Definitely a tough matchup for GW given Loyola's speed along the perimeter coupled with Rubin patrolling the paint however that was a very poor performance tonight. Just not ready from the tip. It felt like the Revs were going to be in for a tough night from the moment Slim missed his first four FTs. The nonstop turnovers shortly afterwards effectively killed GW's chances to stay in it, the majority unforced. When GW had a great deflection defensively, the ball would more often than not bounce right back to the Ramblers. I'll call some of it bad luck, but I'm not sure you can objectively attribute all of it to that. Guys were just watching the ball out there and not going for it.

This felt like a repeat of the Joe's game when it came to the opposing guards getting into the paint. Penetration can be a weak spot for this defense. Credit Loyola for moving the ball well though. GW wasn't terrible defending Edwards (a guy who they knew they needed to stop) and Watson but their ball movement was very impressive and generated good looks. Nwaokorie didn't go off for a career game, but he's now 65% from the field (13/20) in three career games against GW.

Perhaps the most disappointing was the defensive rebounding. For as long as I can remember, GW has always been poor when it comes to defensive rebound percentage. The few times Loyola missed they had too many second chances. They had fewer misses than GW yet more offensive rebounds. That cannot happen. To be honest, the rebounding effort was gutless and inexcusable tonight. It would help if Sean or Jun could help Rafael out there whatsoever.

Then we get to the offense. Look Loyola is good on D, but GW runs poor halfcourt offense. It's not a bad thing to slow things down when you're able to move the ball well and generate a good look. The problem is GW doesn't do that, yet they waste seconds on the shot clock doing nothing. Too much playing in isolation tonight and not much passing. The offense has devolved into "hope Rafael beats his man one on one" otherwise we're screwed. Some of this is admittedly due to the lack of shooting. You can live with a missed three that comes from good passing, however that was rare tonight. The bad version of CJ came out tonight where his layups were out of control. Moss had a nice shot making sequence early on (and made some good passes/flashed good speed) but reverted back to his old self shooting the ball pretty much the rest of the game. Jacoi's awareness in the first half was abysmal, although he played much better after the half. Sean trying the Hansen Hook against Rubin had a predictable result (bad). For as critical as I've been of Gerald, he and Tricky combined for two shots before halftime and needed to be a lot more involved. Ty was perhaps the best guard throughout the game. I loved his energy out there.

Next, we get to Jun. I agree with others that you cannot blame everything on the ankle injury. I'm not sure there's ever been a preseason all-conference selection have this kind of a drop off. Have there been cases of guys who failed to make an all conference team at the end of the year after being on the preseason list? Sure, but I can't think of a guy who had this kind of fall. It pains me to say because I love Jun's personality and what he's done off the court. Once he started coming off the bench full-time, it was hard not to draw comparisons to Max from last year which eventually resulted in an exit at the end of the year. To say he was awful tonight would be putting it kindly. Turned it over consistently and unless he's open in transition it feels like he's mostly lost any ability to finish in the halfcourt when he takes it to the rim. It sure would help if we found him off the ball near the hoop a bit more often (like the La Salle game).

Finally, the guards. CC will have to make tough decisions in the offseason because I think you can make an argument for something each of the guards do well, but none are consistent or can dynamically create their own shot. Addressing the shooting is the first priority, but the team cannot have this many shots blocked on offense next year. If you cannot shoot or finish inside it becomes next to impossible to generate offense against a top half A10 team. Loyola had the backcourt edge by a considerable margin (they're a bit more experienced as well). GW has clearly taken steps forward, and that should be celebrated. However, to take the next step better backcourt play and defensive rebounding is a necessity in order to be competitive against the best on any given night. It was a tough night, and I'd expect a rebound for the final week of games before the postseason.
 

He looks like he put on some weight. And most of his other teammates looked 1/2 to a full step slow. A real stinker.

1.  I guess what I should have said in my pregame comments is that I was expecting a close loss, IF GW PLAYED WELL.  Needless to say, if GW is going to play this poorly against a good team on their court, you get a 20 point loss that more closely resembled a 30 point loss.

2.  I recall CC's first GW team when he was barely playing 7 guys a night.  One thing that stood out about that team was that it knew it wasn't a physically dominant team and therefore made a serious commitment to hitting the defensive boards.  Max was a standout in this regard but so were guys like Brendan Adams and even Amir Harris in his limited minutes.  It didn't all fall to Ricky Lindo and Hunter Dean.  Right now, it's pretty much falling to Slim for the part.  This team needs to make a serious commitment to having 5 guys crash the defensive boards.

3. CC again waited far too long to call his first timeout.  While there's no guarantee that doing so will slow an opponent down, it has been shown time and again that this is an effective way to cool off a team and slow down momentum.

4. With Rubin and Deloach in foul trouble in the first half, GW was content to take 3's, throw passes to teammates who were not there, and essentially do anything except attack the basket with Loyola's two bigs on the bench.  The team needs to be smarter out there.

5.  The Hansen hook needs to be taken far more quickly.  A slow, methodical, back your opponent down Hansen hook is one that's destined to be blocked by most A10 teams.

6.  A small point that more or less summarizes the game.  With around 40 seconds left in the first half, Jun rolled the ball inbounds to Jacoi who waited and waited before touching the ball.  This is normally done in the second half to save time by keeping the clock stopped. In the first half, the clock continues to run regardless, meaning there is no reason whatsoever to do this.

7.  I don't want to acknowledge that Jun is through with GW.  That said, his play against Loyola made for a compelling case.

8.  Loyola is a dangerous team right now playing with a ton of confidence.  We clearly caught them at the wrong time.  I'm not going to buy into "we didn't want to be there" or "we showed little effort."  Sometimes, you run into a hot team that's better than you to begin with.  9-9 is an attainable goal but nothing is going to be handed to this team.  La Salle and Fordham are neither hot nor any better than GW.  If this team wants to realistically end on the right note, it will win these two, miss the pillow fight, and then hopefully eek out a win at the tournament.  

Free Quebec wrote:

Gwmayhem wrote:

6.  A small point that more or less summarizes the game.  With around 40 seconds left in the first half, Jun rolled the ball inbounds to Jacoi who waited and waited before touching the ball.  This is normally done in the second half to save time by keeping the clock stopped. In the first half, the clock continues to run regardless, meaning there is no reason whatsoever to do this.

While I agree with basically everything that’s been side, I quibble with this point. What Chis did (I think it was Jones, not Hutch, but I could be wrong) is wait to pick the ball up until about 30 seconds left so we could have the final possession.

But Jun messed it up, turning the ball over with 12 seconds left. Just another lowlight in the worst game of Jun’s career.

I stand corrected FQ.  You are not only right about doing this for the final possession but also about the fact that it was Christian and not Jacoi involved.  This is what happens when you can't watch live so you set your alarm for 6:00 am to watch the replay, only to be up watching by 4:45 am.  

JF, I read your post several times and wanted to take my time before responding.  Specifically, I am addressing your plea to ease up on Jun.

Let's start by saying what goes without saying...that this board is remarkably tame when compared to other school's message boards filled with rabid and irrational fans.  If Jun were performing as far below expectation at a bigtime school as he has this season, you'd be reading some terrible things.  That hasn't happened here for quite a few reasons:

a) I think that most here understand that his injury may still be lingering and would like to offer him the benefit of the doubt.
b) Practically everyone here recognizes and appreciates the various ways that Jun has given back to his community with both his time and his NIL earnings.  No matter what you may think of him as a player, it's impossible not to admire the person that he is.
c) We've all seen the player that Jun once was and are trying to be as patient as possible to see him return to his old self on the court.   

For these reasons, I would say that Jun has received far more latitude than almost any other player would have under similar circumstances.

That said, it's not a stretch to suggest that Wednesday night may have been Jun's worst performance in a GW uniform.  Nobody as far as I can tell is blaming him single-handedly for the loss, which honestly would be a crazy conclusion to make.  Nevertheless, Jun only missed two games this season which put another way, has left him with plenty of opportunities to rediscover his game.  I'm not even speaking of him returning as the alpha on this team but rather someone who fits in on both ends and is one of the team's top contributors.  This has not happened, and in my opinion, it is more than fair to express some frustration that it hasn't. 

CC had an off season to figure out how this team would work without Garrett Johnson.  He did not have the luxury of time to figure out how to reintegrate his supposedly top player into a lineup who had just produced consecutive victories over Dayton and URI without him.  A rational fan base can understand this early on but nearly two months later, it is difficult to fathom.  Will Jun follow Max out the disgruntled door?  This could be best for both player and team.  Personally, I hope not.  Jun has proven to be too strong an asset, primarily last season, to discard him (or he us) after a disappointing season.  However, this all is contingent upon whether Jun, his coaches, and his teammates figuring out how to make this work.