The Paul Hewitt Thread

[Quentin Daniels]

What if one of the reasons the OCM left is because he knew his roster was in trouble?

The one getting Top 25 consideration in the off season? That was returning 4 of 5 starters from the longest winning streak in college ball? That hadn't lost a home game in 2 years? That had a future CAA POY & Final 4 MVP?

Yeah, he left that mess to take over Miami with its long history of success. Great point!

 

[gmujim92]

What about the other three? None of them have any talent either?

So if Copes, Gray, Williams and Holloway are all busted no talent hacks right now, who were all fairly highly regarded coming in, what makes anyone think we got it right with our incoming freshman class? I'm pretty sure they all have limitations in their games otherwise they wouldn't be coming here. None of them are going to be putting up double or triple doubles for us.

Anyone have confidence this staff will be able to hide their weaknesses or devise a scheme that fill fit their strengths or work to improve those weaknesses?

Those of you touting the vastly superior talent we had at Mason in the past aren't looking carefully enough at our old players.

You do know we're competing in a MUCH better league now, right?

There aren't any more UNCWs on our conference schedule. The bottom 3-4 teams in our league will give us fits and beat our asses if we don't play well.

So I'm really not sure what past Mason teams have to do with this discussion.

The simple fact of the matter is that we need longer, stronger, more athletic and more physical players to beat the likes of UMass (who has a 6-9 wing), SLU, vcu and even GW.

If Hewitt doesn't get the job done, he will be gone. But denying that we need a different type of player to compete in the A-10 is to ignore the reality of our current situation.

 

[gmutom]

[Deleted post due to misreading Hugh's comment. My apologies to Hugh for the mistake. Thanks to JimP and Walter for pointing it out.]

 

[GMUgemini]

You do know we're competing in a MUCH better league now, right?

There aren't any more UNCWs on our conference schedule. The bottom 3-4 teams in our league will give us fits and beat our asses if we don't play well.

So I'm really not sure what past Mason teams have to do with this discussion.

The simple fact of the matter is that we need longer, stronger, more athletic and more physical players to beat the likes of UMass (who has a 6-9 wing), SLU, vcu and even GW.

If Hewitt doesn't get the job done, he will be gone. But denying that we need a different type of player to compete in the A-10 is to ignore the reality of our current situation.

First of all, everyone gives this team fits. AU, Lamar and St. Francis (PA) gave this team fits. It doesn't matter who they play.

Second:

2011-2012:

Duquesne (W)
vcu (W)
@vcu (L)*
@vcu (L)*

2012-2013:

@URI (W)
@Richmond (W)

2013-2014:

URI (W)

Record: 5-3

*I count vcu because they jumped after that season and almost ran away with the A-10 with virtually the same roster.

So, the results on the court say we have held our own under Hewitt against the A-10 teams on our schedule with mostly the same players we have on our roster right now.

 

[gmutom]

Gemini, I did want to address your comments about Holloway, because we really do need him to play better and score more. If you watch the games closely, you will see we actually run a lot of isolation plays to get him open for shots. He just needs to do a better job of knocking them down.

Patrick is far too talented to shoot 37% from the floor, 29% from behind the arc and 60% from the FT line. And I do believe he is trying harder on defense, but he is still a big liability on that end. Couple bad shooting with bad defense, and it's hard to justify him getting more minutes.

That said, I think that's just what Patrick needs. As you said, he went from being a star player in high school who played tons of minutes to being a role player in college. Playing a lot in HS afforded him the opportunity to work through slumps on the court rather than sitting on the bench and thinking about it. If he can step up his defense to earn more minutes, I think we'll see his offense improve.

 

[JimP]

The one getting Top 25 consideration in the off season? That was returning 4 of 5 starters from the longest winning streak in college ball? That hadn't lost a home game in 2 years? That had a future CAA POY & Final 4 MVP?

Yeah, he left that mess to take over Miami with its long history of success. Great point!

The way I read that Tom, is that he is referring to the team that included Hancock prior to Larranaga leaving, not the team w/o him after he left. I don't buy the "Larranaga knew his roster was in trouble" argument either.

 

[Walter]

Hugh, Hugh, Hugh. You can change your screen name but you can't change your typically lame arguments. Everybody knows our team resembled nothing like the one getting Top 25 mention by one writer after Luke left. Not even close. Sure, we still had a lot of talented players, but he would have been the heart of that team and the PG we so desperately needed.

Even with Luke's departure, we still had a chance to get back to the NCAAT had we not had to face Coach L's arch nemesis vcu in the CAAT. No doubt in my mind we would have won that game and beat JMU/Drexel in the finals with Luke on our roster. That's how much of a difference he would have made.

Tom, I think you are missing the point. The poster formerly known as Hugh is pointing out that Larranaga left the cupboard full. In fact, we all expected a Top 25 ranking and a deep run in the tournament. Larranaga isn't responsible for Luke leaving. TOC is. And Hewitt wasn't able to get him to stay.

 

[GMUgemini]

Tom, it's weird too, because we heard all offseason that Holloway has been killing it on the defensive end and he was really going to help us on that end of the floor this year. I do wonder what happens during practice, because Hewitt always seems mystified by our lackadaisical play on the court "that's not how they were practicing at all."

Defense seems to be the problem with a lot of our guys. Gray is the same way as Holloway. Gray has the best looking jumper on this team and is actually shooting much better than Holloway right now from behind the arc, 36.4%. But again, his defense makes it hard to justify him being on the floor.

Of course, so does Sherrod's, but he's a much better scorer than either Holloway or Gray at this point so he kind of has to be on the floor. And let's not even get into how badly our forwards are at defending the paint.

 

[gmutom]

I don't buy the "Larranaga knew his roster was in trouble" argument either.

I'm with you on that, Jim. Coach L would have returned an NCAAT-caliber team with Luke coming back. It just goes to show how pissed he was about not getting another raise, because I really do think the team he had returning had the potential to be even better than his last team.

But the Ohio State game was also an indication of how much different we were without Luke. He was the engine that ran the whole team. There's no question OSU was better than us, but that game would have been much closer with Luke. Instead, one of the biggest blowouts in our school history served as a foreshadowing of what our team would look like in Hewitt's first year.

 

[GMUgemini]

I'm with you on that, Jim. Coach L would have returned an NCAAT-caliber team with Luke coming back. It just goes to show how pissed he was about not getting another raise, because I really do think the team he had returning had the potential to be even better than his last team.

But the Ohio State game was also an indication of how much different we were without Luke. He was the engine that ran the whole team. There's no question OSU was better than us, but that game would have been much closer with Luke. Instead, one of the biggest blowouts in our school history served as a foreshadowing of what our team would look like in Hewitt's first year.

Yes, but the Ohio State game was the last game I saw where I felt Mason was truly outclassed at every position.

Even against OU, it looked as though we had them figured out and found a plan that was working against them, but inexplicably we abandoned it and the doors fell off incredibly fast.

 

[gmujim92]

Without going back and playing the "What if we had kept Larranaga?" game for the 20 millionth time, can we all just agree that we have significant shortcomings in both talent -- i.e., our best big is a RS freshman -- and coaching?

 

[Dawgs99]

Without going back and playing the "What if we had kept Larranaga?" game for the 20 millionth time, can we all just agree that we have significant shortcomings in both talent -- i.e., our best big is a RS freshman -- and coaching?

No arguement from me.....I guess the excitement I have about the 3 incoming recruits is that they are long, atheltic, defense first players. There def. seems to be a switch in the kind of kids we are/need to be recruiting.

 

[Quentin Daniels]

Without going back and playing the "What if we had kept Larranaga?" game for the 20 millionth time, can we all just agree that we have significant shortcomings in both talent -- i.e., our best big is a RS freshman -- and coaching?

The thing is, how are you to really know? I look at Isaiah Tate and see a guy that for three season everyone wanted to throw overboard, but then that 4th year it came together and we had a guy that played 20+ minutes a game, was tough on defense, could drive to the hoop, shot +40% from the arc, and could spell Long, Hancock, Cornelius and even Pearson depending on the lineup L wanted to run.

So I have to wonder, are Williams, Gray, & Edwards the same players under 3 seasons of a better coach? I honestly don't know - but I do have to wonder. As for "longer" players - Chaz Williams is 5'9" and seems to be doing OK.

 

[gmutom]

So I have to wonder, are Williams, Gray, & Edwards the same players under 3 seasons of a better coach?

I think this is a valid question, and we'll obviously never know the answer. I'm sure there are coaches who could have made J2 a better player. The common denominator I see with those three is none of them play with a lot of self confidence. J2 and Corey both play scared, and Gray seems to wander around like his head's not always in the game.

I think we all agree that Hewitt seems to lack that in-your-face approach that forces the most out of some kids, but some players also lack the mental component to overcome their fears. Look no further than Jenkins and Moore as examples of how playing fearlessly leads to playing better. J2 and Corey have very good basketball skills, but the confidence seems lacking to bring those skills to the forefront.

 

[Dawgs99]

Chaz Williams might be the quickest player in all of college basketball. When you have that kind of quicks it can often negate length.

 

[gmujim92]

The thing is, how are you to really know? I look at Isaiah Tate and see a guy that for three season everyone wanted to throw overboard, but then that 4th year it came together and we had a guy that played 20+ minutes a game, was tough on defense, could drive to the hoop, shot +40% from the arc, and could spell Long, Hancock, Cornelius and even Pearson depending on the lineup L wanted to run.

So I have to wonder, are Williams, Gray, & Edwards the same players under 3 seasons of a better coach? I honestly don't know - but I do have to wonder. As for "longer" players - Chaz Williams is 5'9" and seems to be doing OK.

I also wonder how much of some of our players' lack of development should be blamed on Hewitt, but I don't think those 3 are necessarily guys you want to hang your argument on.

Williams has been a softie from the moment he set foot on campus, and it really shouldn't be too surprising. Go back and watch his HS videos, it's almost all 15-foot jump shots and jump hooks, even though he was 6-8, 240 pounds playing against a bunch of skinny HS kids.

Gray obviously has dealt with stuff off the court that none of us know about. Whatever it is, I can't help but think it's stunted his development. He still has time, though. Maybe he has a breakout senior year like Tate did, who knows?

Edwards was just a bad fit for the type of offense Hewitt wants to run. The reason why Chaz Williams is an A-10 POY candidate at 5-9 is because he's quick as lightning. He is literally impossible to guard.

Corey is not an explosive playmaker, doesn't penetrate effectively and is far too hesitant to be a D-I PG. He should be playing at a lower-level than the A-10.

 

[JimP]

I still see our problems as mostly due to coaching. Last year, when we stunk it up in the CAA, a lot of people pointed to GMU records under Larranaga the year prior to a senior laden team. That was a fair point. I know we lost Arledge, but this veteran team is playing like they lost a year of experience rather than gained it.

I do like the look of the recruits, but nothing about the last decade's worth of Hewitt coached teams convinces me he'll turn things around. And as it seems a few of us have been saying for a while, I'll add the obligatory "I hope I'm proven wrong."

 

[gmujim92]

The one guy on our roster that I'm really concerned about Hewitt screwing up is Holloway. By insisting that Patrick focus so hard on becoming a complete player, the coach seems to have turned his offensive game into a shadow of its former self.

The question I have is, why do you recruit a gifted scorer and insist he become a lockdown defender? Steph Curry was never known for his D at Davidson, but McKillop recognized his offensive gifts and just let him play his game.

Hewitt needs to give Holloway 25-30 minutes a night and tell him he's not coming out as soon as he takes a bad shot or two. Elite scorers need to play with confidence and it's painfully obvious Holloway's confidence is shot right now.

 

[Quentin Daniels]

Williams has been a softie from the moment he set foot on campus, and it really shouldn't be too surprising. Go back and watch his HS videos, it's almost all 15-foot jump shots and jump hooks, even though he was 6-8, 240 pounds playing against a bunch of skinny HS kids.

So was Daryl Monroe. But only the first season.

I'm not saying Williams lack of progression is all on Hewitt - he was rather disappointing under L too. I am however wondering what he'd look like if he'd played under a better coach.

 

[JimP]

As for D, I agree with those who say we should go to a zone most of the time. That oughta take some pressure off of Holloway too. This team gives up so many easy 2's.