The Official Fire Dave Paulsen Thread

[Mason2005]

Failed in his recruiting thus far. We can make excuses about our spending and reputation all we want but we get out recruited by pretty much every school in the conference. Yes, Fordham is included in that. Maybe we need a shake up in our assistants.

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[Herndon]

Failed in his recruiting thus far. We can make excuses about our spending and reputation all we want but we get out recruited by pretty much every school in the conference. Yes, Fordham is included in that. Maybe we need a shake up in our assistants.

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What is your evidence of that? Again, the point of recruiting is to win games. If we are winning games, then by definition we are not failing at recruiting.

 

[Herndon]

It is sad BECAUSE it is realistic. I hope Paulsen can keep doing incrementally better each year, but, I think the referenced posts suggest we have a ceiling on what we can expect of our program unless some other changes are made.

 

[GSII]

Ok so let say we spend 2 million more. Where does it go to directly benefit the wins column? Are we paying the coaches more? Why? They havent proven to recruit horses. More to DP? Why? Where do we spend it? Maybe on a recruiting consultant to tell DP that Rueter wasn't all conf?

 

[Jack Strop]

Yes, yes. What is the money spent for? There are large discrepancies in budgets. I don't know, but I argue that the largest cash outflows are most likely allocated to the coaching staff, travel, and perhaps marketing. Then what?

What is Mason not buying that other programs are? Gold-leaf imprinted practice basketballs? Talking backboards/rims connected to Watson to instantly analyze player shooting techniques? Weekly group psychotherapy sessions hosted by UPenn sports psychologists?

I'd love to to see a budget by budget comparison.

 

[Walter]

Yes, yes. What is the money spent for? There are large discrepancies in budgets. I don't know, but I argue that the largest cash outflows are most likely allocated to the coaching staff, travel, and perhaps marketing. Then what?

What is Mason not buying that other programs are? Gold-leaf imprinted practice basketballs? Talking backboards/rims connected to Watson to instantly analyze player shooting techniques? Weekly group psychotherapy sessions hosted by UPenn sports psychologists?

I'd love to to see a budget by budget comparison.

Exactly! To start the comparison, which A-10 teams have dedicated practice facilities? vcu and who else?

 

[dr. gunnie]

I went to two games this year - at Kansas St and at St Louis. I don’t know about the rest of the teams, but we truly looked like a JV team playing against Varsity. They were just physically so much bigger and stronger than we were - it was shocking. Not sure about the rest of the A10 because it’s something you sometimes can’t see as well on TV.

We need size - both height and thickness. Greg is the only guy currently with a little bulk, but Greg is also limited athleticly. I think Miller has the frame to get bigger and hopefully by his junior/senior season he’ll be able to mix it up physically with the rest of the league. I think when you are that much smaller than the competition, you wear down during the season and by the end, you are extremely banged up. It’s no surprise we keep limping into the A10 tournament.

I’m going to say that Reuter is extremely banged up - more than we know. It’s the only explanation I can come up with in regards to Paulsen’s comments on him before the season. There is no way anyone with knowledge about basketball could see what we just witnessed and think he has a shot at all A10. Impossible. The only explanations I can come up with is a) Coach is extremely incompetent (which I don’t think is the case), or b) he was playing at a much lower level due to injury.

It will be very interesting to see what we do with the last scholarship. It should tell us a lot. It might not be a bad thing for another scholarship to open up with a transfer. I don’t want any of our players to leave (at least I would never say it here), but we need help to get to the next level. I’m nervous about next year - and terrified about two years from now without Kier.

 

[MasonSAE4]

I’m going to say that Reuter is extremely banged up - more than we know. It’s the only explanation I can come up with in regards to Paulsen’s comments on him before the season. There is no way anyone with knowledge about basketball could see what we just witnessed and think he has a shot at all A10. Impossible. The only explanations I can come up with is a) Coach is extremely incompetent (which I don’t think is the case), or b) he was playing at a much lower level due to injury.

This.

At first I thought he was getting talked up because he came from UVA and he was never actually that great a player. But after seeing the video of him from a few years ago, I have to believe that something is very wrong with him physically.

 

[GMUgemini]

Exactly! To start the comparison, which A-10 teams have dedicated practice facilities? vcu and who else?

SLU, UMass, Davidson, and Dayton, for sure.

 

[MasonSAE4]

SLU, UMass, Davidson, and Dayton, for sure.

Richmond is getting one as well.

 

[Mason2005]

What is your evidence of that? Again, the point of recruiting is to win games. If we are winning games, then by definition we are not failing at recruiting.

Evidence? Paulsen just said it himself. We are winning because he's a good coach and over clocking these kids. Is it impressive, yes. You can be the best technical race car driver in the world but if you can only bring a Honda Civic to a formula 1 race you can't win. Even Fordham recruits get P5 offers. I think only Mar has any on our current roaster, negating Reuter. Imagine if we had more guys with length and athleticism.

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[GMUgemini]

Evidence? Paulsen just said it himself. We are winning because he's a good coach and over clocking these kids. Is it I pressive, yes. You can be the best technical race car driver in the world but if you can only bring a Honda Civic to a formula 1 race you can't win. Even Fordham recruits get P5 offers. I think only Mar has any on our current roaster, negating Reuter. Imagine if we had more guys with length and athleticism.

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Calixte had offers from Temple, DePaul, St. Bonaventure, and La Salle...not a bad recruiting win on Paulsen’s part.

Miller and Kier had like no offers and they have been our best players, so sometimes people are just flat out wrong about a kid or they go under the radar.

 

[Mason2005]

Calixte had offers from Temple, DePaul, St. Bonaventure, and La Salle...not a bad recruiting win on Paulsen’s part.

Miller and Kier had like no offers and they have been our best players, so sometimes people are just flat out wrong about a kid or they go under the radar.

At the end of the day Paulsen knows he has to step it up with his recruiting. How do we get there? Pauslen is staying so it has to be the assistants. Simpkins has street cred in the area so the other guys need to be evaluated. Maybe pick up a coach that just got fired in the area who has been here for a long time. Some school down south just fired theirs......

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[GMUgemini]

Most of the better recruits want to be somewhere where they have a chance to play in the tournament every year. In order to step up our recruiting, we have to get closer to knocking down the NCAA door. Next season is crucial with three seniors on the roster. We can't crap the bed during the OOC portion, can't start off slow. If we can at least put ourselves in contention for even an NIT bid, Paulsen can sell recruits on the story of upward trajectory (all we need is one last piece of the puzzle and that piece is you).

 

[masonjoe]

Next season is crucial with three seniors on the roster.

Let's level expectations on this point, Reuter is technically a senior but won't be a leader by any means. Boyd most probably forgot he was even still on the team this year with how invisible he was.

 

[GMUgemini]

Let's level expectations on this point, Reuter is technically a senior but won't be a leader by any means. Boyd most probably forgot he was even still on the team this year with how invisible he was.

Boyd was on pace to be sixth man of the year until he got hurt and couldn't shoot any more. Had he kept pace, there's no way Dunn-Martin wins it over him. Don't sleep on him.

Whether Reuter turns it around his senior season or not, he'll still be a leader on this team. He's a smart player and sees the game really well, so even if he's riding pine most of the year, he can be a player-coach from the bench.

I have no idea what next season will be like without Otis, and there are a lot of question marks about player development (Greene, Mar, Miller, JDS, Hartwell, Calixte), but we're only losing one player off this year's team. vcu finished 9-9 last season and there were tons of question marks around Santos-Silva and Isaac Vann and how good they could actually be and they answered those questions with authority.

 

[Mason2005]

Whether Reuter turns it around his senior season or not, he'll still be a leader on this team. He's a smart player and sees the game really well, so even if he's riding pine most of the year, he can be a player-coach from the bench.

This is a little crazy to say. He did have the occasional good pass out of the post but he is a turn over machine. I've also never seen a big screen out their own defense for the opposing player to get a open layup, this happened often. For some reason Paulsen also gave him our first offensive possessions and he'd turn it over 80% of the time. With his quiet demeanor I can't see him being next seasons leader. I didn't see any leaders this season actually.

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[gmujim92]

Evidence? Paulsen just said it himself. We are winning because he's a good coach and over clocking these kids. Is it impressive, yes. You can be the best technical race car driver in the world but if you can only bring a Honda Civic to a formula 1 race you can't win. Even Fordham recruits get P5 offers. I think only Mar has any on our current roaster, negating Reuter. Imagine if we had more guys with length and athleticism.

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You do know that St. Bonaventure has been extremely successful finding kids who had interest from almost nobody else of note.

Kyle Lofton had zero offers coming out of HS. Jalen Adams signed with Jacksonville before the coach got fired and they let him out of his LOI. And their best player of the modern era, Andrew Nicholson, was a skinny Canadian kid who turned into an absolute monster when nobody was looking.

The latter two made it to the NBA. The former looks like he’s headed that way as a freshman. None had a single P5 offer.

The point is, if a guy can play, it doesn’t matter who else thinks he can.

 

[GMUgemini]

This is a little crazy to say. He did have the occasional good pass out of the post but he is a turn over machine. I've also never seen a big screen out their own defense for the opposing player to get a open layup, this happened often. For some reason Paulsen also gave him our first offensive possessions and he'd turn it over 80% of the time. With his quiet demeanor I can't see him being next seasons leader. I didn't see any leaders this season actually.

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Not being the best player on the team doesn't mean he doesn't understand the game. A lot of this turnovers have a lot more to do with being limited physically and less to do with just being dumb.

His screening the opposing big rather than sliding over to contest the layup, again, I think has to do with him having limited mobility rather than being dumb. I mean, if he slides over, is he going to be late and giving up and-ones instead of just two points?

 

[JimP]

It seems everyone sees - and Paulsen acknowledges, GMU needs to recruit for more size and athleticism. I was disappointed in this year's results given the beginning of the year expectations.

I think the people that think Paulsen should be on some kind of hot seat are wrong though. Schmidt is acknowledged as a great coach at SBU. His fourth year record there? 16-15,8-8 with an appearance in the CBI. Didn't make the NIT until year 8. NCAA's until year 10. Will play for the A-10 championship today.

Sure, I'd love to see a quicker climb, but I'll take steady progress. IMO, go back to TOC and Merten and their failure to capitalize on FF if you're not happy about where GMU hoops is today.