Welcome Ginikachukwu Ojiako

[Patriot8]

That would have us going 11 deep which unless KE has changed his philosophy seems unlikely by the time conference play rolls around. I don't think he'll go 7 like he stated before, but I don't see us going more than 9 deep outside of foul trouble/injuries.

I agree. This is more of how I see the beginning of the season. Roles increase/decrease based on performance, and we settle into a nice 8-9 rotation.

 

[mkaufman1]

This is a stretch... 2010-2011 was loaded

Yeah agreed. 2010-2011 was the best team Mason ever had (I still say they were better than the Final Four team although they got shafted seeding wise etc). We knew what we were going to get out of that group for the most part.

While we think we have talent on this squad, its a lot of transfers and guys who haven’t been together. Can they be good? Sure. Will they be one of the best Mason mens basketball teams ever? I don’t think we can predict that today.

If January comes, they run through the out of conference and are on a 10-11 winning streak, then we can talk.

 

[Walter]

Yeah agreed. 2010-2011 was the best team Mason ever had (I still say they were better than the Final Four team although they got shafted seeding wise etc). We knew what we were going to get out of that group for the most part.

While we think we have talent on this squad, its a lot of transfers and guys who haven’t been together. Can they be good? Sure. Will they be one of the best Mason mens basketball teams ever? I don’t think we can predict that today.

If January comes, they run through the out of conference and are on a 10-11 winning streak, then we can talk.

Exactly. If our god and Luke had stayed . . . sorry, wrong thread.

 

[Falco]

No

Remember when you said Paulsen was a good coach?

 

[mkaufman1]

Remember when you said Paulsen was a good coach?

Hey many of us were overly patient with paulsen. Guilty as charged.

But this thread is about welcoming John Ojiako. I keep thinking his last name is Okoloji. We should talk about how we want him to be an absolute monster and stud.

 

[sleeperpick]

Remember when you said Paulsen was a good coach?

He has repented for that sin enough IMO

 

[mkaufman1]

He has repented for that sin enough IMO

He’s now rubbing his nipples over potential 4 star top 100 recruits coming, instead of slow handoffs at the top of the key and recruits who didn’t have any other d1 offers.

 

[Quentin Daniels]

Completely opposite approach than DP. Let’s see what happens

You knew DJ3 was going to be siced for size.

 

[MasonSAE4]

Even if he's offensively limited, if we can get some minutes where we don't have to double the post and can stay with guys on the perimeter I'll be psyched.

 

[Falco]

You knew DJ3 was going to be siced for size.

Im going to trust the process, but if I was king for a day, I would of used the last scholarship on a PG.

 

[mkaufman1]

Im going to trust the process, but I was king for a day, I would of used the last scholarship on a PG.

Pretty much every single mason fan/alum that I text or talk to wanted a pg for that last spot. However in recent weeks the staff felt that with adding singleton it was enough at that spot.

 

[Petey Buckets]

Pretty much every single mason fan/alum that I text or talk to wanted a pg for that last spot. However in recent weeks the staff felt that with adding singleton it was enough at that spot.

"The staff is happy" - this feels like the same mistake we made with Dave when he would miss on all his top targets and we'd end up with a player whose other best offer was Marymount. The staff whiffed on every priority point guard in the portal, so now we're going to have some committee of Ronnie/Saquan/Dinkins at the spot in a win-now year. Unless I'm WAY off on Saquan, KE overplayed his hand pretty badly in assuming he could just pluck a difference-maker out of the portal.

 

[GMUgemini]

"The staff is happy" - this feels like the same mistake we made with Dave when he would miss on all his top targets and we'd end up with a player whose other best offer was Marymount. The staff whiffed on every priority point guard in the portal, so now we're going to have some committee of Ronnie/Saquan/Dinkins at the spot in a win-now year. Unless I'm WAY off on Saquan, KE overplayed his hand pretty badly in assuming he could just pluck a difference-maker out of the portal.

Other than…trying to keep XJ another year? It was odd that all of a sudden XJ loses his starting spot and essentially was probably “eased” out the door.

But for my money, having a less efficient offense in favor of really tough team defense will make up for the fact that we don’t have a top 5 PG starting at the 1. Hopefully the addition of Singleton (defense), Bailey (defense), and Ojiako (rim protecting defense) will be enough.

 

[tblack33]

"The staff is happy" - this feels like the same mistake we made with Dave when he would miss on all his top targets and we'd end up with a player whose other best offer was Marymount. The staff whiffed on every priority point guard in the portal, so now we're going to have some committee of Ronnie/Saquan/Dinkins at the spot in a win-now year. Unless I'm WAY off on Saquan, KE overplayed his hand pretty badly in assuming he could just pluck a difference-maker out of the portal.

Agreed, I’m not going to make excuses for this staff like we did for Dave. I’m pretty sure that Kim himself said during the last coaching show that PG was a priority fill and we didn’t do it, now whatever happens next season as a result of that is going to be on him. I hope that he was right and we end up okay by committee or Dinkins comes in ready to go, but if not then just remember that it was no surprise that we needed to land a starting PG and the fact is we didn’t.

 

[sleeperpick]

Pretty much every single mason fan/alum that I text or talk to wanted a pg for that last spot. However in recent weeks the staff felt that with adding singleton it was enough at that spot.

Love the staff but you said that it was Polites position to lose? Polite is not very good at basketball (healthy or not). That makes me very nervous with a really good team.

Other than…trying to keep XJ another year? It was odd that all of a sudden XJ loses his starting spot and essentially was probably “eased” out the door.

But for my money, having a less efficient offense in favor of really tough team defense will make up for the fact that we don’t have a top 5 PG starting at the 1. Hopefully the addition of Singleton (defense), Bailey (defense), and Ojiako (rim protecting defense) will be enough.

that was the most perplexing part… XJ is better than Ronnie at legitimately every facet of basketball and lost his spot and was clearly pushed out at the end of last year. XJ had his faults but XJ>>>>>>>>> Ronnie

 

[MasonFanatic]

What I noticed is the staff making a priority to bring in guys (Bailey, Singleton) who can drive the ball to the basket, which is something we sorely needed last season to complement our shooting and keep teams from overplaying us like Fordham did. It didn't seem like XJ was part of that plan.

 

[mkaufman1]

Look I’m not making excuses and I’m in the boat that the staff didn’t do enough to fix the biggest issue from last year. Let them prove us wrong.

If the program is held back because Ronnie is terrible, Singleton doesn’t help, and Dinkins isn’t ready, I’ll be pissed and ready with my pitchfork much like everyone else.

 

[GSII]

Dinkins will be ready by conference play. Especially if plays with JF. Our biggest issue is getting these guys to gel. Heck Oduro can run point forward and feed Big John in the half court sets. Or maybe Big John calls his boy Jalen Cone and they reunite in Fairfax next year??

The issue is gonna be how we handle the press. With this size??? Pass over it?? Sounds good to me!

 

[gmujim92]

Love the staff but you said that it was Polites position to lose? Polite is not very good at basketball (healthy or not). That makes me very nervous with a really good team.

that was the most perplexing part… XJ is better than Ronnie at legitimately every facet of basketball and lost his spot and was clearly pushed out at the end of last year. XJ had his faults but XJ>>>>>>>>> Ronnie

I think everyone would agree that X is presently much much better than Ronnie. Hell I bet Ronnie would even agree with that. But I also think X is as good as he’s gonna get … for a number of reasons Ronnie is still just scratching the surface of his ability.

Will he ever be healthy enough to reach his potential? Who knows. But I don’t blame Kim if he evaluated last season and concluded that sticking with X for another season was not good enough.

 

[sleeperpick]

I think everyone would agree that X is presently much much better than Ronnie. Hell I bet Ronnie would even agree with that. But I also think X is as good as he’s gonna get … for a number of reasons Ronnie is still just scratching the surface of his ability.

Will he ever be healthy enough to reach his potential? Who knows. But I don’t blame Kim if he evaluated last season and concluded that sticking with X for another season was not good enough.

So he’s magically going to be able to dribble, not turn the ball over, not shoot like a female off the side of the backboard and play defense? All of that is because he hasn’t been healthy?