The Paul Hewitt Thread

[gmutom]

My point is the roster Hewitt was given was full of them the day he accepted the job.

What difference does it matter what roster he was given when he took the job when we are no longer in the CAA? Of the current Coach L recruits who are left, I'd say only Wright and Allen have the talent to compete in the A10. I'm still holding out hope that Gray joins that list, but J2 and Edwards are sadly in over their heads.

To be fair, Hewitt has also missed on some guys. Okolji is a bust, and Copes is trending that way. The key is finding a roster full of guys who are capable of competing nightly against teams like UMass, vcu, St. Louis and Dayton.

 

[GMUgemini]

You know it's funny Tom, because Umass's best player is a Hofstra recruit and vcu is full of CAA players as well. I wonder why they can compete in the A-10?

Also aren't we 5-2 against the A10 over the last few years?

 

[gmutom]

You know it's funny Tom, because Umass's best player is a Hofstra recruit and vcu is full of CAA players as well. I wonder why they can compete in the A-10?

Gemini, I shouldn't have to explain this to you, but some kids get under-recruited and have the talent to play in any conference. Chazz Williams of UMass is obviously one of those players. Luke Hancock is another great example. Same with several of vcu's recruits and some of our former players like the ones Hugh mentioned as well as Pearson, Long and Morrison.

I'm not sure how to help you if you think our current roster is loaded with talent that's ready to consistently compete against the best teams in the A10. Jim even conceded that point after months of overrating our players. Instead of narrowing this down to conferences, let's look it at from a perspective of what players we have who can play consistently well night in and night out regardless of the competition.

I'll start the list with Wright, Allen and Marko, and even those three have proven to be wildly inconsistent. I think Jenkins, Holloway, Gray and Moore have the potential to get there, but they are obviously not there yet.

I know a lot of our fans are justifiably antsy, but I'm actually excited about guys like Royal, Lockett, Mayimba and Porter coming on board. And with one more spot open next year and four more after that, I think we will get back to the winning brand of basketball we've come to enjoy and expect.

 

[GMUgemini]

Might I also remind you that current performance on the court doesn't necessarily equate to a person's talent?

I mean, I'm not sure how a four star top 5 rated center in the country known for his rebounding and shot blocking ability all of a sudden forgets how to rebound and block shots. I'm also not sure how the all-Met player of the year and leader of a loaded high school team, which beat vaunted DeMatha three times in one season all of a sudden can't do anything on the court. You tell me, Tom. Is it their lack of "talent," their inability to "compete in the A-10?" They're just "trying their best and don't have the stuff to compete at this level?"

So somehow Coach Larranaga and Hewitt just whiffed on about 7 players? Not buying that at all.

So I'm not sure why you are really excited about Lockett, Mayimba and Porter because Holloway, Gray, Copes and Johnny Williams all came in here with a lot of promise and Hewitt has been able to do nothing with any of them.

 

[Quentin Daniels]

So somehow Coach Larranaga and Hewitt just whiffed on about 7 players? Not buying that at all.

and just happened to whiff on them just before he left

The other 14 seasons? Well those were OK - just a really strange coincidence that everyone signed was lousy after he left.

 

[gmujim92]

Guys, I think we're all kind of arguing past each other at this point because it's not an either-or proposition.

IMHO, the coach has not done a good job with this team at all. It's his job to take these guys and come up with a system that maximizes their abilities and blends them together into a winning team. I've obviously been as critical of Hewitt as anybody on this board and I'm not apologizing for it.

But at some point, we all have to concede that most of our players just aren't getting the job done. We have bigs (J2, Copes) who don't play big, shooters (Holloway, Gray) who aren't shooting the ball particularly well, all but a couple guys are turnstiles on D and our seniors aren't leading effectively.

We've all discussed the various strategic adjustments we'd like to see Hewitt make once the team gets to Hawaii, but honestly I don't see us improving much in a very tough A-10 until we get more mentally and physically tough players in our program.

I went down the roster and graded each player on whether he'd be good enough to be a rotation player for one of the top 5 A-10 teams (UMass, vcu, SLU, GW, Dayton) this season:

SENIORS
Sherrod -- yep
BA -- yep
J2 -- nope, too soft

JUNIORS (aka, The Lost Class)
Copes -- he should be, but nope
Edwards -- nope
Gray -- when he feels like it
Okoloji -- nope
(Royal -- hope so)

SOPHOMORES
Marko -- yep
Holloway -- yep *(if Hewitt would turn him loose and just let him play)

FRESHMEN
Jenkins -- yep
Moore -- too early to tell

That's 5 players who can hang physically with the top of the A-10 in my humble opinion, and that's being generous because Holloway hasn't really shown it and Jenkins is still just a freshman.

It was a big-time reality check for me because I've always been of the mind that we had more talent than the results would indicate.

While I'm still fairly confident that our coach does indeed suck, I won't know for sure until the talent on our roster looks a lot less like a mid-pack CAA team.

 

[GSII]

Atleast with the Old Cuban you knew or had a good idea why the team was going to have an off year. When OCM had bad luck, it was when Tarver and Bonner fell thru. Or when Mickens left. QRandall. Deon Cooper was a bust. And recently Foster. These unlucky situations led to roster difficulties that in turn resulted in some down years that could of otherwise been a lot more successful. With Hewitt, its a lot harder to understand why we were below avg in CAA.

 

[gmutom]

I mean, I'm not sure how a four star top 5 rated center in the country known for his rebounding and shot blocking ability all of a sudden forgets how to rebound and block shots.

I've heard many good arguments about Hewitt's coaching flaws, but this could be the most ludicrous yet. Not even sure it's possible to pose a counter argument to somebody claiming a coach is even capable of making a player a worse rebounder or shot blocker. If we played only zone, maybe; but with all the man we play, Copes should be a shot-blocking, rebound grabbing machine. He's neither right now, and the only person who can change that is Copes himself.

Other than that, Jim concisely said everything I was going to say. It should go without saying that Hewitt is not doing everything he can do to get more out of these players collectively as a team, but I'll say it again just so you have that crutch to fall back on. He needs to do a better job.

But until you, Hugh and GS start realizing the talent's not as great as you so desperately want it to be, you'll continue to delude yourself into thinking our coach is the ONLY problem.

 

[GMUgemini]

I've heard many good arguments about Hewitt's coaching flaws, but this could be the most ludicrous yet. Not even sure it's possible to pose a counter argument to somebody claiming a coach is even capable of making a player a worse rebounder or shot blocker. If we played only zone, maybe; but with all the man we play, Copes should be a shot-blocking, rebound grabbing machine. He's neither right now, and the only person who can change that is Copes himself.

Other than that, Jim concisely said everything I was going to say. It should go without saying that Hewitt is not doing everything he can do to get more out of these players collectively as a team, but I'll say it again just so you have that crutch to fall back on. He needs to do a better job.

But until you, Hugh and GS start realizing the talent's not as great as you so desperately want it to be, you'll continue to delude yourself into thinking our coach is the ONLY problem.

Talent or desire? Because those are two very different things, Tom. Because what I see a lot out there are a bunch of guys really not trying very hard.

I'm curious, do you think Copes or Chris Fleming had more talent? Because if we're talking about quality minutes at this point, I'd give the nod to Chris Fleming who had more offensive game than Copes and seems to be a more physical and aggressive defender and a better rebounder.

I'd be curious to see if Coach Lonergan would have had the same assessment as you on him as well. Would he be unworthy of putting on the GW jersey?

 

[TweederGMU]

Atleast with the Old Cuban you knew or had a good idea why the team was going to have an off year. When OCM had bad luck, it was when Tarver and Bonner fell thru. Or when Mickens left. QRandall. Deon Cooper was a bust. And recently Foster. These unlucky situations led to roster difficulties that in turn resulted in some down years that could of otherwise been a lot more successful. With Hewitt, its a lot harder to understand why we were below avg in CAA.

I'll throw T Wurtz and Vlad in there as well. Can't remember if Rob Sullivan transferred too.

 

[Quentin Daniels]

The talent argument might carry more weight if we were losing to decent teams and not Princeton South Florida, FIU, FAU, and Towson the worst team in all of D1 the year before.

So the old excuse was too much talent at Ga Tech and now it's not enough talent. Who knew we'd hired f'n Goldilocks to run the program.

 

[GMUgemini]

I'll take this from another angle, Tom. You said earlier you thought this was an NIT team. Do you think this team is still going to make the NIT field? Are they overachieving or underachieving based on your assessment of the talent we have?

 

[MasonFanatic]

What if one of the reasons the OCM left is because he knew his roster was in trouble?

 

[Walter]

What if one of the reasons the OCM left is because he knew his roster was in trouble?

Exactly the opposite. He had an excellent hand. He had just won a game in the tournament and all players were returning. So he chose to play his hand for a raise. TOC thought he was bluffing. He wasn't. We lost.

 

[gmujim92]

I'll take this from another angle, Tom. You said earlier you thought this was an NIT team. Do you think this team is still going to make the NIT field? Are they overachieving or underachieving based on your assessment of the talent we have?

Not Tom, but I'll handle these softballs.

No way we're an NIT team. No chance in hell, unless the NIT field is expanded to 150 teams.

I'd say we're underachieving based on the schedule we've played so far. From a talent perspective, we should've beaten Princeton (who isn't awful, BTW) and probably have just as much or more talent as USF (who is really just OK for a former Big East team). That would have us at 7-2 and I think this board would be a happier place.

But underachieving doesn't just fall on the coach. You even noted in a previous post that you see a bunch of guys not trying very hard. While we all know our coach is a lousy motivator, I'm not sure how that excuses the players from getting themselves prepared to give 100 percent effort.

Again, it's a combination. We have a team that is not being coached well, but also is not quite as talented or motivated as we thought it was.

 

[Walter]

Games at this level aren't won by a good motivational pre-game or whenever speech. At this level, these guys are motivated to win. It comes down to basketball fundamentals. And fundamentally sound basketball is taught in practice by a fundamentally sound coaching team. Then a fundamentally sound team is put in the place to win by the coaching staff doing its job by giving them the correct game plan and correct substitutions and adjustments. So, I don't buy all the talk about lack of motivation. Look elsewhere for the issues.

 

[Dawgs99]

Might I also remind you that current performance on the court doesn't necessarily equate to a person's talent?

I mean, I'm not sure how a four star top 5 rated center in the country known for his rebounding and shot blocking ability all of a sudden forgets how to rebound and block shots. I'm also not sure how the all-Met player of the year and leader of a loaded high school team, which beat vaunted DeMatha three times in one season all of a sudden can't do anything on the court. You tell me, Tom. Is it their lack of "talent," their inability to "compete in the A-10?" They're just "trying their best and don't have the stuff to compete at this level?"

So somehow Coach Larranaga and Hewitt just whiffed on about 7 players? Not buying that at all.

So I'm not sure why you are really excited about Lockett, Mayimba and Porter because Holloway, Gray, Copes and Johnny Williams all came in here with a lot of promise and Hewitt has been able to do nothing with any of them.

The fact that you are using Copes as an example of a talented kid gone bad at the hands of our coaching staff is laughable. You think if he had gone to GW under Hobbs and to be coach by his uncle he would be a much better player? If his uncle can't get him up to speed here why would if be different any place else? While he's had injury issues its plain to see that the kid just isnt very talented. Not hard to be over rated when you're a 6-8 shot blocking man amongst boys in HS when 90% of the kids you're blocking aren't going to play at the next level. I guess you've never heard the saying, " looks like Tarzan plays like Jane".

 

[gmujim92]

Games at this level aren't won by a good motivational pre-game or whenever speech. At this level, these guys are motivated to win. It comes down to basketball fundamentals. And fundamentally sound basketball is taught in practice by a fundamentally sound coaching team. Then a fundamentally sound team is put in the place to win by the coaching staff doing its job by giving them the correct game plan and correct substitutions and adjustments. So, I don't buy all the talk about lack of motivation. Look elsewhere for the issues.

If you've been following our season at all, you must know our problems go far deeper than lack of "fundamentals" -- which to me is a thinly-veiled attempt to blame it all on the fact that our coach sucks.

Hopefully Hewitt is using the 2-week break to find a style of play that will work with this roster because what we're doing now isn't working at all.

But I also hope our players will come back and play much harder than they have. Regardless of the coach, it's up to them to sack up and stop playing like a bunch of pussies.

 

[gmujim92]

The fact that you are using Copes as an example of a talented kid gone bad at the hands of our coaching staff is laughable. You think if he had gone to GW under Hobbs and to be coach by his uncle he would be a much better player? If his uncle can't get him up to speed here why would if be different any place else? While he's had injury issues its plain to see that the kid just isnt very talented. Not hard to be over rated when you're a 6-8 shot blocking man amongst boys in HS when 90% of the kids you're blocking aren't going to play at the next level. I guess you've never heard the saying, " looks like Tarzan plays like Jane".

Thank you! I'm sorry, but anyone who didn't think Copes was WAY overrated from the moment he stepped on campus just wasn't paying attention.

At some point, Copes needs to take responsibility for his own lack of development. I highly doubt the staff is telling him he doesn't need to work harder to improve his weaknesses. If he won't do it, that's on him.

 

[GMUgemini]

The fact that you are using Copes as an example of a talented kid gone bad at the hands of our coaching staff is laughable. You think if he had gone to GW under Hobbs and to be coach by his uncle he would be a much better player? If his uncle can't get him up to speed here why would if be different any place else? While he's had injury issues its plain to see that the kid just isnt very talented. Not hard to be over rated when you're a 6-8 shot blocking man amongst boys in HS when 90% of the kids you're blocking aren't going to play at the next level. I guess you've never heard the saying, " looks like Tarzan plays like Jane".

What about the other three? None of them have any talent either?

So if Copes, Gray, Williams and Holloway are all busted no talent hacks right now, who were all fairly highly regarded coming in, what makes anyone think we got it right with our incoming freshman class? I'm pretty sure they all have limitations in their games otherwise they wouldn't be coming here. None of them are going to be putting up double or triple doubles for us.

Anyone have confidence this staff will be able to hide their weaknesses or devise a scheme that fill fit their strengths or work to improve those weaknesses?

Those of you touting the vastly superior talent we had at Mason in the past aren't looking carefully enough at our old players.