Game 22: GMU (12-9 / 4-4) vs St. Joe’s (9-11 / 3-5) on Sunday, January 29, at Noon.

[Patriotsince81]

We suck. This loss is on everyone. But, it starts with KE. Too many thoughts racing through my head. Last year KE said he wanted an 8 man by the time conference play rolled around yet he continues to just throw sh&t against the wall hoping it sticks. It reeks of desperation. Ronald is not the answer at point. KE, if your plan is for him to dribble for 19 to 20 seconds before passing and starting the offense then you get what you deserve. Anyone and everyone can guard a stationary dribbler. 5 straight possessions in the second half, when the game was on the line, Ronald dribbled for 15 - 20 seconds before passing. 3 of those he decided he was the stud and threw up a brick. Great turnover with the game on line on a simple inbounds play! Just throw it to the dark shirts.

We all know who the opponents best player is. I post in every thread about who we need to shut down in order to win. Do we do it? Hell no, that would make too much sense. Either we don't have the players who can do it or we don't have the plan how to do it. Either way, it's on KE.

KE your substitution pattern is a freaking mystery! At one point Saquan was subbed in for 7 seconds! I've never been so frustrated. If KE doesn't step up in the post game presser and say this loss is on him then he'll just be another "bs" used car salesman to me. If he blames the players then ....

After a year and a half you have yet to establish an identity on either end of the floor. Stop being the friend of the players and stop participating in practice. No one cares if you can still school college kids. You have said that you are what your record says you are. Well, you are 26-26 overall. You are 11-14 in the A10. You are 0-6 in Thanksgiving tourneys, and 0-1 in the A10 tourney. Not much to write home about.

We now find ourselves playing to stay out of the bottom 6 PIG instead of the top 4. SMH.

 

[Earl the Squirrel]

We suck. This loss is on everyone. But, it starts with KE. Too many thoughts racing through my head. Last year KE said he wanted an 8 man by the time conference play rolled around yet he continues to just throw sh&t against the wall hoping it sticks. It reeks of desperation. Ronald is not the answer at point. KE, if your plan is for him to dribble for 19 to 20 seconds before passing and starting the offense then you get what you deserve. Anyone and everyone can guard a stationary dribbler. 5 straight possessions in the second half, when the game was on the line, Ronald dribbled for 15 - 20 seconds before passing. 3 of those he decided he was the stud and threw up a brick. Great turnover with the game on line on a simple inbounds play! Just throw it to the dark shirts.

We all know who the opponents best player is. I post in every thread about who we need to shut down in order to win. Do we do it? Hell no, that would make too much sense. Either we don't have the players who can do it or we don't have the plan how can do it. Either way, it's on KE.

KE your substitution pattern is a freaking mystery! At one point Saquan was subbed in for 7 seconds! I've never been so frustrated. If KE doesn't step up in the post game presser and say this loss is on him then he'll just be another "bs" used car salesman to me. If he blames the players then ....

After a year and a half you have yet to establish an identity on either end of the floor. Stop being the friend of the players and stop participating in practice. No one cares if you can still school college kids. You have said that you are what your record says you are. Well, you are 26-26 overall. You are 11-14 in the A10. You are 0-6 in Thanksgiving tourneys, and 0-1 in the A10 tourney. Not much to write home about.

We now find ourselves playing to stay out of the bottom 6 PIG instead of the top 4. SMH.

I share your frustration. We're mediocre - both the team and the coaching staff.

I'd like to see KE step in front of a mirror and repeat outloud 10 times:

"I just lost to a team coached by Billy Lange."
"I justlost to a team coached by Billy Lange."
"I just lost to a team coached by Billy Lange."
"I just lost to a team coached by Billy Lange."
"I just lost to a team coached by Billy Lange."
"I just lost to a team coached by Billy Lange."
"I just lost to a team coached by Billy Lange."
"I just lost to a team coached by Billy Lange."
"I just lost to a team coached by Billy Lange."
"I just lost to a team coached by Billy Lange."

 

[Patriotsince81]

"If we're going to become the team we want to become, we're going to have to defend and we're going to have to be disciplined," head coach Kim English said. "In games where we don't defend, our discipline just has to go to the next level. That's executing plays offensively, not committing unwise fouls and executing to our principles consistently. We didn't do that and we didn't deserve to win. Saint Joe's deserves a ton of credit."

BS.

 

[JimP]

"If we're going to become the team we want to become, we're going to have to defend and we're going to have to be disciplined," head coach Kim English said. "In games where we don't defend, our discipline just has to go to the next level. That's executing plays offensively, not committing unwise fouls and executing to our principles consistently. We didn't do that and we didn't deserve to win. Saint Joe's deserves a ton of credit."

BS.

How 'bout defending?

 

[mkaufman1]

coach gets 3 years that’s it.

He’s getting at least 4 with mason. I get if you want to tune out for year 4 if nothing improves next year.

i know I sound nuts, but we have to be patient. How patient? TBD.

 

[nchocola]

I’ll be honest with you there are a lot of people jumping to extremes here. Ready to throw KE to the wolves after one recruiting class and 1-1/2 seasons of being a head coach.

We hired English to have better recruiting. He has recruited well. There is a bright future ahead with Dinkins Fernandez and Nnaji. The incoming class looks promising as well. He’s going to continue to develop as a coach and mentor. He is learning to be an head coach and will get better.

If you were expecting this team to win or be at the top of the A10 in two years you were expecting a miracle.

At the end of the day the guard play for Mason is lacking. He got who he could from the portal but in all honesty, they just aren’t good enough. You aren’t going to find your savior in the portal being GMU in the A10. You are either getting P5 end of the bench players or good players from smaller conferences that aren’t used to playing in the high mid-majors.

Defensively we can’t stop anyone at the guard position. At the end of the game our guards haven’t made the clutch shots. Today we had three wide open looks from 3 towards the end and missed them all. GMU likely wins if they drain 1-2 of those.

I’m pissed about the losing but I’m not writing KE off just yet. I’m looking at year 4/5 to judge him. That’s when it’s his roster and experience won’t be an excuse.

Patience is a hard word to hear.

 

[mkaufman1]

I’ll be honest with you there are a lot of people jumping to extremes here. Ready to throw KE to the wolves after one recruiting class and 1-1/2 seasons of being a head coach.

We hired English to have better recruiting. He has recruited well. There is a bright future ahead with Dinkins Fernandez and Nnaji. The incoming class looks promising as well. He’s going to continue to develop as a coach and mentor. He is learning to be an head coach and will get better.

If you were expecting this team to win or be at the top of the A10 in two years you were expecting a miracle.

At the end of the day the guard play for Mason is lacking. He got who he could from the portal but in all honesty, they just aren’t good enough. You aren’t going to find your savior in the portal being GMU in the A10. You are either getting P5 end of the bench players or good players from smaller conferences that aren’t used to playing in the high mid-majors.

Defensively we can’t stop anyone at the guard position. At the end of the game our guards haven’t made the clutch shots. Today we had three wide open looks from 3 towards the end and missed them all. GMU likely wins if they drain 1-2 of those.

I’m pissed about the losing but I’m not writing KE off just yet. I’m looking at year 4/5 to judge him. That’s when it’s his roster and experience won’t be an excuse.

Patience is a hard word to hear.

Good post and I can tell this is going to be the next topic we go around and around about.

I agree with your premise and I’m preaching patience as well. It’s hard. It was a high risk high reward hire.

However I saw this as a build on Paulsen base and recruit on top and make a run type of move. It hasn’t worked out like that at all. I expected an ncaa team in 3-4 years under an English at minimum, and had very high hopes for this year.

I don’t know what to think. Next year looks like a rebuild but I’ve yet to see any progress other than the rankings for guys we recruit. It’s always harder after a loss, but we just look worse.

 

[JimP]

I’ll be honest with you there are a lot of people jumping to extremes here. Ready to throw KE to the wolves after one recruiting class and 1-1/2 seasons of being a head coach.

We hired English to have better recruiting. He has recruited well. There is a bright future ahead with Dinkins Fernandez and Nnaji. The incoming class looks promising as well. He’s going to continue to develop as a coach and mentor. He is learning to be an head coach and will get better.

If you were expecting this team to win or be at the top of the A10 in two years you were expecting a miracle.

At the end of the day the guard play for Mason is lacking. He got who he could from the portal but in all honesty, they just aren’t good enough. You aren’t going to find your savior in the portal being GMU in the A10. You are either getting P5 end of the bench players or good players from smaller conferences that aren’t used to playing in the high mid-majors.

Defensively we can’t stop anyone at the guard position. At the end of the game our guards haven’t made the clutch shots. Today we had three wide open looks from 3 towards the end and missed them all. GMU likely wins if they drain 1-2 of those.

I’m pissed about the losing but I’m not writing KE off just yet. I’m looking at year 4/5 to judge him. That’s when it’s his roster and experience won’t be an excuse.

Patience is a hard word to hear.

While I agree with most of this post, it's not hoping for a miracle to expect this team to compete for top 4 in the A-10 this year. Caputo has GW competing for the top 4 in his first year, and they just beat St. Joe's.

The losses have been close with the exception of vcu, which seems to show the talent is there. KE gets credit for that. KE also deserves scrutiny concerning why so many of these close A-10 games turn into losses.

 

[nchocola]

Does he really deserve the scrutiny of losing these close A10 games? He deserved it at the paradise jam but I don’t know about the close A10 games.

He put us in a position to win in St Louis. Guards didn’t make shots at the end of the game.

GW - guards didn’t make shots at the end of the game.

We were down nine and came back today. Guards didn’t make shots at the end of the game.

Guards not making shots at the end of the game is not a KE problem. Free throws are also not a KE problem. He got who he could from the portal and is trying to get the best of them.

KE makes mistakes no question but not nearly enough yet for me to question why he’s here.

 

[JimP]

Does he really deserve the scrutiny of losing these close A10 games? He deserved it at the paradise jam but I don’t know about the close A10 games.

He put us in a position to win in St Louis. Guards didn’t make shots at the end of the game.

GW - guards didn’t make shots at the end of the game.

We were down nine and came back today. Guards didn’t make shots at the end of the game.

Guards not making shots at the end of the game is not a KE problem. Free throws are also not a KE problem. He got who he could from the portal and is trying to get the best of them.

KE makes mistakes no question but not nearly enough yet for me to question why he’s here.

Good points and I agree KE needs more time. However, in my opinion most who follow the A-10 likely regard this year's GMU team as underachieving so far. Ultimately, that falls on the coach. Yeah, perhaps KE can't be faulted for missed shots, but he can be questioned about stuff like D, substitution patterns and the PG situation.

 

[smccart5]

I believe KE will have a lot of success here. I was ready for a low floor because I know his ceiling is much higher than other guys we've had/could have hired. Have to give it 2 more seasons

I look forward to a ton of fresh faces in the program next year, guys that committed here first. KE can start building the culture and program he wants.

 

[Patriot Lawdog]

If you give the coach a pass on the end of game execution (which I do not), then you can ask the question why are we down by 9 with 8 minutes left? There is zero urgency to execute defensively…”If we don’t defend..” That should be the end of the sentence. You defend or you sit. Although, at this point, I question if we have 5 guys who can play D.

You’re gonna miss open shots. It happens. What pisses me off is the easy baskets SJU got in the final 2 minutes.

 

[FlPatriot]

I want to know what happened to the team that executed 3/4 buckets around the 15-16 minute mark of the first half with very crisp passing…the ball hardly touched the floor. That team should’ve won by 20, what happened to that team?

 

[nchocola]

If you give the coach a pass on the end of game execution (which I do not), then you can ask the question why are we down by 9 with 8 minutes left? There is zero urgency to execute defensively…”If we don’t defend..” That should be the end of the sentence. You defend or you sit. Although, at this point, I question if we have 5 guys who can play D.

You’re gonna miss open shots. It happens. What pisses me off is the easy baskets SJU got in the final 2 minutes.

My point is we don’t have five guys that can play D. We don’t have guards that can play good defense against the better guards in the A10.

In two years if he doesn’t have guys that want to defend or can’t get defensive production I’m ready to question his coaching.

He got who he could from the portal and is trying to get the best of them.

 

[Where's the party?]

I know this may be heresy, but we've been looking for a solid point guard for two years and haven't been able to recruit or get one from the portal. There are hundreds of great shooting, fast, smart, PG's playing in D2 and D3 every year - and usually the only reason they aren't playing D1 is because they aren't 6' tall. Wouldn't it be worth it to have one guy on the team that can't be stripped of the ball and can pass it to the right people, at the right time? I realize he'd be taking up a spot currently occupied by one of our five 6'5" guys that can jump through the roof but can't shoot, but it's sure seems like a risk worth taking. If nothing else, he could play the scout PG in practice so that maybe our defense wouldn't get torched by every decent guard in the A10. I'd gladly sacrifice some defensive height to get a decent PG.

I'll sit back now and get pummeled by all the D1 snobs .....

 

[EXpatriot13]

This team has zero identity, zero killer instinct, lack discipline. Too often they play scared, trying not to lose the game instead of going for the win. It’s fair to question KE until he proves otherwise.

Right now, we’re as irrelevant as ever, and it absolutely sucks.

 

[Falco]

He’s getting at least 4 with mason. I get if you want to tune out for year 4 if nothing improves next year.

i know I sound nuts, but we have to be patient. How patient? TBD.

It’s useless debating this now. But why should a coach get 4 years in todays climate with every coach utilizing the transfer portal.

Also Dr. Washington and the New AD might want to bring in their guy.

 

[mkaufman1]

It’s usually debating this now. But why should a coach get 4 years in todays climate with every coach utilizing the transfer portal.

Also Dr. Washington and the New AD might want to bring in their guy.

It’s a fair question. But the new ad isn’t coming until the summer. They won’t do anything for at least a year, and typically schools don’t buy out more than a year. Considering our commitment to English, I’m sure they’ll be patient. Dr Washington also backs English.

now with renewal more time etc, that’s potentially up for debate And tbd. I always thought English would build on the base and have us dancing in 3 years but apparently we may need to be more patient.

 

[hoops10]

I think for a lot of people the issue is that KE overpromised and under delivered. I get it he had to get people in the stands and create student interest. After all he just got a major contract . But the fact is that KE is a great orator with smooth style, and very likeable. But for a lot of us it's been a long time since they raised that banner at EBA and we have longed for something better that Hewitt and Paulson. We want wins and post season games. So yea patience is all we have. But for me we must show major improvement next year. As they say patience can wear thin.

 

[Falco]

It’s a fair question. But the new ad isn’t coming until the summer. They won’t do anything for at least a year, and typically schools don’t buy out more than a year. Considering our commitment to English, I’m sure they’ll be patient. Dr Washington also backs English.

now with renewal more time etc, that’s potentially up for debate And tbd

Fair enough.