Don’t want to scare anyone but the Buffalo News has a pre game thumbnail of this big time contest.

https://buffalonews.com/sports/college/basketball/gw-squares-off-against-radford/article_d3e6146a-ef5b-576c-aba0-2a4cccb74a24.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share


Fred Dann - Sent from my iPhone

The article was written by a robot. Someone’s got to tweak the “relevance” algorithm up there.

“This was generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com”

GW0509 wrote:

The article was written by a robot. Someone’s got to tweak the “relevance” algorithm up there.

“This was generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com”

You said it more explicitly than I. This is the problem with AI-driven aggregation supplanting actual journalism. Today, it is some simple sports game curtain raiser, tomorrow it could be actual in-depth analysis of an important issue if we are not careful...

Radford Highlanders

Date/Time: Monday December 13th @ 7:00 PM at The Charles E. Smith Center in Washington, DC (Game 2 of a 4 game homestand).
TV: NBC Sports Washington+/ESPN+
Preseason Ranks: 258th (KenPom), 281st (Bart Torvik), 272nd (CBS), 284th (SI)
2020-21 Record: 15-12, 12-6 (2nd in Big South)
2021-22 Projected Record: 13-18, 7-9 (T-8th in Big South)

Coach: Darris Nichols, first year at Radford. The 35 year old earned his first head coaching gig this offseason at his hometown school after spending ten years as an assistant coach with stops at Northern Kentucky, Wofford, Louisiana Tech, and Florida (all solid programs). Nichols played collegiately at West Virginia and spent a single season playing professionally in Hungary before suffering a career-ending knee injury. 2 of Radford's 4 wins are against non-D1 competition, but the Highlanders are playing better of late, winning three of their past five contests after putting up a dismal 33 points offensively in a loss to Navy. They led by 12 at halftime against James Madison last game so a good early start will be key tomorrow night.

Head-to-Head: 1-0, where we came away with a dominant 76-54 victory to open the 2013-14 season. Kethan Savage had 18 points, six rebounds, five assists, and five steals from off the bench, while KevLar (16 points, 4 rebounds) and Mo Creek (12 points, 2 rebounds) also finished in double figures. We only took nine threes as a team, but got to the line 29 times and shot 50% from the field in the game. I was at that game, and it seemed like the only Radford player that gave us trouble all game was YaYa Anderson (the name stuck out to me). He scored 15 points off the bench and was the only Highlander to finish in double figures in the game. There was something about the player who wore #11 giving us fits all season, and Anderson was one of them.

Offensive Efficiency: 259th (KenPom), 276th (Bart Torvik)
Defensive Efficiency: 241st (KenPom), 263rd (Bart Torvik)
Pace: 270th (KenPom), 274th (Bart Torvik)
Returning Minutes: 66% (144th in country) Ordinarily I would say this would mean trouble for us, but much of their returning production is in the frontcourt and with a new head coach I don't think Radford's ball movement will be overly strong.

Key Returning Players:
Dravon Mangum (RS Sophomore; Roxboro, NC) 9.4 PPG, 4.2 RPG; 41% FG, 32% 3-PT, 76% FT
Lewis Djonkam (RS Junior; Springfield, VA) 8.8 PPG, 4.7 RPG; 63% FG, 58% FT
Shaquan Jules (Junior; Atlanta, GA) 7.4 PPG, 4 RPG; 70% FG, 62% FT
Chyree Walker (RS Junior; Upper Marlboro, MD) 6.6 PPG, 7.4 RPG; 51% FG, 30% 3-PT, 48% FT
Xavier Lipscomb (Freshman; Washington, DC) 6.6 PPG, 3 RPG, 1.6 APG; 42% FG, 40% 3-PT, 81% FT

Key Losses:
Fah'Mir Ali (Transferred to Charleston; Wilmington, DE) 10.6 PPG, 2.7 RPG, 3.8 APG, 1.6 SPG; 39% FG, 31% 3-PT, 73% FT
Quinton Morton-Robertson (Transferred to Purdue Fort Wayne; Radford, VA) 7.4 PPG, 2 RPG, 1.5 APG, 1 SPG; 40% FG, 38% 3-PT, 68% FT

Comments:
I'm going to be honest, I was somewhat surprised by the number of coaching changes this past offseason after COVID dominated the 2020-21 season, resulting in restricted practices and thousands of canceled/postponed games. There were some coaches who probably should have been canned even prior to last season without a doubt, but for the most part it's just hard to draw any conclusions from a team's performance, good or bad (poor Oregon State has fallen from a memorable elite eight run to a 1-8 start to the season).

Having said that, there is usually a second group of coaches who get fired regardless, for factors other than poor on court performance. Seemingly every year, coaches are fired due to allegations against them. Just last year, Danny Kaspar (Texas State), Pat Chambers (Penn State), Gregg Marshall (Wichita State) and John Brannen (Cincinnati) come to mind. Like every firing at the power conference level, this leads to a chain reaction of coaching changes, forcing schools from smaller conferences to replace their coach who bolt to better jobs. After Brannen got canned from Cincy, Wes Miller took over the Bearcat program after several successful seasons at UNC Greensboro (the move seemed like a weird fit regionally to me as Miller is a Carolina guy - I thought he had a chance at the UNC job but perhaps that was too big a jump from the SoCon to the ACC). To fill the empty vacancy, UNCG acted quickly and poached Mike Jones (not the DeMatha guy now at Virginia Tech as an assistant) from Radford, a sneaky good pickup for them. Jones is not a flashy name, but there was no doubt he got it done at Radford with five 20+ win seasons in 10 years - he was due for a promotion (I actually thought he might have an outside chance at the GW job being from Silver Spring). To put things in context, Radford only had six 20+ win seasons in 27 years prior to Jones arriving.

The Highlanders named Darris Nichols as coach this offseason, an up-and-coming coach who was widely regarded as one of the better assistant coaches in the country. Based on the newcomers he added to roster this offseason it's likely Radford's offense becomes more guard-oriented and plays at a faster pace long-term (although Mike White has never really had his teams play fast at Florida - the last place Nichols spent as an assistant - despite having the personnel prior to last season; not sure why it took him so long to figure that out).

Unfortunately, it may take Nichols another year or two to get all of his guys in his system. Jones emphasized more size in the frontcourt/crashing the boards and most of Radford's returning production comes up front which clashes with the identity Nichols wants from his team. Radford lacked a true alpha last season (that's still the case this year as well) - the Highlanders had seven players who averaged between 6 and 11 points a game, and the only double figure scorer, Fah'Mir Ali, left for Charleston this offseason (Pat Kelsey takes over that program after a successful tenure at Winthrop - he must have liked what he saw from Ali when he put up 37 points in two games against the Eagles last season).

Dravon Mangum, Lewis Djonkam, and Shaquan Jules make up Radford's returning rotation in the frontcourt. Mangum, a Charlotte transfer, is a stretch big who made 32% of his tries from distance last year. He wasn't as strong defensively as he was on offense but was a strong post-up option in Radford's offense that often looked to get baskets close to the hoop. Djonkam is the tallest player on the roster at 6'9". Given he transferred from VCU you can probably already guess that he is a strong defender, providing a bit of rim protection on a team that really has no other options. Djonkam is probably the most complete player of the trio and is a strong finisher in the post. Jules transferred from D2 USC Aiken and made a very impressive 70% of his shots inside (81/116). The trio combined for roughly 12-13 rebounds last year but likely take a step back in production as the focus on offense shifts to the backcourt. The only concern I have is Noel/Hunter finding themselves in foul trouble as we've seen several times this season already. Chyree Walker, a former Delaware Blue Hen/GW target is the best rebounder on the team (averaged over seven a game last season). Walker is a strong finisher who incredibly managed to shoot better from the field (51%) than the free throw line (48%). He is a versatile wing that can play the 2-4 on the floor.

In the backcourt, Radford returns freshmen Xavier Lipscomb and Keishon Porter as well as juniors Josiah Jeffers and Bryan Hart. Lipscomb, who has an elite name (how many other players in D1 have two college programs in their name??) is coming off a strong freshman campaign where he shot 40% from distance and was second on the team in assists. While Nichols may opt to give his guys more of the ball handling duties, it will definitely help to have Lipscomb around as a proven point guard on the roster. Porter was a part-time player on the roster who could find himself out of the rotation after a subpar year shooting the ball. Jeffers and Hart at the very least bring additional college experience and are above average on-ball defenders. They were change of pace options in the Radford attack last season and were solid free throw shooters. Jeffers is more of a point guard who can set up others while Hart can play more off the ball as the stronger shooter of the pair (34% from distance).

Radford's newcomers to watch out for are forward Rashun Williams and guards Camron McNeil, Tai'Reon Joseph, and Artese Stapleton. Williams, a former 3-star HS prospect/transfer from South Florida, leads a balanced Radford attack at just 8.3 ppg and is second on the team in rebounding. While a three-level scorer, Williams has been a bit inefficient on the year thus far but is probably enjoying an expanded role at a lower level of play. McNeil comes from the JUCO ranks. Like many of the newcomers, he is a guard that can pass and shoot although he is struggled shooting from three on the year thus far. Joseph has made 36% of his threes through 10 games, but has been unable to find any consistency inside the arc and is 40% on the year at the FT line. Forcing Radford to shoot free throws won't be the worst thing in the world tomorrow given they are shooting just 63% as a team. Stapleton, a transfer from D2 Lewis, is one of the best passers on the team and has shown promise when asked to take on more of the scoring load.

It was nice to see the team pull away in the second half against Coppin State (can we just play them every game?). Hopefully we can build on that performance against Radford tomorrow night. It would be tough to see us lose to a first year head coach with 0 seniors on the team (based on eligibility). I have in the past wondered why Brayon isn't starting but I get it from JC's standpoint that he doesn't want to "demote" anyone who started to begin the year. Anyways, I hope Brayon continues to play the bulk of minutes at point guard because it's pretty apparent to everyone that the offense flows significantly better when he's calling the shots. It's been impressive to see him step up as a freshman and not only make sound decisions, but also be a vocal presence on a team. I get wanting to play small with Ricky at the 5, but honestly Coppin is one of the smaller teams in the country in how they play - they don't really emphasize the post so I don't know that we would be able to get away with that for significant stretches defensively against most teams. Radford will be a bit more of a test in that regard, and I'm hoping we're able to string together a win streak before a tough test against St. Bonaventure to begin conference play. If we win against Radford and Maryland Eastern Shore, it will be our first three game win streak of the JC era. That's crazy to me.

Projected Score: GW 67, Radford 62. 69% chance to win (Bart Torvik). ESPN gives us a 74.1% chance to extend the win streak to two games. We open up as a 3-4 point home favorite.

2nd foul was an obvious push too

3-2 Radford at the U16. 

on rate to score 10 pts for the entire game.
 

2 points in 7 minutes. JC seems bent on turning Brayon into Bishop.

Freeman wow.

Brayon Freeman, just one word

WOW