Vote Of Confidence - Paul Hewitt 12/12/2014

Do you have confidence in Paul Hewitt as Head Coach of the Patriots at this time?


  • Total voters
    69

gmutom

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Quentin: for his awesome use of the search capability to pull relevant threads from the past.

Let's not give Hugh too much credit. He admitted he endorsed the Paul Westhead hire, and he has yet to dig that thread out from the archives. In his defense, though, that might have been before Al Gore invented the Internet and sports forums like this. :cool:
 

Walter

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Some other nominations for interim coach:
Herndon: For predicting what a Hewitt team would look like. This would be a reward for so few people believing him.

I apologize to those posters that I have missed. There are many deserving ones that I have missed

We could also use it as a fundraiser. We could auction off the privilege to coach individual games to the highest bidder.
How about some love for the Mason fan who had the foresight to get the Twitter account @FirePaulHewitt from that Georgia Tech fan? No respect, no respect I tell you.
 

wijg

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I can't believe I forgot Walter. I promise you were on my list I just ran out of steam.

More nominations:

Walter: for learning the tweetosphere just to help us get rid of the stain and for being the best economist on the planet and possibly the smartest person, too

Chank: for his prosaic poems and for taking over on leading the pitchfork brigade where Brian left off

GL: but he has to take us to overtime

Gemini: for debating everybody, and I believe even himself on occasion

Washingtonian: for his faithful creation of game day threads
 

Quentin Daniels

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Let's not give Hugh too much credit. He admitted he endorsed the Paul Westhead hire, and he has yet to dig that thread out from the archives. In his defense, though, that might have been before Al Gore invented the Internet and sports forums like this. :cool:

This is true.

But on the other hand, I wasn't the last guy in the room to pick up on it, didn't regularly castigate 19 year-olds for the incompetence of the over-compensated coach, and never accused anyone of not being a real fan for having realized the coach blew.
 

gmutom

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...didn't regularly castigate 19 year-olds for the incompetence of the over-compensated coach...

Spare me your everybody-gets-a-trophy psychobabble. I don't care how bad a coach is in any college or pro sport, the players can and should still be held accountable for how they play. These "19-year-olds" are being rewarded with a full ride to college, so forgive me if I don't share your group-hug mentality that they shouldn't own their mistakes.

And to address your inevitable counter that this is about giving Hewitt an easy out, I felt the same way about the players under Larranaga, Nestor and Westhead. Personal attacks are off limits, but everything they do on the court — both good and bad — is fair game.
 

KAOriginal

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He lurks on these boards?

Evidently specific couple of comments he has supposedly said...could only have come from reading/knowing these boards. So either he's reading or someone is telling him.

Do I think he spends all day here...no. But knowing his history of being called paranoid and feeling the everyone is out to get him....I dont doubt he keeps an eyeball here.
 

Pablo

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So, at the moment, there are 4 yes votes from:
All 4 accounts were created today and 0 posts. So, here are some possibilities:
-Employees in the AD started reading the boards again
-Hewitt is working public relateions instead of fixing his horrid coaching
-Whoever is couchcoach is f-ing with us

Is it possible that the 4 yes votes came from current players?
 

gmutom

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Evidently specific couple of comments he has supposedly said...could only have come from reading/knowing these boards. So either he's reading or someone is telling him.

KA, I honestly wonder how any coach avoids reading what is being said about them in print or online (especially since it's so accessible these days). Like you said, if they aren't reading it, they have somebody doing it for them. I wrote a scathing letter to the Broadside as a student saying that Joe Harrington underperformed given the talent he had, and I had several players tell me he was not happy about it.

I do think, though, that Hewitt should be thankful he has it so easy in the little bubble that is Mason basketball. He has no media or big boosters holding him accountable, so the worst he gets is getting trashed on a message board with 20 posters and another 30 lurkers (29 if you don't count him).
 
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Patriotfan49

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Spare me your everybody-gets-a-trophy psychobabble. I don't care how bad a coach is in any college or pro sport, the players can and should still be held accountable for how they play. These "19-year-olds" are being rewarded with a full ride to college, so forgive me if I don't share your group-hug mentality that they shouldn't own their mistakes.

And to address your inevitable counter that this is about giving Hewitt an easy out, I felt the same way about the players under Larranaga, Nestor and Westhead. Personal attacks are off limits, but everything they do on the court — both good and bad — is fair game.

Lol this again?

Tom you have had to see many sports teams over the years who have generally the same team or same level of talent and under one terrible coach, they underachieve and are inconsistent and then when a new coach steps in that is actually capable all of the sudden they are firing on all cylinders?

Thats what we have here. Our guys are a mirror product of our coach, and how he structures everything. Just as he is aloof in pressers, delusional, and generally clueless.....that is being handed down to the players and it shows. The same stupidity that he chooses to blow time outs 3 seconds before a TV timeout, or the same ineptness to strategically attack a defense with precision, or to even have a elementary offense...is the environment our guys are around everyday. Products of their environment.

And yes, they are 19 year old college kids playing a D1 sport against other D1 athletes. Surely, every time you tee it up you are not consistent yeah? Its sports, you arent going to have a good night every single night. But having a coach that emphasizes every bad aspect of the game and team play, is only going to hamper them more. Give them a concrete defined role and system and I bet that you see a much more functional team. Let them play 1 on 5, and you see what we get.
 
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gmutom

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P49, I don't disagree with anything you said. We all agree Hewitt has been awful and that the buck ultimately starts and stops with him; but that doesn't mean the players can't be held accountable. Just as some assume doing so gives Hewitt an easy out, I think it's a cop out to say they shouldn't be held accountable because he's a crappy coach. I would argue that the UMass game we lost at home was one of the few games he coached well, but he is the one who takes the blame when Sherrod turns the ball over twice in a 30 second span with under a minute to play.

Let's take Hewitt out of the equation for a second and look at the Penn State game we lost in the NIT. I think most people here including me agree that Coach L lost that game by not fouling when we were up 3. That is ultimately on him. But we also wouldn't have been in that situation had Monroe not been called for an infraction with 20 seconds left for moving along the baseline when throwing the ball in. I liked Monroe a lot, but I still hold him accountable for that as well.

Same could be said for Lamar Butler horrendous slump before our Final 4 run. It was fair game to analyze and discuss here whether he was hurting the team, and I'm sure Lamar as a former player and current radio analyst would be the first to agree with that. I love that he holds the players accountable on the radio when they make a mistake. Everything is fair game, which makes him more credible as an analyst.
 

Pablo

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There is no question that the players are partially responsible. Now, I would probably take exception to Tom's reference to Lamar Butler's shooting slump because I believe that Lamar was taking good shots.

It's the recurring mental mistakes that irritate me the most. Now, perhaps Hewitt is responsible for some of the players' mental mistakes, but most of these players have been playing this game a long time and should be held accountable.
 

Patriotfan49

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Naturally the players are accountable, because they are the ones ultimately executing or not. So of course they carry their own burden with this. That being said, when you put young kids out there, in a highly cluster f game plan.....it not only breeds a culture of sloppiness, but it creates a false sense of taking over for certain guys. I'm sure every player on that court knows Hewitt is a bad coach, so I wouldn't be shocked if certain guys felt the need to take over on their own...which means even more reckless play. Look at Holloway and his shot decisions. There is just a total lack of control and discipline that has always been there from the top, so the players wouldn't expect different. You have kids Tom, what happens when they do something they aren't supposed to and you just pat their head, hand them a lollipop and giggle? Nothing changes. Same as when Hewitt witnesses mindless plays constantly, but yet doesn't move to enforce changes to limit them. Because mistakes happen, panicking happens, part of sports....but it's no surprise that a pretty lax guy like Hewitt has a team that's always been lax when it comes to the mental aspect of basketball.

Put them in a define system, and there will still be inconsistency. That is sports, but when you have a set group of plays etc....it takes a lot of the guesswork out of it for them. So again, it goes without saying that obviously the players have a hand in this, but given the tenure and experience of Hewitt....you'd think he would be a bit more mature and wise when it comes to handling college kids.
 
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Pablo

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I'm sure every player on that court knows Hewitt is a bad coach, so I wouldn't be shocked if certain guys felt the need to take over on their own...which means even more reckless play.

Why are you certain that "every player on the court knows Hewitt is a bad coach"? The only player on the current roster who has played for another D-1 coach is Julian Royal.
 

JimP

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Watching Bonaventure vs. Pitt right now. The Bonnies have a good guard named Mosely who transferred from Ball State. Where has Hewitt been on a guy like him? Just going for guys he might have had a shot at at Georgia Tech? Frustrating.
 

Patriotfan49

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Why are you certain that "every player on the court knows Hewitt is a bad coach"? The only player on the current roster who has played for another D-1 coach is Julian Royal.

Because given the results, and situation I would wager to bet that they also see the writing on the wall that Hewitt isnt getting it done and is quite possibly getting axed very soon.

Hes a nice guy and Im sure they dont mind him personally, but the fact that hes a bad coach is not limited to just fans and outsiders. It wouldnt surprise me one bit that some of the guys may be frustrated or have little confidence in the head coach to lead them.
 

gmutom

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There's no disputing that our players deserve better than they are getting from Hewitt right now. He's certainly not putting them in a position to excel individually or as a team.

I think one thing people overlook here is the possibility that we will never be a good program again. That's how far TOC and Hewitt have set us back. I honestly have no allegiances to Hewitt other than blindly wanting him to succeed the last two years, because the alternative of starting over from scratch scared me even more.

Although I am in agreement that a change needs to be made, it doesn't console me to realize it could be another two to three years before we are competitive again in the A10. Unfortunately, we have no choice but to think long-term.
 
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