porter71 wrote:

With the power outage in Foggy Bottom, is this game happening today?

Game still on.  Updates to be provided every 2 hours.  Next one should be around 2:30

A10 Commissioner Dan Leibovitz is in the house tonight for both the men's and women's games

Hoopsfan23 wrote:

Game delayed? There’s No stream up yet

Yep tip now at 740 due to the women’s game.

Starters are
Aranguren
Witherspoon
Arcenaux
Urbiha
James

Jimmy sleep in his clothes?

Agree Wisconsin74…Jimmy looks and sounds
straight out of bed or bar 🤣

Nothing to complain about that half.  Energy, edge, free throws, made 3’s, good D and closeouts.  Love the energy from Promis and Lovro.  Vuc is a huge dude!

Aranguren 0:shots but 4 assists. I like it.

Nice first game.  Everyone scoring and good teamwork. 
Best stat FT 15-16  that is not impacted by quality of opponents

Wisconsin Colonial 1974 wrote:

No Shaw - still in litigation?

Correct.

Also for those that might’ve missed it, looks like JRR was in a sling on the bench. Tough break after being out all last year.

That was special.  I’ve seen us win big over the dregs of D1, but I am not sure I’ve ever seen as impressive a performance as the one tonight.

The team is big and physical, deep and talented.  To score 91 points with no starter in double figures (and no player above 14) is truly remarkable. Would love some stats wiz to figure out when the last time a team score 90 without a starter in double figures. Can’t happen very often. 

The best part to me was how hard the guys played. Caputo has been quoted saying he didn’t have to teach this team to play hard and we saw that in full effect tonight. And with 10 guys all competing for minutes, it’s clear that if you want to play, you have to play hard and you have to play defense. 

As for the players:

Aranguren’s passing was so impressive. He was finding open guys early.  Unfortunate to get 2 early fouls. While we didn’t miss a beat without him, it’s also clear that his vision and passing makes our offense lethal when he plays. And his defense was solid.

Witherspoon hit the first two threes to open the scoring, but didn’t get another point. That said, he didn’t stop playing D and he wreaked havoc on Navy’s offense with his size and presence.

Arceneaux was locked in early. He hit a couple threes and locked down on D, but it didn’t feel like he played a ton.  He looked really smooth on the catch and shoot.

Lovro was quiet. Forced a couple shots.  Could have had a few more assists but bigs fumbled a couple sweet passes.  Anyway, it’s clear he’s a player and we didn’t need him.  He sat most of the second half.

James was active, using his size to dominate around the rim. Tried to bully smaller guys a couple times when he could have just gone up for a 4 footer (Spoon did that too), but he was a menace on defense with 4 steals and just demoralized navy.

Vukovic really showed out tonight. His size was way too much and he hit a smooth three. He was so hard for Navy to shoot over him and he fought for 9 rebounds. Only downside was 5 turnovers. Brought the ball down too much.  Still, I’m not sure we’ve ever had a better backup center - no one comes to mind.

Promis is stud. A10 teams will try to force him left so would like to see that more from him, instead of usually going right. But in addition to the creative scoring around the basket, this time he showed passing vision, competed on the boards, and was terrorizing navy on defense.  He had 3 blocks(!) and 2 steals to go with 14 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists.  Shot 2-2 from three and 5-6 from 2. His offensive rating for the game was over 200, earning him KenPom MVP honors. Like what I said about center, he’s got to be one of the best backup PGs we’ve had.

Frost had a late scoring explosion to get to 14. He was impressive in transition and seemed determined to get to the rim. If he can be more than just a shooter, he’ll be a great asset.  His D was better than expected today.

Phillips also defended better than expected, though navy is the level he’s used to playing against. Surprised me with 3 steals. Active hands.

Last but not least, we saw Kossaras playing to his potential. He was the first guy to 14 points. His catch and shoot threes were deadly (though it was our vision to find him open often with skip passes that made it possible). Chipped in on the boards too.


All in all, this was a hell of a statement (and get us right back into KenPom top 100).  Now on to Hampton to back it up - as long as this team plays this hard, shares the ball they did today, and defends like this, we should continue to look great.

I believe that was our first 52 point win over a D1 team since 2015, when we beat Grambling (who was not even a top 350 team that year) by 52 in the opener. Before that it was a 52 point over Duquense in 1999.