Jarred Reuter??

[GMUgemini]

All fair points. My opinion is less of a detriment on Rueter and what he did/didn't do on the last play - he did everything he could with the hand he was dealt. I just don't agree with having Rueter touch the ball/be a main component of the final play. Paulsen basically had two opportunities to draw up something creative to get ANY of his main scorers the ball and I just don't think he did enough there. It looked like Duquesne knew what was coming and we didn't do much to throw them off that thinking.

Again, Rueter did his best in the situation he was put in. I'm of the belief Paulsen could have done more there. Paulsen and the final play aren't the reasons we lost this game - that is on the players for lack of execution, sloppiness and lack of awareness throughout multiple stretches in the 2nd half.

It looks like Paulsen drew up a play Dambrot didn’t like. Dambrot calls a timeout and Paulsen changed his play. I’m wondering if he should have just stuck with what he originally drew up.

 

[GMUfan1997]

The post was made five minutes after the game, which clearly implies this one was on him. I’m not Reuter’s biggest fan, and Saturday was frustrating as hell, but come on.

No one is making threads after games saying “how many more games are we going to let Otis’s lack of defense cost us?” Losing by one point and then singling out one guy as being the one that cost us is just dumb. We were up 20 points.

But I agree that we are in trouble. DP gets more out of his players talent level than one would expect, but every year we run into some lack of depth be it either through only having eight guys or injuries. We’re running on empty and it’s showing.

As the post stated I was talking about the whole season. I’m sorry if the timing of the post confused you, maybe you should read the words in the actual post. I also stated in a later reply I’m not blaming the loss on the last shot. They blew a 20 point lead and Reuter, per usual, was a heavy contributor.

 

[EXpatriot13]

It looks like Paulsen drew up a play Dambrot didn’t like. Dambrot calls a timeout and Paulsen changed his play. I’m wondering if he should have just stuck with what he originally drew up.

Yea, I'm not sure what went down there. You could be right. I just think we HAD to be schematically and strategically better in that situation and I think that's where we fell short.

 

[MasonSAE4]

As the post stated I was talking about the whole season. I’m sorry if the timing of the post confused you, maybe you should read the words in the actual post. I also stated in a later reply I’m not blaming the loss on the last shot. They blew a 20 point lead and Reuter, per usual, was a heavy contributor.

The whole team collectively blew it. There are some games where I think “man if this one guy was better we would have pulled out a win.” But Saturday was a case of watching the whole team (maybe minus Greene) just slowly lose steam. You could see it starting about two minutes before halftime. They came out and put all their energy into building the lead and had nothing left in the tank. I’m not defending Reuter because he’s part of the meltdown, but there’s no reason TDM should be able to go off on us like that.

Short of butting Calixte out there with a brain injury, I’m not sure what else we can do. I was on team AJ to start the year but he just blows way too many defensive assignments. Until Greg is back, it’s going to be more of the same. And that probably includes Golden taking Reuter to school on Wednesday.

I’m right there with the people who think we need to recruit and impact big who is at least 6’9, but with what we have there’s not much we can do. Even Greg has a hard time single teaming the post.

 

[GMUgemini]

I think part of our problem is that if we go bigger, we literally have no shooters on the floor. So to stem the tide of offensive rebounds you might go Kier, Greene, Miller, AJ, Reuter. But there is literally not a single player there you have to worry about covering all the way out to the 3 point line (maybe Greene).

With so many people injured and with holes in so many players’ games, it’s hard to make a big switch in how we play.

 

[gmujim92]

I’m right there with the people who think we need to recruit and impact big who is at least 6’9.

You should really let the coaches know about this ASAP. It obviously either slipped their minds or they’re too dumb to realize what the team needs.

 

[EXpatriot13]

You should really let the coaches know about this ASAP. It obviously either slipped their minds or they’re too dumb to realize what the team needs.

I don't think SAE was implying either of those things. This seems like an unnecessary comment, Jim. Let the guy have an opinion.

 

[gmujim92]

I think part of our problem is that if we go bigger, we literally have no shooters on the floor. So to stem the tide of offensive rebounds you might go Kier, Greene, Miller, AJ, Reuter. But there is literally not a single player there you have to worry about covering all the way out to the 3 point line (maybe Greene).

Kier and his 35% 3-point shooting say hello.

 

[gmujim92]

I don't think SAE was implying either of those things. This seems like an unnecessary comment, Jim. Let the guy have an opinion.

A clarification: I wasn’t preventing him from having an opinion. I was mocking his opinion — and rightfully so.

Pretty sure we’d all like an impact 6-9 player if you’d like to point one of our coaches toward the tree on which they are growing.

 

[MasonSAE4]

You should really let the coaches know about this ASAP. It obviously either slipped their minds or they’re too dumb to realize what the team needs.

Did I ever say they weren’t trying? No. What I’m saying is having someone like that will render all of these discussions about why Reuter can’t single team the posts moot because he won’t have to. Getting someone like that will allow us to play DP’s preferred system. Relax and stop assuming everything is some sort of shot at the coaching staff. I don’t doubt they’re trying to get someone like Toppin or Brajkovic (or however it’s spelled) but until they do we’re going to be going in circles with these discussions. This traditional style of basketball is far better with a true center, not a mildly unathletic 6’7 power forward trying to lock down the paint.

If we want to run some type of run and gun style of offense, then sure topping out at 6’8 in the A10 can work but we know Paulsen isn’t going to do that. But I don’t expect to see a top of the A10 caliber program until we have a true center locking down the inside. The pieces are there to run his offense in Hartwell, JDS, and Miller. I just think we’re one piece away.

 

[EXpatriot13]

A clarification: I wasn’t preventing him from having an opinion. I was mocking his opinion — and rightfully so.

Pretty sure we’d all like an impact 6-9 player if you’d like to point one of our coaches toward the tree on which they are growing.

Nobody is implying that the coaches aren't trying or don't recognize the need. But constantly mocking someone's opinion (this applies to all of us) leads us down the path of people no longer wanting to share their thoughts. And that's the whole point of a message board.

 

[GMUgemini]

Kier and his 35% 3-point shooting say hello.

Yes, but he has a slow release and doesn’t take that many of them (Javon Greene has taken 48 more 3s, Otis has taken 65 more) meaning he’s hitting a decent amount of the ones he takes but he’s easier to close out on then, say, Otis.

I’d love to see a big lineup at points, especially against some of the more physical teams, but I worry about what that offense is going to look like.

 

[MasonSAE4]

Nobody is implying that the coaches aren't trying or don't recognize the need. But constantly mocking someone's opinion (this applies to all of us) leads us down the path of people no longer wanting to share their thoughts. And that's the whole point of a message board.

I thought the point of a message board was to be last man standing? Guess I’ve been doing it wrong.

 

[GMUgemini]

As the post stated I was talking about the whole season. I’m sorry if the timing of the post confused you, maybe you should read the words in the actual post. I also stated in a later reply I’m not blaming the loss on the last shot. They blew a 20 point lead and Reuter, per usual, was a heavy contributor.

I’m not exactly sure how much I buy how heavily he contributed to it. Like Insaid before, they attacked Otis and Miller pretty aggressively and that has nothing to do with Reuter. Reuter was 4-7 from the floor, had 4 assists and 6 rebounds. You can fault him for missing those 3 late in the game, but at that point we had already blown the huge lead. He did have 3 TOs but those were passes he was trying to pick out that got intercepted less him traveling or doing something boneheaded. He also only played 23 minutes.

 

[gmujim92]

Did I ever say they weren’t trying? No. What I’m saying is having someone like that will render all of these discussions about why Reuter can’t single team the posts moot because he won’t have to. Getting someone like that will allow us to play DP’s preferred system. Relax and stop assuming everything is some sort of shot at the coaching staff. I don’t doubt they’re trying to get someone like Toppin or Brajkovic (or however it’s spelled) but until they do we’re going to be going in circles with these discussions. This traditional style of basketball is far better with a true center, not a mildly unathletic 6’7 power forward trying to lock down the paint.

If we want to run some type of run and gun style of offense, then sure topping out at 6’8 in the A10 can work but we know Paulsen isn’t going to do that. But I don’t expect to see a top of the A10 caliber program until we have a true center locking down the inside. The pieces are there to run his offense in Hartwell, JDS, and Miller. I just think we’re one piece away.

Could be wrong, but it feels like there’s a little recency bias at work here.

We are significantly weaker without Calixte, who is neither 6-9 nor an awe-inspiring athlete, but is a strong, solid fundamental player who rarely blows assignments and usually makes a positive impact on both ends.

Had Calixte not gotten hurt, I think a lot of this discussion about the need to recruit an impact big would be moot.

Unfortunately for his head and the team, he did.

 

[MasonSAE4]

Could be wrong, but it feels like there’s a little recency bias at work here.

We are significantly weaker without Calixte, who is neither 6-9 nor an awe-inspiring athlete, but is a strong, solid fundamental player who rarely blows assignments and usually makes a positive impact on both ends.

Had Calixte not gotten hurt, I think a lot of this discussion about the need to recruit an impact big would be moot.

Unfortunately for his head and the team, he did.

On that we agree. Is he good enough to single team some of the more skilled bigs in the A10? As of right now, DP doesn’t seem to believe so because even with Greg out there we double the post. Is he more of a natural fit for the system than Reuter? Absolutely. I’m a big Calixte fan. I just also happen to think we’re going to need a second guy at his height or taller to properly run the system that DP has run his entire career. I’m not wholly on board with the narrative that he can’t recruit that some on here seem to believe, but I do think he runs a style of play that requires very skilled players at every position or the whole thing kind of falls apart. Moving forward we have great building blocks at the 1, 2, 3, and 4. But they won’t mean much if we keep having to pick our poison between getting killed inside or doubling and giving up open looks.

Again, I don’t think our big man play had anything to do with Saturday’s collapse (well it did, but no more than our guard play.)

 

[GMUgemini]

Could be wrong, but it feels like there’s a little recency bias at work here.

We are significantly weaker without Calixte, who is neither 6-9 nor an awe-inspiring athlete, but is a strong, solid fundamental player who rarely blows assignments and usually makes a positive impact on both ends.

Had Calixte not gotten hurt, I think a lot of this discussion about the need to recruit an impact big would be moot.

Unfortunately for his head and the team, he did.

I mean, we should get a big in 2020 because at that point Reuter will have graduated and Calixte and AJ will be seniors. I am hopefully that said big can be an “impact” player and not a project.

 

[Petey Buckets]

This traditional style of basketball is far better with a true center, not a mildly unathletic 6’7 power forward trying to lock down the paint.

If we want to run some type of run and gun style of offense, then sure topping out at 6’8 in the A10 can work but we know Paulsen isn’t going to do that. But I don’t expect to see a top of the A10 caliber program until we have a true center locking down the inside.

Say it louder for the people in the back. We don't play small ball, we play regular ball with a small lineup. That's been the Dave Paulsen era so far.

It tickles me that sentiments like "I wish we got better recruits" are met with such disdain. 1) The staff is mentioned with all sorts of 4 stars, they just don't land them, and 2) You're seeing the ceiling of the plucky little underdog strategy - 3rd or 4th if we're lucky in a crappy A10. We're in real danger of getting lapped by the A10 next year since Dayton, Davidson, vcu, and Duquesne are gonna be LOADED while the Bonnies, La Salle, and URI could all be a ton better.

 

[GMUfan1997]

Sooooooo who wants to tell me I’m wrong now?

 

[GMUfan1997]

The whole team collectively blew it. There are some games where I think “man if this one guy was better we would have pulled out a win.” But Saturday was a case of watching the whole team (maybe minus Greene) just slowly lose steam. You could see it starting about two minutes before halftime. They came out and put all their energy into building the lead and had nothing left in the tank. I’m not defending Reuter because he’s part of the meltdown, but there’s no reason TDM should be able to go off on us like that.

Short of butting Calixte out there with a brain injury, I’m not sure what else we can do. I was on team AJ to start the year but he just blows way too many defensive assignments. Until Greg is back, it’s going to be more of the same. And that probably includes Golden taking Reuter to school on Wednesday.

I’m right there with the people who think we need to recruit and impact big who is at least 6’9, but with what we have there’s not much we can do. Even Greg has a hard time single teaming the post.

How many times would you like me to tell you the comment was regarding all games this season?