Even if KE would have left anyway for a Big East program that has had a lot of recent success (and not for nothing, almost fills a 12K venue every game so that helps with recruiting...imagine Kim’s sales pitch when he brings a recruit to the mostly empty EBA!), the bottom line is our administration is not committed to the success of this program. We still don’t have an AD. Kim wasn’t offered the extension after our 20 win season and showing foundational progress.
We can get excited about a new coach, whoever it is, all day. But until some foundational things change, it’s going to continue to be a revolving door for coaches looking to raise their profile and move on.
Guys, I have never been more down on the program. Dr Washington is too busy making woke statements and banning discussions about the Iraq War instead of trying to win a conference championship. Who the hell is Nena Rogers? I heard she got mad that there wasn't enough transgender basketball players on the Mens team and cried to Dr Washington not to offer English an extension because of it.
As much as it hurts me that English is leaving, I think you dumped on him a bit. No he didn’t do any or much recruiting except bringing xfers here. But who’s to say what might have been? He was offered a job at a school that is miles above GMU. As a grad, I want the the team to do well. As I understand it, this place was a mess when Brad Edwards got here. If the school wants to be successful in the A10 there has to be a commitment I haven’t seen. IMHO the final four run was wasted. So many things could have been done to build on that success that wasn’t. I’ll always be a fan but it’s time for them to commit. Getting an AD would help. 6 months without one? Really?
They’re only all in on one thing - the diversity/equality mantra. They are not about attracting the best and the brightest. They are about checking boxes on a paint by color scheme. This is President Washington’s stated agenda. It is bro going down our University and preventing us from being competitive.
Well that goes without saying. But, that's not the question. Westhead tried to install "his system" without any hope of attracting the talent to make it succeed. (There was no Bo Kimble or Hank Gathers out there that were going to come to Mason in make "The System" work n the Pre-Final Four Days) What I'm getting at is that Kim English, was like exactly Westhead, trying to fix personnel problems by attracting transfers. Mason was caught in the the exact same trap that ensnared them in when hiring Rick Barnes some thirty years before,. Hiring a rising a coach who is seen as a rising superstar prodigy. Barnes left Mason after one year to go to a Middling-Level major conference program: Providence College. English did the exact same thing. Could Tony Skinn be "the fix" this problem?
Brad Edwards, our AD, fired coach Paulsen with a stacked team that included Oduro, Kolek, Miller and incoming Polite. He gambled on hot new commodity, Kim English, and that he would be able to keep them together and win. He was wrong! Kolek left and became the big East player of the year. Jordan Miller left and became second team all ACC. We were left with an inspirational speaker that lacked coaching experience. I hope Providence is happy with a team that turns the ball over 14 times a game and shoots 65% from the free throw lane.
Our university leadership has found countless ways to set back our basketball program. For example, we have been to the NCAA tournament twice since our 2006 final four run with 4 different coaches. VCU has been back 9 times since their 2011 final four run with 3 different coaches. I would imagine most of our good players will enter the transfer portal. Back to the drawing board and rebuilding our program. Go Mason.
VCU hired three different coaches all from within same VCU coaching tree. ....that's the difference. Mason has started-over with three very different coaches. And I can't figure-out why Providence is taking such a risk by handing-over their entire program to such an unproven commodity as Kim English. He could fail spectacularly.
I agree with you on many fronts. Would say that the Paulson team was “stacked” as we look back on it. None of those players were elite recruits. But they’ve certainly become elite level college players. You could certainly put Otis in that category, too. Better college player than expected.
Should we have been more patient with DP? Maybe. At the end of the day, this is an issue around our long term plan. What is the administration trying to accomplish with this team and how do we create some stability to deliver it? I don’t see the plan. And I’m a 1993 alum and season ticket holder ever since. Although not sure about next year.
We have a huge undergraduate population. What shows up to games is embarrassing. Which makes it tough for any coach to recruit.
We've got to face the fact that Mason will never be a traditional school. Basically, it and will always be a "commuter school" despite having the largest on campus population of any institution in the Commonwealth. . In addition, the school is situated within "the most highly affluent and educated region in the world". Having lived in a less populated and cosmopolitan area for my graduate education at another ivy-covered institution (Its not important which one or what I was studying there), I have seen how other institutions deal with their athletic programs when they are the only game in town. I know what role they play in their culture. when they are the most dominant institution in their culture. I can tell you that neither No.Va nor the D.C. area will never stop because how George Mason, or Georgetown, or American or George Washington, or even The University of Maryland (Whose attendance at their 50,000ish seat stadium in the lowest in the Big Ten) sports team performs on the field. (Georgetown was lucky to have access to the Verizon/MCI Center-Capital One Arena for their home. But their home crowds have been over half D.C. residents largely interested in John Thompson's largely games because they involved local "urban talent" in the "largely white and Catholic Georgetown). The attention of a D.C sports fan is naturally focused more on D.C. other professional sports and the myriad of other cultural events to pay any attention to college sports. Even U.Md does not always sell-out all of their home basketball games, playing in the vaunted Big Ten. So it should not be embarrassing that Mason does not sell-out either.
I didn’t suggest it’s embarrassing that we don’t sell out. For EBA, that may be a bridge too far. Although interestingly, we used to sell out the venue on occasion for big games...pre Final 4. Now we never do. And that’s with sections tarped off.
It’s embarrassing how many people actually do show up. Mason may still be perceived as a commuter school but as you suggest, that’s a perception. When you have “the largest on campus population of any institution in the Commonwealth”, the students are literally there. Not commuting. So to get a few hundred students to a game on campus is, in fact, embarrassing. And given the number of alums who remain in the DC area for work, you have a built in population that theoretically should support the team (agree with you that in a major metropolitan area, you are competing with a lot of things for people’s time and $). But still. Our attendance and atmosphere is generally awful (except the green machine, which remains amazing). Which you can appreciate impacts how a coach can recruit, how players feel about the experience, etc. And related, their desire to stay at Mason.
Out of left field candidate, but any chance we go after Kevin Ollie? Could give him a chance to get back in the NCAA and with success could spring board him back to a bigger program.
Former UConn player and coach. Like it. Never hear him mentioned for any jobs. Is he trying to get back into the D1 mix? Feels like we are Tony Skinn or bust bound.
Kim is obviously learning on the job as a HC so I think his Xs and Os will improve with experience. He’s a basketball junkie, played at the highest levels so he clearly gets the nuances of game situations and he’s super smart so I think that will come. Providence is gambling on that. But he’ll bring a spark to Providence quickly, which they need after Cooley left for Georgetown.
No. KE brought him here. When Fernandez was interviewed on the KE Coaches Show about a month ago, he talked a lot about Kim’s influence on his decision. I think he’s one of several that are headed North. Just an educated guess. The ability to bring one more year of Josh, Ticket and 3 years of Fernandez to Providence was probably part of the appeal to that school. We’ll see how that plays out.
Nice write up - I agree with your assessment of English's short stint with us. He's a great salesman, but I do not see him as an effective Xs and Os guy. His game management was pretty terrible at times.
Even if KE would have left anyway for a Big East program that has had a lot of recent success (and not for nothing, almost fills a 12K venue every game so that helps with recruiting...imagine Kim’s sales pitch when he brings a recruit to the mostly empty EBA!), the bottom line is our administration is not committed to the success of this program. We still don’t have an AD. Kim wasn’t offered the extension after our 20 win season and showing foundational progress.
We can get excited about a new coach, whoever it is, all day. But until some foundational things change, it’s going to continue to be a revolving door for coaches looking to raise their profile and move on.
Guys, I have never been more down on the program. Dr Washington is too busy making woke statements and banning discussions about the Iraq War instead of trying to win a conference championship. Who the hell is Nena Rogers? I heard she got mad that there wasn't enough transgender basketball players on the Mens team and cried to Dr Washington not to offer English an extension because of it.
As much as it hurts me that English is leaving, I think you dumped on him a bit. No he didn’t do any or much recruiting except bringing xfers here. But who’s to say what might have been? He was offered a job at a school that is miles above GMU. As a grad, I want the the team to do well. As I understand it, this place was a mess when Brad Edwards got here. If the school wants to be successful in the A10 there has to be a commitment I haven’t seen. IMHO the final four run was wasted. So many things could have been done to build on that success that wasn’t. I’ll always be a fan but it’s time for them to commit. Getting an AD would help. 6 months without one? Really?
They’re only all in on one thing - the diversity/equality mantra. They are not about attracting the best and the brightest. They are about checking boxes on a paint by color scheme. This is President Washington’s stated agenda. It is bro going down our University and preventing us from being competitive.
Topic of discussion: who was the worse hire: Westhead, Paulsen or "Benedict" English ?
Hewitt
100% Hewitt
Hewitt ruined the program.
Well that goes without saying. But, that's not the question. Westhead tried to install "his system" without any hope of attracting the talent to make it succeed. (There was no Bo Kimble or Hank Gathers out there that were going to come to Mason in make "The System" work n the Pre-Final Four Days) What I'm getting at is that Kim English, was like exactly Westhead, trying to fix personnel problems by attracting transfers. Mason was caught in the the exact same trap that ensnared them in when hiring Rick Barnes some thirty years before,. Hiring a rising a coach who is seen as a rising superstar prodigy. Barnes left Mason after one year to go to a Middling-Level major conference program: Providence College. English did the exact same thing. Could Tony Skinn be "the fix" this problem?
Dave Paulsen is holding "Schadenfreude party".
Hey', just woke up from a Coma. Whatever happened to the that Wet-head guy?
Looks like the entire starting 5 have entered the transfer portal. What a mess!
Brad Edwards, our AD, fired coach Paulsen with a stacked team that included Oduro, Kolek, Miller and incoming Polite. He gambled on hot new commodity, Kim English, and that he would be able to keep them together and win. He was wrong! Kolek left and became the big East player of the year. Jordan Miller left and became second team all ACC. We were left with an inspirational speaker that lacked coaching experience. I hope Providence is happy with a team that turns the ball over 14 times a game and shoots 65% from the free throw lane.
Our university leadership has found countless ways to set back our basketball program. For example, we have been to the NCAA tournament twice since our 2006 final four run with 4 different coaches. VCU has been back 9 times since their 2011 final four run with 3 different coaches. I would imagine most of our good players will enter the transfer portal. Back to the drawing board and rebuilding our program. Go Mason.
VCU hired three different coaches all from within same VCU coaching tree. ....that's the difference. Mason has started-over with three very different coaches. And I can't figure-out why Providence is taking such a risk by handing-over their entire program to such an unproven commodity as Kim English. He could fail spectacularly.
I agree with you on many fronts. Would say that the Paulson team was “stacked” as we look back on it. None of those players were elite recruits. But they’ve certainly become elite level college players. You could certainly put Otis in that category, too. Better college player than expected.
Should we have been more patient with DP? Maybe. At the end of the day, this is an issue around our long term plan. What is the administration trying to accomplish with this team and how do we create some stability to deliver it? I don’t see the plan. And I’m a 1993 alum and season ticket holder ever since. Although not sure about next year.
We have a huge undergraduate population. What shows up to games is embarrassing. Which makes it tough for any coach to recruit.
We've got to face the fact that Mason will never be a traditional school. Basically, it and will always be a "commuter school" despite having the largest on campus population of any institution in the Commonwealth. . In addition, the school is situated within "the most highly affluent and educated region in the world". Having lived in a less populated and cosmopolitan area for my graduate education at another ivy-covered institution (Its not important which one or what I was studying there), I have seen how other institutions deal with their athletic programs when they are the only game in town. I know what role they play in their culture. when they are the most dominant institution in their culture. I can tell you that neither No.Va nor the D.C. area will never stop because how George Mason, or Georgetown, or American or George Washington, or even The University of Maryland (Whose attendance at their 50,000ish seat stadium in the lowest in the Big Ten) sports team performs on the field. (Georgetown was lucky to have access to the Verizon/MCI Center-Capital One Arena for their home. But their home crowds have been over half D.C. residents largely interested in John Thompson's largely games because they involved local "urban talent" in the "largely white and Catholic Georgetown). The attention of a D.C sports fan is naturally focused more on D.C. other professional sports and the myriad of other cultural events to pay any attention to college sports. Even U.Md does not always sell-out all of their home basketball games, playing in the vaunted Big Ten. So it should not be embarrassing that Mason does not sell-out either.
I didn’t suggest it’s embarrassing that we don’t sell out. For EBA, that may be a bridge too far. Although interestingly, we used to sell out the venue on occasion for big games...pre Final 4. Now we never do. And that’s with sections tarped off.
It’s embarrassing how many people actually do show up. Mason may still be perceived as a commuter school but as you suggest, that’s a perception. When you have “the largest on campus population of any institution in the Commonwealth”, the students are literally there. Not commuting. So to get a few hundred students to a game on campus is, in fact, embarrassing. And given the number of alums who remain in the DC area for work, you have a built in population that theoretically should support the team (agree with you that in a major metropolitan area, you are competing with a lot of things for people’s time and $). But still. Our attendance and atmosphere is generally awful (except the green machine, which remains amazing). Which you can appreciate impacts how a coach can recruit, how players feel about the experience, etc. And related, their desire to stay at Mason.
Out of left field candidate, but any chance we go after Kevin Ollie? Could give him a chance to get back in the NCAA and with success could spring board him back to a bigger program.
Former UConn player and coach. Like it. Never hear him mentioned for any jobs. Is he trying to get back into the D1 mix? Feels like we are Tony Skinn or bust bound.
I agree.
Kim is obviously learning on the job as a HC so I think his Xs and Os will improve with experience. He’s a basketball junkie, played at the highest levels so he clearly gets the nuances of game situations and he’s super smart so I think that will come. Providence is gambling on that. But he’ll bring a spark to Providence quickly, which they need after Cooley left for Georgetown.
Was Fernandez a Paulson recruit?
No. KE brought him here. When Fernandez was interviewed on the KE Coaches Show about a month ago, he talked a lot about Kim’s influence on his decision. I think he’s one of several that are headed North. Just an educated guess. The ability to bring one more year of Josh, Ticket and 3 years of Fernandez to Providence was probably part of the appeal to that school. We’ll see how that plays out.
Nice write up - I agree with your assessment of English's short stint with us. He's a great salesman, but I do not see him as an effective Xs and Os guy. His game management was pretty terrible at times.
What impact will this have on current players leaving through the transfer portal?