The Official Extend Dave Paulsen Thread

[gmujim92]

I’ve been saying it for a long time, Larranaga covered for a lot of our program’s shortcomings through sheer excellence. Sadly he’s an outlier in Mason Basketball history.

 

[Falco]

I’ve been saying it for a long time, Larranaga covered for a lot of our program’s shortcomings through sheer excellence. Sadly he’s an outlier in Mason Basketball history.

Its time to let go of the glory days, and time to hang up the varsity jacket.

 

[patriotchild]

Mason may be a big school, but we have never, ever “thought big” when it comes to athletics.

vcu committed a long time ago to being excellent at basketball. They make no bones about it — they are all in. Whatever it takes.

It’s the difference between a university that builds a $25 million practice facility and one that finds loose change in the couch cushions to renovate an existing building.

Also the difference between a program that offers a $1.3 million starting salary to get the coach they want and one that is content to continue shopping in the bargain bin.

What happened last night is on the players and coaches, but it’s also on the university and the donor base. Until Mason stops trying to “do more with less” and commits to funding the men’s basketball program the way it should be, I’m not sure why anyone thinks we are entitled to be better than a mid-pack A-10 team.

I'm surprised this came from Jim. But its the most accurate picture of our program and a tough pill to swallow for those of us who want a top caliber basketball program.

The Final Four was a happy accident for the university, not intentional. It was very apparent under Merten and TOC that if we went back to the dance again that's great, but not a university objective. It was Coach L's objective.

For those of us started at Mason during the Coach L years this is extremely frustrating, because we saw what was possible and then it got destroyed for no apparent reason.

I'm begrudgingly coming to the conclusion that it will likely take over a decade to get back to any sort of consistent performance because we had to find a coach that was willing to slog it out at Mason. It still seems like our basketball program is viewed as a happy accident, if we win great. If not, no big deal.

The reality is we have to hope the long game works out with Paulsen. Or, we start over and hope to get lucky with a hot coach who will then ditch us after a few years. I don't know that I like either option. This all just sucks. We are going to continually be referred to as the team that made it to the Final Four that one time.

 

[Mason2005]

If the school rides it out with Paulsen they need to be realistic then. Stop asking for more donations if you are ok with average. There is no need to finish the practice facility project, it's a good facility as is for a avg team. Our arena is perfectly fine for a avg team. Why are we getting more charted flights for a avg team? The women's team buses every where.

I believe Paulsen is capped out. All his glory was at Bucknell and in D3. What is his coaching identity in the A10? Playing small line ups, doubling the post and leaving wide open 3s....Did he deserve the chance to test if he could coach at this level, yes. He hasn't proven anything though. Not every coach is meant to continually go up in competition. I'm sure he's working his a** off but it isn't translating.

So if the school rides it out with Paulsen will I be ok with it, sure it's their decision. Just be realistic about it though. There is no need for any of us to donate more to the school. The minimum should be enough for a average program and that's all they should ask for.

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[Washingtonian]

If the school rides it out with Paulsen they need to be realistic then. Stop asking for more donations if you are ok with average. There is no need to finish the practice facility project, it's a good facility as is for a avg team. Our arena is perfectly fine for a avg team. Why are we getting more charted flights for a avg team? The women's team buses every where.

I believe Paulsen is capped out. All his glory was at Bucknell and in D3. What is his coaching identity in the A10? Playing small line ups, doubling the post and leaving wide open 3s....Did he deserve the chance to test if he could coach at this level, yes. He hasn't proven anything though. Not every coach is meant to continually go up in competition. I'm sure he's working his a** off but it isn't translating.

So if the school rides it out with Paulsen will I be ok with it, sure it's their decision. Just be realistic about it though. There is no need for any of us to donate more to the school. The minimum should be enough for a average program and that's all they should ask for.

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I suspect some of the buy games in recent years paid for the chartered flights.

 

[GreenLantern]

Something is seriously wrong, that seems apparent now. We start out the season in the hole, have a good stretch in the middle, then the bottom falls out. The coach ultimately is responsible and unless he can get a grip on what has gone wrong, no extension and no free massages from Fairfax massage parlors

 

[gmujim92]

If the school rides it out with Paulsen they need to be realistic then. Stop asking for more donations if you are ok with average. There is no need to finish the practice facility project, it's a good facility as is for a avg team. Our arena is perfectly fine for a avg team. Why are we getting more charted flights for a avg team? The women's team buses every where.

I believe Paulsen is capped out. All his glory was at Bucknell and in D3. What is his coaching identity in the A10? Playing small line ups, doubling the post and leaving wide open 3s....Did he deserve the chance to test if he could coach at this level, yes. He hasn't proven anything though. Not every coach is meant to continually go up in competition. I'm sure he's working his a** off but it isn't translating.

So if the school rides it out with Paulsen will I be ok with it, sure it's their decision. Just be realistic about it though. There is no need for any of us to donate more to the school. The minimum should be enough for a average program and that's all they should ask for.

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I appreciate your perspective, but strongly disagree. If we want this program to move forward and compete for conference titles and at-large bids, regardless of who the coach is at this moment, we need a lot more people donating a lot more money — not less.

Maybe if our basketball budget wasn’t among the lowest in the A-10, Brad would be able to cast a wider net for potential replacements if he concludes DP isn’t the guy.

We need to leave the CAA mentality in the past. We’re not going back there. We have been doing athletics on the cheap at Mason for a long time and that’s a big part of our problem.

 

[GMUgemini]

I appreciate your perspective, but strongly disagree. If we want this program to move forward and compete for conference titles and at-large bids, regardless of who the coach is at this moment, we need a lot more people donating a lot more money — not less.

Maybe if our basketball budget wasn’t among the lowest in the A-10, Brad would be able to cast a wider net for potential replacements if he concludes DP isn’t the guy.

We need to leave the CAA mentality in the past. We’re not going back there. We have been doing athletics on the cheap at Mason for a long time and that’s a big part of our problem.

vcu raised student fees drastically to pay Smart all that money and keep him around. We should have done the same after 2011 and upper L’s salary to 1.2. He might even still be here if we did.

At this point raising student fees is impossible (against our current president’s Ethos). Maybe we need to dust off that eliminate sports plan again and save some money that way?

We aren’t increasing our donor base with the way this team plays right now. We have to strike lightning in a bottle and become relevant first. We have to think creatively, and without raising ticket prices again.

 

[Patriot8]

2019-2020 Starting lineup:
Hartwell
Kier
Greene
Miller
Calixte

Mar and Miller split time and/or play together when we want to go bigger. Boyd will be healthy and back to his role as a pretty good 6th man. AJ will finally calm the F down and be solid on defense and on the glass when he spells Calixte. JDS will emerge into a really good role player, 6-7 ppg. Xavier Johnson steps in immediately as a reliable backup PG. Oduro will do a great job managing the distribution of Diet Dew, and picking up the towels that the managers can’t get to in front of the bench. Reuter will ride the exercise bike for the duration of every game, taking water breaks during timeouts.

19-11 record
11-7 in conference (6th place)

You’re welcome.

 

[GSII]

Didnt they just raise 690 million? Is zero for atheltics?

 

[GMUgemini]

Didnt they just raise 690 million? Is zero for atheltics?

I think there were some athletics programs as part of the last drive. I actually donated to the scholarship fund instead of athletics since I already donated to both the patriot club and practice facility in the last round.

 

[GSII]

$680 million put into a money market at 1.75% gives a $ 1.19 million return annually. That's almost 3 years worth of lil Dave's base salary.

 

[PoorManProfit]

$680 million put into a money market at 1.75% gives a $ 1.19 million return annually. That's almost 3 years worth of lil Dave's base salary.

Some of the stud players at big time programs make more than 'lil Dave!

 

[GSII]

PAUL Westhead
PAUL Hewitt
Dave PAULsen

We dont do get along with Paul very well.

 

[MasonSAE4]

$680 million put into a money market at 1.75% gives a $ 1.19 million return annually. That's almost 3 years worth of lil Dave's base salary.

All of that money is earmarked for specific purposes by donors. They didn't just raise a random 680 mil to do what they want with.

 

[Mason2005]

Who is Laura Libby May?

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[sleeperpick]

Who is Laura Libby May?

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a quick Google tells me it is the lady who constantly tweets at potential recruits, our coaching staff and our players...

 

[Mason2005]

a quick Google tells me it is the lady who constantly tweets at potential recruits, our coaching staff and our players...

She's currently trolling anyone on Twitter and FB who post anything negative about Mason ball lol. Does she work for Mason? Is she a big donor?

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[GMUgemini]

She's currently trolling anyone on Twitter and FB who post anything negative about Mason ball lol. Does she work for Mason? Is she a big donor?

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She is a sixth grade teacher in Fairfax County.

 

[Patriot8]

She’s f’ing weird..