This game was pretty much decided in the first two minutes. The result and margin weren't surprises. Dayton is the better team in pretty much every area, although you have to wonder how they've been able to do this with 10 freshman on the team. Talent is great but they already have the ability to play together. I really hope we don't get blown out against them for the next three years against their current roster, but I don't see a scenario where that won't be the case given how we've fared. Hope we only face them once a year in future seasons.

Credit to Dayton, but we were woefully unprepared for the game which is less acceptable. The UD Arena atmosphere and Dayton's length gave us real fits, but offensively we had trouble even making a single pass in the halfcourt, had absolutely no rhythm going, and started going one on five because things started getting tough. Don't get me wrong, Dayton is #1 in the league in scoring defense for a reason but we were losing the ball like we were facing VCU or something. It was alarming. It's hard to score against Dayton inside, but you have to have good ball movement and make enough outside shots to keep within range. We unfortunately looked like the GW team from the first half of the year.

The biggest issue in the game (and during conference play) has been the defense. In many conference games, we've made enough shots to ignore it, but this team has been pretty bad on D. I actually think a team like Fordham or URI would be a harder matchup for Dayton because they are more disciplined defensively as a team (and both teams played Dayton a lot closer at their place). To have a chance against this Dayton squad, you have to turn the game into a low-scoring slugfest. We didn't run back when we missed shots on offense and the rotations were atrocious. Dayton had a dunk fest and when they felt like it or an open three point contest with no one contesting. We've been better with recovering back to the three point line in recent games, but were really bad in this one. It was so bad in the first half that the closest we were to closing out on a three was Hunter fouling and giving up a four point play. We've had moments on defense, but there is usually no communication on that side of the ball. It looked like we had no idea where Dayton was going with the ball. I appreciate JC taking two timeouts in the first half, but the team just clearly didn't have it.

I usually keep watching even when GW gets blown out, but there was nothing that GW did well before halftime, so I switched to watching WBB for most of the second half (what a win for the ladies!) I will say we looked better on the couple plays I watched on defense, but the game was already decided at that point. I didn't flip back to the game until there was like a minute left.

It was nice to see Ricky have a better game, because we certainly needed that and will need that moving forward. I actually would have preferred Ricky have started against Dayton even with his recent struggles. Qwanzi is not the kind of player that can hang with Holmes/Camara down low.

There is always a concern for injury, but I actually don't mind that JC kept the starters in deep into the second half. Most (if not all) of our starting core will be back next season, and we might as well start figuring out how to play the Flyers tougher for the next couple of seasons. As much as I like Amir and Bryan, both are graduating after the season and aren't in the plans long term. There's a case for Daniel but from the few minutes he's received he looks like someone who would benefit from a redshirt so he can adjust to the speed and demands of the college game. I think long-term he could be a rotation piece, but right now I'm not sure a few minutes of court time would make too much of a difference. Coming out of HS, he seemed like a pretty good shooter offensively but won't blow you away athletically or defensively. The key question is whether he can be an A10-level defender. Perhaps he'll be better with an offseason under his belt, but right now he's looked lost even in garbage time.

gwstudent2024 wrote:

Here's what JC said when asked about why Nixon hasn't played this year (after the SLU game):
“Yeah, he's a good player, you know, he's gotten a lot better. Sometimes these freshmen transitions take a while. And he's really played better as of late in practice. He's kind of starting to really show who he is as a player. And it's hard. He's a guard. So he's in there with Brendan Adams, James Bishop, Joe Bamisile, Brayon Freeman. He's got a pretty good room of guys there that can all really play. You know, he's got five guys right there that are pretty talented. He does a great job of learning from those guys and he could be really ready to play at some point this year if he has to do that. I think he's really bought into the process of getting better as of late. And when I say as of late I mean the last two months he's been outstanding and he's actually getting better. So it's been, you know, he's got a chance to be a good player. I don't know if it'll be this year. But I definitely have confidence in the way he's been working lately that he's gonna be a good player at some point in his career.”

This is classic coach speak. It sounds like JC was talking in circles for seven lines when he could have just said "he's working hard with the hope that he's ready down the line". If anything, the quote above makes me think JC is less confident that Nixon will ever be able to contribute.

Next up is Duquesne. They have been struggling (and are obviously nowhere near Dayton's level), but no road win is a sure thing. We certainly can't show up with the energy/intensity we did today though.
 

Did anyone who actually made it through this entire quote by the coach on Nixon do so without a headache afterwards?