The Paul Hewitt Thread

[Pablo]

I'll be there Wednesday and to every other home game I'm in town for and I'll cheer when we do well and joke to the people around me how poor some of our players/plays/coaching/execution is when we struggle. Then I'll come here and read how we either won in spite of the coaching or lost because of it.

I try to be positive, and I attend all of the home games. But, for me, it's never just been about winning although that's the primary goal of playing. In all honesty, it seems that in most of the Mason games coached by Hewitt that I've seen, our opponent played a more fundamentally sound game than us despite the final score. Now, I also blame the players for this, but isn't about time for the coach to properly address this problem?

 

[MasonFanatic]

Losing because we played our best and it wasn't good enough would be a lot easier to accept than losing because we can't get the basics right (follow your shot, box out, make FTs, use bounce passes when necessary to go under a defender's arms, don't leave the ground on every pump fake, etc).

 

[GMUgemini]

I mean OCM never leaves, Luke doesn't leave. We probably make the tournament again the next season and possibly win the conference with Ryan Pearson as POY. I'd say that would have had an impact on recruiting in a big way, not to mention Coach L can "do more with less" than Blewitt. I'm not saying we were going to be a Gonzaga or anything but the program would be in much better shape if we had made happy the guy who got us in shape in the first place.

Also we would have competent big men.

I'm no entirely sure that would happen, but irbid more likely. Consider, L still loses Cam and Ike to graduation and DJ still uses a stolen credit card, that's three BIG pieces from last years team missing.

Does Vaughns get his stroke back with L (remember, he list it under L). Would Allen be better under L? Who knows.

And then there's still the matter of going through vcu. L never beat vcu in the Coliseum in the CAA tournament ever. Would the team have been good enough for an at-large? Maybe, maybe not.

I don't know that it's a foregone conclusion that GMU makes the NCAA. I'm not saying it wouldn't have happened, but I don't think oh could have banked on it.

 

[Quentin Daniels]

Cornelius was suspended - not missing. That's 4 returning starters, including the POY.

 

[gmutom]

Cornelius was suspended - not missing. That's 4 returning starters, including the POY.

Hilarious. Can you show me when Pearson was the POY before he played under Hewitt, because I'm pretty sure it happened after Hewitt decided to revolve his offense around Pearson. I get that you never want to give him credit, but acting like he inherited a POY when we hadn't had one since George Evans is ridiculous.

Oh, and let's not discount that the fifth starter was the most important player of the five in terms of making the engine run (yes, even more than our POY). You alway conveniently leave out Hancock like he was just another piece to the puzzle. He wasn't, as we all saw when he went on to become the MOP of the national championship game.

 

[MasonFanatic]

And Hancock could have still ended up needing a medical redshirt. That's the biggest unknown, in my mind.

 

[GMUgemini]

Cornelius was suspended - not missing. That's 4 returning starters, including the POY.

Does Coach L only give DJ 10 games while he pleads out or kick him off the team? We won't know that either.

Let's remember the year after the final four run we had Folarin and Will Thomas back, John Vaughan coming back from a red-shirt, two promising JUCO transfers coming in with Monroe and Dre Smith, and our part-time starter and sixth man Gabe Norwood.

That was good for sixth place in the CAA.

 

[Quentin Daniels]

Hilarious. Can you show me when Pearson was the POY before he played under Hewitt, because I'm pretty sure it happened after Hewitt decided to revolve his offense around Pearson. I get that you never want to give him credit, but acting like he inherited a POY when we hadn't had one since George Evans is ridiculous.

Oh, and let's not discount that the fifth starter was the most important player of the five in terms of making the engine run (yes, even more than our POY). You alway conveniently leave out Hancock like he was just another piece to the puzzle. He wasn't, as we all saw when he went on to become the MOP of the national championship game.

I get that it's harder to give your pre-game speech before handing Coach Paycheck Collector Hewitt his pre-game lollipop and hug now that reality has set in, but the context was the level of talent L would have had he remained - and yes he did inherit a ready made player with POY talent in Pearson. Will Thomas was also one and there's a great argument to be made he should have won it.

I'm not sure what you're babbling about with the "always leaving out Hancock" part, but you're well know for your fabrications to prove a point, so I'm not surprised.

 

[gmutom]

Blah, blah, blah, Hughey. Same old lame jokes and faulty arguments. If I posted the garbage you do here, I guess I'd be inclined to hide my identity, too. Pretty embarrassing.

Anyway, just wanted to set the record straight that Pearson was not a POY prior to playing for Hewitt and that losing Hancock as that fifth starter completely altered the team even with four starters returning (one of whom was suspended for half the year and never made a significant impact after returning).

Other than that, your comments were spot on. PM me your name and address, and I'll be happy to send you a lollipop.

 

[Quentin Daniels]

Thanks for setting the record straight once again on an argument nobody made TomGmu! And your request for my home address isn't creepy at all.

 

[GMUgemini]

Thanks for setting the record straight once again on an argument nobody made TomGmu! And your request for my home address isn't creepy at all.

What argument ARE you making? That Merten should haven given coach L 1.5 million a year to stay? Because we all know that was never going to happen.

 

[gmujim92]

Why are we arguing about what L might or might not have done with the 2011-12 team?

The deed is done. We need to focus on our program's future before top-25 rankings and NCAA tourney wins are a part of our too distant past.

 

[Yossarian]

I hate the fact that the state of affairs is such that I'm still reading raging arguments about the departure of Coach L and missed talent of Luke Hancock at the top of the boards each day.

Wait- wrong thread. Sorry. Carry on, gentlemen.

 

[gmutom]

Why are we arguing about what L might or might not have done with the 2011-12 team?

The deed is done. We need to focus on our program's future before top-25 rankings and NCAA tourney wins are a part of our too distant past.

Thank you, Jim. Regardless of why Coach L wasn't retained or why Hewitt was hired, it's water under the bridge. I completely understand why people are pissed about both, but I don't get the need to rehash it over and over again.

Let's look forward with what needs to happen to get us back on the national map. If Hewitt's not the man, find somebody else; if he is given the chance to right the ship, we should support him and hope he can get out of his own way and do just that.

 

[gmujim92]

Maybe it's just me, but I feel like there are two issues at play here:

1. Support for the program: We all do that, or why would we spend so much time posting here?

2. Support for a coach many of us feel is not our best option: This is a tough one. I've gone on record as expressing hope that Hewitt would turn things around and get us rolling. But I still think we can do MUCH better.

If I have to choose "good of the program" vs. "good of the coach," that's a no-brainer.

Just as Hewitt will understandably look out for himself and his family first, we need our admin to protect our program -- even if that requires biting the bullet and making a tough (expensive?) call.

 

[Patriotfan49]

Thank you, Jim. Regardless of why Coach L wasn't retained or why Hewitt was hired, it's water under the bridge. I completely understand why people are pissed about both, but I don't get the need to rehash it over and over again.

Let's look forward with what needs to happen to get us back on the national map. If Hewitt's not the man, find somebody else; if he is given the chance to right the ship, we should support him and hope he can get out of his own way and do just that.

Maybe its just me, but I hope for championships and NCAA wins.....if youre designtated to have to hope your coach "gets out of his own way"....I think that speaks for itself.

 

[gmutom]

Maybe its just me, but I hope for championships and NCAA wins.....if you have to hope your coach "gets out of his own way" to accomplish anything....I think that speaks for itself.

I don't disagree at all. If Hewitt is every going to be successful here, he obviously needs to change. I'm not saying that will happen or that it's even possible this late in his career, but it is the only hope we have if he does stick around.

 

[Patriotfan49]

I don't disagree at all. If Hewitt is every going to be successful here, he obviously needs to change. I'm not saying that will happen or that it's even possible this late in his career, but it is the only hope we have if he does stick around.

Just fwiw, coaches especially long time coaches...just dont up out of the blue change. So guess we are going to just have to hope that Brad Stevens or Coach K comes to PH in a dream and explains their secrets of ways to be a good coach. Because that seems more likely than Championships and NCAA wins being around the corner.

 

[gmutom]

Just fwiw, coaches especially long time coaches...just dont up out of the blue change.

Again, we are in agreement. That said, I think self perseverance does take over, and I think we are starting to see some of that with Hewitt. Whether it's pride or CYA mode, he has been more animated the last few games than he has the last few years. It also finally seems as if nobody is off limits in terms of being benched, including Sherrod and Copes. Heck, Hewitt's class pet Okoloji might be on the way out, which would speak volumes.

More and more, I want to see the players who are buying in rewarded with more playing time. If that means Gray earns 15 of Sherrod's minutes, so be it. If it means Copes earns 15 of J2's minutes, so be it. I like that the coach made the players shave their heads as a sign of unity, because they need to learn to play as one team and not as a bunch of individuals.

I don't think anybody here will argue that we played our most unselfish half of basketball offensively against St. Joe's. Now we need to carry that mindset over to the defensive side and sustain it for an entire game. And that message and mindset has to start with the coach.

 

[A.-Siegfried]

Let's place the blame squarely where it belongs....

...with Bill Self.

I mean, if Kansas wins the 2004 regional, does Hewitt get the long term contract at Ga Tech with the yearly roll over? Or maybe we blame Trent Johnson and Nevada for failing to hold onto to a 5 point halftime lead in the Sweet 16.

So many people to blame....