Legitimate Excuses for Hewitt

[GMUSig03]

All of the discussion on here about whether Hewitt will be fired is focused on finances, but is anyone concerned he may be able to make the case they could have been competitive this year if not for:

*Copes leaving
*Mayimba ineligible
*Locket out for the year
*Royal missing significant time
*Moore missing significant time
*Halloway's freak blood disorder

I mean, that is an unusually large amount of bad luck for 6 of your 13 original scholarship players to be affected like that.

Caveat - I am not making any excuses or saying he shouldn't be fired, just wondering if anyone thinks these issues may be considered.

 

[Vurbel]

Not being able to keep Luke.

 

[gmutom]

 

[Walter]

Hewitt's best excuse, "Look, you knew I sucked as a coach. You saw how I destroyed Georgia Tech's program. If you wanted a good coach then you should have hired one. Tom only said he wanted a pretty face. I am that. Sh1t! I can't win with you people. Just give me my $700k and I will be on my way. Oh, and . . . Suckaaaaahs!"

 

[mkaufman1]

Every team in every sport has obstacles to overcome. Dayton has 8 eligible players (correct me if I'm wrong) and somehow keeps winning. vcu lost Graham and Weber, but I bet they figure it out.

The excuses have piled up year after year. No real PG, Larranaga guys holding back, new league. I doubt Brad buys it.

 

[gmutom]

 

[Walter]

All of the discussion on here about whether Hewitt will be fired is focused on finances, but is anyone concerned he may be able to make the case they could have been competitive this year if not for:

*Copes leaving - BUST
*Mayimba ineligible - If you are counting on Freshmen to save you then you have not recruited well in the past.
*Locket out for the year - see above
*Royal missing significant time - BUST
*Moore missing significant time - It happens to every team.
*Halloway's freak blood disorder - Hasn't played well this year anyway.

I mean, that is an unusually large amount of bad luck for 6 of your 13 original scholarship players to be affected like that.

Caveat - I am not making any excuses or saying he shouldn't be fired, just wondering if anyone thinks these issues may be considered.

 

[JamesMason]

*Copes leaving

Pretty sure his poor academics led to his dismissal. Also there was 3 years of him being a shithead so I don't see this being an excuse. Oh and he wasn't all that great on the court after his freshman season.

*Mayimba ineligible

There's no way the coaching staff didn't know this could happen while they were recruiting. It was a risk and they are paying for it now

*Locket out for the year

Every team deals with injuries

*Royal missing significant time

Every team deals with injuries, and there's a reason other schools didn't pursue him as a transfer.

*Moore missing significant time

Every team deals with injuries

*Halloway's freak blood disorder

This one maybe, although didn't they play their best game of the year without him against Davidson at home?

 

[p8triotfan4life]

Arledge - departure and allowing him to go to ODU of all places

Okokoji - swing and miss horribly on his first recruit

kicking Vertrail Vaughans and Paris Bennett out of the program when all they did was hustle and were solid roll players

Erik Copes was 100% Hewitt's fault. He hired his FREAKING UNCLE at $125,000+ a year and the DUMBASS FAILED out of school!

the failure to recruit a Point Guard who could strike fear in to opposing defenses (sorry Marquise Moore is not a fearful player)

Scott Lombardi leaving his DOBO position for the same position at HIGH POINT --I think Scott clearly saw the writing on the wall

Mike Wells leaving after 2 years into his tenure. Clearly Mike - who was hired for his X's and O's saw he was working for an idiot.

losing to Northeastern in the way we did in the CAA Tournament
losing to vcu the way we did in the CAA Tournament
losing to Fordham in the PLAY-IN Game in the A-10 Tournament is the worst of the worst

 

[GMUSig03]

That's the response I was looking for, thank you everyone, you have allayed my fears!

 

[Vurbel]

Arledge - departure and allowing him to go to ODU of all places

Okokoji - swing and miss horribly on his first recruit

kicking Vertrail Vaughans and Paris Bennett out of the program when all they did was hustle and were solid roll players

Erik Copes was 100% Hewitt's fault. He hired his FREAKING UNCLE at $125,000+ a year and the DUMBASS FAILED out of school!

the failure to recruit a Point Guard who could strike fear in to opposing defenses (sorry Marquise Moore is not a fearful player)

Scott Lombardi leaving his DOBO position for the same position at HIGH POINT --I think Scott clearly saw the writing on the wall

Mike Wells leaving after 2 years into his tenure. Clearly Mike - who was hired for his X's and O's saw he was working for an idiot.

losing to Northeastern in the way we did in the CAA Tournament
losing to vcu the way we did in the CAA Tournament
losing to Fordham in the PLAY-IN Game in the A-10 Tournament is the worst of the worst

32-4 was easily my lowest moment as a Mason fan. Never before had I had I known we had the talent and I was expecting a victory (I know, in Richmond, but still). It was the combination of the tournament plus GMU talent plus wanting to shut up those annoying vcu fans. Before that game I was in the camp of "we can do it, I mean we have an ACC coach". That night I joined the camp of "oh my goodness, what have we gotten ourselves in to?"

 

[GSII]

there is no legitimate excuse.

 

[Old Man]

This is all you need to see ...

Four years before Blewitt (89-44):

Four years with Blewitt (62-53 and counting or 38-44 since his first full recruiting class arrived, i.e. last 3 years):

He should be embarrassed. He's lucky this isn't Japan else he would have to take matters into his own hands for this embarrassment. (Note: I do not actually wish the man any physical harm; I'm just saying he should do the right thing and resign.)

 

[GMUgemini]

32-4 was easily my lowest moment as a Mason fan. Never before had I had I known we had the talent and I was expecting a victory (I know, in Richmond, but still). It was the combination of the tournament plus GMU talent plus wanting to shut up those annoying vcu fans. Before that game I was in the camp of "we can do it, I mean we have an ACC coach". That night I joined the camp of "oh my goodness, what have we gotten ourselves in to?"

We fought back in that game.

For me it was blowing the 20 point lead against Northeastern, because we were so dominant and then you could just see the tide turn and you knew at halftime (despite still being up like 7) that the game was over.

 

[psyclone]

32-4 was easily my lowest moment as a Mason fan. Never before had I had I known we had the talent and I was expecting a victory (I know, in Richmond, but still). It was the combination of the tournament plus GMU talent plus wanting to shut up those annoying vcu fans. Before that game I was in the camp of "we can do it, I mean we have an ACC coach". That night I joined the camp of "oh my goodness, what have we gotten ourselves in to?"

Maybe when it actually was 32-4, it was a low point. The vcu crowd was so obnoxious that my wife left the building sometime a little before that point and sat in the car until the game was over. But I remember with about 5 minutes left, we had cut the lead to 6 or so and I thought "this is going to be the biggest comeback of all time!" Alas Arledge missed an open 3 and we never got closer. In any case, as badly as vcu was dominating us early, it didn't turn out to be as god-awful a loss as some that we suffered, say, last night.

 

[psyclone]

We fought back in that game.

For me it was blowing the 20 point lead against Northeastern, because we were so dominant and then you could just see the tide turn and you knew at halftime (despite still being up like 7) that the game was over.

Agreed--that was particularly painful.

 

[MasonFanatic]

I honestly do wonder about the overall quality and fundamental skills of the average basketball recruit today versus 10 years ago. I get the feeling that in a lot of cases, AAU is churning out one-dimensional players. There's too much focus on getting exposure and not enough focus on skill development or playing as a team. If that's true, and not an exaggeration, then one of Hewitt's problems is that he recruits the best athletes, but those players coming in no longer have solid fundamentals, and he hasn't been able to adjust how he filters recruits. So the end result is that he's trying to run a system that his players can't grasp and don't have the fundamental skills to execute.

 

[polepino]

I honestly do wonder about the overall quality and fundamental skills of the average basketball recruit today versus 10 years ago. I get the feeling that in a lot of cases, AAU is churning out one-dimensional players. There's too much focus on getting exposure and not enough focus on skill development or playing as a team. If that's true, and not an exaggeration, then one of Hewitt's problems is that he recruits the best athletes, but those players coming in no longer have solid fundamentals, and he hasn't been able to adjust how he filters recruits. So the end result is that he's trying to run a system that his players can't grasp and don't have the fundamental skills to execute.

Interesting way to look at it. I think the flipside is that other schools don't seem to be having those problems.

 

[GSII]

I honestly do wonder about the overall quality and fundamental skills of the average basketball recruit today versus 10 years ago. I get the feeling that in a lot of cases, AAU is churning out one-dimensional players. There's too much focus on getting exposure and not enough focus on skill development or playing as a team. If that's true, and not an exaggeration, then one of Hewitt's problems is that he recruits the best athletes, but those players coming in no longer have solid fundamentals, and he hasn't been able to adjust how he filters recruits. So the end result is that he's trying to run a system that his players can't grasp and don't have the fundamental skills to execute.

This.happens everywhere, but the player should know what system he is getting into or transfer after a year. In Blewitts case, i think he sells them on an nba free flowing offensive system with quotes about guys he put into the nba. Problem is his recruits arent anywhere near nba talent. Recruiting was supposed to have been his strong suit. It seems now with having kids all 4 years, it has greatly exposed his weakest suit, the in game coaching. Any GT fan could of explained this to TOC.

 

[mkaufman1]

Maybe when it actually was 32-4, it was a low point. The vcu crowd was so obnoxious that my wife left the building sometime a little before that point and sat in the car until the game was over. But I remember with about 5 minutes left, we had cut the lead to 6 or so and I thought "this is going to be the biggest comeback of all time!" Alas Arledge missed an open 3 and we never got closer. In any case, as badly as vcu was dominating us early, it didn't turn out to be as god-awful a loss as some that we suffered, say, last night.

By far one of my lower points as a Mason fan in the upper level of the RC and just hearing 10000 people chant in unison like they were at some type of cult event.

And of course my phone was blowing up as well to top it off with randoms saying "32-4, really?"

Little did I know a game like that wasn't unique, but that thered be many more blown losses and leads to come