2021 Coaching Carousel

bravesfan

Starter
GIVING DAY 2023
Am I the only one nervous about the Kim English hire.

It very well could be a home run. But only five years of experience as an assistant makes me nervous.

Maybe in 2011 when Mason should have hired a Caputo or anyone not named Paul.

But now? There's so much apathy around the program that I'm perfectly fine with it. I don't see him turning Mason back into a dumpster fire.
 

mkaufman1

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Staff member
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GIVING DAY 2023
Am I the only one nervous about the Kim English hire.

It very well could be a home run. But only five years of experience as an assistant makes me nervous.

I’m nervous about any hire to be honest.

However - I have to think that the idea behind English is to get the next big thing, have him recruit and coach his tail off at Mason and make the dance before he goes to a power 5 job.

not trying to get anyone overly excited but he recruited a 5 star pg and a 4 star sf to UT. If he even got us a 3 star we’d do backflips.

quite frankly, this is a perfect time to try something like that. The program is stuck in the mud, not the basement.

If it doesn’t work, onto the next guy.
 

FreeGunston12

All-American
I’m nervous about any hire to be honest.

However - I have to think that the idea behind English is to get the next big thing, have him recruit and coach his tail off at Mason and make the dance before he goes to a power 5 job.

not trying to get anyone overly excited but he recruited a 5 star pg and a 4 star sf to UT. If he even got us a 3 star we’d do backflips.

quite frankly, this is a perfect time to try something like that. The program is stuck in the mud, not the basement.

If it doesn’t work, onto the next guy.
For sure. What did this chance cost us fans? A 7thish place finish next year. I'm willing to give that up for the possible upside.
 

mkaufman1

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GIVING DAY 2023
For sure. What did this chance cost us fans? A 7thish place finish next year. I'm willing to give that up for the possible upside.

exactly. Sure they could be worse next year. But we all have to give the guy at least a few years to figure it out and see what’s what. It sorta strikes me as a “let’s try to find our Shaka” hire.
 

Patriotsince81

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We don't exactly have a great tree from the coaching standpoint with only 4 out of our 10 coaches having a winning percentage of .500 or better.

Rick Barnes (.667)
Jim Larranaga (.626)
Joe Harrington (.569)
Dave Paulsen (.511)

Paul Hewitt (.496)
John Linn (.469)
Ernie Nestor (.456)
Paul Westhead (.352)
Arnold Sigfried (.333)
Hap Suppler (.155)

I am nervous about whoever is hired but I'm also really excited. All I know is I'm tired of us sucking and being irrelevant. It's been a long and painful ten years.

IF English is hired I am confident that he will be able to recruit/relate to young kids in a way that DP never could. Will that bring us better talent? If he does get better talent will he know how to use it? Only time will tell. I am excited about the possibilities that a new coach brings. I hope my dreams aren't crushed yet again. I'll go into next year with modest expectations (6th - 10th place assuming we have most of our current guys back) and hope for better. If the roster has been completely overhauled then I may adjust expectations depending on who has come to Mason.

All I know that it will be nice to belly up to the bar before games and see the team in person next year. Yeah, I'm banking on this Covid BS being controlled by November and most of life has returned to "normal."
 

MasonSAE4

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Seems especially weird to be nervous about a hire that hasn’t even been announced.
Particularly at the collegiate (especially GMU) level, there’s no such thing as a slam dunk hire. Hewitt is as close as we'll ever come and look how that turned out.
 
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GMUgemini

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Bergeron gone after last year of his contract was bought out. That program is going down in flames.

I suspect UMass will be looking for a new head coach soon.
 

gmutom

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GIVING DAY 2023
Am I the only one nervous about the Kim English hire.

It very well could be a home run. But only five years of experience as an assistant makes me nervous.

Everybody is nervous, and you have every right to express your concerns. I would just suggest you resist reverting back to your old tendencies of trying to derail every conversation, especially since your posts the last few months have been very reasoned. I'm not suggesting we all pretend like any potential hire is going to turn us around over night, but I will say that this is the most optimism these boards have seen in a very long time.
 

GMUgemini

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Everybody is nervous, and you have every right to express your concerns. I would just suggest you resist reverting back to your old tendencies of trying to derail every conversation, especially since your posts the last few months have been very reasoned. I'm not suggesting we all pretend like any potential hire is going to turn us around over night, but I will say that this is the most optimism these boards have seen in a very long time.

Our job right now is to support the program and make sure we do what we can to give whoever the next coach is going to be has the resources to compete for the kinds of recruits they need to compete against the top of the A10.

Hopefully the admin makes some changes to get the alumni more involved (both basketball and non-basketball), reimagines the game day atmosphere, and gives us a reason to want to support the program.
 

mkaufman1

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GIVING DAY 2023
Nervous, worried, excited. I think we can all agree with that. We are all tired of losing and just want the next guy to get us where we want to be.

dancing in the ncaa tournament and debating our opponent, not how do we get there, this recruit sucks etc.
 
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tblack33

tblack33

Hall of Famer
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GIVING DAY 2023
Regardless of who the next coach is, next year is his free year for me. We can be in the PIG, I don’t really care. What I want to see is recruiting (including transfers) and an idea of what our offensive and defensive identity will be. Year two is when we start to build to it, and year three and four should be where we see it execute and succeed, or not.
 

Patriotsince81

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Regardless of who the next coach is, next year is his free year for me. We can be in the PIG, I don’t really care. What I want to see is recruiting (including transfers) and an idea of what our offensive and defensive identity will be. Year two is when we start to build to it, and year three and four should be where we see it execute and succeed, or not.
I'll go crazy if I see an inbounds play that isn't a lob over the top!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

JPgmuswim

Starter
Everybody is nervous, and you have every right to express your concerns. I would just suggest you resist reverting back to your old tendencies of trying to derail every conversation, especially since your posts the last few months have been very reasoned. I'm not suggesting we all pretend like any potential hire is going to turn us around over night, but I will say that this is the most optimism these boards have seen in a very long time.

100% I had you blocked last year for a while D3. Not gonna lie.

The lack of head coaching experience is a concern. Some of the coaches that people have suggested just aren’t a reality for a school like Mason. Yes they would be a safer gamble.
I appreciate that we aren’t playing for average. This hire seems more of a Shaka/Wade hire than a guy named “Paul” hire. We are getting a young, up incoming coach, that can say he knows what it takes to make it to the NBA and can relate to the players. He has local ties and seems from the outside like a guy who is going to grind.

He checks more of the boxes that I wanted than not. Let’s all hope he’s so successful that we are disappointed a P5 is stealing him away than wondering how many more years we are stuck with him before we can fire him like the last two times.
 

Falco

Hall of Famer
GIVING DAY 2023
I’m nervous about any hire to be honest.

However - I have to think that the idea behind English is to get the next big thing, have him recruit and coach his tail off at Mason and make the dance before he goes to a power 5 job.

not trying to get anyone overly excited but he recruited a 5 star pg and a 4 star sf to UT. If he even got us a 3 star we’d do backflips.

quite frankly, this is a perfect time to try something like that. The program is stuck in the mud, not the basement.

If it doesn’t work, onto the next guy.
But the HC has a lot more responsibility than just recruiting
 

Falco

Hall of Famer
GIVING DAY 2023
Worrying about the next coach before he’s even hired is loser mentality. I just don’t understand it.
I think selling yourself short is a looser mentality. Mason can pony up and get a proven coach. When there is a will there is a way.
 
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