Gwmayhem wrote:

No, the players should not be looking ahead to this weekend.  But there's no reason why we can't.

It's not every day when GW gets to play a defending national champion but the team will get to experience this on Saturday.  This post should not be misinterpreted to suggest that GW can't win this game or that the players should take the court seeking out nothing more than a moral victory.  As the wise sage Herm Edwards famously said, "we play...to win...the game."

The reality though is that this game can go any number of ways.  Amongst the longest two hours of my life was when I found myself siting in Cameron Indoor watching a Mike Jarvis coached team fall behind Duke by the score of 40-8.  Some of you may have experienced something similar when South Carolina blitzed GW at Mohegan Sun.  It is not absurd to suggest that Florida wins in a similar manner.

However, this GW team seems to be ready to play against everyone and has not been blown out by anyone.  Of course, they haven't faced a team like Florida either.  CC is 1-3 in games against the power conferences, a surprisingly low number of opportunities over the course of three prior seasons.  They blew out, and got blown out, by South Carolina, while losing neutral court matchups against Kansas State and Washington State.  Worth pointing out that none of these programs remotely resembles a defending national champion.

So the most interesting question in my mind is how this team responds to this opportunity? Do they embrace it, play with confidence, and make it a competitive game?  Do they wilt on the big stage and look shell shocked?  Or is the answer something in between these extremes?

Pulling off the upset would be wonderful yet suffice it to say, unexpected.  This game has the chance to be a huge confidence builder for this team even in defeat.  

Jarvis and Hobbs both enjoyed success at the BB&T against schools from major conferences.  Lonergan seemed to have more success in big OOC games than he did in late February A10 games.  it would be very nice to see CC knock off a big whale.  But if this can't be done, a great effort would be the next best thing we could hope for.

CC may be technically 1-3 vs big money boyz, but I consider it 2-2 since we beat Wazzu but for the blown goaltending call in the final seconds.

As for this game, I don’t think we come out shell shocked.  That said, their front court is HUGE. Multiple 7 footers, a 6’10” 265lb monster at PF who rebounds and defend - but also can score at will when needed, and even a 6’9” SF who is a first round draft pick and would be a PF on most teams.  They are so big, thy have a 7’9” guy who never plays. 

We won’t be shell shocked, but it’s going to be tough for us to get to the rim (and finish) against this size, as well as to rebound. We’re going to have to really share the ball and be aggressive to get points, and battle like crazy on the boards. This will probably the game where we see Castro and Hunger together, though any foul trouble would be a problem so CC is going to have to pick his spots to play them together. Could also see Garrett and Woo playing together a lot to try to match up with their size.

Their guards have been shakier this year but have great pedigrees (and when their guards are clicking, they are almost unbeatable). Our guards will have to play great to win. Maybe a Tre Dinkins special.

Anyway, im really not worried about this team showing up as much as I worry about matching up with these giants. I also believe that we’ve only lost when the other team has played more or less the best they can play (McNeese played great against us with a ridiculous career performance from Machar, didn’t turn it over, shot like 82% from the line, played great d and stayed focused all game; Murray St shot lights out and probably can’t play better than they did against us; even Georgetown in the exhibition benefited from having played together while we hadn’t yet, and because they are a generally poor shooting team that has two guys - Williams and Mulready - each go 4-7 from three, something they aren’t likely to do again all year). We obviously haven’t defended as well as we could, though i try to remind myself the defense didn’t click until January last year, but Florida will also need to play well to beat us.

All that to say, I believe this team will be ready but no way to know how Florida’s size affects us, even if we’re mentally focused and not intimidated.

I agree with the realistic assessments of Mayhem and FQ. I don’t think we will lack in effort. But if we aren’t hitting a modicum of our threes, I fear we can get buried given we will likely get out-rebounded on both sides of the court.

Florida is second in the country at offensive rebounding percentage at over 42% (grabbed 39% last night against UCONN).  The frustrating thing I observed while watching them last night is that it wasn't like they send all 5 guys crashing the boards (which might have allowed for fast breaking opportunities).  Instead, they play three very tall guys, usually two at a time, who are great at providing the team with second chances.  

My guess is that the best way for GW to combat this is to forego the fast break (they can still play at a fast pace without trying to score a lot in transition) while committing 5 players to the defensive glass.