The Official Extend Dave Paulsen Thread

[Mason2005]

Uh I think you mean Brian Gregory.

David Gregory is the former host of “Meet the Press.”

Regardless, the answer is “no.” DP will get it done, but it’s a long game he’s playing — hopefully our administration has more patience than our fair-weather fan base.

Another total reboot at this point is the last thing we need.

I wouldn't call our fan base fair weathered. We haven't been close to getting into the tournament since 2011. On edge and tired might be a better description. We should be happy that even 2-3k ppl come out to any of our games. We should be ecstatic for any games past 5K. Mason is becoming the Redskins......

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

 

[GMUSig03]

Mason is becoming the Redskins......

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

I blame your avatar

 

[gmujim92]

I wouldn't call our fan base fair weathered. We haven't been close to getting into the tournament since 2011. On edge and tired might be a better description. We should be happy that even 2-3k ppl come out to any of our games. We should be ecstatic for any games past 5K. Mason is becoming the Redskins......

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

Our fan base sucks. Always has. The people bitching about Paulsen should be thankful Edwards convinced him to leave a championship program to accept our mediocre salary and try to pull Mason Basketball out of the toilet. Had he known how bad things were, he probably would’ve stayed at Bucknell.

 

[GSII]

Our fan base sucks. Always has. The people bitching about Paulsen should be thankful Edwards convinced him to leave a championship program to accept our mediocre salary and try to pull Mason Basketball out of the toilet. Had he known how bad things were, he probably would’ve stayed at Bucknell.

What the F ever.....that is a serious reach Jim. Now Coach L walked into a true mess. He wasn't allowed to keep any of Westheads thugs and started from scratch. Then he won the conf in 2nd year. Rhoades suffered a lot of defections, but is gonna prob win the conf in 2nd year. There are many examples nationwide.

Not to mention pretty much every program in A10 is out recruiting us, yet some (including me) think next year will be different. It's not folks. We are getting beat into the future before our eyes. Yet Jim thinks DP inherited the 'impossible' program.

 

[Falco]

Our fan base sucks. Always has. The people bitching about Paulsen should be thankful Edwards convinced him to leave a championship program to accept our mediocre salary and try to pull Mason Basketball out of the toilet. Had he known how bad things were, he probably would’ve stayed at Bucknell.

He hasn’t accomplished anything!

 

[PoorManProfit]

He hasn’t accomplished anything!

He’s consumed mass quantities of Diet Mountain Dew. That stuff is bad for you.

 

[GMUgemini]

A bit harsh. We were Fordham levels of bad when Paulsen got here. Neubauer got to Fordham at the same time Paulsen got to Mason.

Neubauer's four seasons look like this: 8-10, 7-11, 4-14, 2-12 (currently).
Conference finishes: 8, 10, 14, 14 (currently)

Paulsen's four seasons look like this: 5-13, 9-9, 9-9, 9-5 (currently).
Conference finishes: 12, 7, 5, 5 (currently)

Of those two coaches, which trajectory would you rather be on?

I said this last season, and I'll say it again, Paulsen has made this program respectable in the A-10. We've gone from the basement to middle of the pack (tier 2). Can he make us a tier 1 program? That remains to be seen. And maybe we'll need a new coach for that. At the very least, Edwards is putting the investments in the program for someone to be successful here (sponsorships, naming rights, practice facility, new locker rooms, video scoreboard, more buy games, more charter flights, etc.). Paulsen has at the very least made watching Mason basketball interesting again to the casual viewer (even if it's been a frustrating ride for the more diehard fans).

 

[Falco]

A bit harsh. We were Fordham levels of bad when Paulsen got here. Neubauer got to Fordham at the same time Paulsen got to Mason.

Neubauer's four seasons look like this: 8-10, 7-11, 4-14, 2-12 (currently).
Conference finishes: 8, 10, 14, 14 (currently)

Paulsen's four seasons look like this: 5-13, 9-9, 9-9, 9-5 (currently).
Conference finishes: 12, 7, 5, 5 (currently)

Of those two coaches, which trajectory would you rather be on?

I said this last season, and I'll say it again, Paulsen has made this program respectable in the A-10. We've gone from the basement to middle of the pack (tier 2). Can he make us a tier 1 program? That remains to be seen. And maybe we'll need a new coach for that. At the very least, Edwards is putting the investments in the program for someone to be successful here (sponsorships, naming rights, practice facility, new locker rooms, video scoreboard, more buy games, more charter flights, etc.). Paulsen has at the very least made watching Mason basketball interesting again to the casual viewer (even if it's been a frustrating ride for the more diehard fans).

I just don’t understand why everyone makes excuses for DP and not Hewitt. Obviously hewitt wasn’t as good as Coach L, but few are. Hewitt was still competitive in they CAA. He recruited players for the CAA play and then mason jumped to the a10. That’s obviously a challenge.

My point is every coach faces challenges, so stop making excuses for DP. DP had a 20 win season with Hewitt’s “dumpster fire recruits”

I know it’s easier to make excuses than to accept reality, but DP is not the answer.

 

[GMUgemini]

I just don’t understand why everyone makes excuses for DP and not Hewitt. Obviously hewitt wasn’t as good as Coach L, but few are. Hewitt was still competitive in they CAA. He recruited players for the CAA play and then mason jumped to the a10. That’s obviously a challenge.

My point is every coach faces challenges, so stop making excuses for DP. DP had a 20 win season with Hewitt’s “dumpster fire recruits”

I know it’s easier to make excuses than to accept reality, but DP is not the answer.

Where is there an excuse in there?

Also, when DP came there was a mass exodus of players. He had two Hewitt recruits left in his second season.

And no Hewitt didn’t do well in the CAA, he underperformed there massively.

 

[Falco]

Where is there an excuse in there?
.

" We were Fordham levels of bad when Paulsen got here"

 

[Falco]

Where is there an excuse in there?

Also, when DP came there was a mass exodus of players. He had two Hewitt recruits left in his second season.

And no Hewitt didn’t do well in the CAA, he underperformed there massively.

Sure a lot of Hewitt's players left, but DP was left with Moore and Jenkins. Two really really good players. It was probably unrealistic to expect Hewitt to win the CAA without Hackcock. Hewitt still finished 3rd. That's still competitive in most books. He finished 5th the following year with zero seniors. (a common DP excuse in years pasts.) The following year he was expected to make a big jump into the A10. That year the A10 received 6 bids to the NCAA tournament. So again unrealistic to expect a brand new team to be competitive in the a10 that season.
Don't misinterpret my post, I never liked Hewitt either. My point is, every coach has challenges. The good coaches overcome those challenges. DP has been an average coach for Mason. He will never be the answer. I know he is safe for next year, but we are only delaying the inevitable.

 

[GreenLantern]

There is a Fire Dave Paulsen thread you know. This thread is to bask in his epic fashion choices and 60s style haircut!

 

[GSII]

There are coaches who turn programs around and keep them there in much shorter time frames. DP isnt one of those guys bc he believes a long term approach for some reason.

Does anyone at a "big time university in a big time market and we should act like it" - (Brad Edwards) have patience for long term anything?? Are we going to wait a decade before we realize we haven't been to a conf tournament title game? It's like we are becoming W&M of the A10.

 

[gmujim92]

There are coaches who turn programs around and keep them there in much shorter time frames. DP isnt one of those guys bc he believes a long term approach for some reason.

Does anyone at a "big time university in a big time market and we should act like it" - (Brad Edwards) have patience for long term anything?? Are we going to wait a decade before we realize we haven't been to a conf tournament title game? It's like we are becoming W&M of the A10.

You do realize William & Mary has NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER played in the NCAA tournament, right?

By that standard, everybody should chill the F out. Eight years is nothing.

 

[GMUgemini]

You do realize William & Mary has NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER played in the NCAA tournament, right?

By that standard, everybody should chill the F out. Eight years is nothing.

Duquesne hasn’t been since 1977, URI before 2017 went almost 20 years. Jim Baron was head coach there for 10 seasons and never made a tournament appearence (he did made 5 NIT appearances). It took Dan Hurley 5 seasons before he made it.

 

[patriotchild]

Paulsen has until at least 2021, 10 years since our last tournament appearance, before his seat is anywhere close to uncomfortable. That puts him 6 years in. He likely gets 8 before anything really heats up.

Progress seems to be plateauing, but he’s still made progress, at least in terms of conference wins (quality of competition is up for debate) and generally speaking the effort that’s put forth on the floor.

Recruiting and roster management is worrying me more and more as this season goes on. We’ve seen the potential of the conference now, and I don’t see us in discussion of being a top 4 program continually.

Dave’s done great squeezing out everything he can, but at some point we just need pure talent or we’ll be stuck in the 6-8 range and maybe striking gold every few years when the stars align. Blewitt was able to recruit basketball specimens but could do nothing with them. We now seem to have the exact opposite problem. Go figure.

Screw vcu for being able to figure this out and making me envious. I hate that the most. Oops wrong thread.

 

[gmujim92]

Paulsen has until at least 2021, 10 years since our last tournament appearance, before his seat is anywhere close to uncomfortable. That puts him 6 years in. He likely gets 8 before anything really heats up.

Progress seems to be plateauing, but he’s still made progress, at least in terms of conference wins (quality of competition is up for debate) and generally speaking the effort that’s put forth on the floor.

Recruiting and roster management is worrying me more and more as this season goes on. We’ve seen the potential of the conference now, and I don’t see us in discussion of being a top 4 program continually.

Dave’s done great squeezing out everything he can, but at some point we just need pure talent or we’ll be stuck in the 6-8 range and maybe striking gold every few years when the stars align. Blewitt was able to recruit basketball specimens but could do nothing with them. We now seem to have the exact opposite problem. Go figure.

Screw vcu for being able to figure this out and making me envious. I hate that the most. Oops wrong thread.

Serious question: What should DP have done differently this season in terms of recruiting and roster management?

I ask because some people seem to have a problem with him in both areas, but never really go into specifics.

We started the season with 11.5 healthy players (Grayer was the .5) and now have 7 (I’m giving Hartwell a .5 until we find out if he’s in the concussion protocol or not).

Short of being able to borrow guys from other teams, I’m not sure how you “manage” your way out of season-ending injuries to 2 of your top 5-6 players. Losing Boyd and Calixte obviously made it worse.

As for recruiting, I trust our coaches more than the scouting services. Are there any players on our roster who you think shouldn’t have been offered a scholarship?

There are a couple who are playing way more than they should because our roster is shorthanded, but again not sure what Dave or any other coach can do to prevent injuries.

 

[smccart5]

Serious question: What should DP have done differently this season in terms of recruiting and roster management?

I ask because some people seem to have a problem with him in both areas, but never really go into specifics.

We started the season with 11.5 healthy players (Grayer was the .5) and now have 7 (I’m giving Hartwell a .5 until we find out if he’s in the concussion protocol or not).

Short of being able to borrow guys from other teams, I’m not sure how you “manage” your way out of season-ending injuries to 2 of your top 5-6 players. Losing Boyd and Calixte obviously made it worse.

As for recruiting, I trust our coaches more than the scouting services. Are there any players on our roster who you think shouldn’t have been offered a scholarship?

There are a couple who are playing way more than they should because our roster is shorthanded, but again not sure what Dave or any other coach can do to prevent injuries.

It's really hard to judge how injuries hurt this team because we started the season so poorly. When we lost the first 1-2 guys I thought it might actually HELP the team because we'd shorten the rotation. We started to do better, but then lost a few more guys and it tipped the scale the other way.

 

[gmujim92]

It's really hard to judge how injuries hurt this team because we started the season so poorly. When we lost the first 1-2 guys I thought it might actually HELP the team because we'd shorten the rotation. We started to do better, but then lost a few more guys and it tipped the scale the other way.

If you had told me before the season that Grayer would never be fully healthy and only play a handful of games, Mar would be almost completely adrift offensively before breaking his foot in our 3rd conference game, Boyd would be hampered/sidelined for several games by a wrist injury and Calixte would miss multiple games with a concussion, I think expectations for this team would’ve been much lower.

All 4 of those guys are/were key playmakers. Not like we lost scrubs who barely play. Again, I don’t know how a coach manages his way out of a situation like that — we just need guys to get healthy ASAP so we can have a shot to finish strong.

 

[JimP]

I'm no basketball expert, but believe Paulsen has done a good job fixing the broken basketball culture created by Hewitt. I do think GMU needs to recruit more size. Upon attending the game with a neutral observer, my basketball fan cousin - the first thing he noticed was the size disparity between Duquesne and Mason. Granted, Calixte and Boyd would have made some difference in this regard, but the Pats are still generally undersized across the board.