Where Are They Now?

[sleeperpick]

You're looking too far into my post my friend.

I said him and the staff need to make moves the next year or two. I never said he needs the next two years to make a move or needs more time etc. The time is now. If he doesn't get it done in the next year or year after its time to move in another direction, but I'm skeptical that Mason will do that with this current environment and for 1000s of reasons I've already iterated and beaten the horse on.

Hope that makes more sense. If not, I can clarify.

It doesn’t lol. You keep saying this and next year. There is a 0% chance we have a better team next year than we do this year unless Paulsen changes up every strategy he has ever known. If we aren’t good this year we will be certainly worse next year. If he’s bad this year cut him loose. There is no need to wait till next year where the roster will be exponentially worse

 

[mkaufman1]

It doesn’t lol. You keep saying this and next year. There is a 0% chance we have a better team next year than we do this year unless Paulsen changes up every strategy he has ever known. If we aren’t good this year we will be certainly worse next year. If he’s bad this year cut him loose. There is no need to wait till next year where the roster will be exponentially worse

I don't disagree, but I'm skeptical Mason will do that which is why I say what I say. They'll wait until absolutely necessary or conditions require it (new AD, Brad is convinced enough, act of god, etc)

 

[gmutom]

I said him and the staff need to make moves the next year or two. I never said he needs the next two years to make a move or needs more time etc. The time is now.

Thanks for the clarification, Matt. I was a Dave fan from the beginning, but the man really has to start proving that he can consistently recruit and coach at the A10 level. So far, next year's class is not alleviating my concerns.

Show me a program that constantly brags about "improved players," and I'll show you a guy that under-recruits players and then throws them in the deep end with the hope a few learn to swim. He needs to land us a Michael Phelps and get us back on the damn medal stand.

 

[FreeGunston12]

Very happy to see Tate back at Mason as a Grad Manager. He embraced his role senior year and it really paid off. I am hoping he can help a lot.

And I agree with that the staff has been upgraded. I think adding MoJo adds a lot of nice A-10 and local experience to the puzzle, promoting Simpkins was very important as well.

Its time for the staff to make their move the next year or two, especially on the court. They failed in year 4 and that cannot happen again.

It is already documented on here that I did not respect Tate as a great player, mostly because of coach L's usage of him. What I can say is that whenever I saw him around campus, he seemed to be one of the social leaders of the team at the time. I hope he is as good as I think he will be for the guys' morale and for bringing some basketball alum back into the fold.

Also, I played a pickup game or two against him in Southside. Ike had crazy range. He would just casually pull up from half and swish it everytime. He shot 40% from 3 his senior year and looks like he continued to shoot it well as a pro. Hopefully his work with the team will translate in that area.

 

[Herndon]

It is already documented on here that I did not respect Tate as a great player, mostly because of coach L's usage of him. What I can say is that whenever I saw him around campus, he seemed to be one of the social leaders of the team at the time. I hope he is as good as I think he will be for the guys' morale and for bringing some basketball alum back into the fold.

Also, I played a pickup game or two against him in Southside. Ike had crazy range. He would just casually pull up from half and swish it everytime. He shot 40% from 3 his senior year and looks like he continued to shoot it well as a pro. Hopefully his work with the team will translate in that area.

He had a super mechanical release, which is a blessing and a curse. It means it's repeatable, so that if you get your release down, you can be a dependable knockdown shooter.

It also means it's not quick or creative, which means if people challenge your shot, it quickly throws you off.

If you can get a guy like that open looks, he can really help your squad, but he's never going to be a guy who can get buckets on his own

 

[GMUgemini]

Good luck with that. If any of those 4 turn into half of what AJ and Javon were count Paulsen lucky as hell. I hope we have two all conference caliber dudes as freshman right now I really do.

They don’t necessarily have to be all conference if Miller and XJ grow into those roles.

Having said that, losing AJ is going to suck and if Henry isn’t ready to step into the 4 spot and be a big contributor that team is going to be in serious trouble unless Paulsen can find a transfer that is immediately eligible.

 

[mkaufman1]

Thanks for the clarification, Matt. I was a Dave fan from the beginning, but the man really has to start proving that he can consistently recruit and coach at the A10 level. So far, next year's class is not alleviating my concerns.

Show me a program that constantly brags about "improved players," and I'll show you a guy that under-recruits players and then throws them in the deep end with the hope a few learn to swim. He needs to land us a Michael Phelps and get us back on the damn medal stand.

no problem, I’m as skeptical as anyone but as you may have seen/not seen I’m not so sure anyone at Mason is ready to pull the plug on Dave. I’ve written and said it quite a bit, that with Brad around, he’s not looking to do anything with Dave anytime soon and he really doesn’t have to. He’s under contract until 2023 which conveniently is a few years for Dr Washington to settle in. I’m certainly tired of “hey this is the year to prove himself!” and all the noise and excuses.

between masons approach on sports, Covid, and multiple other excuses that probably could be made, nothing’s imminent.

 

[tblack33]

no problem, I’m as skeptical as anyone but as you may have seen/not seen I’m not so sure anyone at Mason is ready to pull the plug on Dave. I’ve written and said it quite a bit, that with Brad around, he’s not looking to do anything with Dave anytime soon and he really doesn’t have to. He’s under contract until 2023 which conveniently is a few years for Dr Washington to settle in. I’m certainly tired of “hey this is the year to prove himself!” and all the noise and excuses.

between masons approach on sports, Covid, and multiple other excuses that probably could be made, nothing’s imminent.

I thought his contract was up April 2022? Brad is well versed enough in athletics to know he has to either extend or fire him after this season. If we lame duck him it honestly might be worse than extending him.

 

[gmutom]

no problem, I’m as skeptical as anyone but as you may have seen/not seen I’m not so sure anyone at Mason is ready to pull the plug on Dave.

Yeah, I definitely agree we are in limbo with a new president and COVID. I just wish Dave fought for his job a little harder. I'm not saying he has to break rules like Will Wade, but he could be more open-minded about grad transfers, JUCO players and regular transfers.

He just seems convinced that he needs to get the players when they are raw so he can coach them up, but sometimes using a microwave gets better/faster results than waiting several hours for something to cook.

 

[mkaufman1]

I thought his contract was up April 2022? Brad is well versed enough in athletics to know he has to either extend or fire him after this season. If we lame duck him it honestly might be worse than extending him.

daves contract is up then, and you’re right, they shouldn’t lame duck him. But because of what’s going on, I wouldn’t be surprised if they did, even though that’s probably the worst thing you could do for the program. That’s why short of something catastrophically bad and worse than last year (and that might not be enough), my expectation is that Dave is going to be around.

 

[GMUgemini]

Yeah, I definitely agree we are in limbo with a new president and COVID. I just wish Dave fought for his job a little harder. I'm not saying he has to break rules like Will Wade, but he could be more open-minded about grad transfers, JUCO players and regular transfers.

He just seems convinced that he needs to get the players when they are raw so he can coach them up, but sometimes using a microwave gets better/faster results than waiting several hours for something to cook.

Hes got a senior laden roster. If they stay healthy all year, this is the year to prove slow cooking is going to work. And unless the season gets canceled or the postseason gets canceled or classes are shutdown for the spring, if he goes 5-13 again and we don’t eat his contract, we don’t deserve to be in the A10.

 

[FreeGunston12]

If we lame duck him it honestly might be worse than extending him.

Why?

 

[GMUgemini]

Why?

Inability to recruit for 2022, so even if he has a successful season, there will be no sustainability. Look at JMU as an example of what happens when you lame duck a coach and he winds up winning the league.

 

[FreeGunston12]

Inability to recruit for 2022, so even if he has a successful season, there will be no sustainability. Look at JMU as an example of what happens when you lame duck a coach and he winds up winning the league.

Ok - sounds like a win/win to me though. The worst case scenario being that DP WINS THE LEAGUE and we want to keep him but can't at that point. So we bring in a new coach who would be bringing in all new recruits after decommits anyways.

Or he has a crap season and we bring in a new coach with new recruits.

Or we decide to keep him and he has a crap recruiting class and is trying to take late commits after the season (pretty par for the course right?).

I pretty much think, no matter how you look at it, the worst thing Mason can do is keep kicking this can down the road.

 

[Patriot8]

#Skinn4HC

 

[GMUgemini]

Ok - sounds like a win/win to me though. The worst case scenario being that DP WINS THE LEAGUE and we want to keep him but can't at that point. So we bring in a new coach who would be bringing in all new recruits after decommits anyways.

Or he has a crap season and we bring in a new coach with new recruits.

Or we decide to keep him and he has a crap recruiting class and is trying to take late commits after the season (pretty par for the course right?).

I pretty much think, no matter how you look at it, the worst thing Mason can do is keep kicking this can down the road.

Well, if you fire him after the season, you've got a list of recruits already committed that you have to either accept or tell them they're no longer welcome (which is probably not a good look for a new head coach).

It's either fire him after this season, or extend him a year for me.

 

[mkaufman1]

Well, if you fire him after the season, you've got a list of recruits already committed that you have to either accept or tell them they're no longer welcome (which is probably not a good look for a new head coach).

It's either fire him after this season, or extend him a year for me.

thats what should happen but like I’ve said, with Covid and Mason being Mason, who knows. Brad likes Dave so even a bad season and he might give more time. Certainly not what I would do but I have no idea what he’s thinking or can do.

we will have to see how the season goes and if we get any “vibes” Or hints.

 

[FreeGunston12]

Well, if you fire him after the season, you've got a list of recruits already committed that you have to either accept or tell them they're no longer welcome (which is probably not a good look for a new head coach).

It's either fire him after this season, or extend him a year for me.

It is just what happens with all coaching changes regardless. Just like when DP was hired. Just like when Hewitt was hired.

And you're kind of invalidating your other argument. We can't lame duck him because he won't be able to recruit, but also can't lame duck him because then what will we do with his commits. Doesn't make sense to me. Save the money, let his contract expire. Minimizes cost and risk in my eyes.

 

[GMUgemini]

It is just what happens with all coaching changes regardless. Just like when DP was hired. Just like when Hewitt was hired.

And you're kind of invalidating your other argument. We can't lame duck him because he won't be able to recruit, but also can't lame duck him because then what will we do with his commits. Doesn't make sense to me. Save the money, let his contract expire. Minimizes cost and risk in my eyes.

By recruit, I mean anyone with any decent offers. So yeah if we want to straddle the next coach with a Danny Dixon or Kam Murrell, lame duck him.

And here’s the other thing, if the AD doesn’t have confidence in the coach to do the job and we are just being cheap, what makes us think Miller, Hartwell, XJ, Polite or anyone else wants to stick around for a crap season?

 

[sleeperpick]

By recruit, I mean anyone with any decent offers. So yeah if we want to straddle the next coach with a Danny Dixon or Kam Murrell, lame duck him.

And here’s the other thing, if the AD doesn’t have confidence in the coach to do the job and we are just being cheap, what makes us think Miller, Hartwell, XJ, Polite or anyone else wants to stick around for a crap season?

LOL as we see from teams in the A10 you don't have to recruit all D2 kids your first year.... thats just a Paulsen thing not the norm..