Pretty much all I have to say has been said.

Great to get a win when Bishop had an off-shooting night. That's a good sign. Bamasile and Adams are great additions and their athleticism is going to be very helpful down the road. If they're able to shoot from 3 at a decent rate we'll be dangerous on the perimeter. Lindo was as good as advertised and was clearly the most important player for us. Nice to see Harris back on the floor. A little rusty but appreciated his ability to slow things down when needed and how he can be the 2nd ball handler when Bishop gets ISO'd. 

Obviously we have an issue in the paint and Ira Lee would've definitely helped out there. Thought some of the fouls called on our bigs were meh but gotta roll with the punches. Was hoping Brown would take a Larsen-esque sophomore jump but not so sure that's going to happen. If he can put it together we'll have a very complete starting 5.

Overall, I think the team actually played pretty well. They didn't force things often and I actually thought their defense was half decent. A lot of SFA's points in the paint came in the final 5 minutes or so were difficult shots where Lindo/Noel had to be careful not to foul.

Hopefully we can keep the UMD game somewhat competitive but I have my doubts. Regardless, it'll be good experience for the team.

BM, you're certainly not wrong that our half court offense is still bad



We fared much better in transition

BM wrote:

Was hoping that what is, IMO, the biggest issue with the team would be greatly improved this season, but will  apparently have to wait longer.

The team just doesn't seem well-coached.  The offensive scheme, which we stuck to maybe 5-10 minutes, seems to be at the same level as the Hobbs Weave (post-Pikiell).  This eventually degenerated into standing outside the 3-pt line and frantically waving to the ballhandler.  I noted elsewhere that only game I recall that we looked like a well-coached team was URI last year coming out of the COVID break.  Odd stuff like not playing zone at all during JC's first year despite situations that called for it or only playing zone for the first half of last season while teams were torching us from the outside plus the Jameer Jr fiasco makes me really doubt that this group has the coaching ability to get the best out of the players.

By definition, as a long-time GW basketball fan I'm a glutton for punishment so I'm going to overlook this (again) and hope that, miraculously, Christian is going to acquire Jarvis/Lonergan level of coaching ability before the Maryland game.

He seems to be a very good big picture coach, but I do think it’s fair to wonder if he has the attention to detail in coaching of a Jarvis/Lonergan. 

That said, this is the first year he’s had actual talent, and it’s going to take some time together.  At the risk of sounding like GWRising I’m going to reserve judgement for at least a couple of months. 

Also want to give JC for his postgame press conference I just watched. He said the team’s level dropped in the 2nd half, which has been a problem for three years running, and that the problem is clearly him since he’s the one constant.  That is the kind of accountability and introspection we’ve not always seen in our coaches, and I like it.  Granted, he does have to fix it, but I suspect he will (just like I think he realized last year that recruiting guys like Lincoln Ball isn’t going to cut it in the A10 - I vaguely remembering hearing him say that they realize now what kind of players they need to compete in the A10, but can’t recall where I heard it/read it)

I will say, though, that anyone who watched that game should be able to tell the difference between Bamasile/Adams vs having Maceo Jack and Joe Mazzula on the wings.  We are just so much faster and more dangerous on both ends now. 

Bamasile seems like a great person, a natural leader, and a fun guy to be around. I think the joy he brings is infectious.  Reminds of Pops Mensa-Bonsu that way.  I’m excited we get to watch him play here. (And I also liked that he called the foul situation a funny circumstance that is unlikely to be repeated.  Much more diplomatic than I would describe what happened).

A rare game that I missed, as I was in the air on the way to Portland to visit the long suffering daughter, as my first stop before meeting Wisconsin Colonial in San Diego for the UCSD and Fullerton games.  (My daughter is a UCSD grad.  Academically, don't ever confuse UCSD (one of the best public universities in the nation) with SD State).   In any event, was able to follow about half the game on game tracker and have not watched the replay on ESPN+ yet, so I am not really qualified to comment, other than to make these observations, mostly from the box score.
-First and foremost, do not judge a team off of one game.  If that was the case, I would be looking for Bishop to transfer to Delaware next season.
-Speaking of Bishop, players may have taken good shots, some days they just don't fall.  At some point, the coach and/or player need to recognize that the player is having an off game.   He should not have taken 13 shots (second most on the team).   As Mike Lonergan use to say, even if a player is not having a good day scoring, he needs to help the team in other ways to stay in the game.  Again, without the advantage of having seen the game, his other offensive numbers were 3 rebounds, only 1 assist, and 3 turnovers.   Unless he was playing lock down defense, perhaps he should not have been in the game for 36 minutes.
-Speaking of assists and turnovers, it was impressive that we had 14 assists on 24 made baskets.  On the other hand, we still had more turnovers (15) than assists.   15 is just too many times to turn the ball over.
-Again, I know its the first game for a team that is just getting to know each other, but when a good team has an outmanned opponent down 14 points, it delivers a knockout punch.   Instead, we let the weaker opponent back into the game.  Not sure how it happened, but it did.
-I suspect that Brown and Dean are better than their numbers indicated, but how we let their center go off for 17 and 17 concerns me.
-Likewise, the bench played 58 minutes and only produced 5 points (2-10 from the field), 8 rebounds (6 from Amir) and 7 assists (5 from Amir).   Other than Amir, we need more from the bench.
-I was impressed from what I saw from Adams at the exhibition game, even though his shots were not falling then.  I am not surprised to see his numbers from the opener.  On the other hand, I was also impressed with Samuels at the exhibition game and was surprised to see him in the game for only 6 minutes, especially since he had only taken 1 shot (a missed 3).
Still, as someone else said, a win is a win, and I could easily see us as having losing this same game last season.   I still need to be sold on Christian as an Xs and Os coach.   Like most of the rest of us, I tend to look at the team through biased, rose colored glasses, but I believe that the team has performed below their capabilities the entire time that Christian has been the coach, even if the expectations are low.
Was pleased with the student turnout as reported.   I know during previous seasons, the student turnout for the opener is greatly helped by "free food" prior to the game.  Was this the case yesterday?
-What was the season ticket holder crowd like?   How about the Colonial Club turnout?   For the exhibition game, there was hardly anyone at the Colonial Club.
Bonus question.   St Francis had 2 grads who played 10 years in the NBA.  Without looking them up, who were they.  (Hint...do not go looking at any 21st century box scores for the answer).

Last edited by Long Suffering Fan (11/10/2021 2:31 pm)

BC wrote:

LSF are you still in Portland?  I'm just across the bigger river. (the Columbia).

Still here, but haven’t a clue as to where I sm

To LSF.. I think one of the SFU Grads was Kevin Porter, who played for Washington when they were still the Bullets.

BTW, If you have free time and want to watch replay of game, you can do so on ESPN app.

Not sure what a very good big picture coach is. Heretofore, Coach has been a disaster down the stretch in game after game. Do you see him with a clipboard drawing up plays at the end? I don't. More often then not, Christian just leaves it to his players to do the right thing. These are kids and, without coaching help, they often make the wrong decisions. I keep hoping to see something different--maybe an assistant with a clipboard talking about X's and O's-- but no one is filling that void. Would you guys feel so optimistic had we lost this game and we were damn close to doing just that.

Biggest takeaway for me is that I think there are four A10-caliber starters on the team, and Harris and Freeman are A10 caliber depth. Overall that's more talent than in at least 5 years. Don't think it's worth nitpicking the negatives after one game with a team returning essentially 1.5 players from last year, though much of the 2nd half was obviously frustrating.

Post defense will probably be a struggle all year, but Brown needs the experience so is getting thrown into the deep end. We'll see how much he can improve as the season progresses. Also keep in mind that JC's defensive philosophy emphasizes preventing the three, and last night St Francis was 1-9 from deep, so that's a good sign. Naturally that creates more touches down low and opportunities for opposing bigs. Just gotta hope 17 and 17 isn't going to be routine this season. I would anticipate by conference play, we'll be seeing more lineups with Lindo as a de-facto 5, and Brown/Dean minutes going to Harris/Freeman. I would assume Harris is on some kind of minutes count to start the year, and Freeman will get more minutes as he gets more experience.

Rising, a few individuals did complain after we won the only post season National Championship in school history. Fortunately, 1 out of those 2 individuals is still with us. 

Not a good start but hopefully JC will figure this thing out (or he will be looking for a job).

When ML was at Vermont, he used to say he needed "A-10" level talent to be good. When he was at GW, he said we needed "BCS" level talent to be good. Let's not accept mediocrity - we still need BCS level talent to be with the Daytons of the league.

Glad the tide is turning a bit toward realism in the comments. This was not a plus to hang our hats on as a team (compared to a collection of overall players), nor was it a zero.
The problem is the glass is half full and half empty. It provided plenty of hope, but the flow of the game and the end result didn't live up at all to the talent level.
   Only luck in the waning seconds let us beat an NEC team projected to finish 8th, even with the support of a boisterous home crowd. St. Francis is literally not even considered to be the best St. Francis in its conference.
  I see the actual game itself as unimpressive for the team and the coach, but marked by stretches of hope for everyone and gratitude for the apparent talent and athleticism players on the court. 
 The good news first is that the players obviously seem (it's one game but we are counting on their HS reputations plus what we saw) more athletic and to have more natural talent, (though that only matters if we can capitalize on it against A-10 teams with decent talent). Bamisile (also enthusiastic) and Adams showed we don't have to rely on one person to win.
The newcomers seemed comfortable playing with each other and the returnees and passed more than we saw last year. 
    We already knew Lindo was a good player and had heart and could battle for rebounds, which some of his teammates seem averse to doing. Harris showed the skills he already had that don't always show up in the box score. 
    The final what 8 minutes of the game featured a lot of missed GW opportunities. We had very little subbing in the final minutes of the game and perhaps, for whatever reason, the players were gassed, perhaps leading to missed layups. One can wonder, as LSF did, whether Bishop should have hoisted up shots after it was clear they weren't falling or should have played 36 minutes (with some of that scant rest time coming very early) with 2 for 13 and one assist, and again if the minutes gave him adequate respite.
  Couldn't we insert Nixon or Samuels for a couple of quick rest blows for players of height, even a minute?
  Beating a significantly lesser team at home by a whisker, with the Smith Center rocking, is not a huge accomplishment. Especially since we were in clear position to lose but for a missed layup (which didn't cover us with defensive glory, either).
   We made Flagg, a skilled and talented player, but not the quickest and most athletic guy, into a  beast with 17 and 17. Though overwhelmed athletically, St. Francis in a number of stretches, was much better at team basketball and actually creating  opportunities.
The refs were difficult to say the least, at least until the T, necessary but unfortunate timing helped them swing a comeback. Some of their inside drives were with the aid of a shoulder battering ram. Glad FQ noticed this: -" 3 times early in the second, their guy just lowered his shoulder and plowed into our guy, and yet the call when against us."
    There were a number of comments by posters who have seen a lot of GW basketball pointing out the openings in this new GW suit of armor. Some of their criticism made very good points. And BM offered some real food for thought.
 Would like to see the whole game on TV to get a different view, which I'm starting, but I think to some extent our optimism is fueled by just being there. The crowd, the students, Bamisile's happiness, the noise, the cheer squad, etc. made it feel like the old days when we were good and the Smith Center was loud.
    Along with the excitement and seemingly clear potential (if only for 1 game) of the players, made it hard not to view this as a big start. After all, it was more than 600 days since we and the students were in the Smith Center. The atmosphere was pretty much electric; the performance to be realistic, was not totally so, though we can envision a way out of our morass one day.
   The potential seems clear and glad for that, but it's not time to put on rose colored glasses. It's time to build on the players strengths and disguise their weaknesses, as ML would say. Shooting 38.7 percent overall is going to cut it against some good teams.
Let's see how we do against real challenges, like tomorrow against Maryland.

Last edited by jf (11/10/2021 7:30 pm)