Can you knuckle heads not put it on pause for a couple weeks?! We've got the NCAA tournament going on.  

This would be a great thread for sometime in June, see you then

Dr Mike wrote:

GWRising: I get you are a super fan of GW Basketball and based on some of your writings closer than most to JC and the program he oversees. I suspect in some cases you have taken on the role as the conveyer of information for JC to counter some of the dissatisfaction with men's basketball program developments. Some postings try to mitigate or lessen the significance of the developments with various upbeat of good things to come. This is a fine role to play, but we can often become blinded with coach speak and supporting of the future while the present is dysfunctional. We often see supporters find a whole bunch of reasons why a coach is not successful. No one has asked JC to solve COVID or do any of the other things not expected of a basketball coach. For the most part external factors have little control by the head coach and in this case the university.

On the other hand, which is the main event, alumni and basketball fans can evaluate a coach regardless of the external factors,  on how well the team and coaching staff performs. Not just wins and loses. It is all the other stuff, stuff that really matters and leads to a W or L: strategy, defense, offense, substituting, etc. that can be evaluated and analyzed that any half smart basketball fan can and should question JC's ability. 

I am not suggesting you should not continue your role as a voice for the coach on this Board. But, lets not muddy the waters by adding stuff that has no relationship to a coaches ability to perform basic job functions. Adversity can tells us a lot about the coach. In my opinion JC has not lived up to the billing and is using a bevy of excuses. Now, we can pretend there is a Plan and everyone must be patient and give the Plan time. If the Plan is to turnover the roster, then its time for a victory parade because JC has done this twice.  If the Plan is to replace assistant coaches, then a second parade is in order, because he has done this. This is the Plan when coaches are in trouble turn everything over and find someone to be their voice to quiet the unhappy alumni. 

On another note I do enjoy reading your post. I am only suggesting removing some of the blinders and give a peak to reality.        

Dr. Mike -  To ignore what occurred outside of basketball this year at GW is to refuse to acknowledge the elephant in the corner of the room. It had an impact on everything from skills, to cohesion on the court, to conditioning, to even the X's and O's deployed.. Maybe if we had an established program the effects would not have been so severe. But the fact is we are rebuilding and this threw a huge wrench in the "plan". That's not an excuse that is just reality. I am certain JC knows he needs to win but at least judge him in a year where the only factor is basketball.

That said, I do not speak for JC. He can speak for himself. I do not convey information for him. He has never asked me to post a thing here. But when I see misinformation and bad takes being posted I tend to respond based on my knowledge of the program and the players. You can call that blinders but I thought everyone was entitled to a defense. At worst, it is no more or less blind than those who believe everything that occurs lands at the feet of the coach. 

Last edited by GWRising (3/21/2021 3:18 pm)

I am willing to say that there was a plan that quickly became abandoned.  Covid had something to do with this but not everything to do with this.  Probably easiest if we break things down both ways.

Because of Covid:  GW was tasked with trying to build a cohesive team with players who for the most part had no experience playing with one another.  This meant no off season workouts, a late start to holding practices, many losses to schools from smaller conferences, a cancelled game against UMASS for understandably frightful reasons (some may forget that while UMASS got to leave town and recall how scary this all was, GW of course stayed in DC, left to wonder what might take place next), and a 35 day Covid pause that resulted in many within the program getting the virus as well as some players leaving the team or being too sick to play once games resumed.

Not because of Covid:  A second consecutive year of a series of OOC losses to schools from lower level conferences is troubling.  Role changes to Maceo and JNJ resulting in their mid-season transfers.  And most notably, team construction which is what I'll focus on.

There was a plan and it was to play like Alabama.  The coaching staff practically salivated last off season over the notion of having Battle, Jack and Seymour on the same team.  Add Bishop who it was thought could reliably hit three point shots, Moyer who it was thought could be a pick and pop guy from 3, and Brelsford who would be slowly integrated into the lineup but who the coaching staff knew could dependably make three point shots and you had a team whose goal was to attempt 45-50% of its field goals from outside the arc.  This was a big part of the plan.

What came to fruition in very little time was how this group of shooters were going to have problems being able to defend.  Battle's defensive instincts needed work.  Jack could not stay in front of his man.  Bishop had so much responsibility on one side of the ball that he was either unable or unwilling to truly commit himself defensively.   (I say this from the standpoint that James did make some impressive defensive plays but never really seemed determined on defense to consistently shut down his man.)  Seymour's defense is more like an "insert your own joke here" but to be somewhat diplomatic, the game moved a bit too quickly for him.

GW ended up shooting just under 34% of its shot attempts from downtown.  By contrast, Alabama shoots 47% of its shots from 3 .  Also, the Crimson Tide has 6 players who have blocked at least as many shots this season as GW's leading shot blocker (Chase Paar with 11).  Herbert Jones is the SEC's defensive player of the year.  Alabama defends like crazy.  That's the formula...take 3's, layups and foul shots while defending like crazy.  Last offseason, I believe that this was GW's plan.

The plan was abandoned largely due to defense.  You couldn't possibly play Battle, Jack and Seymour all at the same time (which would have spaced the floor considerably for James to work) without a fear of being run off the court on defense.  The idea of playing zone seemed to gain some steam and JC decided to unveil it against Navy to disastrous results.  JC perhaps half-jokingly indicated that the decision to try it was in part a reaction to fans wondering why the team never played zone.  When it too did not work very well, JC laughed it off saying he won't be so quick to listen to the fans again.

The problem though was that the team had an off season, even a truncated one, to work on playing a zone, yet it very much appeared as if it failed to do so.  That says to me that JC had no intention of playing much zone this season, and then reverted to it just before the start of the season.  Playing zone well requires a great deal of communication which in turn requires a great deal of repetition during practices.  Without these reps, it appeared like players were left to figure out what playing their portion of the zone meant.  Once the ball went into the high post, our defenders "froze" and we either gave up wide open jump shots from just inside the foul line or were susceptible to backdoor cutters scoring easy baskets.

This all said, the real problem goes back to roster construction, specifically for defense.  It appears to me that so much of the plan centered around how to take more 3's and space the floor that very little attention was paid to how this team was going to stop the other team.  Having Lindo and a healthy Harris for a full season certainly would have helped but would not likely have helped enough.  The team lacks (and for the moment, continues to lack) a true rim protector who can make other teams think twice before driving the lane.  The collective defensive abilities of our guards and wings are below average in my opinion.  Maybe a coaching staff that preached defense and made it a point of emphasis game in and game out could make a difference with the current group.  Or, maybe we just need better defensive personnel to help balance the sound offensive players who struggle on defense.

So, I do think there was a plan, and then there wasn't.  I lie somewhere in the middle between a GWRising who is more than willing to give the coaching staff a complete free pass this season and others who don't want to provide any breaks claiming that all teams had to navigate the pandemic.  My overriding concern is that even if there was no such thing as Covid this past season, I'm afraid that many of our problems are very real and have nothing to do with Covid, roster construction being a primary concern.  I do think that having so many players transfer out of the program is a poor look but it should not be overlooked that many were recruiting mistakes to begin with (not everyone but Battle as Rising thinks, but many to be sure).  The hope is that the team improves not solely due to bringing in more talented players but also due to bringing in players who can fill roles which have gone largely unfulfilled over the past five years.

Last edited by Gwmayhem (3/22/2021 9:09 am)

GWrising- I would not even for one minute pretend like COVID did not impact GW or any other University.  But we can't just pretend the year didn't happen and not evaluate it.  If we were going to do that, we shouldn't have played.  We can't call JNJ and Maceo me-first guys (or imply they are me-first guys) for leaving, but then give the coach a pass because COVID created circumstances under which they left.  Some schools had it worse than others--for sure.  I wouldn't begin to be able to assess GW against the rest because every circumstance is different and I'm not close enough to any program to know what they dealt with.  Did Loyola Chicago overcome massive infighting and threats of leaving to do what they've done?  Michigan came back from some pretty rough stuff to be where they are.  I think every school is different.

Even if we give JC a mulligan, as you suggest (though I'd be willing to bet if GW succeeded this year that you would be touting his success overcoming adversity, and rightfully so), where we are today, what is the plan?  We're waiting (though the longer we wait the more worried I get) for this hopeful infusion of talent that exceeds the play of Battle and JNJ, and Lincoln Ball, and Chase Paar.  I don't quite see how this team of players meshes together yet, and still have no idea how JC wants to play because what he says to the fans does not match the way his team plays.  

Hoping backup plan works out...