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

[JPgmuswim]

According to recent Paulsen quotes in the WaPo we are a sleeping Giant just waiting to explode and Polite will be an elite A-10 player. Also according to Alan on twitter we are going to be ahead of Dayton and vcu in the preseason polls somehow. I'm supersoaker cised!

I read that article and have never thought of a team that finishes 12th out of 14 teams in the standings as a sleeping giant. Maybe a dead giant.

 

[gmujim92]

Barring a significant grad transfer, AJ will be the best player on the roster next season without any plausible debate. Are you predicting that this team will compete for a top 3 spot in the conference, and pick up enough quality wins in the non-conference to be in consideration for an at-large?

Not predicting anything until I know for sure who is and isn’t on our team.

I merely disagreed with your statement that a team with AJ as its best player cannot contend at the top of the A-10.

AJ’s best basketball is still ahead of him. If he builds on this season and blows up into a first-team all-A10 player, we get Kier back at 100% and put him alongside Miller and Greene, that’s the type of veteran core that typically has success in our league.

Richmond went from back-to-back 20-loss seasons to second place in the A-10 and the NCAA bubble. It can be done.

 

[sleeperpick]

Not predicting anything until I know for sure who is and isn’t on our team.

I merely disagreed with your statement that a team with AJ as its best player cannot contend at the top of the A-10.

AJ’s best basketball is still ahead of him. If he builds on this season and blows up into a first-team all-A10 player, we get Kier back at 100% and put him alongside Miller and Greene, that’s the type of veteran core that typically has success in our league.

Richmond went from back-to-back 20-loss seasons to second place in the A-10 and the NCAA bubble. It can be done.

I hope he does but good luck getting a first team spot when golden, OSUN, French and umass freshman star are in the A10. Paulsen has no idea how to feature a big. I hate Matt McCall and think he is a shit coach but damn can he highlight his best player. Paulsen has never done that. He had the OTis show for two years of just do whatever you want but I don’t think that’s counts.

Disclaimer: huge OTis guy but f**k that offense was literally OTis dribble around until you can find a poorly timed shot or bad pass a lot of the time.

 

[PoorManProfit]

Richmond went from back-to-back 20-loss seasons to second place in the A-10 and the NCAA bubble. It can be done.

UR needed strong players to do it. They had a lot of juniors this year with game that took their knocks as freshman and sophs. G Mas doesn't have those players.

 

[MasonFanatic]

in the preseason polls somehow

Lol, I love it when people take stuff totally out of context and try to put words in my mouth to stir the pot. No actual preseason poll is picking Mason above about 9 or 10, even if Kier and AJ are back.

 

[tblack33]

but the question is

1) do you sign someone and hope kier doesn’t come back
2) sign someone and if kier comes back cut someone
3) sign someone and “find a way” (which I’ve been told is not a thing)

At the very least you hope that they find out about kier with enough time to pivot if needed and get someone

also with your recruiting point

you can’t tell me that guys like miller, hartwell, XJ and even Oduro aren’t better than the first group of guys that were coming in, or the very least there’s more talent there to start with vs develop.

Just saw the second part of this on recruiting, they are definitely better I won’t argue that. I’ll leave you with a hot take though, 2 of the 5 best players that Dave has ever recruited at mason came from that terrible first recruiting class (Otis, Jaire). So is recruiting really getting “better” if it’s still not translating to wins/losses at this point? Or is it just comparatively better with how shitty it had been? I’d say we are still bottom 4-5 recruiting teams in the A10.

 

[mkaufman1]

Just saw the second part of this on recruiting, they are definitely better I won’t argue that. I’ll leave you with a hot take though, 2 of the 5 best players that Dave has ever recruited at mason came from that terrible first recruiting class (Otis, Jaire). So is recruiting really getting “better” if it’s still not translating to wins/losses at this point? Or is it just comparatively better with how shitty it had been? I’d say we are still bottom 4-5 recruiting teams in the A10.

Loaded question but I definitely can talk about this stuff for hours as you know haha.

Yes, you can say "Kier, Grayer, Otis" and soon AJ, are all some of the best players that Dave has recruited. And yes Otis and Jaire are 2 of the very best, if not THE best.

Those two somehow he landed by luck. It happens and as you know recruiting isn't an exact science. We were lucky they became what they were, because there was a lot of "rebuild" and "fill the team" talent the first two years.

That said, when I say "its getting better", I point to what I think is better quality A10 level talent. Yes, Jaire and Otis were good, they developed into quality A10 players. But, when I look at guys like XJ, Oduro (sorry @sleeperpick), Miller, Hartwell over the last two years, (and Mar his frosh year) to me those guys had more talent from the get go and have higher ceilings than Jaire and Otis. Will they exceed what those two guys did on the court? Not sure, but to me they seem like better players and better talent from the get go, regardless of who they are recruited for. They just seemed a bit different, polished with my blind non coaching eye, for what its worth. Sure guys can develop, but when I see higher level talent as freshman that can be developed, I see a higher ceiling, if that makes sense.

Now as far as "well if recruiting is getting better what about wins?" I definitely agree with you and I wish I had an answer. Part of it is time, part of it is roster management, part of it has been injuries, inconsistencies and guys not panning out. But for all the guys that haven't panned out or translated to wins, guys that were underrecruited have developed really nicely. Year 6 is coming, and while we are all restless, the best on court talent is yet to come I feel.

This all comes down to seeing what Dave can do with a full roster, thats veteran, and the highest quality of talent that hes had. No depth issues, no inexperience. Will wins come? I'm skeptical, but I definitely think talent is improving. The level and quality of talent to work with and develop is hard to measure, but I certainly hope that more will pan out than less.

Hope this essay of a response makes some sense haha.

 

[Mason32]

Just saw the second part of this on recruiting, they are definitely better I won’t argue that. I’ll leave you with a hot take though, 2 of the 5 best players that Dave has ever recruited at mason came from that terrible first recruiting class (Otis, Jaire). So is recruiting really getting “better” if it’s still not translating to wins/losses at this point? Or is it just comparatively better with how shitty it had been? I’d say we are still bottom 4-5 recruiting teams in the A10.

You could argue that most recruits given the amount of playing time Otis and Jaire received their first years in a conference like the A-10 could make many recruits develop into better college players than those with much less minutes in that same span.

 

[G M U]

Maybe we can settle the recruits steadily improving debate this way:

GAME DAY

Dave's 1st Season Roster vs. Last Years Roster

Starting Lineup:
Otis v XJ
Marquise v Greene
Grayer v Miller
Jenkins v AJ
Shevon v Oduro

Who ya got?

 

[sleeperpick]

Maybe we can settle the recruits steadily improving debate this way:

GAME DAY

Dave's 1st Season Roster vs. Last Years Roster

Starting Lineup:
Otis v XJ
Marquise v Greene
Grayer v Miller
Jenkins v AJ
Shevon v Oduro

Who ya got?

His first team by 10+

 

[GSII]

Who is POY in Class A Rhode Island?

We beat out Brown, Boston U, Bryant among a few more no name schools for Kolek. Mason was his highest offer in relation to conferences.

I will say again for 100th time, if you arent beating the top teams in your conference for some recruits, then you will suck like we have for past 5 years.

 

[Mason32]

Maybe we can settle the recruits steadily improving debate this way:

GAME DAY

Dave's 1st Season Roster vs. Last Years Roster

Starting Lineup:
Otis v XJ
Marquise v Greene
Grayer v Miller
Jenkins v AJ
Shevon v Oduro

Who ya got?

DP only recruited 2 players on the left...

 

[mkaufman1]

Who is POY in Class A Rhode Island?

We beat out Brown, Boston U, Bryant among a few more no name schools for Kolek. Mason was his highest offer in relation to conferences.

I will say again for 100th time, if you arent beating the top teams in your conference for some recruits, then you will suck like we have for past 5 years.

Richmond and Bonaventure were both on Kolek's Verbal Commits page, not sure if they offered or what, but thats something. Polite had higher programs coming after him after he gave his verbal to Mason. I get what you are saying though.

Maybe we can settle the recruits steadily improving debate this way:

GAME DAY

Dave's 1st Season Roster vs. Last Years Roster

Starting Lineup:
Otis v XJ
Marquise v Greene
Grayer v Miller
Jenkins v AJ
Shevon v Oduro

Who ya got?

Yeah but then we debate about how Dave didnt really recruit a few of those guys and blah blah blah. I get your point, but if anything I would compare like year 3 with what we have now. Thats more what I am thinking about.

 

[gmujim92]

Who is POY in Class A Rhode Island?

We beat out Brown, Boston U, Bryant among a few more no name schools for Kolek. Mason was his highest offer in relation to conferences.

I will say again for 100th time, if you arent beating the top teams in your conference for some recruits, then you will suck like we have for past 5 years.

Kolek was offered by Richmond and St. Bona. Pretty sure they were among the top teams in our league this season.

 

[sleeperpick]

Who is POY in Class A Rhode Island?

We beat out Brown, Boston U, Bryant among a few more no name schools for Kolek. Mason was his highest offer in relation to conferences.

I will say again for 100th time, if you arent beating the top teams in your conference for some recruits, then you will suck like we have for past 5 years.

lucky for us he was class B. They have A, AA, and AAA ahead of him in classes lol. AAA and AA kids are all over Big East and ACC. A and B are sprinkled about America East and lower conferences mostly with some high end offers. Kolek won B POY while playing in the 4th highest NEPSAC league. The really good schools that churn out 5 stars each year are found in AAA.
NEPSAC AAA POY is Terrance Clarke who is 5 star to Kentucky
NEPSAC AA POY is a junior Kyrell Luc that is uncommitted
NEPSAC A POY is a kid heading to Penn St and Mass Gatorade POY along with RJ Blakney who Paulsen didn't want if believed by his posse. he is headed to Dayton

 

[GSII]

So basically we are still signing ponies. Dont yall see we are headed for disaster again next year. If AJ leaves, were a lock for the PIG. Polite, Henry and Tyler might players by year 3 or 4. If the DP regression virus doesnt get em.

 

[gmujim92]

lucky for us he was class B. They have A, AA, and AAA ahead of him in classes lol. AAA and AA kids are all over Big East and ACC. A and B are sprinkled about America East and lower conferences mostly with some high end offers. Kolek won B POY while playing in the 4th highest NEPSAC league. The really good schools that churn out 5 stars each year are found in AAA.
NEPSAC AAA POY is Terrance Clarke who is 5 star to Kentucky
NEPSAC AA POY is a junior Kyrell Luc that is uncommitted
NEPSAC A POY is a kid heading to Penn St and Mass Gatorade POY along with RJ Blakney who Paulsen didn't want if believed by his posse. he is headed to Dayton

Who has said DP didn’t want Blakney? This smells like more of your fake news

 

[sleeperpick]

Who has said DP didn’t want Blakney? This smells like more of your fake news

You have said that Paulsen could have had "blank" if he wanted but chose "blank" instead. I am just assuming that is true for any target that Dave whiffs on that his A10 level offers and chooses a better A10 school than us

 

[G M U]

DP only recruited 2 players on the left...

Also on the left, 2 CAA recruits. Surely our well established, 6th year in the A10 roster can handle them.

 

[Patriotsince81]

No one wants us to win more than I do. But, I can't/won't be a blind homer. 8 of our 13 conference losses were by 10 or more. A 9th loss was by 9 so when you look OBJECTIVELY at what we had we weren't very competitive. Same players coming back, assuming no Kier & Boyd, will equal 6 or 7 wins. If AJ leaves on top of that we'd be looking at 3-4 wins. Not a pessimist, a realist. If Kier comes back I'd guess we would have 9 wins. I don't see us being top 6 under any scenario next year. Wish that wasn't the case.

One thing that everyone needs to consider is that given the current situation can our guys find a place and time to improve their games? Does anyone have knowledge? I'm assuming facilities on campus are closed to the players. High school buildings are locked down as well as well as rec centers. Where can they go to work? XJ would benefit from taking 1,000 shots a day. If this goes on for a few months I will expect minimal improvement from anyone.