22ndandF wrote:

but for goodness sake, to suggest Jamion doesn't know what he's doing, or worse, that he's lying, or stupid or trying to mislead us is just hideous and juvenile behavior.  Why don't we all give the team a chance to play for a while and see where we are at the end of the season?  
 

Merrick wrote:

It’s looking more and more like JC’s biggest wins at the Smith Center will be wins over GW by MSM and Siena.

This is sort of what I was getting at with my poorly phrased thread earlier this season that JC is coaching like a coach on the hot seat. Prior to coming here, JC had the resume of a coach who plausibly could be hired by an A10 school. I seem to recall his name was brought up for Georgetown before Ewing was hired so it’s not like he was plucked from obscurity like Mojo. He clearly “can coach” as he won the NEC tournament twice. You don’t win conference tournaments if you’re clueless on how to coach basketball. 

The JC of MSM and Siena does not look the JC of today. Not only did those teams play with “Mayhem” on defense but even on offense there were cuts and movement to get guys open for threes. Frankly, the players on his MSM teams played with a sense of aggressiveness that I have not seen once here at GW. They weren’t afraid to go up against Villanova in the NCAA tournament even though Nova eventually pulled away. Maybe JC got lucky at MSM to have someone like Junior Robinson running the point. But I am convinced MSM JC would beat GW JC based on hustle alone.

As LSF said, what we’re getting is really no different than Mojo’s last year. The offense is slow and bland. The defense is non existent and the guys show absolutely zero effort (maybe with the exception of Brayon). I don’t know if maybe JC got in his own head too much moving up to the A10 that the MSM style of play wouldn’t work but he really should’ve just tried to run things like he did at MSM even if he didn’t have the personnel for it in year 1.

I think he probably now regrets branding himself as a turnaround artist because after the difficulty of Year 1 he’s spent the next two years trying to patch together a turnaround and it’s arguably gotten worse with supposedly better talent.

We have to go 8-12 the rest of the way to match our record from his first season, a team filled with Mojo recruits. Anyone see THAT happening?

Last edited by GW0509 (1/09/2022 9:23 am)

22ndandF wrote:

Many of you know much more about basketball than me, and perhaps the harsh words and criticism of Jamion is somewhat valid. This was our first game in almost a month and we were playing against of the nation's better teams and one of the A-10 heavyweights and we had no real home court advantage.  I'd also suspect that Jamion has been unable to have full practices with his newly formed team for a long time, until possibly very recently.  On top of all of that, we've had an obvious problem in the middle since the year began and it can't be fixed with current personnel. Against this backdrop, IMO it's not reasonable to express valid frustration by pointing the finger at any player or our coach.  IMO, it's like blaming someone for a hurricane. I'm not saying we're perfect, but for goodness sake, to suggest Jamion doesn't know what he's doing, or worse, that he's lying, or stupid or trying to mislead us is just hideous and juvenile behavior.  Why don't we all give the team a chance to play for a while and see where we are at the end of the season?  
 

Wow!  Have you not been paying attention the last 2.5 years?   When you watch the games, are you thinking that we are running a cohesive offense or defense?   Do you believe that the players are fundamentally sound?   Do you think we are a half season away from being competitive?   Do you think that this team, under this coach, can even sniff 500 next season?    Count up the numbers of games we lost under Christian that we should have won as opposed to the number of games that we won but should have lost?   Which is the higher number?   Even with their flaws, do you think the players are playing up to their potential?   Are there problems in the middle?  Absolutely.  There are also problems at the point.   And the front court.   Who assembled this team?   Answer...it is 100% on Christian.   Its as if he recruited the kids entirely on highlight videos that they made as opposed to an assessment of strengths and weaknesses.  I can go on and on, but let me throw it back at you 22nd and F...except for a very pleasant and likable manner, what exactly about the coach do you like?    

Last edited by Long Suffering Fan (1/08/2022 11:41 pm)

Mojo's record his 3rd year at GW basketball was 4-9 after 13 games, playing a much tougher schedule.  Losses included at Virginia, vs. Michigan, at Harvard. South Carolina and at Princeton.   Mojo would finish the season at 9-24, after going 4-14 in the conference.   Does anyone really see our winning 4 games in the conference or 9 games for the season?   Our last game under Mojo was on March 14th. Mojo was fired on March 15th.    

Last edited by Long Suffering Fan (1/08/2022 11:42 pm)

Deleo wrote:

FredD wrote:

I’m just so tired of GW doing nothing well. Doing nothing that might be a problem for the opponent.

There’s a lot of things causing that today:
long layoff
Covid
guys still learning each other’s games and how they fit together 
early start
chilly afternoon 
general malaise
 

I understand Deleo, but that doesn't explain doing nothing well for 40 minutes. I couldn't even tell what offense or defense the coaches were asking them to play.

Long Suffering Fan wrote:

22ndandF wrote:

Many of you know much more about basketball than me, and perhaps the harsh words and criticism of Jamion is somewhat valid. This was our first game in almost a month and we were playing against of the nation's better teams and one of the A-10 heavyweights and we had no real home court advantage.  I'd also suspect that Jamion has been unable to have full practices with his newly formed team for a long time, until possibly very recently.  On top of all of that, we've had an obvious problem in the middle since the year began and it can't be fixed with current personnel. Against this backdrop, IMO it's not reasonable to express valid frustration by pointing the finger at any player or our coach.  IMO, it's like blaming someone for a hurricane. I'm not saying we're perfect, but for goodness sake, to suggest Jamion doesn't know what he's doing, or worse, that he's lying, or stupid or trying to mislead us is just hideous and juvenile behavior.  Why don't we all give the team a chance to play for a while and see where we are at the end of the season?  
 

Wow!  Have you not been paying attention the last 2.5 years?   When you watch the games, are you thinking that we are running a cohesive offense or defense?   Do you believe that the players are fundamentally sound?   Do you think we are a half season away from being competitive?   Do you think that this team, under this coach, can even sniff 500 next season?    Count up the numbers of games we lost under Christian that we should have won as opposed to the number of games that we won but should have lost?   Which is the higher number?   Even with their flaws, do you think the players are playing up to their potential?   Are there problems in the middle?  Absolutely.  There are also problems at the point.   And the front court.   Who assembled this team?   Answer...it is 100% on Christian.   Its as if he recruited the kids entirely on highlight videos that they made as opposed to an assessment of strengths and weaknesses.  I can go on and on, but let me throw it back at you 22nd and F...except for a very pleasant and likable manner, what exactly about the coach do you like?    

Long Suffering, I believe you've make some good points, and I don't disagree with many of them. The question you're asking me however I feel is silly. I like the same things everyone else seems to like about Jamion.  I also like that he has a vision.  I like that he does run plays.  I like that he doesn't tear the players apart in public when they don't execute.  What else to I like?  I don't know yet because he's really not had an adequate opportunity to showcase his skills (and nor have the players).  We clearly don't have a lot of depth, but a lot of that I would say is not Jamion's fault. IMO, he came in to a challenging situation and, mostly because of COVID-19, has not had the opportunity to do what he'd like.  That's why I feel some of the recent criticism of his performance as a coach is unwarranted and even objectionable. Last year one person on this board wrote some unthinkable and disgraceful things about the Coach. I'm not equating the invalid critiques with that, but I would expect better from adults.

Last edited by 22ndandF (1/09/2022 12:38 pm)

Right now the vision is that JC has too many losses and it's not clear how GW is going to reverse the downward trend in his three seasons.

And then there is this: JC is on pace to be the first GW coach to have a three-year stretch where his team couldn't get its winning percentage above .375 since Bill Reinhardt in the 1960-61 (.346), 1961-62 (.375), 1962-63 (.348).

Once again, he seems like a very nice man and it would make me very happy to see this season's team start winning regularly and have some signs of more improvement next season. 

The biggest issue to me is this team has consistently lost to low mid-majors all three years. It'd be one thing to struggle with top of A10 as JC builds the program back up, but we're consistently struggling with the likes of Coppin State, American, Hampton, etc. There is no reason GW should ever be a near-300 ranked KenPom team 

I like JC and continue to wish him success. I'm sure he wants to turn this thing around more than any of us.

However, from the announcement of his hire, I thought he was a bad choice because he was not ready (which his .500% record at low level schools proved). Do I fault him for jumping on a 5 year contract and opportunity to coach in the A-10? Hell no - any of us would have done the same thing. The opportunity only arose because of the 2016 debacle. Like Mojo (who was also not ready), hopefully JC will have opportunities in the future and the GW stink on his resume will eventually fade away.

With that said, sit back and chill out because he is here another 2 years and someone else already said, nothing is going to suddenly change and make us a top 50 team again. After his 5th season, both Tanya and JC will be gone and the next hire will not be as a result of our 2016 screw up.