By: Taylor Black
Photo: Liem Le
From top to bottom, they blew the roof off this introduction press conference today. Serious kudos to everyone involved, they have been absolutely knocking this out of the park today. There’s a million takeaways and things that you can discuss from the press conference today, but I’ve narrowed it down to 3 quick and easy things if you don’t have time to sit down and watch the full hour long video.
The Whole Administration is Backing (and expecting) Success from the MBB
I came into today not knowing how GMU President Dr. Gregory Washington viewed the Men’s Basketball team. If you don’t know let me be the first to tell you – Dr. Washington is CLEARLY a basketball guy, and he seems to be all in on Kim English. In his intro, Dr. Washington stated, “We know we’ve made the right choice here, very soon the A-10 will know as well.” Dr. Washington spoke about how the basketball team is a beacon to the community and the students, and how he is looking forward to a time that Eagle Bank Arena is filled and rocking with the Green Machine and we are all cheering on Mason to victory. Someone please tell me the last time you’ve heard a Mason President speak this way about the basketball team? I don’t think it’s ever happened.
Brad Edwards hopped up next and let me tell you – he seemed straight giddy. Brad has to have been on cloud 9 the last 48 hours between the reception to the announcement and all the positive chatter surrounding the direction of the program. It’s a two part battle in hiring college coaches – hitting the hire out of the park, and getting your fan base excited that you’ve hit it out of the park. He’s done both.
The general vibe over the last week from surrounding the team is that the school expects more, and that they are willing to do what they need to get us there.
Kim English is Just That Dude
Casual fans already getting in touch. Before today I don’t know a single one that watched Mason pressers. They are coming out of the wood work wanting tickets, talking about expectations. The hype train has left the station folks, jump on while you can
— tblack33 (@tblack331) March 25, 2021
Without turning this whole article into a big Kim English love-fest (which it easily could be, but I’ll save that for later), the guy just said every single right thing today. It’s like he was able to read the fans minds and see what had irked us over the last few years, and had something to say about every facet of it.
Are you an X’s and O’s person? English talked about what our identity is going to be. Get ready for some up tempo, 4 in 1 out offense, and an active, grind it out defense. In our one on one he broke down what he means by “the players get the first 7 seconds of the shot clock”. In those first seven seconds if one of the guys has a shot, he wants them to take it. He wants his guys like Oduro comfortable taking outside shots, and he wants his guards going strong to the rim. The next 18 seconds are for them to run through the progressions of the offense. He wants spacing, off ball movement, and crisp, smart passes (THANK GOD). The last 5-ish seconds are back to the players, and he specifically said he wants them looking at the rim. He wants guys looking for their shot there, or looking for an off ball guy cutting hard to the basket (I smell a lot more ally-oops in our future).
You into recruiting? Kim talked about how he’s going to hammer the hotbed of recruiting right here in our backyard in the DMV. The consensus is that Kim is going to be an excellent recruiter and he has already put out offers to 2 highly ranked recruits right here in the DMV in the 48 hours he’s had the job. He talked about folks from P6 conferences reaching out directly to him wanting to transfer into Mason. In our sit down after the presser, I asked him about what he is looking for in transfers this year. He elaborated how is he looking for guys who fit into what we are building here, guys who want to grow and win with Mason, looking for team first type players. He also said that he isn’t necessarily looking for a center piece, and that we have a strong core of players here and his first goal is to re-recruit our core players and build around them (#GETJOSHOUTTHEPORTAL).
You like watching player development? English has already been in the gym with our players working out (#GetJoshOutThePortal). He talked about how great our practice facility is, and how he lives in the practice facility. He went as far to say that there won’t be a single practice or workout that our players go through that he doesn’t leave drenched in sweat with them. I don’t know about y’all, but I’m ready to strap up and run through a wall through this guy, college players have to be foaming at the mouth for the chance to play for someone like this.
There is a Clear Message Coming from the Program
The last 48 hours has to have been the most attention and fan interaction that the program has had since the 2010-2011 NCAA berth, and they have absolutely been striking while the iron is hot.
Everything about the presser was tight today. A big chunk of the Final 4 roster was in attendance, recognized by the department multiple times (it’s like they are reading our minds), and interacting with current players afterwards.
When I walked into Eagle Bank today The Man by Aloe Blacc was blasting through the speakers, as if they were trying to make it abundantly clear, “We got our guy”. From top to bottom it was wildly clear, Kim English was our number one target. Folks might remember from the past, this has not always been the case at Mason so the fact that we were able to go out and get our number one target in just 7 days should tell you that this ain’t your momma’s Mason AD. Something is changing here, and it’s going to quickly trickle down to success on the court.
And now Aloe Blacc is playing again. Something special is brewing in Fairfax. Count me in.
— tblack33 (@tblack331) March 25, 2021
I’ll leave you with this from the fan’s perspective: The athletic department has absolutely done their job, and knocked this out of the park. Now it is the fans turn. We’ve gotta donate, we’ve gotta show up, and we’ve gotta make Eagle Bank rock again this fall. It started here, but it’s time for Mason Nation to wake up and pick up the torch. I hope to see everyone back in full force with season tickets and in the gold room this November, the first round is on me at Brion’s after a game for any first time season ticket holder.
