator
Staff member
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
GIVING DAY 2023
Was Luke the best player Mason has had in 20 years? Even in just his 2 seasons, the way he could both rise up and dunk and throw an alley were unique to anything I’ve seen at Mason.

best all around, most polished, highest IQ. Made everything look easy and natural. Haven’t seen a mason player like that ever. Seen flashes of some pieces from guys like Mar or XJ.
 

GMUgemini

Hall of Famer
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
best all around, most polished, highest IQ. Made everything look easy and natural. Haven’t seen a mason player like that ever. Seen flashes of some pieces from guys like Mar or XJ.

Never seen another player with the awareness and ability to bounce an inbounds pass off a defenders back catch it and go straight up for a dunk.
 

gmubrian

All-American
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
GOLD SPONSOR
GIVING DAY 2023
I guess my language wasn't specific enough. I meant singular as in something that happened once and wasn't suffered over an extended period of time (such as a hire). Perhaps I should've said acute? Or just unfortunate / bad luck, versus a bad decision. I dont know.

Reason being: with Hancock, we may have kept things respectable against Ohio St. Without him, anyone paying tangential attention to our program, saw the blowout and probably figured that we were just a joke of a program. Pretenders.

Then coach L and Hancock leave, and we kick off the Hewitt era as pretenders. He does nothing to change that. Here we are almost ten years later, trying to get back to being respectable.

Your example proceeded to use a longer term. But, if you are looking for something unfortunate that is out of our control, I’d say vcu hiring Shaka Smart is a great candidate.

That leads to vcu going to F4, giving Smart more money than L was getting. L gets jealous and has legendary fight with TOC over it. L leaves, we hire Hewitt, we have been irrelevant since then.
 

GMUgemini

Hall of Famer
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
Your example proceeded to use a longer term. But, if you are looking for something unfortunate that is out of our control, I’d say vcu hiring Shaka Smart is a great candidate.

That leads to vcu going to F4, giving Smart more money than L was getting. L gets jealous and has legendary fight with TOC over it. L leaves, we hire Hewitt, we have been irrelevant since then.

That matters less than Dre Smith giving them locker room motivation and losing to them in Richmond. Had we beaten them, we knock them off the bubble and probably wind up a 7 seed and avoid OSU.

This is kind fun to think about weird domino implications of random events.
 

FreeGunston12

All-American
Has any transfer hurt worse than Hancock? Losing Kevin Foster kinda sucked too. I haven't been a fan long enough to think of any worse. Losing Grayer hurt, but we all knew that was coming for so long.
 

mkaufman1

Administrator
Staff member
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
GIVING DAY 2023
That matters less than Dre Smith giving them locker room motivation and losing to them in Richmond. Had we beaten them, we knock them off the bubble and probably wind up a 7 seed and avoid OSU.

This is kind fun to think about weird domino implications of random events.

meh, that team won 16 in a row and were bound to lose. But that game definitely cost mason a top seed, as high as 5.

Also it was Cornelius not dre Smith that tweeted the supposed “it’s over tell em its over” or something.

I try to not think about any of this stuff because I’m pretty sure that Mason team was sweet 16 bound with the right matchups. We’ll never know.
 

Falco

Hall of Famer
GIVING DAY 2023
I also want to point out Hancock played through a shoulder injury and he still balled out
 

psyclone

Hall of Famer
Talked to Dr. John Giannini about his experience in coaching and broadcasting, the role of analytics in basketball, and his thoughts on the A10. Probably my favorite interview we've done - he was great and his cats kept meowing in the background and I almost lost my shit. Check it out:

https://giantkiller.co/ByGeorge/2020/02/17/hey10-ep18/

An excellent interview! Giannini expresses himself well both in the interview and in covering the A10 games I've watched.

Not surprised about his high praise of Tre Mitchell after the game he had vs Dayton last weekend. Mitchell has been dominant in both that game and against URI against their prominent big men. Will be a headache for the A10 for the next 3 yrs unless he opts for the NBA.
 

Petey Buckets

Starter
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
An excellent interview! Giannini expresses himself well both in the interview and in covering the A10 games I've watched.

Not surprised about his high praise of Tre Mitchell after the game he had vs Dayton last weekend. Mitchell has been dominant in both that game and against URI against their prominent big men. Will be a headache for the A10 for the next 3 yrs unless he opts for the NBA.

Thanks! Was super excited to have him on, he was great. Definitely want everyone to check it out, it's our best interview yet. He actually emailed us ahead of time asking for the questions so he could prepare. What a guy.

PS: MEEEOOOOWWWWW
 

Five Two

All-American
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
Was it the same cat or different cats making all the noise in the background?? :)

Great interview. Interesting how he used analytics more for minutes than Xs and Os and shot selection.
I agree with him on fouling up 3 at the end of games and 2 for 1 at the half.
 

Falco

Hall of Famer
GIVING DAY 2023
Talked to Dr. John Giannini about his experience in coaching and broadcasting, the role of analytics in basketball, and his thoughts on the A10. Probably my favorite interview we've done - he was great and his cats kept meowing in the background and I almost lost my shit. Check it out:

https://giantkiller.co/ByGeorge/2020/02/17/hey10-ep18/
This was awesome. I thought it was interesting when he talked about players burning out by their senior year due to increased practice time.
 

Petey Buckets

Starter
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
Thanks for listening guys. Feel like it was definitely our best episode yet and Giannini was super insightful. Also thought he made an interesting point about how unique Richmond's offense is, and how difficult it will be to prepare for if they make the tournament. Loved his perspective on everything and definitely want him on again.
 
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