So... Too Early to Talk About Next Year?

[GSII]

Oduro
AJ
Miller
Greene
XJ
Boyd
Hartwell
Henry/Calixte
Polite

Barring any further additions or subtractions, this is our most likely rotation. Can this team get into the upper half of the A-10? We’ll see.

Cant wait for that 7th place finish....wooohoo!

 

[CHRISTOPHER JAMES JOLLAY]

I think 4th or 5th if possible if Boyd is right and the young kids improve...but far more likely 6-9 range.

Going to be very interesting to see if Polite takes minutes immediately. I think normally he would but this is such a make it or break year you have to ride experience as much as possible.

 

[mkaufman1]

I think 4th or 5th if possible if Boyd is right and the young kids improve...but far more likely 6-9 range.

Going to be very interesting to see if Polite takes minutes immediately. I think normally he would but this is such a make it or break year you have to ride experience as much as possible.

I agree with you. I think the young guys would have to improve a lot and the older guys would have to be a bit more consistent. I think if everyone works hard it is possible, but I think a lot of teams are getting better too. I think Mason should take a flyer on a grad transfer and see if that can get an extra win or two (or 3). There are plenty and someone who can really play would only help the team. Pipe dream though.

The problem is, what does a school like Mason do if you go 10-3 in the nonconf, 10-8 in the league. Something like that. Is 20-11 enough to get you into the NCAA or NIT? It probably isn't, which then leads to the never ending discussion of what you do with Dave. I don't know if Mason would get rid of a coach who pulls that type of record. I have to think its NCAA or bust, but I really really don't know.

 

[mkaufman1]

Oduro
AJ
Miller
Greene
XJ
Boyd
Hartwell
Henry/Calixte
Polite

Barring any further additions or subtractions, this is our most likely rotation. Can this team get into the upper half of the A-10? We’ll see.

Kolek doesn't play much I'm guessing? I don't know whether he does or doesn't. And no time for Daddy either.

That said, maybe Daddy plays a few mins here or there just to get used to D1.

 

[CHRISTOPHER JAMES JOLLAY]

I agree with you. I think the young guys would have to improve a lot and the older guys would have to be a bit more consistent. I think if everyone works hard it is possible, but I think a lot of teams are getting better too. I think Mason should take a flyer on a grad transfer and see if that can get an extra win or two (or 3). There are plenty and someone who can really play would only help the team. Pipe dream though.

The problem is, what does a school like Mason do if you go 10-3 in the nonconf, 10-8 in the league. Something like that. Is 20-11 enough to get you into the NCAA or NIT? It probably isn't, which then leads to the never ending discussion of what you do with Dave. I don't know if Mason would get rid of a coach who pulls that type of record. I have to think its NCAA or bust, but I really really don't know.

I don't think Dave has to hit the NIT or NCAA to keep his job, though him doing that every now and then is the ultimate metric me and most will deservedly judge him on...

I think 18-20 wins probably buys him some time, though depends on some variables with the AD, pres, etc. I can't possibly know...

 

[The Great PATSby]

I don't think Dave has to hit the NIT or NCAA to keep his job, though him doing that every now and then is the ultimate metric me and most will deservedly judge him on...

I think 18-20 wins probably buys him some time, though depends on some variables with the AD, pres, etc. I can't possibly know...

If we hit 18+ wins next year and see some serious potential in Kolek, Henry, Polite and Daddy (Since we didn't really see him play last year) and further development of Xavier and Oduro, I might be okay with giving Dave another year.

 

[gmujim92]

If we hit 18+ wins next year and see some serious potential in Kolek, Henry, Polite and Daddy (Since we didn't really see him play last year) and further development of Xavier and Oduro, I might be okay with giving Dave another year.

That’s the thing, though: you can’t just let him play out the last year of his deal as dead man walking. We’re either gonna have to extend him by at least 2 years or make a change after next season (if there is one).

 

[KAOriginal]

After 5 years of "ok"....Paulsen puts together another soft schedule to get to 18 wins, avoids PIG, loses in 1st round of A-10 tourney.....and all the talk of potential.

He will keep his job.

This is why Mason Basketball will never be great again and we should back to the CAA. We will never be nothing in the A10 at this pace.

 

[Patriot8]

Now that the scholarships are full, it’s time to move on. Best of luck to Kier wherever he ends up, and I’m sure there will be some conversation regarding his decision, but now we have our squad barring any unforeseen developments. Hopefully everyone on the roster is taking this opportunity to get bigger, faster, quicker, etc. You may not be able to get into a gym, but you can work on your handles, watch film, and get better. 20-21 is a make or break year for Paulsen as pretty much everyone agrees. I’m looking forward to seeing if this program can step up.

 

[gmujim92]

PG — XJ/Hartwell/Polite
SG — Greene/Boyd/Kolek
SF — Miller/Boyd/Daddy/Frazier
PF — Wilson/Henry
C — Oduro/Calixte

Not too bad...

 

[psyclone]

It's hard not to get a bit excited about next season. How will the new guys look? Is there a break out star in the bunch who comes out of nowhere like Luke Hancock did? Will Oduro make a big leap? How will our better depth assist XJ and Hartwell in their development? My optimistic nature gets the best of me at this time of year when anything is possible!

Then I stop and think....what if we don't get any sports back for another year?! What a downer that will be.

 

[sleeperpick]

PG — XJ/Hartwell/Polite
SG — Greene/Boyd/Kolek
SF — Miller/Boyd/Daddy/Frazier
PF — Wilson/Henry
C — Oduro/Calixte

Not too bad...

On paper that team is currently in the hunt for 5-7th place in A10. I still think this roster isn't near a Richmond (all of them returning from draft process of course), Bona (this team is gonna be damn good), Duquesne, UMASS (not going to be popular on here but they should be really good even with a coach worse than ours) and St Louis (fool me ten times but I still love this roster and wish ours looked like it).

Hopefully everyone stays healthy and we have some massive improvement from Oduro, XJ and Jamal. Hopefully Daddy isn't anything more than a warm body and at least one of our freshman can be a Day 1 contributor.

Hopefully Paulsen installs an offense that should be run in 2020 that focuses on our best players that are actually in the lineup (AJ, Javon, Miller) rather than what we had to witness last year... Still after 5 years am I looking forward to an inbounds play that works and looks toward the basket for points (other teams have them why can't we). I also hope that with 13 rostered players we are able to develop a press worth a damn since we can no longer use the excuse of our team being too tired to run one.

We shall see but this is a shit or get off the pot season for Paulsen and he has the roster many of you have had wet dreams about to do so. I hope he doesn't consistently get stumped by a change of gameplan most coaches throw at us and that someone can nail a 3 point shot consistently when a team goes into zone against us.

Please make the OOC schedule higher than 200 SOS this year... PLEASE I am not asking for much

 

[gmujim92]

I know I’m the designated board homer, but I don’t know how anyone looks at the current roster and sees anything but significant steps in the right direction.

We are longer and more athletic across the board than just 2 years ago.

Do I wish the staff had been recruiting like this from the beginning? Absolutely. But in my book late is better than never ... can’t wait to see how they develop these high-upside kids like Henry, Polite and Frazier.

 

[Dawgs99]

To me the added depth and hopefully having 13 scholarship kids in practice will be a huge help. Think about how depleted we were at times last season, now think about how bad practice must have been with 3 walk ons getting to play the "scout team" all year. I think people forget about the practice aspect when they talk about a lack of depth. Also there will be more competition for PT. Everyone knows being pushed for minutes usually brings out the best in athletes, and if it doesn't they just get passed over.

They team as currently constructed is better than the Kier/Boyd less team we had most of last season. I can't speak to how they will all be utilized by DP and staff but the roster next year is better IMO.

 

[Dawgs99]

Imagine how much DP is going to rave about practice next year with 13 healthy bodies!!!!

 

[GMUgemini]

Imagine how much DP is going to rave about practice next year with 13 healthy bodies!!!!

Speaking of, didn't Paulsen say we only had something like 2 or 3 practices where we had all available players able to practice at the same time after November? And that excludes Boyd, Kier, and Dady being out most of the year and unavailable.

 

[GMUgemini]

wait do you seriously think just Oduro's man to man matchups equate to him having a good game defensively. He is a center for a team that plays 0 perimeter defense (even Jim and the other homers agree to that). His job is a rim protector as well as covering his man. If we are just judging man to man defense than AJ isn't that great either.. I hope you get the gist.

I moving this over here to get it out of the Otis board. I mean, I can't exactly go back and look at every basket in those losses and see how many of them were Oduro whiffing the defense at the rim. But I will say he struggles when he's pulled out to the perimeter by a screener to, a, switch if we're asking him to switch or recover if we're asking him to hedge and recover, but he did get better as a low post defender as the season went on (and that includes not giving up a ton of offensive rebounds, which is also important for our bigs to do).

If Oduro gives us 21 per game next year and Calixte gives us 12-15, that does still leave 4-7 mpg for someone to have to fill in at the 5, but that's a lot better than the 11 we had last year.

 

[sleeperpick]

I moving this over here to get it out of the Otis board. I mean, I can't exactly go back and look at every basket in those losses and see how many of them were Oduro whiffing the defense at the rim. But I will say he struggles when he's pulled out to the perimeter by a screener to, a, switch if we're asking him to switch or recover if we're asking him to hedge and recover, but he did get better as a low post defender as the season went on (and that includes not giving up a ton of offensive rebounds, which is also important for our bigs to do).

If Oduro gives us 21 per game next year and Calixte gives us 12-15, that does still leave 4-7 mpg for someone to have to fill in at the 5, but that's a lot better than the 11 we had last year.

my point is less about mins distribution and more about the fact that maybe the big mins we do put to guys at the position could be better off given to someone not on the team that is better. 36 mins a game at a position for Oduro and Calixte is not going to cut it against good teams...

 

[GMUgemini]

my point is less about mins distribution and more about the fact that maybe the big mins we do put to guys at the position could be better off given to someone not on the team that is better. 36 mins a game at a position for Oduro and Calixte is not going to cut it against good teams...

And my point is in half of those losses it was guard play, and not the forwards, who lost us those games.

 

[gmujim92]

my point is less about mins distribution and more about the fact that maybe the big mins we do put to guys at the position could be better off given to someone not on the team that is better. 36 mins a game at a position for Oduro and Calixte is not going to cut it against good teams...

Says the guy who proclaimed Oduro a stiff who was no better than some random playing pickup at the field house. If you were smart you’d take your well-earned L on that one and walk away.