ESPN 30 for 30 - The Guru of Go - Paul Westhead

jessej

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GIVING DAY 2023

I just got done watching it, for the first time in probably 10 years, and the film is about 12 years old.
Film is nominally about Paul Westhead, and his fast break coaching philosophy. But the most riveting and saddest part of the documentary is about the rise of Loyola Marymount and the death of Hank Gathers.
It covers Westhead's post LMU coaching positions with about 15 seconds talking about his time as the coach of GMU.

For those of you who were here then, I would love to hear your comments/history.
 
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FlPatriot

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GIVING DAY 2023
I was in the stands for all of Paul Ball as it was called. He never had the horses to play that style at Mason. Funniest part was when Larranaga was hired I wondered if I could stand a defense first team. I learned to appreciate good defense and always liked to see us shutdown opponents…fun times.
 

gmutom

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GIVING DAY 2023
I was in the stands for all of Paul Ball as it was called. He never had the horses to play that style at Mason. Funniest part was when Larranaga was hired I wondered if I could stand a defense first team. I learned to appreciate good defense and always liked to see us shutdown opponents…fun times.
Westhead's greatest achievement at Mason was finding and convincing George Evans to play basketball at Mason before he ended up getting fired. What some people don't remember was how much that impacted Coach L's legacy, because it sure changes everything when arrive in Fairfax and your welcome gift is a future 3x CAA POY handed to you on a platter.
 

gmujim92

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GIVING DAY 2023

I just got done watching it, for the first time in probably 10 years, and the film is about 12 years old.
Film is nominally about Paul Westhead, and his fast break coaching philosophy. But the most riveting and saddest part of the documentary is about the rise of Loyola Marymount and the death of Hank Gathers.
It covers Westhead's post LMU coaching positions with about 15 seconds talking about his time as the coach of GMU.

For those of you who were here then, I would love to hear your comments/history.
Honestly 15 seconds is about all his tenure at Mason was worth
 

gmujim92

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GIVING DAY 2023
Westhead's greatest achievement at Mason was finding and convincing George Evans to play basketball at Mason before he ended up getting fired. What some people don't remember was how much that impacted Coach L's legacy, because it sure changes everything when arrive in Fairfax and your welcome gift is a future 3x CAA POY handed to you on a platter.
Then L handed off a fringe top-25 team (until Luke transferred) to Hewitt and we all know what he did with it
 

Patriotsince81

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“I wanted to do this book to chronicle for the basketball world that you can play a very fast game,” Westhead said. “You can run and shoot in five seconds. And you can defend in a way that the opposition shoots in five seconds. Now you have created a style playing basketball that no one does.”

Paul Ball was marked by a 38-70 record, numerous player arrests & fights, and a pot filled culture. Frankly, the behavior of the players became an embarrassment to the university. On the flip side if we had guys with the heart and intensity of a Nate Langley KE wouldn't be complaining about wanting "tough" guys.

No defense was played or even encouraged. Opposing coaches figured it out and killed us. It was fun for about a year because it was a novelty but the uniqueness of it faded with loss after loss. It wasn't uncommon to see guys launching threes after just a few seconds.
 
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Patriotsince81

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From the Washington Post. Gene Wang 12/11/94.

"So this is what George Mason Coach Paul Westhead had in mind when he designed The System?

The Patriots ran -- literally -- Westhead's offense to its frenetic best in a record-setting 148-132 victory over Troy State, a team that plays with almost identical abandon as George Mason.

Before 3,481 at Patriot Center, the Patriots (4-1) established single-game school marks for points in a game, points in a half (76 in the first), combined points by both teams and three-pointers made (16) as they continued their best start in 11 seasons.

Troy State made 47-of-123 field goal attempts, including 28-of-74 three-point tries, and had 27 assists. All were records for George Mason opponents. The teams combined for 226 field goal attempts and 108 three-point attempts.

For those wondering if Troy State broke any of its school records, the answer is: It didn't even come close. This is the team that two seasons ago against DeVry scored 258 points, attempted 190 field goals, made 102 of them, attempted 109 three-pointers and made 51 of those.

George Mason guard Donald Ross reached a personal milestone, becoming the 18th player in school history to score at least 1,000 points in his career. Appropriately, he reached the 1,000-point mark by sinking a three-pointer.

"It was in the flavor" of The System, Westhead said. "When my deal is really going, we're scoring, stealing and pressing again. ... I think we could score around the 170 range. I'd like to be involved in a 200-point game someday.""


I was at that game. It was like watching a tennis match in regard to trying to follow the ball.
 

gmujim92

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GIVING DAY 2023
From the Washington Post. Gene Wang 12/11/94.

"So this is what George Mason Coach Paul Westhead had in mind when he designed The System?

The Patriots ran -- literally -- Westhead's offense to its frenetic best in a record-setting 148-132 victory over Troy State, a team that plays with almost identical abandon as George Mason.

Before 3,481 at Patriot Center, the Patriots (4-1) established single-game school marks for points in a game, points in a half (76 in the first), combined points by both teams and three-pointers made (16) as they continued their best start in 11 seasons.

Troy State made 47-of-123 field goal attempts, including 28-of-74 three-point tries, and had 27 assists. All were records for George Mason opponents. The teams combined for 226 field goal attempts and 108 three-point attempts.

For those wondering if Troy State broke any of its school records, the answer is: It didn't even come close. This is the team that two seasons ago against DeVry scored 258 points, attempted 190 field goals, made 102 of them, attempted 109 three-pointers and made 51 of those.

George Mason guard Donald Ross reached a personal milestone, becoming the 18th player in school history to score at least 1,000 points in his career. Appropriately, he reached the 1,000-point mark by sinking a three-pointer.

"It was in the flavor" of The System, Westhead said. "When my deal is really going, we're scoring, stealing and pressing again. ... I think we could score around the 170 range. I'd like to be involved in a 200-point game someday.""


I was at that game. It was like watching a tennis match in regard to trying to follow the ball.
God bless the poor souls who served on the stats crew during Paul Ball lol
 

mason89

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Westhead did give one of our best home wins against a Chauncey Billups-led Colorado team. Of course, almost nobody was there to see it because of a snow storm.

BTW, how long has Gene Wang been at the WaPo?! He wrote the above article and still reports on UVa b-ball games.
 

Jack Strop

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I entertained an out of town business colleague from an Indian reservation out west. My colleague told me that he met coach Westhead at a basketball camp on his reservation. After the game, which we lost, my colleague asked a security staffer if he could speak to Westhead for a moment. Westhead came back on the floor from the locker room to greet us.

My colleague opined, "Your team plays really fast, but they don't take good shots."

Coach Westhead sneared, "Yeah... they don't."
 

Five Two

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From the Washington Post. Gene Wang 12/11/94.

"So this is what George Mason Coach Paul Westhead had in mind when he designed The System?

The Patriots ran -- literally -- Westhead's offense to its frenetic best in a record-setting 148-132 victory over Troy State, a team that plays with almost identical abandon as George Mason.

Before 3,481 at Patriot Center, the Patriots (4-1) established single-game school marks for points in a game, points in a half (76 in the first), combined points by both teams and three-pointers made (16) as they continued their best start in 11 seasons.

Troy State made 47-of-123 field goal attempts, including 28-of-74 three-point tries, and had 27 assists. All were records for George Mason opponents. The teams combined for 226 field goal attempts and 108 three-point attempts.

For those wondering if Troy State broke any of its school records, the answer is: It didn't even come close. This is the team that two seasons ago against DeVry scored 258 points, attempted 190 field goals, made 102 of them, attempted 109 three-pointers and made 51 of those.

George Mason guard Donald Ross reached a personal milestone, becoming the 18th player in school history to score at least 1,000 points in his career. Appropriately, he reached the 1,000-point mark by sinking a three-pointer.

"It was in the flavor" of The System, Westhead said. "When my deal is really going, we're scoring, stealing and pressing again. ... I think we could score around the 170 range. I'd like to be involved in a 200-point game someday.""


I was at that game. It was like watching a tennis match in regard to trying to follow the ball.
I too was at that game, I mean track meet.

I remember when Westhead was hired, the Washington Post had an article that GMU offered "potential" in that we had the three most important attributes to any program- "location, location, location" given the high quality high school hoops around. I couldn't find a link. But it got me thinking, that was 1993 and here we are 30 years later and our location hasn't changed.....

I saw Paul Westhead from Winning Time, actor Jason Segel, in Haleiwa on the north shore of Oahu over Christmas.
 

Jack Strop

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Ross shoot from anywhere…too funny. I remember a game where he took a three from just inside mid court… I yelled no…nothing but net.

That dude didn’t see a shot he didn’t like.
That was a CAA Tournament game, first round, as I recall. Don't remember who we played. Donald Ross was standing just past the half-court line, clapping his hands shouting, "Gimme the ball! Gimme the ball!" He got the ball and drained it from there. Too bad the game was already over with 10 minutes to go and 20 points down.
 

mason89

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That was a CAA Tournament game, first round, as I recall. Don't remember who we played. Donald Ross was standing just past the half-court line, clapping his hands shouting, "Gimme the ball! Gimme the ball!" He got the ball and drained it from there. Too bad the game was already over with 10 minutes to go and 20 points down.
He also did it a few times during a game at UCLA much to the delight of the home fans. Of course, we got blown out of the water, but at least we left an impression!
 
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