Great defense in the second half made the difference. Noticed how we doubled teamed the center position when the ball was sent into the low post. Excellent work. Kudos to Noel Brown for a good game-8 points ,three rebounds. Mark Schmidt saw something that was missing at GW.

Agree with Ralphie. Noel is 6’ 11 inches and 260#. How often does GW get a player at this size in addition to be a local? Noel hustled , enthusiastically was supportive of players on the floor and I am told was a positive locker room presence. CC made a mistake. Noel should have played more and would have helped the team this year.. Once Michigan had a football coach who did not play Tom Brady until his senior year.. Coaches make many decisions that are head scratchers. We can only hope for better .

Houston-we have a problem. Obviously , a coaching problem. Each game we seem to be out coached. We have no offensive sets or plan. Out signature play is a 35 foot shot. Other teams work the ball into the low post, look for easy banks against the backboard. GW takes repeated low percentage shots and has to work to catch up. Time and again GW fails to double team a player with the ball in the low post. Does anyone have an explanation ? GW has a 6 point lead with about 5 minutes to go. We do not control tempo, nor take smart shots and repeatedly take our 35 footer to no avail. Our passing is horrible Buchanan starts the game with two bad passes, then walks into a double team ,creating three turnovers in the first 4 minutes. A dagger may soon enter the heart of the program with a potential 8-10 game losing streak. Will we beat Mason on Tuesday and Richmond the following Saturday. I think not. I am sad. All fans should be sad.

Agree with LSF. An excellent analysis. I believe the coaching staff had a weak game. Even after 13 games ,GW struggles to inbound the ball under pressure. Players stand around and often do not  to come to the ball. Allowing Hupstead to go from averaging 11 point a game to 27 is not acceptable. Players like to be known as high I.Q players. When James fouled a three point shooter with 60 seconds left ,he lost this designation. I believe Buchanan handles the ball way too much . He left 8 foul shots on the floor, missed two bunnies and fouled a desperation three point shooter with 0ne second left in the first half. With 40 seconds left and GW in the lead ,he makes a steal and promptly heads for the basket instead of bringing it back out and taking time off. Contrast this with Garret Johnson who 10 seconds later received a pass and brought the ball out to milk the clock. GW struggles with tempo. We give up leads too easily. I would like to see more Autry and less Buchanan at the end of each half.

I was disappointed that Noel choose to leave. I thought he was a good teammate. He displayed good body vibes on the bench, was one of the first to congradulate  a good play or player. Unlike others , I thought he had skills. He hustled, ran the court and gave maximum effort. Think of how many players GW has had that are 6’11 tall and 260 lbs. I can only think of two-Mike Brown and Alexander Koul. With Hunter Dean leaving the center position was his. I can only think that there must have been a coaching issue that lead Noel to leave. Mark Schmidt at St Bonnie is no fool. He saw something in Noel that the GW staff may have missed. I again am perplexed that a student who lives in Oakton would want to be in Olean N.Y. I wish Noel well. I believe he will blossom in a new environment.

All good points. But, I believe the central issue is that the team persists in a “failure to disappoint mode” Last year losing so badly to Mason and Umass put a dagger in the hearts of Alums who travelled to the games. This year having a three game losing streak to Fordham, Duquesne and LaSalle caused great disappointment. With a 5-2 start in the league, with wins against South Carolina and Dayton, did anyone expect this three game losing streak? Again “disappointment” seems to follow the team and their fans.Additionally, during games, a less  than thought out fan strategy exists. I am in strong favor of providing pizza and snacks to the students. But, whoever decided to bring these to the blue seats and members of the Colonials Club is not very bright. Spend resources and gifts on the students. Old farts like me do not need pizza after eating in the cLub. I like the ides of giving points to students who attend consecutive games. Reach a point level, pick  a lottery number for iPads or a flight to Miami during spring break. The management needs to be creative and efficient. No more  having a repair man with a cast on his hand taking 20 minutes to repair a basketball net.

Overheard two families new to GW talk about how much fun they had at the game. They praised the coach and looked forward to more games. Our next milestone will be when souvenir shops only carry GW gear, hats and T-Shirts. Is a GW fan allowed to smile this much?

I strongly support this hire. I like his time spent with Larranaga, his ties to the DMV and his hair challenged scalp. The last time GW had a coach with a shiny scalp ,we did well with Mike Jarvis. Perhaps the team will learn how to inbound the ball, control pace and tempo, double up on “Bigs” who are stronger than our players and be able to make sound half time adjustments as they are called for.So much was missing from team play these past three years. I look for significant changes.

My take is that a JC coached team rarely got to disappoint. ML teams frequently beat good teams. I can not recall JC upsetting one much better team. At the second George Mason game, alumni packed the pre-game restaurant with a strong buzz. All GW had to do was stop one big man and keep the game close. As usual, there was a dearth of coaching and disappointment followed. Following, a loss to Fordham and Umass was the nail in the coffin. If JC remained the coach, I had planned not to renew my tickets next year. A string of 56 years would be broken.JC has a good heart, as witnessed by playing seniors in the last home game. I was always saddened by the number of players that left the program. Many are now playing on teams as part of the NCAA. The fact that the Washington Post never printed a lead article about GW Basketball shows how little respect the program had garnered. The future will be brighter.

Great reviews by DMVpirahna and Free Quebec. I have been a staunch critic of JC in the past. Against Davidson, there was good defensive coaching that kept us in the game as outlined by the other two posters. That being said, I can not understand why opposing teams frequently  seem to have a player who scores his career high against GW on a regular basis. Davidson made adjustments at half time . GW failed to do so. When you are getting abused down low  many coaches would switch to a 2-3 zone. Syracuse has used this defense since 1996 on a regular basis. JC can only dream of the success that Jim Boeheim has achieved. A variation of this would the triangle and two-keeping man pressure on two guards. Certainly, the team has to practice these defenses. Good coaches follow the Boy Scout motto “Be prepared”