The Dude wrote:

Actually, what I wrote for 4 months Mailvan, was that GW was being picked to finish near last in the league and you were claiming otherwise simply so you could cry all year about Coaching. Clearly the case.

I do think teams are bad or good because of the roster, an obvious reality about basketball as a sport. At every level. HS/College/Pro.  

The Duke Ohio St game, Duke fell behind 3 with 13 seconds to go.  Coach K didn't call a timeout, didn't have a play designed, Duke just dribbled up the court, and had Paolo Banchero take a rise and fire contested 3. If that was GW there would be all sorts of moaning.  

There is some talent on this roster, most of it has never played together before this year, almost all of it.  Shockingly it looks often like a group of guys who haven't played together for years.  But also, there's some huge deficiencies, that combination is why GW was picked to finish 13th.   

GW is so thin in the frontcourt that when Hunter Dean was injured we really felt his absence, and Hunter Dean probably shouldn't being playing regularly even on a back-end A10 team.  

Our best player, all league 3rd teamer Battle left, we also lost Moyer, Lindo played 7 games last year with Bishop that about sums up the returning talent. 2 guys who played 7 games together. That's the continuity, Amir Harris played with neither guy, since he played 0 games last year.

Talent+continuity+health.    Coaching is about 5%.  Maybe 10%, briefly, if you have some incredible innovator like a young Pitino.   We  have some talent, little continuity, and already health issues, Ira Lee lost for year, even that Dean injury.  Zero depth. 

as always .... 95% the roster factors.






I love that The Dude starts his post with "actually", as if to say that my post about him wasn't correct.  Allow me to reiterate that I used The Dude's exact prior posts without any editing whatsoever.  That's what we're dealing with here..someone who "corrects" my post after my post was comprised of his exact words.

On this post, I'll attempt to understand The Dude's position.  It sounds like he feels that teams are good or bad due to the roster (give 95% credit) and coaching (give 5% credit).  Well, if we're not good (and at 2-6, that's safe for the time being), it must be due to the roster.  Except The Dude thinks James Bishop will be an alltime great at GW.  And that he was pleasantly surprised to see how talented Ricky Lindo was.  And, we have an obvious, clear-as-day influx of talent courtesy of Bamilsile and Adams.  He wrote all of these things.  So which is it...is this team not talented or is it talented?

Oh yes, but they haven't played together for very long.  Only almost every day since July 1.  Just like Iowa State, who has gone from 2-22 to 6-0 with 2 top 25 wins while featuring 6 transfers and a freshman point guard.

For the record, I am not happy about this start nor do I derive any joy in criticizing this coaching staff.  For what it's worth, I am obviously not alone.  Actually, obvious to most.



 

Last edited by Gwmayhem (12/01/2021 1:48 pm)

Gwmayhem and The Dude, you guys are acting like children. Please stop. I desperately hope this team starts  winning so I don't have to keep reading these stupid, petty arguments on here that are more about personal attacks than basketball.

Class of 13 this is an entertaining post. 

1. So in essence you think players aren't being held accountable or taught the right things but in the next point you tell us no one thinks JC can't coach. Fascinating juxtaposition of points. Three things can be true. JC isn't teaching the right things or holding players accountable, the players aren't coachable, or the players have not grasped it yet. The fact that you jump to the first conclusion without considering either of the others is telling. Also, there is an old saying that you don't get sick fast and you don't get well fast either. You don't think our performance is improving from California to Florida? What I saw in Florida was a team that was better than in California for most of the minutes but not there yet. Perhaps tonight we will improve and start to turn the corner. The one great thing about basketball is teams are on their own timeline not the fans' timeline as to when or if they will get it. As a former basketball coach at GW once said you are not out of it until you lose your last game. There is a lot of basketball left to be played and no championships have been won or lost yet. So most of this discussion is premature at best.

2. You entirely overrate coaching. I have coached for 30 years at a lot of different levels. I have coached players that have achieved at all levels from the NBA down to HS including several who have played at GW. I am close with dozens of college and high school coaches. I've seen the good, the bad and the ugly over that time. I don't agree with the Dude much but he does make one cogent point - it's about your roster. Coaches get far too much credit and far too much blame for X's and O's. Coaches can bring in talent, help develop players' skills and put players in the right positions but players still have to make plays. This is not to say that coaches get zero blame or zero credit. Clearly in this case JC either recruited or brought these players in. So the roster construction is all his. If they end up as not capable at this level, the team will not be good and he will pay the price for that. You rarely ever see a team in college with really good players that loses consistently because of coaching. Conversely, you rarely see a team with no talent win consistently. Everyone understands the deal here. But to say it's all on JC ignores the basic premise that if you believe we have talent JC isn't missing free throws, layups, threes or dunks, or failing to guard, or box out, or turning it over. 

3. I don't think you understand how Virginia plays. I believe they were either the slowest tempo team or the second slowest over the past year or two. Everything (offense and defense) is designed to maximize possessions in a low possession game. Navy plays somewhat similarly (although generally not as effectively) so Navy essentially out Virginia'ed Virginia earlier this season. But they are comfortable with exhausting all the actions of their offense because they are comfortable running the shot clock down because even if they don't score they are still controlling tempo by doing so. Rare that you see Virginia take a quick shot unless they are down. Our guys are not so comfortable when things don't develop early they begin to get antsy and believe they have to make something happen. We are definitely a team that plays faster than Virginia and we don't place the same premium on slow tempo. Virginia's kids were recruited to play a certain way and Tony Bennett is an elite coach (one of the handful or two) at identifying players that fit his system and at teaching the system. I am not sure that any of our kids would fit Virginia's style of play on either end nor do I think JC is as good a coach as Tony Bennett at identifying talent nor does he have a fixed system. 

Also, what you are telling me is that you would still have concerns if we were say 7-1 instead of 2-6 but playing the same style. I would argue give me 4-5 more games of 40% plus FG% and 35% 3FG% (not exceptional asks) and a little better defensive rebounding and we would be close to there. Same style, same players, same coach..

Finally, the buck does stop with JC. That's why his name is on the door. He is acutely aware and is doing everything in his power to get this right - whether it's lineup changes, adjusting play calls to things guys can be more comfortable in, or trying to fix the rebounding.. Ultimately, it's not going to be anyone here who determines whether he is successful but whether the players respond.  
 

GWstudent2024 - you're obviously new to this board if you are just learning about our illustrious super-fan dude.

Mayhem is just pointing out the obvious. 

Here's a bit of advice 2024 - you won't hear a word from dude during games or after games (unless we win of course, which is rare these days) but call him out on his trolling and you will get non-stop posts morning, noon and night.
That's why most of us just ignore him.

GWRising, I really don't think anyone believes that the problems are all coaching problems and have nothing to do with the players.  That's a bit of a straw man argument.

Let me ask you three things:

1) Isn't it a coaching staff's job to have their team prepared to play competitively or as you say, for the players to "get it", beginning with the first game of a season? The team has been together for over four full months prior to the start of a season.  That's a very long time to install offenses and defenses, see what works and what doesn't, and make any appropriate adjustments.  All three of JC's GW teams have looked woefully unprepared to start their respective seasons.  In particular , this year's team has lost to a number of teams who appear to be quite a bit less talented than GW does.  At what point should one look at this scenario and conclude that coaching has more to do with this than you are willing to acknowledge?

2) If you can try and remove the missed open shots and other player gaffes, do you really see a team that's been running a fluid offense?  If you see a team where guys are standing around a bit too much watching one player try to score one-on-one,  a team with little motion in its offense, a team that does not set picks or otherwise help one another get open, or a team that otherwise is not sharing the ball as well as it could, wouldn't you have to say at some point that the coach is not creating a scheme that's putting his players in the best position to succeed? 

3) What does it say about a team who is consistently getting beaten like a drum to start second halves?  This is the time where the coaching staffs of our opponents are presumably making suggestions or providing instructions based on what they observed in the first half.  If our coaches are presumably doing the same thing, then why are we being consistently outplayed during these stretches of games?