Hysteria aside, what can realistically be changed?

[gmujim92]

Otis had 2 points in 33 minutes. Otis was clearly having an off night but he played nearly the whole game.

You really don’t understand how any of this works, do you?

 

[GSII]

Assuming Otis and Mar wake up, the most important change is stopping the layup line. We have to go to a zone, at least for stretches.

No coach wants to change the whole system 2-3 games in, but some decisions are made for you.

DP has scraped an entire system during the season before. It's on record.

Maybe a match up zone would work?

 

[gmujim92]

DP has scraped an entire system during the season before. It's on record.

Maybe a match up zone would work?

It’s not exactly apples to apples — he scrapped his system in his first preseason at Mason because our guards were so young and our strength was in the paint with Shevon — but your broader point is correct.

There’s not a ton of time in-season to make sweeping changes, but the status quo is unacceptable. Anything is better than the crap defense we played the other night.

 

[Jack Strop]

Hmmmm... What needs to change??

I got it! How 'bout expectations; visions of grandeur; lack of true support; absence of a suggestion box for DP and BE...

Look. The boats are burnt and sunk. There's no turning back. Clamoring for severed heads is not the answer right now. Neither is panicking. The ONLY thing to do is to take a "leadership" approach: remain calm, buckle down, focus, lead by example, and don't give up.

Many of you are giving in to hysteria when the ENTIRE team needs support and leadership from the fans—that means YOU!! Wait until after the season to grouse. Mason has about 30 games to go. Be there for the players, the coaches, and your fellow fans. Don't boo-hoo. Pick yourselves up and your fallen-brothers-in-arms and fight like hell!!!

 

[Leesburg Chankenstank III]

Hmmmm... What needs to change??

I got it! How 'bout expectations; visions of grandeur; lack of true support; absence of a suggestion box for DP and BE...

Look. The boats are burnt and sunk. There's no turning back. Clamoring for severed heads is not the answer right now. Neither is panicking. The ONLY thing to do is to take a "leadership" approach: remain calm, buckle down, focus, lead by example, and don't give up.

Many of you are giving in to hysteria when the ENTIRE team needs support and leadership from the fans—that means YOU!! Wait until after the season to grouse. Mason has about 30 games to go. Be there for the players, the coaches, and your fellow fans. Don't boo-hoo. Pick yourselves up and your fallen brothers in arms and fight like hell!!!

You're right. I really need to start hititng my three's and improving my paint defense. It's all on me. I apologize.

 

[Jack Strop]

You're right. I really need to start hititng my three's and improving my paint defense. It's all on me. I apologize.

If you could shoot three's and not trip over your shoe laces maybe you'd be Mason-Patriot-point-guard-extraordinaire-for-life! The best dribbling you do is after your eighth Milwaukee's Best.

 

[FreeGunston12]

Because Calixte is almost a total non-threat offensively and we are too streaky shooting the ball to go with zero paint presence for long stretches.

I would pair Reuter/AJ and Calixte/Mar as their respective strengths (normally) complement each other.

Regardless, our defensive problems begin and end with the guards being unable to prevent penetration. Unless that changes, it won’t make any difference if we have a “rim protector” on the floor because even AJ can’t block them all.

I agree with your pairings, but what about going back to a smaller lineup? I’d like to see more Grayer/Boyd at the 4 with AJ at the 5.

The small lineup has worked for us before.

 

[Patriot Lawdog]

You're right. I really need to start hititng my three's and improving my paint defense. It's all on me. I apologize.

Look, like I've said before, I was a really good player in the white guys vs. Asians games at the Field House in my prime. On the serious courts, I was a solid role player. At this point, I've lost a step and I was never the best defender in my prime, so I just don't see me being much of a contributor at this point.

 

[patriotchild]

I agree with your pairings, but what about going back to a smaller lineup? I’d like to see more Grayer/Boyd at the 4 with AJ at the 5.

The small lineup has worked for us before.

This is probably the biggest hitch so far this year. For all positives that we’re talked about when adding Reuter, we didn’t consider any potential negatives. His mere presence changes the whole chemistry of the team we had on the court last year. It also seems to have made Dave less willing to go to non traditional line ups as he was forced to and it means we aren’t necessarily playing as scrappy.

If we don’t figure out the 3/4/5 rotation we’ll have rough time the rest of the year. We’ve been unconventional and had it work, I don’t think this is time to go back to old school basketball, it’s messing with the mojo.

I’d love to see Boyd take more time at the 4. He gives up height but doesn’t get pushed around as much as Mar and he’s been playing well. AJ at the 5 also gives us a quicker lineup.

If you want to go big, kier, grayer at the 2 Mar at the 3 AJ, and Reuter/calixte would be interesting.

Sometimes too many choices is a bad thing. Another thing to consider is how players are dealing with reduced roles? If you push Mar to the 3, what do you do with Grayer and Boyd and vice versa? If you’re only spelling Reuter calixte at the 5 what do you do with calixte. how do you fill in for Mars bad play at the 4 if AJ is your backup at the 5 and calixte isn’t a solid fill in at the 4 or 5?

It looks like 1, 2, and 5 are pretty set when Reuter isn’t huffing and puffing and I wouldn’t expect Dave to change that philosophy, it’s pretty solid.

The 4 is our weak spot. It has to be some combo of AJ/Boyd/Mar and in that order based on play right now.

 

[gmujim92]

Change the defense. The end.

 

[GSII]

Why aren't we playing pack line. We did last 3 years correct? No reason to change it.

 

[GMUgemini]

Why aren't we playing pack line. We did last 3 years correct? No reason to change it.

GSU had 40 fast break points! Pack line ain't going to help when you don't get back in transition off a turnover.

I say fix the turnover issue somehow first, because that's what's been killing the momentum.

 

[psyclone]

...
Sometimes too many choices is a bad thing. ......

Elaborating on this....last year there were very limited options as to the lineups. This year you could make a case that we're too deep. The assistant coach that Bill interviewed immediately after the game said that we haven't established our rotations yet. And given the possibilities that pchild outlines, it may take a while to figure out the best combinations.

The benefit of set rotations is that guys get a sense of their roles, something that hasn't happened as yet. I don't know enough to claim what the effect is on our defense, but it may contribute to those problems.

 

[smccart5]

[QUOTE=" The assistant coach that Bill interviewed immediately after the game said that we haven't established our rotations yet. And given the possibilities that pchild outlines, it may take a while to figure out the best combinations.
[/QUOTE]
Totally agree that rotations need to be set, and I'm hopeful the staff will figure it out and we'll get some mojo going. These next two games should give us a great chance to get that solidified.

However- isn't the overseas trip supposed to give us a head start on this stuff? Very happy for the guys that they got to take an amazing trip, but it provided zero basketball value. How much money did the program spend on the trip?

 

[JBiggs]

GSU had 40 fast break points! Pack line ain't going to help when you don't get back in transition off a turnover.

I say fix the turnover issue somehow first, because that's what's been killing the momentum.

That is an unbelievable number. That's what you would expect to see if Duke was playing a low major.

 

[GMUgemini]

That is an unbelievable number. That's what you would expect to see if Duke was playing a low major.

Went back and took at look at the last time we played Duke:

Duke vs. George Mason 12/9/2006

Duke: Fast Break points: 4

GMU turnovers: 15

And we started freaking Jesus Urbina in that game (although Monroe and Birdsong wound up playing the majority of his minutes).

Gave up 90% fewer fastbreak points and had 7 fewer turnovers against a far superior team at Cameron Indoor Arena.

I feel like this team needs to do 10 suicides for every single fastbreak layup they gave up to GSU -- I know that might literally kill a few of our players, but maybe that's what the others need to be motivated, to watch their peers expire on the court running their asses off.

 

[MasonSAE4]

It’s not exactly apples to apples — he scrapped his system in his first preseason at Mason because our guards were so young and our strength was in the paint with Shevon — but your broader point is correct.

There’s not a ton of time in-season to make sweeping changes, but the status quo is unacceptable. Anything is better than the crap defense we played the other night.

I mean, there’s decent time to make changes. It’s all about the conference now anyways. The benefit of that being time to tinker in the OOC slate.

 

[patriot2000]

I mean, there’s decent time to make changes. It’s all about the conference now anyways. The benefit of that being time to tinker in the OOC slate.

The thing that makes me sad about that is the fact that I allowed myself to believe this was an NCAA tournament season. The A-10, obviously, ain't the CAA. "It's all about the conference" was hard enough in the CAA; it's damn near impossible now. Our 0-3 start means we have to actually win the damn A10 now. I thought we could finish 3rd and skate into the tournament. Now, you spend the rest of the OOC tinkering and figuring shit out, you actually do it and shut all of the haters up, you win 15 games in the A10, make it to the semi finals of the tournament, and still end up sitting at home sweating out a low-seed NIT bid. It's depressing.

It's all about the conference now. But if Paulsen has BY FAR the best conference season we've ever seen, we still don't dance because either St. Louis or St. Joe's, or both, plus some surprise team no one expected, over-perform.

I became a Mason fan in 1995 - the first time I had ever heard of George Mason University, and eventually committed to go there in 1996. We danced in 99, 01, 06, 08, and 11. The longest drought I've ever endured was 5 years. Now we're in year 8 and there's a 98%+ chance we're not doing it this year. Then we graduate 2 1000 point scorers, 2 players near the top of the career 3pt list, a player near the top of the assists list, and it's hard to imagine it happens next year, either.

It's depressing that, after 3 games, we already know there's a huge chance we're looking at a 10 year tourney drought. That sucks.

I still don't think it's time to fire DP, though

Sent from my VS988 using Tapatalk

 

[GSII]

It's not gonna be hard replacing otis.

 

[Walter]

The selection committee is more forgiving of early bad losses. Start winning and keep winning. Finish top three in conference and play in title game. At-large still possible.