News Stafford County Sun -- Holloway primed for strong junior season. (New Offense!?)

polepino

Starter
http://m.staffordcountysun.com/sports/article_759a6cfc-6536-11e4-88da-001a4bcf6878.html?mode=jqm

"Holloway then returned to fairfax to work out with his teammates. that meant learning a new offense that mason will use this season, which begins at home nov. 14 against cornell at the patriotcenter.

“it allows us to stay moving,” holloway said of the new offense. “we are being put in places where we can score more. it really allows us to use our skills to the best of our scoring ability.”"


NEW OFFENSE!? What!?
 

gmutom

Hall of Famer
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
GOLD SPONSOR
GIVING DAY 2023
Great news! There definitely seemed to be much better ball movement tonight and a lot less standing around and confusion. Nice to see we're finally going to try to stick some round pegs in round holes.
 

gmujim92

Hall of Famer
GIVING DAY 2023
Great news! There definitely seemed to be much better ball movement tonight and a lot less standing around and confusion. Nice to see we're finally going to try to stick some round pegs in round holes.

Now that's something I'd hope we could all get behind!
 

GMUgemini

Hall of Famer
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
Great news! There definitely seemed to be much better ball movement tonight and a lot less standing around and confusion. Nice to see we're finally going to try to stick some round pegs in round holes.

Could the ball movement also be attributed to the fact that we don't have a Pearson, Wright or Allen on the team this season?
 

wijg

Starter
OK, this whole New offense has my emotions going in all different directions. Many of us on here have stated that until Hewitt looks at himself and starts making changes to the way he runs the team, he isn't going to succeed.

Is this a sign he has finally awakened and is using the players he has instead of the squeezing them into the offense he wants to run? I guess that would be the dream scenario, that Hewitt is finally going to be the coach he has the potential to be.

The other side of me says that this is a change that was 3 years (or 11 depending on your point of view) in the making and other changes will take as long. The nightmare scenario would be that this is the case, and the change in offense combined with the new roster shows a significant improvement (like top 1/2 to top 1/3 of A10), gets and extension and then fails to make further adjustments to his system as warranted by available players.

Hopefully it is closer to the former...
 

gmutom

Hall of Famer
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
GOLD SPONSOR
GIVING DAY 2023
Dear God, thank you for extending your hand upon a stubborn man of fine cloth and helping him make this change. Amen!

I'm sure it's more about self preservation at this point, but any help from above is also appreciated.
 

GSII

Hall of Famer
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
GOLD SPONSOR
GIVING DAY 2023
Interesting. Is it safer to run this vs 4 out? Or has he seen the light and is matching system to talent?
 

gmutom

Hall of Famer
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
GOLD SPONSOR
GIVING DAY 2023
Or has he seen the light and is matching system to talent?

I think it's a combination of things. One, he had to finally realize what he was running wasn't working. Far to often players were in the wrong spot or just standing around confused. Nothing less effective than a motion-less motion offense. That's on the head coach. If you're still having to scream to Sherrod or Gray or Edwards where they should be while a play is being run at the end of the season, that play is either too complicated or you didn't do a good enough job teaching them.

Second, I think most people here will agree that this team is probably our most athletic in a long time (if not ever) but also not a great perimeter-shooting team. By switching to this offense, it will hopefully create more opportunities for our players to create shots for themselves rather than relying so heavily on outside shooting.

Time will tell if the new offense works, but it sure as hell can't be worse than what we've been running the last few years.
 

gmujim92

Hall of Famer
GIVING DAY 2023
I really think it's this simple: Hewitt had no choice but adjust, given the composition of our roster.

When your strength (such as it is) is your bigs and you lack a bevy of proven perimeter players as we do, running a 4-out offense that relies on guys being able to beat their man off the dribble would almost certainly be an epic fail.

We're going to have at least 2 and sometimes 3 bigs -- some combination of Copes, Jenkins, Marko, Royal, Thompson and Porter -- on the floor at any one time, so it makes total sense to run a double post offense and try to get shots as close to the basket as possible.

It's called putting your guys in the best position to succeed. I know we haven't had much experience with that around these parts the last 3 years, but I'm glad it finally seems to be happening now.
 

GMURaider

Sixth Man
I really think it's this simple: Hewitt had no choice but adjust, given the composition of our roster.

When your strength (such as it is) is your bigs and you lack a bevy of proven perimeter players as we do, running a 4-out offense that relies on guys being able to beat their man off the dribble would almost certainly be an epic fail.

We're going to have at least 2 and sometimes 3 bigs -- some combination of Copes, Jenkins, Marko, Royal, Thompson and Porter -- on the floor at any one time, so it makes total sense to run a double post offense and try to get shots as close to the basket as possible.

It's called putting your guys in the best position to succeed. I know we haven't had much experience with that around these parts the last 3 years, but I'm glad it finally seems to be happening now.


Maybe I'm not nuts after all...

The new offense will get us to 19 wins.
 
OP
polepino

polepino

Starter
What can he do to make us "eat our words"?

I was just playing devils advocate. I'm on the fence, but im not impressed thus far. Was just some fantastical thought of the 'new offense' finally working and we have a great season.
 

gmutom

Hall of Famer
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
GOLD SPONSOR
GIVING DAY 2023
The best part as fans is we don't have to make the decision. Just root for the team and let Brad Edwards do the heavy lifting. That's why he gets the big bucks.
 

MasonFanatic

Moderator
Staff member
⭐️ Donor ⭐️
GIVING DAY 2023
If Hewitt is successful this season and moving forward, that would be great news. But that doesn't excuse him for failing to make adjustments to win with the roster he inherited. That was one of his tasks when he was hired, he failed in that task, and he is quite correctly getting criticized for that failure.
 
Top