GW Alum Abroad wrote:

So, like it or not, GW is going to the NIT as a 5-seed playing at Utah Valley St on March 18 at 8pm Eastern. Winner takes on likely UNM (a team that blew out GW at home in the 1-27 season), which faces Sam Houston St. The potential third round match-up could be against St Joe´s, UIC (the only team to ever vanquish GW in the CBI), Colorado St or (my dad´s alma mater) Cal. 
Three wins gets GW a game at Hinkle, where the (then-) Colonials never got to play even when Butler was in the A10.

NIT Fever. Catch it.

I’m surprised the first memory of playing UNM that came to mind wasn’t GW’s first ever NCAA Tournament win, on the way to the Sweet 16! A postseason rematch would be a lot of fun, imo.

This Utah Valley team (25-8. 14-4 in the WAC) does not look like a pushover. They beat Cal Baptist (and only narrowly lost to them in the conference tournament final), have won 7 of their last 8, finished first in the WAC and have a KenPom of 90. They have four players who averaged double-digit scoring and go nine-deep while outscoring opponents 80-68 on average. They shot over 50% from the floor this year, too. I am not sold on their green "angry wolverine" logo, however.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2026/03/15/nit-declined-teams-full-list/89154638007/

I had planned to write something after the SLU game but felt so unmotivated to do so after it ended. I didn't expect a win, but the team literally found the one way to make everyone angry. If they trailed throughout or only led by a little before falling apart it would have been easier to stomach, but no they did the same nonsense that was on display against Fordham. Not too different from last year's near collapse against the Rams when they had a double-digit lead or the second half abysmal performance against Mason in the A10 tournament quarterfinals. Down the stretch when the game requires more halfcourt execution, the team just falls apart. The McCottry to Avila pass for a layup feels like something this team would never do. For GW, if the Marshall kickout to a guard doesn't lead to an open shot, this team just seems unable to find a plan B so what transpires is generally an isolation play late in the shot clock that is not an open shot. Friday's game was against two teams that rank high in "rim and 3" offense, yet the execution could not look more different. I'm forgetting which poster on here said that CC often looks stressed along the sidelines late in games and the team's play may reflect that but that certainly seems plausible. The personnel is clearly flawed but I don't know if you can blame everything on that.

Not sure a lot is expected in the NIT, but I hope the team can look semi competent in the second half of a postseason game under CC for once. I'll give the Boise game a pass because it was clear that a few players had already checked out but that second half was brutal as well.

I guess the NIT helps delay any conversations about next year, but I just don't see how the defense improves without Castro around. The interior defense wasn't particularly good with him this year truthfully despite some good individual plays. I cannot imagine what it looks like without him. Luke had a really good stretch, but post-VCU he's kind of disappears for periods and definitely is not an answer to shore up the defense inside.

As for the NIT game, UVU seems like a pretty solid opponent. They have a cool drumline called the Green Man Group. Bubu faced them twice last year while with Tarleton but he went a combined 5-20 from the field in those games.

A potential matchup against UNM if GW somehow wins would be pretty daunting. Eric Olen is only in his first year in Albuquerque but I still remember him destroying the Buff and Blue twice with UC San Diego teams that were still transitioning from D2.
 

Am very much in the DMVpiranha camp in that I felt less than motivated to write about GW's stay in the A10 Tournament.  The common denominator in both game was the team's inability to understand how to play with a big lead.  The biggest single thing to remember is that typically, you don't need to score 40-45+ points in the second half to preserve the win.  It's a lot more about playing smart....not slowing the game down to a halt but looking for high percentage shots or chances to get to the free throw line, than it is about continuing to take three point shots.  Against Fordham, GW missed 8 consecutive three point shots which helped the Rams get back into the game.  (This was compounded by our ineffectiveness at grabbing offensive rebounds, something that GW had done so successfully in the first half.)  Against SLU, GW shot 4-17 from 3 in the second half, the disastrous combination of taking a lot of low percentage shots while making very few of them.  Shooting a ton of 3's makes more sense when you are down and trying to get back into a game, not the other way around.  GW found success this season when they would attempt 20-25 3's in a game, not 39 as they attempted against SLU.

Every so often, the team is feeling it and seemingly everyone hits their 3's.  This GW team had this in them.  Yet this was very much the exception and not the rule, as it is for most teams.  You have low post players who could score.  You have penetrators who can drive and finish or get fouled.  These are the ways to accumulate enough points to withstand big comebacks.  It's a lesson that this team has not learned yet.

Onto Utah Valley State, a team that made arguably the most boneheaded play in the sport (missing an alley oop dunk that would have forced overtime in their conference championship game).  A few notes you may have missed:

1) The Wolverines almost missed out on playing in their conference tournaments (men's and women's).  The school is moving from the WAC to the Big West and was delinquent in paying a $1 million exit for doing so.  It took the WAC Board of Directors threatening the school by forcing it to forfeit its conference tournament participation for Utah Valley to pony up the exit fee.

2) I have a proposition for GW0509.   Utah Valley has a poster on X named The Dude.  He's pretty horrible.  Has made some awful comments that have been flagged by the administrator.  And yet, I'm wondering whether we can make a Dude for Dude trade.  I can't guarantee this would be any better but one never knows until they try.  Again, I'd only be interested in a one-for-one swap.  Not interesting in receiving a Dude to be named later on anything to that effect.

Speaking of Yale-Penn, I really like the Penn PG AJ Levine. Pure PG with a 2/1 assist/TO ratio and 55 steals this year. Not afraid to take big shots. Would look good in buff and blue. We'll see how he does against UNC.

DC Native wrote:

Penn is playing Illinois, not UNC, unless you all are assuming that Penn overcomes the 24.5 point spread and beats Illinois, and VCU loses to UNC (which is only favored by 2.5).

Speaking of Penn, Yale should have fouled at the end of regulation instead of letting them get off that 3. Reminded me of our game versus American last year...

My bad. I had Penn and VCU on the brain when mentioning the brackets. Can't keep things straight with NIT, NCAA, and Women's brackets all happening at once.

And yes, that ending to Yale/Penn was very much our AU situation.

GWRising wrote:

GW Alum Abroad wrote:

So, like it or not, GW is going to the NIT as a 5-seed playing at Utah Valley St on March 18 at 8pm Eastern. Winner takes on likely UNM (a team that blew out GW at home in the 1-27 season), which faces Sam Houston St. The potential third round match-up could be against St Joe´s, UIC (the only team to ever vanquish GW in the CBI), Colorado St or (my dad´s alma mater) Cal. 
Three wins gets GW a game at Hinkle, where the (then-) Colonials never got to play even when Butler was in the A10.

NIT Fever. Catch it.

Not sure whether to be madder at the team for inability to grit out wins at the end or this post. What do you mean "like it or not"? Why would you not like it? The simple fact is the A-10 was a two bid league this year. Unless you thought coming into the season we were a lock to be one of the two best teams in the A-10 (I didn't), why would you ever be mad at this? We could have been a double bye team and still ended up right where we are - NIT. 

Yeah, if we had just been average this year at holding leads and winning close games, which I think was reasonable to expect early on in the season, I don't think we would have ended up looking like SLU or VCU to the selection committee. Instead, we would have looked like St. Joes or perhaps Dayton, both of which are in the NIT. So winning the A10 Tournament was really the only way we were getting into the NCAAs this year. So I for one am happy that we made the NIT.

Incidentally, I hope the administration has finally learned their lesson about scheduling after this year. GW made the NIT over two teams, Duquesne and Fordham, that finished above them in the final A10 standings. That's because although GW finished 9th in the standings, we have the 4th highest NET ranking, mostly due to the tougher schedule (and also because no one ever blew us out). While part of this was out of our control (we must have had the toughest in-conference schedule in the A10, with road games against the top 4 teams and home games against 2 of them), this was also because our OOC strength of schedule was much better this year. The message in the past has been that unless we think we might be up for an at large NCAA bid, which will be pretty much never in today's NET environment, we should have the easiest OOC schedule in the league/country. But our tougher OOC schedule this year helped get us in the NIT, which is good for recruiting, the players, the fans, and the overall program, imho.

Whether GW's participation is a good or bad thing should never be a discussion.  It's more basketball for the players, coaches and fans.  Unless the school is losing money on it, playing against a decent to good field should always be considered a good thing.

There are a number of differences between our NIT Championship run ten years ago as opposed to today.  

1) Most GW fans were disappointed in 2016 that the school had to "settle" for an NIT bid.  From there, reactions became mixed.  Some enjoyed the ride and considered a big accomplishment to take home the program's one and only national championship. Others simply could not get over the disappointment, stating that a first round NCAA Tournament loss would have been preferable to an NIT title.

2) By contrast, there were zero expectations for an NCAA tournament appearance this season.  Even if you were willing to make the case that GW could get by both Stl and Dayton, it was difficult to see a path where VCU lost in the finals to GW.  Subsequently, the NIT invitation became more of a pleasant surprise than anything else.  And to some, a sheepish, undeserved invitation at that.

3) The NIT Championship run featured a road win over a Monmouth team who had beaten UCLA earlier that season and was one of the final NCAA at large cuts.  Beating Monmouth does not sound like much but it was actually a big deal in 2016.  Next came a huge break as we got to play Florida at home due to already scheduled renovations in Gainesville.  Then came a semifinal win against San Diego State, a midmajor who would reach the national championship game 6 or 7 years later.  This year's field is far less daunting largely due to The Crown which will likely be welcoming a high number of P5 schools who otherwise would be NIT bound.

4. While some may argue that the NIT has been losing its luster for many years now, I'll contend that The Crown has truly relegated the event to a "best of the midmajors", with an occasional Wake Forest and oklahoma State mixed in.  Put another way, I believe that winning an NIT title in 2016 is and will be a greater achievement than doing so in 2026.

Still excited to see the team play, but not at all like it was a decade ago.

Mayhem,

The nail biter with Hofstra in the 1st game of the 2016 NIT ended up being our closest game. Hofstra was well coached and came ready to play as I recall. We seemed to get the butterfly's out of our system and rolled through the remaining 4 games after that.