The Paul Hewitt Thread

[GSII]

I've always thought his offensive approach was below avg in half court sets. He is coaching a team that now has to play the opposite in terms of his philosophy on defense. Who knows what is wrong. Clearly its deep.

 

[MasonCrew]

Can we please get a new coach. I wonder how long it will be before TOC wakes up and realizes that our program has been set back 8 years. I honestly don't think we'll be competitive for 4 years after Hewitt leaves. GT payed him 7 MILLION DOLLARS to not coach their team. 7 MILLION DOLLARS.

While we're at it. Can we get a new AD, too. We have become a case study in what not to do.

I was drunk when I wrote this. Still am (merry christmas) but I have such conflicted views on this team. I'm so optimistic sometimes, and so down others.

 

[GMUgemini]

I was drunk when I wrote this. Still am (merry christmas) but I have such conflicted views on this team. I'm so optimistic sometimes, and so down others.

If Sherrod could find his balls again and J2 can make sure not to lose his, we might have something here going forward. Moore will make his mistakes, but he's the future of this team.

Hewitt is going to have to tighten up his rotation -- Moore, Allen, Sherrod, Marko, Williams with Holloway and Jenkins taking most of the minutes off the bench. Corey, Copes, AO and Gray can take spot minutes as needed.

 

[MasonFanatic]

I wasn't talking about Allen or even the guards, aside from maybe Corey. There was nothing wrong with Allen being out there. I was talking about Hewitt's overuse of Okoloji and Copes down the stretch. He had too many defense-only players on the court on possessions where we had to have a basket. Not having a post scorer in the game is why Allen felt he had to force the issue himself.

Hewitt used a much different rotation down the stretch today and we won. That is no coincidence.

 

[CHRISTOPHER JAMES JOLLAY]

I actually like our halfcourt offense for the most part, especially if we're playing with 3 guards. The problem I have with it is sometimes the bigs handle the ball on the perimeter too much, and when we play a lineup with Okoloji at the 3 with most of our bigs, it is horrendous.

It will really get better if J2 continues to be aggressive in the post. There seem to be ample posting opportunities in the offense that aren't utilized, partially because of our posts, partially because sometimes the guards are clueless and their entry passes suck.

But the offense is pretty standard college stuff. No major problems with it.

 

[GMUSSTN]

I actually like our halfcourt offense for the most part, especially if we're playing with 3 guards. The problem I have with it is sometimes the bigs handle the ball on the perimeter too much, and when we play a lineup with Okoloji at the 3 with most of our bigs, it is horrendous.

It will really get better if J2 continues to be aggressive in the post. There seem to be ample posting opportunities in the offense that aren't utilized, partially because of our posts, partially because sometimes the guards are clueless and their entry passes suck.

But the offense is pretty standard college stuff. No major problems with it.

I'm not saying it's great but our halfcourt offense would definitely be a lot prettier if we had some competent bigs who could open up paths to the basket or get looks for our guards. But that's true for any offense, it's just painfully obvious our bigs can't score the ball and it affects every other aspect of our offense.

 

[JBiggs]

Well, I think I've seen enough. Hewitt's not going to get it done at George Mason. Hope will resume once he's gone.

Not to say I won't continue to support the team, and will watch every game that I can, but he's not reaching the NCAA tournament or the NIT in his 5-year (hopefully shorter) tenure.

 

[polepino]

Well, I think I've seen enough. Hewitt's not going to get it done at George Mason. Hope will resume once he's gone.

Not to say I won't continue to support the team, and will watch every game that I can, but he's not reaching the NCAA tournament or the NIT in his 5-year (hopefully shorter) tenure.

The A-10 conference season looks scarier every game...





Sent from my Lumia 900 using Tapatalk

 

[GMUgemini]

If Hewitt is let go at the end of this season, do we lose Jenkins, Holloway, Marko and all of the incoming recruits?

Depends on who we hire. there will be defections but not everyone will leave. Jalen has already red-shirted so I don't see him burning another year on the bench. I think Marko is pretty safe. I doubt Moore would reconsider again.

We might lose Mayimba and Holloway, two guys who could probably transfer "up" if they wanted to. Not sure about Lockett or Porter.

Regardless if the next hire can actually coach I will take the two years or so for him to bring in some talent and start competing again over waiting out Hewitts contract before we try I rebuild.

 

[gmubrian]

I was one of the more positive fans about the Hewitt hire when it happened and I have been trying to stay positive about his coaching and leadership. He is a supremely nice guy and I want him to be successful at Mason. I keep looking for any glimmer of hope that he will be. The changes that he made during the Hawaii trip gave me a little hope that maybe he was turning a corner (using zone more effectively to stop our patented "escort the player to the basket for an easy layup" defense, subbing in guys that were performing (Patrick) for those that were not (Wright), etc.).

I am trying to stay positive, but it is hard to not be down on this team, though, when you are watching the team play and you can see the issues coming before they even happen. Like having our 0-fer-X free throw shooter Johnny on the court when we are in a definitely gonna be fouled situation. When I saw him out there I turned to the guys near me and asked why he was out there. Then he gets the ball and the rest is history... Luckily, we managed to squeak one out against a team currently in the bottom 10-20% of D1 basketball right now...

While any single thing can easily be explained away as not being the coaches fault, there are just so many things going wrong (on and off the court) at the same time that it is becoming harder and harder to not come to the conclusion that Hewitt is the problem.

I almost did not renew my season tickets this past year, not out of some form of protest, just that with some major things going on in my life in the off season that are now competing for my time with the games and the lack of passion I feel from the court, my passion for the team is waning as well. In the end, I got excited for the season as there was hope from our end of year performance last year. It was great to talk to the players at the re-seating event so it was hard not to get excited again. But, now, I am so bummed out about the state of things that I have yet to go to a road game (other than BB&T) and until recently, I typically would make it to about half of our road games every year. I didn't even order the early bird tournament tickets to get the discount as I am not convinced we won't be playing in the Wednesday night, play in game. And the odds that we even make it to Friday are pretty low if we keep playing the way we are currently. Mason basketball used to be a distraction and release from the stress of the rest of life. I used to look forward to a game almost as much as about anything else in life, and not just because we were winning, but the fact that we were fun to watch, even when we would lose. We got to see a team playing together, something you were proud of even when they lost. Now, it is just getting plain frustrating to watch the games, even the ones we win. And the lack of fire on the team is just sad. Just one example: the Penn bench was fired up the entire game, ours, not so much...

Someone, anyone, please convince me that I should come back from the GSII point of view. Is there light at the end of the Hewitt tunnel?

 

[phoenix-arizona]

Sorry if this has been asked or if this is a stupid question, but is buying him out more expensive than paying out his salary? Is the buyout just basically paying what the school owes, or is there an additional cost to it?

 

[EXpatriot13]

I'm confused. Why is everyone freaking out about Hewitt at this moment? I feel like he hasn't really been the problem the last 4 games or so. It's not his fault our supposed best player is 7 for his last 44 and sucks right now. Or that every post player we have can't catch a pass or make layups.

Yes, he isn't the greatest coach and I think a change is needed. But that change shouldn't happen right now or at the end of this season. We need some new players in here, some guys who actually give a shit about playing basketball because J2, Gray, and Wright look like they'd rather be anywhere but on the basketball court.

I think we'll see that intensity and enthusiasm of the players on the bench when we get guys who are fired up all the time. Seems like Mayimba and Lockett are those types of players. Granted, we need to land someone in the '14 class who can flat out score, hopefully that comes.

Hewitt is most definitely part of the problem, but certainly not all of it. I'd like to see Kreider stay, but can the rest of the assistants because none of them make any effort to coach during the game or even open their mouths. Not sure if Hewitt is willing to bring in an X's and O's guy, hopefully he'll suck it up and do just that.

Hewitt, in my opinion, has another year to make it believable that this ship is moving in the right direction. He should not be canned at the end of this season, but at the same time I'm not sure what kind of results we get next year should determine his fate after next season.

 

[gmubrian]

Expat, I think the answer to your question is mostly contained in your own post. There are just so many things going wrong (most of our big men can't do anything, almost no one is fired up on the team, our super star player is doing his best Houdini impersonation). We have had a slew of defections and obvious discontent unlike anyting but possibly our worst Westhead years. What has sucked the enthusiasm out of our players and why will it change with newer players?

If Hewitt is most definitely part of the problem as you admit as well (and as the captain of the ship, the one you hold accountable), why keep him? Why not fix the problem before it gets any worse? There will be problems caused by him leaving, so why not rip the band aid off as quickly as possible?

I was convinced by lawdog's analysis about earlier about why you can't keep him around for the fourth year as a lame duck as that would kill another year. Go back and read Lawdog's post for a better explanation of that.

 

[Patriotfan49]

EXPatriot I dont get your posts.......lots or rambling and circling and usually you either miss the point or just answer your own questions...but not really lol.


The way I look at it is this, while there are a ton of issues that surround the program, Hewitt is one of them and one of the larger ones. He is also the most movable one.......He really has shown nothing (positive) in his time here to warrant any faith, or good will in allowing somebody to let him ride out the rest of his time or that things will all of the sudden change. We have seen regression from a good number of players under his watch and the completive desire get sucked out of almost all the players. While that isnt all on him, again perks of being the head man he catches the blame for the series of events that have happened on his time. Nothing about Hewitt we can build and build upward with, the absolute BEST I see for could be a talented but wildly inconsistent team..

Hes got to go imo, and we wont get better as a program until he does.

 

[gmu05]

I really can't over why so many fans think this team's problems stem from "well the players just aren't making shots". You don't have be a basketball savant to see that it starts at the top and this team has no guidance or leadership of any kind.

No wait the players are just having an off shooting night....
.... for two and half years.

Come on.

 

[Pablo]

The problem I have with Hewitt is that he reminds me more of Paul Westhead than Jim Larranaga. With Westhead and Hewitt, you have guys with a cool and confident demeanor with no perceptible sign of urgency. Larranaga, on the other hand, was a guy with a short fuse who would make the players miserable until they corrected their deficiencies. I miss that guy!

 

[GMUgemini]

EXPatriot I dont get your posts.......lots or rambling and circling and usually you either miss the point or just answer your own questions...but not really lol.


The way I look at it is this, while there are a ton of issues that surround the program, Hewitt is one of them and one of the larger ones. He is also the most movable one.......He really has shown nothing (positive) in his time here to warrant any faith, or good will in allowing somebody to let him ride out the rest of his time or that things will all of the sudden change. We have seen regression from a good number of players under his watch and the completive desire get sucked out of almost all the players. While that isnt all on him, again perks of being the head man he catches the blame for the series of events that have happened on his time. Nothing about Hewitt we can build and build upward with, the absolute BEST I see for could be a talented but wildly inconsistent team..

Hes got to go imo, and we wont get better as a program until he does.

The problem also is he hasn't done anything horribly egregious yet to make firing him a no-Brainer. It'll be a tough call to fire an admittedly mediocre coach to gamble on someone who could be even worse.

Sadly I think unless he fails to reach 10 wins this season we have him at least through next.

I think it's pretty obvious we should take that gamble at this point, but will Cabrera, O'Connor? I don't know.

 

[Patriotfan49]

The problem also is he hasn't done anything horribly egregious yet to make firing him a no-Brainer. It'll be a tough call to fire an admittedly mediocre coach to gamble on someone who could be even worse.

Sadly I think unless he fails to reach 10 wins this season we have him at least through next.

I think it's pretty obvious we should take that gamble at this point, but will Cabrera, O'Connor? I don't know.

Thats the reason why all this is a good topic, but probably moot. No chance that TOC wants to admit he effed up and fire his boy before his 5 years is up. Shame too that we have to lose two more years of potential progress for that.

Thats imo what separates good GMs or ADs from the bad ones. You make a bad draft pick or hire, call it for what it is and fix it asap. Dont sit there trying to save face and grasp things will get better and in the mean time mortgage the success of your franchise or team a few more years. Some times you have to make the tough call.

 

[Bricker]

No way in hell Hewitt gets the ax at the end of this season-- even if we don't win another game. That's just the way it is.

 

[gmutom]

The problem also is he hasn't done anything horribly egregious yet to make firing him a no-Brainer. It'll be a tough call to fire an admittedly mediocre coach to gamble on someone who could be even worse.

And let's not forget that all of these calls for his job today are after a 2-game winning streak, one of which was against a very good St. Mary's team. While we all feel let down about the near collapse last night, it still goes down as a win to the people paying Hewitt's salary.

Cabrera strikes me as more of a businessman that Merten, so I doubt he will put up with mediocrity from his flagship sport for very long even if it does mean eating part of the salary. It will be interesting to see how it plays out over the next year.