Let me add to my point above.  We’ve had coached who gave you the impression they really knew what they were doing and coaches who didn’t.

When Mike Jarvis commented on the team and the games and opponents, he talked about real, specific things. He always sounded like a coach who knew what was needed to win.

Tom Penders always sounded extremely knowledgeable, and had a pretty clear plan (its just that he was kind of phoning it in at gw, no pun intended).  He used to talk about specific things the players needed to do, without calling them out, and even addressed SirVal’s high-volume, low-efficiency shot selection in a way that you knew he understand the trade offs.

Karl Hobbs didn’t inspire confidence (to me). He was more interested in blaming fans and the school and talking about the negatives of the program, but never really gave much about the Xs and Os that I remember.

ML was the most detailed coach we’ve had on that front, so you knew he truly understood every detail to the game.  Perhaps honest to a fault, but you never questioned whether he knew what needed to happen. 

MoJo pretty clearly didn’t inspire confidence in the way he talked about the tesm to the media or the colonials club

And JC’s relentless optimism - while refreshing, likable, and extremely worthy of rooting for him - is unfortunately riddled with platitudes thst don’t give the impression there’s a ton there beyond catchphrases like togetherness and love and staying connected (and calling every opponent  a great team).

Squid, Whether winning some games or what JC says when the cameras are rolling is more important isn't even a discussion.  How JC is presenting or positioning his program right now is a very minor, secondary discussion.

And to address some of the comments on this thread (not by you), I don't think he should be giving away trade secrets nor should he be dumping on individual players.  As always, there is a lot of middle ground to work with.

I do think though when you keep saying that the sun is shining when everyone around you knows that it's raining, you will ultimately have a credibility issue.  Think of it from the perspective of what GW fans would like to hear right now.  Maybe there are a few who just love all of the positivity despite the 2-8 record.  I'm willing to guess there are far more that simply want him to be more genuine.  Tell his audience what the main problems are in his words.  He needn't be so specific as to give away any strategies.  Tell the audience that the team's play as a whole is unacceptable right now.  Tell the audience that the coaching is unacceptable right now.  Maybe provide a little insight, in general terms, as to what the team is doing to try to remedy matters.

I agree that JC' is very likeable and you do want to root for him.  It's just that now isn't the time for a huge smile along with a discussion on how connected the team is with one another, in my opinion.  Even if the cameras are rolling.

 

This opponent of ours stinks?  No, he should never say that.
Our players aren't playing well?  That would be a start.
What are we doing to get better?  That would be an improvement.
We're an incredibly connected team who loves one another?  Just seems inappropriate to me given how we've been playing.

You ever think Mailvan, you take GW basketball (and this fan site)  a tad too seriously (and negatively)  ?? 

This is a light show, about a middling A10 program.  He's not running Kentucky or the Lakers.  

squid wrote:

I'm just not that concerned with "credibility" or that saying certain things on TV shows is going to change anything or is even important. What is he going to say, this opponent of ours stinks? Our players aren't playing well? 

1. It’s not that was he says in the show will change anything.  It’s that he’s not giving us few stakeholders much sense that he knows what to do to change it because he falls back on platitudes (and when he does get away from platitudes, like his ‘we’ve tried music, we’ve tried yelling, we’ve tried whispering’ comment, he also gives an impression that he doesn’t know what to do).  I just want something from him that shows me he understands the Xs and Os well enough to win consistently  at a really difficult level of college basketball.   I came into the year fully on board, but both because of what I see on the court and hear (and don’t hear) off the court, I’m no longer confident it’s going to happen fit JC at GW, which is a huge bummer.

2.  I already gave examples of what he could say rather than call every sub-200 opponent a great team.  He could praise specific aspects of their play (they are tough to play because they really share the ball well, or teams that no how to work together with an experienced big can be a real challenge, or just something other than calling every team in the bottom half of D1 a great team).  He could also praise the coach and say “coach so and so always has his guys ready to play and does a great job scouting, so they are not an easy team to match up with” instead of just continuing to tell us that BU or St Francis are great teams when we all know they aren’t.

JC is a lot closer to Mike Jarvis than you might think. MJ was a master psychologist and everything he said was calculated either for the team or the fans. JC is much the same way. I don't know this but I believe what JC is reiterating to the fans that (1) the team hasn't imploded despite the record and (2) there should be continued optimism. He is also speaking to his team - the losses to BU etc. aren't devastating because they are good teams and stick together and we will get this right. I saw JC do this effectively at Mount Saint Mary's in 2016-17. That year MSM started out 2-11 but JC was continually preaching positivity.  Then the team went 14-4 won the NEC Championship and an NCAA berth. Not sure he thinks exactly that will happen here but I think he firmly believes that external positivity in all aspects can help turn this around. This much I am sure of - his comments are not an accident or defensive but rather calculated. We will see if it works.

Last edited by GWRising (12/08/2021 1:00 pm)

GWRising wrote:

We will see if it works.

I think we are seeing it, some of us anyway.

If there is such a strategy, seemingly the first coherent one that we have had in a long time, there is one problem. This is not the NEC.
   (Not like we're playing like say a mid-level NEC team, either).
It's still a lot harder to win the A-10, which if Atlantic City memory serves, the last time was more than 15 years ago. We're starting out like this in the OOC--repeating bad starts in previous years. Thus, we are, barring a title run or only a few losses, already out of contention for NCAA and NIT berths and probably CBI and CJIT (if still played).
    Someone quite some time ago here wondered if JC was still coaching like he did in a one-berth league. It's an interesting point. 
    If a light comes on and a run happens that can get us in the NCAA or NIT, glad to hail this as a tremendous psychological strategy.
    But in any case, it's really not a good look for a team to pretty much foreclose our postseason options in November.

Yesterday's show was a repeat of the December 4th show, I guess they record new shows every other week??

They did show highlights of GW's 1995 win over #1 UMass at Smith Center and interviewed Kwame Evans and Vaughn Jones about their memories of the game. 

Very well said, LSF.