As I mentioned in another thread a few days ago, if we beat every team ranked lower than us in NET and KenPom and lose to every team ranked higher, we finish 9-9, due to a favorable schedule. I think that is probably the most likely outcome of the year. But I am really hoping that they beat at least one of the higher ranked teams, plus 1 or 2 more at home to make up for the inevitable 1 or 2 losses to lower ranked teams on the road, to finish 10-8.

My guess is that there is no one left at GW that can speak to the facts of the case, and that the investigative report done at the time was inconclusive. I feel bad for Lonergan, but I don't think the university will ever be in a position to make some sort of formal apology as you are suggesting... I do hope that they can include him in any celebrations of the anniversary of the NIT championship team, although perhaps he wouldn't participate without a statement that he thinks will "clear his name." Sad.

GW's NET has climbed back up to 135, which is very close to what it was before the American game (133). KenPom is more or less the same at 131. We are currently 9th in the conference in both rankings. Due to a favorable schedule, however, if we beat everyone ranked below us and lose to everyone ranked above us, we finish the A10 schedule at 9-9. I would like to see us finish with a winning record, which means we would have to win at least one game against a higher ranked team. If we lose 1 or 2 games to lower ranked teams, which is very possible, we would need 1 or 2 more wins against higher ranked teams. The best opportunity for such wins at home would be St. Joes (114) and Mason (90). Best road opportunities would be Davidson (111) and Loyola (104).

What are your predictions for A10 play, and what would constitute a successful campaign to you?

BTW, there is only one other team in the A10, URI, that has not yet played a Quad 1 or 2 game. Yes, even the Kansas State game is currently a Quad 3 loss... Illinois State is our only Quad 3 win, but they are now ranked just below us in NET (138), so we currently have no "upset" wins, although we only have one bad loss in American (which has dropped to to 251, a Quad 4 loss).

GWRising wrote:

Alum1 wrote:

GWRising wrote:

I have a ton of thoughts about last night's game ...

1. Let's take the obvious. We shot ourselves in the foot on numerous occasions whether it was missed bunnies, turnovers or bad defensive rebounding. It was not so much what American did to us as it was what we did to ourselves. The fact that we did not hit a three until OT is mind boggling. The fact that we couldn't hit FT's was all us not them. 52 points in the paint seems really good until you realize at a minimum we should have had 60-70. Not to be ridiculous, but for some of those who were arguing "nerves" against Kansas State was this also "nerves" or now are we seeing some of the deficits that we have to improve?

2. We can argue the decision not to foul with 14.5 seconds and while I would have instructed to foul once under 10 seconds (3-4 dribbles) that is often difficult to execute even when you draw it up and practice it. 14.5 was too soon to foul especially in light of the way we had been shooting free throws all night. You don't want a quick foul and 2 FTs leading to another quick foul and potentially 2 FTs for us which if one or more is missed now AU has north of 10 seconds to tie or win the game. Anything between the entire shot clock and 10 seconds is no-man's land for coaches in this situation - potentially damned if you do and damned if you don't.. It didn't work out but that probably had more to do with defensive positioning and a great shot by Smalls than it did with the decision not to foul. Hindsight is 20/20 and again I would have done something different but I understand the decision even if it didn't work out in light of our poor FT shooting all night. You can only coach to the strengths of your team. End of game situations have not been our strength so far and we need to fix that.

3. A word about the OOC. Last night again shows us why the OOC schedule is not as bad for us as we want to believe in terms of what we are ready for. We still have de

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