I'm not saying he would actually be fired after this year, or rather, I'd be very very surprised if he was fired.  I think next year will be the year we move on if things don't go in the right direction.

But it seems like JC is almost coaching LIKE he is in danger of being fired.  That it's been a whole bunch of quick fixes vs. coming in with a plan of what GW should be and sticking to it.  

I consider myself fortunate to have missed watching the UCSD game. Not necessarily surprised by the result, but disappointed we weren't at least a bit more competitive. The guys looked tired even from the pictures of them practicing prior to the game. The short turnaround was always going to be tough.

The schedule setup is absolutely brutal. Maybe the hope is this will prepare the team better for road games in conference play? After Fullerton, we travel back home for a single game against UMass Lowell (who just beat Dayton) and then head to Florida a few days after that for that invitational tournament. Not ideal for a team with little depth.

Back to JC though since that's what the thread is about. While there is something to be said about being able to tweak philosophy based on the strengths of the roster, there just hasn't been a set system that I've seen on either side of the ball. I remember JC even saying he didn't believe in naming captains, but seems to have changed his stance this season. These things happen - I am happy we have a coach who admits to his faults and is willing to adapt.

We've gone from a philosophy of shooting a lot of threes (half our attempts) to an offense that is focused on attacking the rim first and foremost (at times so far, that has resembled Mojo's teams, but it's still early). The former seemed to impact our defense with our athletic limitations although the offense performed better. Now, while our defense has seemingly improved a bit, our offense has taken a hit with inconsistent shooting. Looking back at JC's previous teams, it has always seemed like one side of the ball ends up being a good deal better than the other side.

Recruiting has played a role in this as well - I'm happy that our talent has improved since JC arrived, but part of Davidson/VCU's institutional success is that they recruit for a set system. What is that for us? Getting just talented players only helps so much.

I believe the team is subscribed to some analytic service - JC said that the numbers suggest they should take about 20-25 threes a game which they have more or less met. However, the team more midrange shots than they should, and I can't imagine the analytics support that.

Going away from the ball screen focused offense was an interesting decision. I guess it makes us less predictable, but the constant has been a lack of passing in the halfcourt (and it has clearly hurt Bishop's efficiency). This team can excel in transition, there is no doubt about that. But since JC has taken over, the offense has been always a one pass (or two) system. If that pass happens to be an open shot, it ends up being acceptable but defenses don't really have to overly exert themselves to defend us. I thought the team played their hearts out against Maryland, but down the stretch we were largely taking bad, contested shots. Good on Bishop and others for making them, but that's just not something that is sustainable. Adams cutting to the hoop and getting an and-one in the second half was one of the few plays that stuck out as a well executed play although that too had limited passing on the play. Teams are probably going to zone us more moving forward and it will take good passing and shot making to get them out of it. Playing uptempo does not mean not passing the ball around.

There has definitely been a better effort defensively, at the very least showing some energy and going after the ball. However, we have really struggled to stay in front of opposing guards and have been taking far too many gambles going for turnovers and steals. Our depth is not plentiful enough for us to withstand foul trouble like VCU. If we were planning on playing with more mayhem, the short rotation doesn't seem ideal.

There is also a considerable dropoff from the top four guys to the rest of the roster. Every team has dropoffs when they go to the bench, but we really don't have anybody who can be counted as a reliable guy that can score from off the pine. One or two would be helpful. I like Brayon as a future piece and Amir is a really versatile piece, but we really lack scoring outside of the top four guys. This likely would have been the case whether or not Ira was healthy because he would have probably just have taken Noel's spot in the starting lineup. Filling Tafara's spot would have been big. Every team suffers injuries, but our already thin frontcourt continues to get thinner, and that's why you see what you have off the bench during OOC play (surprised Bryan and Daniel were effectively DNP yesterday). Hope Hunter makes a speedy recovery.

One final point is playing through the post. It has been tough seeing our opposition get production from the 5 position while we haven't. I think the fact that Noel and Hunter have no roles on offense hurts us. Hunter is not part of the normal offense, so whenever he gets the ball he seems to get tentative in games (same for Noel). It's easy to look back now, but I wish we had given Noel more minutes last year where pretty much nothing really mattered. We are counting on him for big minutes now and it's tough to expect him to have been ready right off the bat. In general, the fact that Noel/Hunter are effective garbage men in the system makes it a 5 on 4 game on offense.

We've only played three games, and I am confident the team plays better over the course of the season. However, the iso ball, lack of passing, and lack of production in the frontcourt will cap any ceiling JC's teams have regardless of who is on the floor - it's a philosophical thing. Maybe Ira would have changed this but we'll never know. That has seemingly been a constant through all of these system changes. You can get away with this in the MAAC/NEC as those leagues are fairly brutal offensively, but from the A10 upwards every position needs to be productive (to be a good team). 
 

Alum1 wrote:

I’ll use the same criteria I used for the disaster that was Mojo - are you seeing improvement from game to game and from year to year? Sadly the answers seems to be no.  And I’m a supporter of Jamion. I went all in, resumed giving and am rooting hard for him. He’s a good man. But it’s time to start showing that there’s a plan, that he can adapt within a game, and that he can bring a team together to play as a unit. That’s where my faith is being shaken.

It’s only been three games, and I have seen improvement in two of them (I know my view of the St Francis game is different from others here in that I thought we played ok and the closeness of the game was fluky). It was this last game, though, where the lack of offensive system and ball movement really hurts. 

I have no doubt that we will be much improved overall this year, though it will be up and down.

My big question, though, is what JC’s ceiling will be.  If the gameplan is to isolate our most athletic players and use their athleticism to make plays, that would be like the Hobbs’ system, which failed spectacularly except when we had 3 future NBA players/draft picks, surrounded by an all-time great Gw point guard and a couple of exceptional role players, so I doubt it’s sustainable.   

The best GW teams other than the one quick Hobbs run have been teams that passed the well and played strong team defense.  I’m seeing defensive improvement already (though the rotations were slow last game), so that’s encouraging, but I’m not seeing the ball movement and I’m not seeing in game variety when one thing isn’t working.  Hopefully it will get better. 

To GW0509’s question, it’s a good one.  I’m guessing JC doesn’t feel like he’s on the hot seat right now because he will almost certainly get 4 years (especially because everyone involved in the program knows last year was messed up - plus we have an AD who moved slow as molasses on MoJo so it’s unlikely she’ll move quickly on JC, when doing so would be to admit she screwed up both her first two major decisions).

However, I do wonder if as a young coach who has never coached or played at this level, whether he is insecure - he’s incredibly sure of his philosophy and the way he brings young men together, but because he seems to be a big picture guy and not a details guy, I do wonder if he’s just unsure of what will work best and slow to adapt.  Plus, as I posted in the other thread, there may be a little bit of one-bid league mentality where the OOC really doesn’t matter because it’s all about winning the league and you can use the OOC to give an extended look to different things. That isn’t to say he’s ok losing OOC, but maybe he’s more willing to stick with something that isn’t working because he’s trying to look long term, rather than coaching it one game at a time.

I am going to let this season play itself out (or at least develop further) before engaging too much in this conversation but the team has allowed opponents 40+ rebounds per game and opponents have gotten more second chance points in every game (which speaks volumes about both the defensive effort and the offensive scheme). Opponents are out-rebounding GW by over nine boards per game. This is an issue we have seen in Cristian´s first two seasons, too. So, while this team is clearly more athletic and fun to watch than the dreary past few seasons (previous regime included), things are far from rosy.

Rozzotti had plenty of time to show her stuff, which she didn't.

Correct Barry. I've seen Jarvis be hailed as a hero then five minutes later called the worst coach in the A-10 here. Penders was a great hire until he wasn't. Hobbs was the greatest after two A-10 championships but then apparently forgot how to coach according to the "experts". Next came Lonergan who alternated between coaching savant and terrible coach during his tenure. Mojo was great his first year and then he wasn't.

So we had a plan Thursday but not Saturday seems to be the consensus here. What, JC decided to take the day off? It's unfortunate that most of you have never been directly involved with college basketball because you would gain a entirely different understanding on the limitations on coaching. I promise you there are terrible lazy, coaches who win and really good coaches who don't. JC has a plan but that plan needs to be executed at a high level.

And to those who say the scheduling had no effect. I respectfully say you are full of shit. Try playing guys a lot of minutes on a Thursday night in an emotional hard fought game, getting home after 10 pm, then turning around and having to go to the airport for a 5 1/2 hour flight across time zones early the next morning. Then, before you have even adjusted to the time change you are playing a game at what feels like 10 pm -12 midnight. We were dead on our feet and dead mentally and it showed. It had almost zero to do with having a plan and everything to do with being unable to execute any plan because we had no legs or energy. If you want to fault JC for anything here go after the scheduling not the game plan although I think he was boxed into that schedule for reasons I won't go into here.. 

That said, I expect a much better effort tonight.
 

Let it play out over the season.  Personally, if we lose 20, that would be 3 straight years of futility under Christian, and we should move on from him.  As for this season, still hard to evaluate.  Hard to assess the impact of our moral victory over Maryland.  They hardly looked like a top 25 program their first 2 games.   (I don’t know what they did in their 3rd game).    I think St Francis and UCSD may be who we really are, at least early in the season.  I will say that I am tired of stinking.  In the half century I have followed the team, the post Lonergsn era may be the worst stretch I have seen at GW. Lots of patchwork being done, but the ship continues to be in danger.  Let’s see what happens on Tuesday.    Like many of us, I am tired of excuses.  Given the talent differential on the court vs UCSD, that should have never happened.  Either we were unprepared or we are bad…either way, III is on the coach, who recruited the entire team and implemented the game plan.

GW69 wrote:

Rising -I will always defer to your inside info and your knowledge of the game. But at some point 
we need to start winning some games.Hopefully tonight.

On point. In the end it is about winning. All discussions about coaching become somewhat meaningless if we are winning. But when we are losing, it's not surprising that a discussion starts about the coaching.

That said, I hope what the Maryland TV broadcasters said that JC told them, ("This is year's team is a thousand times better than last year's team") is true.

If we bounce back Tuesday night and win against Cal State Fullerton, like GWRising indicates, the pain of the UC-San Diego game will be much easier to forget.

I haven't posted in a while.  But I think it comes down to whether GW wants to make athletics and basketball a priority again.  I have felt that over the past few years other things have occupied the Admin's interest.  Now GW's President is on his way out and there will be an Interim President.  

Does that new person want to get into a contract buyout and a new negotiation with an incoming coach?  Does this person want to install a new AD?  Is anyone at the top of GW focused on basketball or athletics at all at this moment?  

I have followed GW for so many years and posted on Herve's board since it began (under another name).  For me, it always came down to the school wanting to make the program a priority.  When they did, good things seemed to happen, until it fizzled or flamed out, and then it was a cycle of losing until it was made a priority again.

I really thought basketball paid off for GW - the big wins against top 25 teams, the NCAA appearances, winning the  A-10 and NIT.  We have seen it all.  Sometimes I wonder if we will ever see it again.