DC Native wrote:

I think they have more offensive boards on this possession than they usually have in a full game, lol.

0-10 in a single possession.  Impressive.
 

Attention to detail not there tonight. It seemed like the guys were just a step slow on defense. With Joe's coming off a loss and Lange coaching for his job this was always going to be a tough game. Joe's is certainly not short on talent and Fleming was very impressive.

Whenever GW faces a team in the league with a good backcourt, it's just so striking how much weaker the guard play is on the Revs side. Who on the team can create their shot to the level X Brown/Reynolds can? Zero made threes in the second half, so despite better play towards the end a comeback was impossible. Not really sure you can say any of the guards had a good game tonight outside of a nice stretch from Ty, who is continuing to play better with more PT. Might as well keep giving him significant run for this final part of the season. Excited about his potential moving forward.

CC has to play Gerald many minutes because there's not really other options, especially with significant experience. Drumgoole has shot under 40% from the field in 10 of 14 conference games. 2 of the games he didn't were the first two against Richmond and Dayton, so really in the last five weeks or so he's shot 40% or better just twice. 44% of his made threes in conference play were in the two contests against the Spiders. To his credit, he didn't settle for many threes today but he's simply not a primary option on a team that would be above average in the A10. The play in the second half where Drumgoole wasn't ready when SJU inbounded the ball to a shooter in the corner for 3 made me want to pull my hair out.

Tricky had zero shots in the first half. He only had one foul in the first 20 minutes so there's no excuse for that. In most games, he should probably be the guard with most shot attempts on the team. Of course, part of the reason GW lost control of the game coming out of the half was Autry picking up two more fouls in the first two minutes. After the last game, CC yanked him this time around which was probably the correct call. The Hawks did admittedly do a good job on him, as none of his threes were particularly clean looks. Regardless, we need Trey to stop fouling so much and stay on the court as much as possible. Again, it makes me want to pull my hair out every time he commits a stupid foul. Maybe I can join the coaching staff once I'm fully bald.

CJ is a streaky offensive player at this point in his career, so it is what it is. Down the stretch of games, he cannot seem to make his FTs for some reason (in general, the guards got to the line for two FTs four times and they did not make both shots in any of the trips). To his credit, he did make up for the misses by generating a steal. It would be cool if he could develop a more consistent three ball (make at least one a game) but he's had a good first year overall. Pretty much nothing from Jacoi or Trey Moss. Why Hutch insists on taking that off-balanced contested three so often is beyond me. GW would also benefit from getting into the flow of their offense a bit earlier in the shot clock.

The frontcourt was solid, but their usage was higher than expected tonight because the guards pretty much gave nothing. Sean had as good of a game as could be expected. Rafael has continued to be great but are we sure he should be getting 20 attempts? As CC said above, Castro probably should have attacked the rim a bit more on a few of the attempts. Jun has to finish through contact a bit more often. Unfortunately, when Joe's blew the game open in the second half DBJ's misses were glaring when the Hawks were making their close proximity attempts that were decently contested on the other end. Both Jun and Slim deserve credit for improved shooting from the line though.

The other question becomes whether the analytically driven approach fits this team. When the other team has a shot blocking center, GW is getting all their shots near the rim blocked, and they are unable to make threes a few midrange shots to open things up may not be the worst thing in the world. Tonight it felt like either bricked three or blocked layup. The only way to break the cycle was a trip to the free throw line.

With a rematch against UMass up next, GW's backcourt is going to have to hold their own in a battle against Diggins/Curry. When every guard plays poorly it becomes easier to take away the frontcourt. If the Minutemen backcourt dominates again, the losing streak at home will continue. They will also be ready after getting blown out at VCU tonight.

Gwmayhem wrote:

Nicely done as always DMVPiranha.

Thanks!!!

1. Saw some similarities to the VCU loss in that GW got off to a quick start only to see their opponent weather the storm and get back into the game in the first half.  GW could have had an 8-10 point lead at the half which would have forced the Hawks to work very hard after halftime to get back in the game.  Instead, SJU led by 3 at the break with the momentum very much on their side.

2.  What went wrong in the first half was GW's insistence on passing up good scoring opportunities to either make an (unnecessary) extra pass or otherwise pull the ball back out.  This has been a problem of late and one which I hope gets emphasized in the film room.  Here's the shot you could have had, and here's the inferior shot or turnover which resulted from you're not making the correct play to begin with.

3. GW corrected this to a large extent in the second half only to discover a new problem; namely, an inability to finish around the rim and in the paint. Give the team an A for effort on all of those offensive rebounds but if you're not converting those chances, you might as well just run back on defense.  Perhaps the biggest storyline of the game is that while SJU scored 17 second chance points on 10 offensive rebounds, GW scored 15 second chance points on 21 offensive rebounds.

4.  This is something I hated to be correct about but GW again struggled against a team that fits a rugged profile.  Either shots were getting blocked or severely altered.  GW pulled the string on maybe 5-10 shot attempts, a sign that the Hawks' defensive presence was very much inside their heads.  Don't be misled by the rebounding totals where GW was essentially playing volleyball in the second half.  The only brute strength we have down low is Jun who just can't be that guy right now (it's pretty apparent that he's been playing all season with his body not quite right).  Slim battles like crazy down low but there's a reason he has his nickname.  Sean takes up space but is more of a pick setter and finesse player than a guy who wants to mix it up down low.  

5. Our backcourt is not exactly off the hook regarding this performance.  The guards + Drumgoole were 9-30 from the floor and that includes Ty's 3 timely three pointers.  On the other end, they were no match for Reynolds (please leave St. Joe's already) and Brown.  

6.  As CC suggested, it was a bad night to play poorly with plenty of mental mistakes to go around.  The glass half full suggests that the team could be favored in three of its final 4 contests.  The glass half empty says that this team could easily struggle again with UMASS and La Salle unless it can learn how to defeat this style of play.

Repeat after me ... It's a guards' game. I have been banging this drum for weeks now. GW will go as far as the guards (and I include Gerald in this) take them. The inconsistency of the Conference season is due to the inconsistency in guard play, mostly offensively.. Until it improves on a regular basis ... expect uneven results. To me, everything else is secondary.

Last edited by GWRising (2/20/2025 4:31 pm)

Free Quebec wrote:

One thing I forgot to say about the game Xzayvier Brown carries the ball when he dribbles more egregiously than I’ve ever seen. I know I sound like an old man since they never call that anymore, but some of his Carrie’s were ridiculous.

I also noticed that. I went to the MD game last night and saw tons of blatant traveling.