The Official Fire Dave Paulsen Thread
- Thread starter Leesburg Chankenstank III
- Start date
G M U
Starter
Quentin Daniels
Hall of Famer
I apologize ahead of time for mentioning the Virus and DP in the same post. My intention is not to compare the two coaches, but, to express what I think people are going through after experiencing PVSD (Post Virus Stress Disorder). I think what many of us are going through this season is this:
When the Virus was hired, many, including myself (and I am embarrassed for that), thought the Virus looked like a pretty good hire. We overlooked and rationalized away some of the huge red flags and only looked at the good. Even those that were so right about him being a bad hire right from the start, probably, saw enough of us back the hire that maybe some of their doubt was reduced. Then the bottom quickly fell out and we became a huge dumpster fire.
With the DP hire, there were some minor concerns that most of us explained away. Can he recruit? Oh, he had that NBA player and when he moves up conferences, so will his recruiting ceiling, and Bucknell academics hampered recruiting to some degree. He hasn't had success at the right level, well he has a D2 Championship and has succeeded at Bucknell and good coaching is good coaching. I am sure there were other things like his offensive schemes being appropriate for our team/conference, his stubbornness to change, etc. For each one, most of us weren't concerned because we could explain it away.
Then, most of us accepted that it would take 4-5 years to get us back to a top conference contender if he builds the team the right way. We have had some minor concerns about recruiting but we have seen people like Otis greatly exceed expectations, and we have reassured ourselves that it is going to plan. Then our expectations for this year were stoked by DP's comments about a two year team and the addition of a transfer that is killing it in practice, and some shiny new recruits. It appeared that all was going according to plan.
Now, we have this shit show of a start to this season that was supposed to be so good. We start to wonder: we didn't do it again did we? We didn't overlook and explain away some real red flags just like we did with the Virus, did we?
While I am asking myself these questions, I am still in the pro-Paulsen camp. I am NOT on the fire Dave Paulsen (check back at the end of the season). At the same time, though, I sure can't explain what the hell I am seeing in the games so far this season. I refuse to imagine (yet) what it will look like for the next decade if we end up being so bad that Dave Paulsen gets fired in the next couple years.
When the Virus was hired, many, including myself (and I am embarrassed for that), thought the Virus looked like a pretty good hire. We overlooked and rationalized away some of the huge red flags and only looked at the good. Even those that were so right about him being a bad hire right from the start, probably, saw enough of us back the hire that maybe some of their doubt was reduced. Then the bottom quickly fell out and we became a huge dumpster fire.
With the DP hire, there were some minor concerns that most of us explained away. Can he recruit? Oh, he had that NBA player and when he moves up conferences, so will his recruiting ceiling, and Bucknell academics hampered recruiting to some degree. He hasn't had success at the right level, well he has a D2 Championship and has succeeded at Bucknell and good coaching is good coaching. I am sure there were other things like his offensive schemes being appropriate for our team/conference, his stubbornness to change, etc. For each one, most of us weren't concerned because we could explain it away.
Then, most of us accepted that it would take 4-5 years to get us back to a top conference contender if he builds the team the right way. We have had some minor concerns about recruiting but we have seen people like Otis greatly exceed expectations, and we have reassured ourselves that it is going to plan. Then our expectations for this year were stoked by DP's comments about a two year team and the addition of a transfer that is killing it in practice, and some shiny new recruits. It appeared that all was going according to plan.
Now, we have this shit show of a start to this season that was supposed to be so good. We start to wonder: we didn't do it again did we? We didn't overlook and explain away some real red flags just like we did with the Virus, did we?
While I am asking myself these questions, I am still in the pro-Paulsen camp. I am NOT on the fire Dave Paulsen (check back at the end of the season). At the same time, though, I sure can't explain what the hell I am seeing in the games so far this season. I refuse to imagine (yet) what it will look like for the next decade if we end up being so bad that Dave Paulsen gets fired in the next couple years.
Glad to have you back posting here, Brian. That was a great one.
By George.
Starter
Paulsen is definitely gritty and is making adjustments. It just may not be as fast as people want. He’s shown we can compete in conference play and he usually nails down his lineups by then.
If you were a DP supporter before, you’re basically getting more of the same...a guy adapting to the roster he assembled. He gets a lot out of some guys and not enough from others. If you’re gripe is his recruiting, that’s kinda foolish because it was always going to take him time to plant recruiting roots especially in a place with a talent pool like the DMV. We have pulled local. We have established a couple pipelines. It takes time.
I want to remind people that we are giving up too many layups in part because, for the first time, we’re pressing with any consistency. We overplay and don’t always have help on the backend. This is part of the reason why we’ve begged for the AJ/Calixte combo for a year and a half and we’re seeing more of it now. They can protect the bucket, the intimidation of getting pushed around by Calixte or sent into the student section by AJ is key. DP said in the presser that he wants to run more 2 big lineups and they’re working towards that. It’s almost like he subscribes to our podcast, he’s doing everything we’ve asked just a little later than we’d like. There’s a theme here.
#SIZE
If you were a DP supporter before, you’re basically getting more of the same...a guy adapting to the roster he assembled. He gets a lot out of some guys and not enough from others. If you’re gripe is his recruiting, that’s kinda foolish because it was always going to take him time to plant recruiting roots especially in a place with a talent pool like the DMV. We have pulled local. We have established a couple pipelines. It takes time.
I want to remind people that we are giving up too many layups in part because, for the first time, we’re pressing with any consistency. We overplay and don’t always have help on the backend. This is part of the reason why we’ve begged for the AJ/Calixte combo for a year and a half and we’re seeing more of it now. They can protect the bucket, the intimidation of getting pushed around by Calixte or sent into the student section by AJ is key. DP said in the presser that he wants to run more 2 big lineups and they’re working towards that. It’s almost like he subscribes to our podcast, he’s doing everything we’ve asked just a little later than we’d like. There’s a theme here.
#SIZE
Last edited:
Definitely agree with your points here as far as recruiting and adjustments etc. As far as the 2 bigs up front, I'm pretty sure AJ wasn't rotating as quick last year and based how the team was setup, they wanted some more quickness at the 4 plus probably more shooting ability. AJ also had to play behind Calixte since he was the only other real option at the 5 other than Mar.
Now that there's more depth, and they are doing more things on the defensive end it makes sense to change it up and use this as an option. Depth and experience definitely allows more things to be done all around.
1000% Disagree.
IMO, You can't switch to a pressing, overplaying type defense when all these guys learned to play a UVA style defense for the past 3 years (and it was efficient). Then you bring a UVA transfer in, who learned the defense from Tony Bennett himself, and ask him to play a different defense? Just Stupid. Basically, we are saying Mason under DP last 3yrs will make you hit jumpers and out rebound you, but this year they will make you hit layups. This is bad coaching.
And what benefit have we seen? If anything, it has cost us a huge chance at a big season. You don't change the defense in year 4 when last 3 years of growth was due to making teams beat us with jumpers. We don't have the players to guard without help. Its not about help on the backend, its opponents going straight down the lane for the easiest layup in the playing career. Go back to team help defense and out rebounding. Its what got us the little respect we have as a program.
IMO, You can't switch to a pressing, overplaying type defense when all these guys learned to play a UVA style defense for the past 3 years (and it was efficient). Then you bring a UVA transfer in, who learned the defense from Tony Bennett himself, and ask him to play a different defense? Just Stupid. Basically, we are saying Mason under DP last 3yrs will make you hit jumpers and out rebound you, but this year they will make you hit layups. This is bad coaching.
And what benefit have we seen? If anything, it has cost us a huge chance at a big season. You don't change the defense in year 4 when last 3 years of growth was due to making teams beat us with jumpers. We don't have the players to guard without help. Its not about help on the backend, its opponents going straight down the lane for the easiest layup in the playing career. Go back to team help defense and out rebounding. Its what got us the little respect we have as a program.
For all the folks who think our very slow start is primarily a coaching problem, consider the following theory: Through 8 games, we’ve had several things we were counting on that have not panned out.
* Our senior PG and preseason first-team all-conference pick has just recently relocated his shooting touch after struggling through most of the first 6 games.
* Our sophomore 4-man is still suffering through the worst sophomore slump I’ve ever seen and appears to have lost all confidence in his game after averaging 11 ppg as a freshman.
* Our junior transfer center has been far less than advertised — seemingly unable to even competently clog the lane on defense or consistently block out his man for rebounds.
* And now our senior SF and second-leading scorer is again playing on one good foot, which doesn’t bode well for him with a minimum of 24 games remaining this season.
Honestly, if we had known all these things were going to unfold prior to the season, do you think anyone would’ve been so optimistic?
I think we will get better because DP is figuring out what he really has to work with and will coach it up, but unless the aforementioned issues change quickly, the ceiling for this team is probably 5th or 6th in the A-10 ... and sadly, that is probably generous.
* Our senior PG and preseason first-team all-conference pick has just recently relocated his shooting touch after struggling through most of the first 6 games.
* Our sophomore 4-man is still suffering through the worst sophomore slump I’ve ever seen and appears to have lost all confidence in his game after averaging 11 ppg as a freshman.
* Our junior transfer center has been far less than advertised — seemingly unable to even competently clog the lane on defense or consistently block out his man for rebounds.
* And now our senior SF and second-leading scorer is again playing on one good foot, which doesn’t bode well for him with a minimum of 24 games remaining this season.
Honestly, if we had known all these things were going to unfold prior to the season, do you think anyone would’ve been so optimistic?
I think we will get better because DP is figuring out what he really has to work with and will coach it up, but unless the aforementioned issues change quickly, the ceiling for this team is probably 5th or 6th in the A-10 ... and sadly, that is probably generous.
Definitely can respect this point as well. I think they definitely should go back to what works but then add additional wrinkles in it now that there’s depth and experience.
gmuballer14
Starter
With the results of Reuter so far enforces why Paulsen prefers to stay away from transfers.
GMU_DCU
All-Conference
Dave has been watching these guys play in practices and games for 2 years now. He should have already had this figured out. Every year we start the season off this way under Paulsen, maybe that points to his lack of off season preparation and communication methods. I'm not sure the reason but this has been a pattern every year he has been here.
I can't believe Tony Bennett recruited him to UVA. I mean what was this guy smoking when he went to watch his tapes.
Teams change from year to year. Some guys (Greene, AJ) improve and some guys (Mar) fall off. How the hell is a coach supposed to anticipate that his best player will go almost two full games without scoring a point?
Hopefully we get there soon, but we’re obviously not at a point as a program where we more or less know what to expect at the start of every season.
I think it's most likely a combination of both your points. Ultimately, it's Paulsen's job to be aware of these issues and prepare for/address them.
But Jim's points do provide some very good perspective, without even mentioning the historic amount of turnovers from Otis and Kier. If those two maintained their career average for TO's for the first 3 games of the season, rather than the regression that occurred, we likely start 3-0.
Where we are now is that all of these issues are out and front and center, next several games leading up to KState are Dave's opportunity to properly address them.
This is probably a dumb question - but can/should Grayer red-shirt? I'm not even sure that's possible or if the staff would see value in that.
He is still under the games-played threshold for a medical redshirt, but who knows if anyone is interested in that?
I think he could red shirt if he doesn't play in more than 20 percent of the games. He's played in 7, and 20 percent of our 31 regular season games is 6.2 - so I think he's played one too many.
6 would be less than 20 percent, 7 is more than 20 percent.
Top Donors
-
Patriotsince81$250.00 -
GSII$100.00 -
Old Man$100.00 -
hoopsjunkie75$50.00
-
GMU1983$50.00
Forum statistics
#MasonNation Network
Check out these great sites:
GiantKiller.co
ByGeorge
Expat Hoops
Fourth Estate
Doc Nix and the Green Machine
Bill Bride - DMV Sports Shots
Patriot Brew Blog/Newsletter
GiantKiller.co
ByGeorge
Expat Hoops
Fourth Estate
Doc Nix and the Green Machine
Bill Bride - DMV Sports Shots
Patriot Brew Blog/Newsletter