Mason’s A-10 Finish

[Herndon]

By accepting this mediocrity (being kind with that word) year 4, you are a better fan than me lol. You don’t have to say it. I will

You know, that's really the point of it, isn't it?

I'd agree with you we're a mediocre program right now. And yes, I accept it. I think that 4 years after Paulsen took over a DISASTER of a program from Hewitt (remember, hewitt went 8-26 in the A10), mediocre is a reasonably successful place to be.

I FURTHER think that sans improved program support from the administration, mediocre would be good enough for me moving forward.

If we're going to act like a mediocre program, we should expect mediocre results.

 

[sleeperpick]

You know, that's really the point of it, isn't it?

I'd agree with you we're a mediocre program right now. And yes, I accept it. I think that 4 years after Paulsen took over a DISASTER of a program from Hewitt (remember, hewitt went 8-26 in the A10), mediocre is a reasonably successful place to be.

I FURTHER think that sans improved program support from the administration, mediocre would be good enough for me moving forward.

If we're going to act like a mediocre program, we should expect mediocre results.

I hear ya on the lack of monetary support our program faces. But the Bonnie’s and st Mary’s Among other programs that are currently successful spend much less and they have to recruit kids to want to live in those areas. Seriously olean New York?!?

 

[FreeGunston12]

I would say that the point of an offense is to create points. Similar to what I said to GMUGemini above, if the faults of the players are Paulsen's responsibility, so are the ability of the players. If he is recruiting players good enough to get buckets at relatively efficient level, and the offense puts them in position to take dudes individually, then the offense is relatively good at doing it's job.

By comparison, nobody would say the Rockets have a bad offense, but they are 28th in the NBA in assists. Similarly, nobody is scared of the Wizards, but they are 5th in the league in assists.

Assists are GREAT if they result in effective offense. If they do not, they're not. Assists are like steals. They can be a great indicator of a successful system, provided the system is set up to generate them.

UVA gets almost no steals, but they play decent defense, fair?

That said, I GENUINELY appreciate the research, and think that THIS is the way to have good, productive decisions. Good post!

I like your Rockets analogy. But I think again what that shows is that the points come from individual effort (as we know with Harden, Paul, and company). In my opinion, the talent level will never be so great at Mason as to run such isolation offense. The strategy needs to be to create offense through ball movement. Too often we watched Otis try to do it on his own last year.

I need to consider your points a little more though. For now, i’ll fall back to the eye test that I saw a below average offense that looked stagnant, ran 1 motion way too much, and turned the ball over too much.

 

[GMUgemini]

Our players limitations are Paulsen's responsibility, he recruited them.

It's on him to find a way to produce an effective offense, either by system or recruiting, or some combination thereof.

He did that okay this year. Not great not awful.

I agree with you, except our players’ limitations last season weren’t necessarily foreseen (Mar’s utter regression, Grayer’s lack of explosion, Otis losing his shooting touch — looks like he might have been playing hurt for a significant part of the season, Greene’s inconsistent shooting, Boyd getting hurt and unable to shoot anymore, Reuter’s hip issues etc.). Like some of our issues were definitely roster management and offensive and defensive design, some of it were just unforeseen circumstances outside of anyone’s control. To lay it all on just outdated coaching philosophy is unfair.

It looks like Coach Paulsen is trying to evolve his game. He looks intent on figuring out smallball. I’m not sure how well he’s going to do with how he wants to play defense. He’s going to have to become a lot less conservative and take more chances, that’s for sure.

 

[gmujim92]

I hear ya on the lack of monetary support our program faces. But the Bonnie’s and st Mary’s Among other programs that are currently successful spend much less and they have to recruit kids to want to live in those areas. Seriously olean New York?!?

So the Bonnies are “successful” and Mason is “shitty” even though they finished one whole game ahead of us in the conference?

If we hold the 19-point lead against Duquesne, I guess that would’ve meant we were “successful” too? We would’ve been tied with those “successful” Bonnies.

Why don’t we just call a spade a spade? You don’t like Paulsen for whatever reason. You’ve decided he’s not a good coach and you would rather be proven right than acknowledge any of the progress our program has made over the past four years.

Even Ricky Bobby’s dad eventually acknowledged that “If you’re not first, you’re last” is a ridiculous way to go through life.

 

[Herndon]

I like your Rockets analogy. But I think again what that shows is that the points come from individual effort (as we know with Harden, Paul, and company). In my opinion, the talent level will never be so great at Mason as to run such isolation offense. The strategy needs to be to create offense through ball movement. Too often we watched Otis try to do it on his own last year.

I need to consider your points a little more though. For now, i’ll fall back to the eye test that I saw a below average offense that looked stagnant, ran 1 motion way too much, and turned the ball over too much.

It's a reasonable take, and to be honest, I'm not even really sure I LOVED the offensive system this year, I just took issue with it being called "shitty" when it was objectively was not.

You can say "there is a better way for Mason to do things given our situation" and I'm all ears, and I'll further admit my personal preference for a system that produces a lot of assists through off ball movement and screening.

I'm just saying there are multiple ways to skin a cat, and this year, the cat was reasonably skin-free at the end of the season.

 

[Herndon]

I agree with you, except our players’ limitations last season weren’t necessarily foreseen (Mar’s utter regression, Grayer’s lack of explosion, Otis losing his shooting touch — looks like he might have been playing hurt for a significant part of the season, Greene’s inconsistent shooting, Boyd getting hurt and unable to shoot anymore, Reuter’s hip issues etc.). Like some of our issues were definitely roster management and offensive and defensive design, some of it were just unforeseen circumstances outside of anyone’s control. To lay it all on just outdated coaching philosophy is unfair.

It looks like Coach Paulsen is trying to evolve his game. He looks intent on figuring out smallball. I’m not sure how well he’s going to do with how he wants to play defense. He’s going to have to become a lot less conservative and take more chances, that’s for sure.

They weren't, but by the same token, we got some unforseen breaks as well (Miller turning out to be WAY better than anybody expected, Kier becoming a threat from 3 on enough volume to scare defenses, Hartwell being ready to take on primary backup PG duties as a freshman).

Yes, I think overall things broke bad more than they broke good, but it was even enough that I feel like at the end of the year, we were roughly who we were. Maybe could we have been a top 3 or 4 team in conference? Sure, but we could also have been slightly under .500. I think the final results were reasonably representative of the squad.

I do fully agree with you about laying it on outdated coaching philosophy being B.S. He implemented a packline defense this year which, if winning the national title is any indication, can be a pretty effective system.

 

[Herndon]

I hear ya on the lack of monetary support our program faces. But the Bonnie’s and st Mary’s Among other programs that are currently successful spend much less and they have to recruit kids to want to live in those areas. Seriously olean New York?!?

The fact that you brought up the bonnie's is interesting. Here are Schmidt's first 4 years at STB: 8-22, 15-15, 15-16, 16-15.

Look familiar? He took a crappy program, and in phase one of the rebuild, made them competent. Starting the next year, they have won at least 18 games in every season but one.

I think there are relatively few people that wouldn't argue that Schmidt is one of the better coaches in the conference, and it's hard (for me at least) not to look at what Paulsen has done in his first 4 years at mason and see similarities.

 

[GMUgemini]

They weren't, but by the same token, we got some unforseen breaks as well (Miller turning out to be WAY better than anybody expected, Kier becoming a threat from 3 on enough volume to scare defenses, Hartwell being ready to take on primary backup PG duties as a freshman).

Yes, I think overall things broke bad more than they broke good, but it was even enough that I feel like at the end of the year, we were roughly who we were. Maybe could we have been a top 3 or 4 team in conference? Sure, but we could also have been slightly under .500. I think the final results were reasonably representative of the squad.

I do fully agree with you about laying it on outdated coaching philosophy being B.S. He implemented a packline defense this year which, if winning the national title is any indication, can be a pretty effective system.

I hear you, but enough broke bad that we were a few really close losses away from a pretty damn good season.

Early season it was Mar, Grayer, Otis. Later in the season, losing Boyd I think hurt really badly (he was so dynamic and important to our 5 game winning streak).

And let me say, I understand a fan not liking Paulsen’s more conservative offense and defense. Sleeperpick obviously prefers a high pressure, high tempo system that generates a lot of turnovers and transition points. Mason is never going to be that team so long as Paulsen is coach. But he’s not trash, certainly.

 

[sleeperpick]

So the Bonnies are “successful” and Mason is “shitty” even though they finished one whole game ahead of us in the conference?

If we hold the 19-point lead against Duquesne, I guess that would’ve meant we were “successful” too? We would’ve been tied with those “successful” Bonnies.

Why don’t we just call a spade a spade? You don’t like Paulsen for whatever reason. You’ve decided he’s not a good coach and you would rather be proven right than acknowledge any of the progress our program has made over the past four years.

Even Ricky Bobby’s dad eventually acknowledged that “If you’re not first, you’re last” is a ridiculous way to go through life.

Jim you watch too many A10 games to talk this way. What was st bonaventues record from the time all three of their best players started playing together back from injury this year...

Also we were just one game back from a team that lost their top 2 guys. One to NBA and one to successful overseas career. Them being better than us this year proves exactly the point I want to convey.

I don’t care about the historical significance of what mark Schmidt was left in his cupboard. I care that he seemingly gets talented players in his recruiting classes (just beat out Syracuse last year for a kid who is already more physical dominating than anyone we have had since mike Mo)

He took a program that was close to Fordham status to become what it currently is.

Oh yea the Duquesne team that has seen a complete turnaround in 2 years with dambrot and is poised for a top 4 this year. Oh and they also were missing their second best player and we had a 4 foot backup drop 20 on us like we do with many other schools we play (penn, Vermont, etc)

Just admit it. Hewitt had you drinking the koolaid and he hurt you.

 

[Herndon]

Just admit it. Hewitt had you drinking the koolaid and he hurt you.

Is this for me?

 

[sleeperpick]

Yes, in year 12. Talk to me in 8 years.

Will not be supporting the program if it takes that long. We have a past success level and are in northern Virginia with the hottest recruits in the country. We are not in olean New York and should not be striving to be. They also spend less money than us which more so proves your point earlier

 

[sleeperpick]

Is this for me?

Was for Jim but it can also be for you, Gemini, my dude Matt Kaufman, Quentin Daniels etc. the koolaid guys

 

[gmubrian]

...in the A10, the offense was slightly above average.

But fair enough. Perhaps not using conference stats, a different picture is painted.

Nationally the offense was.......slightly above average.

I don’t know if comparing us to all D1 teams is valuable. The 70 or so teams in low major conferences really shouldn’t be used to raise our average. At no point should we be compared to any of the low major schools.

Now, one could argue that the ~65 teams in the P5 is lowering our average in the same manner. I would argue, though. that being in the A10 we should be closer to the P5 than the low majors.

All that being said, I agree with your point. We were not a horrible offense, but we were ugly, and just painful to watch at times. If we were winning more, ala, UVA, the style would be more (tolerable, enjoyable, exciting choose your adjective) to watch.

 

[Herndon]

Was for Jim but it can also be for you, Gemini, my dude Matt Kaufman, Quentin Daniels etc. the koolaid guys

The thing is, on this, you are mistaken.

 

[Herndon]

Will not be supporting the program if it takes that long. We have a past success level and are in northern Virginia with the hottest recruits in the country. We are not in olean New York and should not be striving to be. They also spend less money than us which more so proves your point earlier

We have a past success level because we lucked into a hall of fame coach. Those don't grow on trees, and you don't expect to replicate their success when you don't have them.

Jesus, you young dudes have no concept of a basketball world in which GMU didn't matter. As long as you can remember, you've felt like there was a reason that GMU SHOULD be good.

There isn't.

 

[sleeperpick]

We have a past success level because we lucked into a hall of fame coach. Those don't grow on trees, and you don't expect to replicate their success when you don't have them.

Jesus, you young dudes have no concept of a basketball world in which GMU didn't matter. As long as you can remember, you've felt like there was a reason that GMU SHOULD be good.

There isn't.

Lol never cared about GMU basketball until I was in college. Some of you older guys really need to realize that very few people my age did.

 

[Herndon]

Lol never cared about GMU basketball until I was in college. Some of you older guys really need to realize that very few people my age did.

So, you came to fanhood recently, and will leave shortly if the program isn't successful enough to satisfy you?

 

[GMUgemini]

Lol never cared about GMU basketball until I was in college. Some of you older guys really need to realize that very few people my age did.

I think anyone who went to Mason before the Final Four and bothered to go to the games understands that most people still don’t care about Mason basketball. We are under no illusions about the state of our fan base.

I think it’s funny you think Quentin is a kool-aid drinker. He was one of the first anti-Hewitt voices in here. He’s just a professional contrarian, so take his comments as they aren’t.

As for me, I think Paulsen has his faults, but he’s definitely not trash. I think what you need to do is start maybe looking at the totality of statements and not hone in on very specific triggering phrases. I agree with some of what the anti-Paulsen people are saying but not all. I think he’s a better coach than you give him credit for, but I also recognize he hasn’t shown he can be more than middle of the pack in the A10 yet and I have no problem moving on if he can’t break through.

 

[gmubrian]

You could start an Airbnb experience and make money off your horses.

Thought you might be interested to know that we have been doing the Airbnb thing since August. We aren’t doing an actual“experience” yet. We are currently renting the barn out so people get to interact with the horses a little bit, which adds to the appeal. We have been booked almost every weekend (that we haven’t blocked for our use) since we posted it. It has been going really well so far except for a couple times where the renter tried to hold a party and I had to kick them out.