Welcome Justin Kier

[gmujim92]

Leave that strawman alone, he can't defend himself. "Perennial top 5 in the A10" isn't a measuring stick any reasonable people are using and you know it.

I, like most others who are critical of Paulsen, want to see some evidence he can compete for top 4 and an NCAA bid every few years. One top 5 finish in the A10's worst year in decades is all we got. I don't think we've seen anything to suggest our ceiling is any better than mediocre with him at the helm.

Not to nitpick, but we were fifth in the A-10 two years in a row.

 

[mkaufman1]

We are bottom 5 in spending, however every team that spends less than us was higher in the standings last season.

Source: https://www.midmajormadness.com/201...ics-college-basketball-2016-gonzaga-mid-major

It’s not what you spend but how you spend it. But I do think mason has to throw a few more dollars at men’s basketball in general somehow. Try to be more mid pack.

but they could absolutely suck either way, Fordham spends a ton and they blow.

 

[GMUgemini]

Leave that strawman alone, he can't defend himself. "Perennial top 5 in the A10" isn't a measuring stick any reasonable people are using and you know it.

I, like most others who are critical of Paulsen, want to see some evidence he can compete for top 4 and an NCAA bid every few years. One top 5 finish in the A10's worst year in decades is all we got. I don't think we've seen anything to suggest our ceiling is any better than mediocre with him at the helm.

Again, how are you going to achieve that with bottom of the barrel spending and at best middle of the pack infrastructure? Hiring coach after coach who is really good who then leaves for a better program every 3-5 years? In other words, how do you avoid a Larranaga 2.0 if you are unwilling to invest in a successful coach?

In the example I posted above, UNCW hires a good coach, turns the program around, leaves, and they are back at the bottom again. How do you avoid doing that without making more long-term investment in basketball?

 

[Petey Buckets]

Not to nitpick, but we were fifth in the A-10 two years in a row.

Fair call out but I think we all feel like the one year we deserved 5th place and the other year we lucked out being at the top of a four-way tie at 9-9. Both years it felt like we were light years from legitimately competing with the top.

Again, how are you going to achieve that with bottom of the barrel spending and at best middle of the pack infrastructure? Hiring coach after coach who is really good who then leaves for a better program every 3-5 years? In other words, how do you avoid a Larranaga 2.0 if you are unwilling to invest in a successful coach?

Is it your position we should never expect to be better than 11th because that's where we are in spending? Don't want to put words in your mouth but it's a reasonable inference if you think sniffing top 4 once in a while is wildly unrealistic.

Also, SIGN ME THE HELL UP for a coach who gets us to two tournaments then leaves. Wouldn't even think twice

 

[KAOriginal]

Again, how are you going to achieve that with bottom of the barrel spending and at best middle of the pack infrastructure? Hiring coach after coach who is really good who then leaves for a better program every 3-5 years? In other words, how do you avoid a Larranaga 2.0 if you are unwilling to invest in a successful coach?

In the example I posted above, UNCW hires a good coach, turns the program around, leaves, and they are back at the bottom again. How do you avoid doing that without making more long-term investment in basketball?

UNCW can never spend enough to keep a coach who is any good...unless they happen to find the McKillop needle in the haystack. The CAA is too low on the totem pole of "this is my coaching career."

It will be rare to find any coach that is any good to hang around too long below the P5 in today's hoops game. However a little bit more salary, a great location to recruit/play in and in actual league that is more than "we have to win the autobid" is always a great sell.

But we have to make the case "you can win here" so that if we do lose a good coach....another would really want to take his place vs the current "hey...try us out..maybe we can work for you.'

Hewitt- was just the "she's a bar whore...but she will look good on my arm hire"
Paulsen-was the cute chubby girl and the best looking of the 3 girls left at closing time.

 

[p8triotfan4life]

At this point, the book is closed on Kier. Let's be hopeful of us finding a gem with the last scholly for another school to steal.

 

[sleeperpick]

Fair call out but I think we all feel like the one year we deserved 5th place and the other year we lucked out being at the top of a four-way tie at 9-9. Both years it felt like we were light years from legitimately competing with the top.



Is it your position we should never expect to be better than 11th because that's where we are in spending? Don't want to put words in your mouth but it's a reasonable inference if you think sniffing top 4 once in a while is wildly unrealistic.

Also, SIGN ME THE HELL UP for a coach who gets us to two tournaments then leaves. Wouldn't even think twice

Sign me up too although I only require one tournament and then they can leave

 

[tblack33]

Fair call out but I think we all feel like the one year we deserved 5th place and the other year we lucked out being at the top of a four-way tie at 9-9. Both years it felt like we were light years from legitimately competing with the top.



Is it your position we should never expect to be better than 11th because that's where we are in spending? Don't want to put words in your mouth but it's a reasonable inference if you think sniffing top 4 once in a while is wildly unrealistic.

Also, SIGN ME THE HELL UP for a coach who gets us to two tournaments then leaves. Wouldn't even think twice

^^This. I’d absolutely be fine with being where we are now if I had faith that we’d be dancing once every 4-5 seasons. I think that’s a reasonable ask from an A10 school.

 

[Falco]

All I’m saying is for the people who think “starting over” just means getting rid of DP, wake the F up because it means a total rebuild with a completely decimated roster and loss of whatever 2021 recruits commit in November.

Between the 4 seniors graduating and everyone else who will be able to leave without penalty after next season, we MIGHT have 3 or 4 players left.

That’s not a reason not to fire him if the new president wants to bring in his own guy. But we should all be ready for at least 3-4 years of absolute suckitude if it happens.

Who cares! We are in the PIG anyway! Start from scratch. The program is a joke.

 

[Falco]

I find it interesting that you assume Mason can and will hire somebody better. Based on the program’s history with coaching hires, I’d give you even money that we hire someone worse and wind up blowing the whole thing sky high for no reason.

I would rather try and fail than continue on the current path.

 

[tblack33]

We can stay there year after year...

So kinda similar to DPs tenure? You aren’t selling me on any huge pitfalls here, at worst things stay the same and we do this again in 4 years.

 

[Falco]

And there are hundreds of examples of schools that fired their coach and decimated their roster only to hire somebody who was no better than the last guy.

The worst thing we could do is fire this staff just as they are starting to bring in a higher caliber of recruit, based on one bad* season.

Exactly hundreds of schools would rather try and fail than not try at all.

the alternative is to remain mediocre. Paulsen is a proven loser

 

[MasonSAE4]

A, who says you have to do it next year? Hell, we might actually be at an advantage in the next few years since something like 80% of our budget comes from student fees.

B, you really think we can be a top 5-6 team year in, year out, being 12th in spending? People want us to compete with the URI's, SLUs, vcu's, and Daytons of the world with recruits and how are we doing that with inferior infrastructure, amenities, ON TOP of crappy fan support, and zero community support -- at least we could get the administration behind them.

While I agree that you have to spend money to make money, what exactly are we going to improve that's going to bring in better recruits or more fans? We just built a mediocre practice facility, we just upgraded the locker room (which in turn means we aren't building a new arena any time soon), the arena's been renovated recently so it's not getting some fan-friendly upgrade. Sure, we can use an increase in spending to up the coaching budget, but if DP isn't the guy then it's irrelevant anyways. I fail to see what we can realistically throw cash at that will make *this* coaching staff more successful. Recruiting budget maybe, but what does that entail? We seem to just not be landing kids we want, it's not like we're failing to discover kids. Short of building up a fund to use like Will Wade's super secret fun stash, I don't know what it will be spent on.

 

[gmujim92]

While I agree that you have to spend money to make money, what exactly are we going to improve that's going to bring in better recruits or more fans? We just built a mediocre practice facility, we just upgraded the locker room (which in turn means we aren't building a new arena any time soon), the arena's been renovated recently so it's not getting some fan-friendly upgrade. Sure, we can use an increase in spending to up the coaching budget, but if DP isn't the guy then it's irrelevant anyways. I fail to see what we can realistically throw cash at that will make *this* coaching staff more successful. Recruiting budget maybe, but what does that entail? We seem to just not be landing kids we want, it's not like we're failing to discover kids. Short of building up a fund to use like Will Wade's super secret fun stash, I don't know what it will be spent on.

Increasing coaching salaries expands the pool of potential candidates. That’s as good a place to start as any.

 

[mkaufman1]

I do think in this day and age it’s going to be rare to find a coach to stay for a long time at a school. It’s the same idea of hearing someone stay at the same company for 35 years nowadays. It’s almost unheard of.

that said I think the proper approach in general (and in many places they do this) is to try and find a coach who is going to be aggressive to win, make the ncaas and then go out of town. The challenge then is to make sure that you piggyback with the proper hire continuously. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with Duquesne if Dambrot gets to the ncaas. At this point it’s an adaptation that needs to take place. But of course you need to figure out who can do that and if you play athletics conservatively, the likelihood is slimmer. You have to be willing to be aggressive, pay well etc to give yourself a shot.

Obviously Dave and Brad had a certain vision when they started together, and whether they keep going after next year remains to be seen. But the best thing for either of them is a great season, so that they get their own growth opportunities. The trick would then be find the good replacement.

 

[gmujim92]

Exactly hundreds of schools would rather try and fail than not try at all.

the alternative is to remain mediocre. Paulsen is a proven loser

You do know he coached college basketball for many years before taking the Mason job, right?

I’m sure even you can easily locate his record on Wikipedia.

Unless you’re using some kind of new-fangled math, he’s very much not a “proven loser.”

 

[MasonSAE4]

Increasing coaching salaries expands the pool of potential candidates. That’s as good a place to start as any.

That's what I'm saying though. Would increasing the budget under the current coaching staff do us anything? I tend to think anything other than a renovation/new arena is just gonna have super diminishing returns. Agree that the money helps hire a different coach, but I'm not sure giving DP another million a year is going to do all that much.

Everyone seems to be in agreement though, next year is the year so who really cares. We can't afford to buy him out now so he's here next year. Kier or no Kier, if we bomb he's gone whether you feel it's justified or not.

 

[GMUgemini]

Also, SIGN ME THE HELL UP for a coach who gets us to two tournaments then leaves. Wouldn't even think twice

What I'm saying is, if you are going to fire Paulsen because you think you can do better from a coaching perspective, you should also invest more long-term in the basketball team so you can start putting the infrastructure in place to have long-term success, because if you have someone who comes in and has instant success like Keatts and leaves after 3 years, without those investments in place you're pretty much back to the lottery again with your next hire.

I also think if the first-time transfer rule does go into effect, you're also going to see it much harder to develop your way to a top 4 finish every 3-4 years as more and more players enter the transfer portal.

 

[Jack Strop]

Same ol' arguments. Same ol" sniping. It might be better for you all to invest in and design a new game. Perhaps call it Final-4-Fantasy. You get to pretend that you're simutaneously an AD and head coach, build your own team, and battle your way into the Top 25 and all the way up the Final Four. Then your star players get injured or transfer and you have to fire yourself. Please, PLEASE, fire yourself — NOW! Self-immolation makes for good toasted marshmallows. Kumbaya my friends. Kumbaya!

 

[tblack33]

Same ol' arguments. Same ol" sniping. It might be better for you all to invest in and design a new game. Perhaps call it Final-4-Fantasy. You get to pretend that you're simutaneously an AD and head coach, build your own team, and battle your way into the Top 25 and all the way up the Final Four. Then your star players get injured or transfer and you have to fire yourself. Please, PLEASE, fire yourself — NOW! Self-immolation makes for good toasted marshmallows. Kumbaya my friends. Kumbaya!

Sounds like a fun game, your sources teach it to you?