Yes, its almost as if the computer models know things.

 

I thought games like this would be over with the change in coach.  I am still a JC fan, but on offense we look as bad if not worse than we did last year.

How bad is Toro's injury? GW probably wins this game by 8 or 9 if he played the entire game, but that doesn't mean much against Morgan State. 

When is Amir Harris going to be healthy enough to play???

BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD Loss

I only saw the last 16 minutes.  Did Mazzula get hurt too? Didn't see him play.

Losing to Morgan State is pathetic. This is with their team in foul trouble. Yikes. Credit the Bears for playing loose and hard. That is something I've always appreciated about MEAC teams. Leave it all on the line even when you are a massive underdog. With the way we played MSU deserved to win. Hope Arnaldo is okay. With three more freshmen coming in next year, it's clear JC wants to build this from the ground up, so I'd say we're likely a few years away from piecing things together.

Dude - I could see your point against a better team, but Morgan State was ranked 60+ spots lower than us, and we were favored by 9 points in the computer projections. It's hard to defend the team's poor play by just the talent on the floor today. MSU certainly isn't more talented than the team we field.

Offense: The floor spacing was terrible and the offense lacked any cohesion. To be expected with a young team, but similar to under Mojo there is no flow to the offense. That has to be fixed by conference play to give us a chance of winning more than a few games. The A10 is much better this year. Good for the league, bad for us. There's no way to sugarcoat the poor performance today. Playing slow in the halfcourt was a terrible decision as well and makes us play more uptight. Run off a missed shot and play loose - I think that will help the team calm down some. While we did have to shoot threes to even get back in the game, good coaches need to learn to adapt to the needs that fit the team. I'm still a believer in JC long term, but it is so clear this year's team is not one that should be gunning from deep as much as they are. The times we took it to the rim and got out in the open floor was when the team looked to be at its best.

Defense: While you can make the argument that we don't have the players to execute JC's offensive scheme, the defense has been the bigger disappointment thus far, which is less about talent and more about effort. While we are good at running players off the three point line, is that a good thing against a team like Morgan State? We simply don't have the rim protection to make that work (credit Javier for trying though). I would honestly prefer a team like Morgan State to beat us from deep (and teams in the A10). They had just one good shooter as mentioned in the preview (Burke). The Bears had simply too many open drives to the hoop. For us to turn things around, we need to sort out the defense. There is no Mayhem to be found - Morgan State had just 11 turnovers and we generated a total of 5 steals. The defense is just not intimidating. 

Positives: We got to empty our bench and see what we had from others today. While it wasn't the way I expected us to do it (being up big), it was nice to see Shawn get some court time.

Player Breakdown:
AT - really hope he is okay. It was promising that he made it back to the bench, but unless it is extremely minor I'd prefer us to keep him out until A10 play just to prevent re-aggravation. 

Jameer - I know his stat line doesn't look bad, but seeing him run the point today was pretty frustrating to watch. He continues to drive into three and four defenders and looses the ball in traffic more often than not. He was lucky to have not turned the ball over more than he did. If he is the point of the future, he needs to learn to pass the ball out when the driving lane is not there. He had some nice moves, but similarly to Terry his freshman year, they mean nothing if you give away the ball more than you make highlight plays. He does provide offense which this team so desperately needs, but at least early on, he seems to be a better fit off the ball. The plays he and Shawn tried to make threading the needle to the big man just does not work as easily as it did in HS for them. Teams prepare for that in college, but I'm sure they'll improve on that over time.

Jamison - took some really deep threes that weren't exactly open. Having more guys who can space the floor will help him out some, but his attempts said a lot about how poorly operated our offense currently is. Not his best game, but at the very least he didn't make too many unforced errors. Defense could get better, but he had some moments here and there on that end.

Maceo - I think we played him at the 4 at one point late in the game. Based on what I saw, I hope we never have to again. Jack simply doesn't have the size or strength to battle down low. Gave us some much needed offense (I'm sure he would have liked that last three to go in) but tends to be a non-presence on defense. Given the lulls we had on offense, I guess he had a decent game overall.

Armel - nice to see him out there. A loss to MSU doesn't warrant a game ball, but I would have given it to Potter based on his play had we won. He did have two careless turnovers with the ball slipping out of his hands (that CANNOT happen) but did a very good job operating on offense overall. JNJ's dunk will get all the attention, but it was Armel's vision to set it up that made it such a good play. Overall, he made some really nice passes on offense. As one of the guys who was able to get to the hoop at will, naturally he stood out. One of the few things I took away is the potential of Armel at the point and Jameer benefiting with space to operate at the 2. That could be fun to watch this season.

Shawn - for his first game, I thought he gave us a decent outing. He gave the team a lift with his energy (playing the Juice role better than Juice himself!) and even led the team in rebounding today. I will say that giving him the three point attempt to tie the game was a mistake though. I know he was open, but he was 1-5 going into that attempt. One of the bigger disappointments was the final play coming out of the timeout - why not find Jamison or Maceo for a clean look. Heads up play though by Shawn to recover a loose ball soon afterwards and find Maceo with a chance to tie the game though. He has a nice stroke on his free throws as well. I have no idea what the rotations will look like going into A10 play, but Shawn had a nice first outing.

Javier - gave us some nice blocks down low, but like I said on defense, we are putting too much pressure on him to make plays by running guys off the three point line. At the end of the day, he is only 6'9", so his rim protection ability is capped. Still looks raw on offense, but we should be giving him more attempts near the rim with his free throw stroke, not from the perimeter. I will also say a couple of his fouls were cheap, but that's not a big takeaway regardless.

Ace - with the lack of frontcourt depth, I thought we should have seen him more out there. Thought he gave us some good minutes when he played, even if he isn't the rebounder/rim protector Javier is.

Mezie - didn't play much today which was surprising. Maybe JC saw something that made it a bad matchup for him, but as one of the taller guys I thought he could have seen more time.

Justin - didn't see much time either. I saw JC yelling at him when he went out, so whatever mistake Mazzulla made must have been a big one.

Juice - better served down low than along the perimeter. He doesn't look as good this year compared to last because he is asked to shoot more threes which isn't a strength of his.

Adam - like last year, a random appearance today, but he didn't attempt a shot so not sure what the point was. He did pull down a nice rebound in traffic.

We have a bit more time off, as the next game will be at the Bahamas against UMKC. Not a really strong team, but every team is strong to us the way we are playing right now. Hope some adjustments are made ahead of the tournament because things only get much tougher the rest of the season.
 

Two minutes for Toro? If Toro's injury is serious again I doubt GW will match last year's total wins. I didn't see the game because its not worth watching but saw the stats.. After last year I'm not a masochist!

Even with Toro healthy and a "bulked up" Langarica there to help I didn't think GW could achieve much more that last year's team. all things considered (new system, etc.). Another very long year! Love those new recruits though!

This is going to be a bit all over the place:

There was an intensity that Morgan State brought that seemed to really throw GW off its game. JNJ and Shawn couldn’t get the offense set with the full court press and the shooting was just atrocious. Morgan owned the boards and we had no half court inside game with Toro out.

I don’t understand the rationale for the minutes Jamison Battle has been getting. He played the first 25 minutes of today’s game and scored 3 points. He cannot create his own shot, he’s just a pure catch and shoot guy with cement feet on defense. Walker barely played at all before today and all of a sudden is starting AND playing 35 minutes? Those two played a combined 69 minutes today, while Mazz and Mezie played a combined 9. I get wanting our freshman to get burn, especially in the out of conference, but it seems like JC isn’t actually concerned about winning these games. Mazz and Mezie are better players than Shawn and Battle and now are riding the pine. Why? Mazz scored double digits on 1.000% shooting and had 2 assists in only 14 minutes against AU only to get his minutes cut down to 4?

Langarica was bad today. Somebody posted that he can’t be the rim protector at 6’9. Maybe that’s true against a top tier school from the ACC or Big Ten, but MSU didn’t have anyone on the floor taller than that. I get that he wants to play a stretch 4 but he needed to step up today. Him grabbing 3 rebounds was inexcusable.

Morgan has 9 players on the roster from DC/PG/MoCo. It seemed like this was a game circled on their schedule because of that. They certainly brought intensity that GW just doesn’t play with. We have a bunch of super nice kids who don’t get their hands dirty doing the little things. Every screen is weak or doesn’t connect, poor rebounding, getting beat on 50/50 balls - MSU just wanted it more today. Both teams were lousy shooting the ball, hustle and want-to was the difference.

JC is clearly playing for the future. He started 3 freshman today and they ended the game as the 3 minutes leaders. I understand getting young guys experience, but it is costing the team wins.

Last edited by Bmac3920 (11/16/2019 5:29 pm)

Right? 35 minutes for Walker after not playing in the first 3 games one minute?
Why is Mazz being buried all of the sudden?
I'm of the view Coaches generally know better than us, have better information, I rarely opine about rotation etc, it just strange things are changing so much game to game, I've never seen anything quite like it.
Mazz played 31 minutes opening night, scored 10 on perfect shooting on Tuesday, he's been the starting PG the last few years,  I just dont see how he is barely playing and Shawn Walker in his first ever minutes is getting 35 minutes and the game tying 3 point attempt (on a 1-6 shooting day)
We got out-rebounded 45 to 29? 

Meet the new boss.  Same as the old boss.  Thank you Nero and Mojo.   Your legacy’s will llve on for years.

Last edited by Long Suffering Fan (11/16/2019 8:34 pm)