Close game. No prob for us.

Excellent preview, as always.
If past is any guide, Edwards or Dinkins or both will have big games against their former 
teams.
  We're really due for a good shooting game and a win.
  Would feel it, but GW fan.

Impressive comebacks, which should be noted.
Nonetheless, we put ourselves in this situation. And dig another hole when doing it in the
final time.
     Though I figured it would be a 4-point foul. In crunch time, I always think, "what's the worst we can do?" And count on that.
  Frankly, wouldn't have been surprised if an aged Lynn Greer came out of the stands since he played fora Philly team--and made a 4-pointer. Or if we find a way to give up a 5-pointer, creating a new basketball
precedent.
   St. Joe's coach a gentleman about it in post-game (decided to endure the pain and hear it.)
   As I posted before, we make our own luck or lack thereof. 
  Some teams find a way to win.
  We find a way to lose.
    
  

Assuming we don't fold and let them extend this run, game is going to be decided from
the 3, which we are attached to.
Iffy for us. But need Trey, Tre or Garrett to come through or any combo.
 

Well, CC hinted at some physical problems beyond Castro. If so, have to see what they were.
 Otherwise, it's just inexcusable and that's putting it gently.
   We played a 2-6 league team (that also lost to NJIT) at home. Almost 92% chance to win.
We got rocked and looked terrible. This goes way beyond the loss of Castro.
   Ours is a deep team in terms of seeming talent and good NIL money. But we can't get it together--and gets outhustled regularly. We have determination to come back usually (not necessarily win, though). And that didn't even happen.
      As Jimmy Patsos observed beyond his let's say ultra-politely, distracting digressions: why did this team pick 30 minutes into the game to get tough. And that didn't last long. We were killed on the boards, with 
Fordham sometimes getting 3 or 4 looks. Only their bad initial 3 point shooting kept it from being a truly
bad blowout.
    As Jimmy Patsos in addition to numerous digressions on Arthur Avenue, asked:  Why did they take 30 minutes into the game to start being tough? And that didn't last long. Tough defense is possible from these guys, but a rarity. The cherry on top was a couple of their breakaways, including one with a showy slam
dunk that emphasized our chances were over.
   Our preseason hopes, boosted by South Florida win, seem to be built on a foundation of talent that holds up like toilet paper. 
     Next man up pretty much seemed to be no man up. 
Unless there's some real solid reason for today's performance, this is really disturbing.
Especially at home.
      Maybe the word we are looking in explaining our puzzling lack of success is "desire." As in a lack of 
desire teamwise. Especially compared to our lesser opponents.
     This season was our best chance in a lot of years. We seem to have already blown it, unless February and March are very different.

Don't know what is preventing us from gelling or getting it together, but all teams have to compete in this environment.
Maybe I'm wrong, but from one website and roster, I counted 8 or even 9 transfers playing for George Mason. They seem to be gelling quite well.
In any case, they and other A-10 teams have plenty of transfers.
  We have some excellent homegrown talent, such as Trey A and Christian--and perhaps injuries will ease and things will click for Ty B.'s talents one day. And we retained Rafael and Garrett who played for GW in previous seasons.
  We decided to redshirt this year's freshmen.
  So it's up to us to gel with our transfers and returnees.
The current college bball environment is terrible.
  But everyone has to live with it--and succeed or fail.
 

Lot of good insights into the game posted here. And it leads into a discussion of the team as a whole.
    I don't know if it's inattentiveness, lack of focus, or grit or really toughness or defensive coaching, or a losing mindset in general. Prob combination, plus deer in the headlights when we get knocked around early by a tough defensive team and a tendency to lapse into hero ball.
   Maybe missed something, but the only close game we won is South Florida, which seemed to have left us with what seems to be a permanently inflated sense of self worth. Our talent is impressive.
Our record is not. Particularly with the wins and our schedule.
     GMU, Dayton were blown opportunities to get it together and prove our worth. McNeese State debacle, Murray State, Davidson, and Delaware were really inexcusable losses.
     We can come back against any team, but we just can't close the deal. It's very frustrating.
For some reason, we often miss key layups and critical FTs with a frightening regularity.
   Apparent brain farts cost us several games, including Mason. Don't understand the play.
Wasn't there plenty of time to get a shot, down by 3? Didn't need to get fancy. Just get someone open.
Apparently supposed to be a screen. Maybe there was somewhere.
I'll painfully look at it again before burning the DVR.
But I was just concentrating on the inbounds which was thrown into the stands.
         After a timeout.
  Also the sub pattern after the basket was puzzling to say the least. Apparently to the refs also--and everyone else. Ultimately, Garrett was in--but it looks like he may not have been at first. Whether we were planning to call timeout after advancing the ball or not, whole thing was odd and we were icing ourselves.
And what we did right after the timeout was just pitiful.
    We have great and fairly high priced for A10 talent, but maybe not the right mix of positions and players. We shouldn't be searching for our ident

For any new GW fans here: Welcome to our hell.

Offense in recent minutes largely Christian dribbling around, as noted.

Not great shot clock awareness with Christian holding the ball too much.
And we couldn't find a way to use Garrett after he had a hot start.
Looks like Tony Skinn called a timeout with great effectiveness when his team was down.
  Good start before they came back.
Let's win this danger zone for us of first minutes of second half .