The Dude wrote:

The line was -1, I don't see how the game is embarrassing.

What is embarrassing is that the line was  -1 against UMKC.

 

If you were able to see the game you would know how trash UMKC looked throughout the game.  Yet somehow we played even worse.  

Make that  25

I know it’s only 5 games, but to me, Christian looks clueless

Every game I see the other team making in game adjustments and we don’t respond.

MG14 wrote:

Genuine question: Is there any team in the nation (D1) we can say that we'd comfortably beat? At this point I'm thinking no

 
Not one that’s actually on the schedule. I don’t know where GW’s second win is supposed to come from, maybe Longwood.

Not the X and Os, its the personnel.
That of course has never stopped many on this board to constantly claim its X and Os.

For some reason, the obvious answer, the personnel, is never the answer, when its almost always the answer.
As an example its been noted ML lost to JC's Mount St Mary's team. Two years later we were in the NCAA tourney.

Well here we are 5 years later and we stink, its going to take time I don't know why each year some people set up the team for failure, by claiming in pre-season it will be much better than expected, then complaining when it is not.

Do we have good personnel?

Mason up 7 on Maryland in the first half. It’s going to be a long A10 season.

I know that the rebuilding process is painful, but is our talent so bad that we have already lost to a Towson team that had lost 20 last year and lost 3-4 this year against teams not named GW, American at home, Morgan State (who lost by 41 today to Liberty) at home and now UMKC on a neutral court?  Coach...I know you are trying to develop a system (what it is isn't apparently clear to me other than taking lots of ill advised 3 point shots), but sometimes you have to play the cards that you are dealt, and as bad as this team is (and it is one horrible team), we should not be 1-4 against the schedule we have played to date.  This is truly an embarrassment.  Without Toro, there are no A-10 quality starting players on the team, and very few bench quality players.    

Last edited by Long Suffering Fan (11/22/2019 7:45 pm)

On the subject of not playing zone, I likewise do not get it.  We do not have interior defenders...at least not yet, especially with Toro out.   In the second half, UMKC was scoring at will inside the paint.  You can somewhat mask interior defense by playing a packed in zone, especially against a team like UMKC that did not appear to be a good outside shooting team.  But we stubbornly stayed with the man to man defense and got lit up for 51 points in the second half.

If you ever wondered what it would look like to livestream a game of pick-up basketball, Friday's game was pretty much just that. This recap is somewhat hard to write because I could quite easily have two separate recaps based on team performance - one good and one bad.

I am starting to have this outlandish theory that JC wants us to keep games close late to give our young players some experience in close games. At least, that's what I'm trying to tell myself because I cannot for the life of me see why we have played the way we have the past few games so close (specifically the past two). Our play down the stretch has been baffling.

Yes, you can say the "personnel" is not good and that this team is just bad (both which are probably true) but after a certain point that just becomes an excuse for losses. A good coach is able to make do with what he has, even if it means he has to sacrifice some of his principles. I'm not saying this team is expected to win many games, but today and the Morgan State game should not have been losses based on our leads in the second half and there is no getting around that. As I've said, morale will eventually go down if we don't get in the W column at least now and then.

It has been specifically the X's and O's which have looked bad down the stretch, Credit UMKC for making a slight adjustment, but honestly like the Morgan State game, I felt like our faltering was self-inflicted. I have absolutely no desire to rewatch the game, but if I were, I would be looking to see just how many times on offense we played 1 on 5 with limited to no passing. That is something that I'm used to seeing watching GW basketball the past few years, but I thought those days were gone. Looks like I was wrong. We became stagnant on offense the last eight minutes, timeouts weren't used effectively or at right moments, and (shocker) the shot clock was close to expiring forcing us to take a rushed shot.

Defensively, it was much of the same with getting killed on drives to the hoop. UMKC took wayyy too long to figure out that they don't need to settle for jump shots against us, but when they did, it was pretty much game over. The good news (depending on how you look at things) is that we are going to be facing the worst teams in the tournament as we continue to lose so that's always a way to pick up a win (I guess?) But yeah, unfortunately I found myself thinking at halftime that we still had a chance to lose (despite being up 7!) which is never a good sign. I say we lose tomorrow (kidding of course) so we get the chance to face Morgan State again for a rematch.

WE WANT MORGAN STATE! WE WANT MORGAN STATE! WE WANT MORGAN STATE! 

Offense: I want to highlight earlier in the game (I guess before UMKC made slight adjustments) because we actually looked pretty good. Ball movement was great, whether feeding inside to Javier or finding Maceo/Jamison for 3. A lot of nice cutting action off the ball. Turnovers were an issue all game (which ultimately kept UMKC within striking distance as the game wore on) but when we were sound with handling the ball our offense was pretty crisp and we weren't running the shot clock down. The times we missed came down to execution. Unfortunately, as mentioned above I cannot say things were as nice in the last two media timeouts of the game where stagnant ball reared its ugly head and we were playing to not lose (which never ends well).

Defense: I will say this, I can say I saw somewhat of an identity on this end today which definitely makes things a bit more comforting looking to the future. We actually tried pressing/trapping a bit more frequently today, and were actually able to generate some turnovers today. I'm writing this without looking at a box score, but we did generate more steals today than we have in any game all season. Although our backcourt press still needs a lot of work as teams aren't scared at all, I definitely would consider this progress. Still think we need to use zone though especially late in games if we have the lead. Exposing Javier or Ace is not a good thing for long stretches.

Game Ball: I was only going to use this for games where we win, but screw it I don't see that happening too much this season. Today's game ball goes to Armel, who seemed like he was single-handedly keeping us afloat offensively, whether driving to the hoop or making some really nice passes. I will say we rode him a bit too much late into the game (he was guilty of part of our 1 on 5 play) but overall he looked good today and limited his turnovers. Defensively, he simply doesn't have the height or verticality to make too much of an impact (and was beaten on a few drives) but I remember one good play where he prevented a transition bucket for the Kangaroos. Solid performance overall.

Player Breakdown:
JNJ - defensively, looked pretty good today. He had at least 5 steals this game, and was active in the passing lanes (which made our defense look a bit better, primarily earlier in the game). However, offensively he needs to settle down a bit. He goes a bit too much on the highlight reel plays and it leads to him making some unforced errors. When he dribbles behind his back at the top of the arc, bad things are almost guaranteed to happen and he will lose the ball. He had one play that was going to be a sure dunk that ended up being a turnover as he was looking ahead before corralling the ball. Not one of his better games, but that late three (however pointless it was) was nice to see.

Shawn - looked pretty good in the first half. I don't remember him taking too many shots in the game, but he has a good free throw stroke and appears to be a pretty capable ball handler. I will say this - the ball handling of JNJ and Shawn have looked quite good given they are freshmen. However, I think Shawn played quite a bit in the second half and was kind of a non-factor. Still, first half Shawn didn't look half bad.

Jamison - kind of the opposite of JNJ in that he was good on offense and bad on defense. Defensively, was pretty consistently beat on drives to the hoop, and unfortunately had one play with the ball knocked out of his hands and a committed foul in one sequence. He nearly fouled out of the game. However, he showed quite a bit more offensively than just his usual three point shots. He still had a few made threes, but did a lot more off the ball, cutting to the hoop for a few nice baskets.

Maceo - defense wasn't as bad as it usually is, but it was nice to see him engaged after the Justin news had transpired. The head scratching part was not giving him more shots - credit UMKC for keying in on him in the second half, but he was red hot from three in this game and we didn't give him enough attempts today which is disappointing.

Javier - had some nice defensive plays with a few blocks, and showed flashes on offense, although his attention to detail in finishing near the hoop is just simply missing. His foul situation was more manageable today (and JC did a better job with rotations) but Javier is still not someone who should probably play for long stretches of a game or get exposed by penetrating guards. In reasonably sized doses, he is solid. Hope AT can get back soon. The announcers kept mixing him up with Miles Gally (who hasn't yet appeared in a game this season) but overall I thought they did a decent job calling the game all things considered.

Armel - I kind of already discussed his performance in the game ball section, so I will just shout out his free throw shooting so far. He was not that great from the line last year, but I believe he has yet to miss so far this season.

Juice - had one nice pass to a cutting Armel I think, but otherwise missed on a three and I cannot remember too much else. We played him some at the 4 which was effective somewhat in the first half and I think a good call overall.

MENZIE - (only those who watched the stream will understand that) overall not good today. Used his hands a bit too much when defending, and was sloppy with the ball on offense. Still hoping the game slows down for him at some point in the future, but right now does not look ready to contribute.

Ace - had a couple of blocks, but otherwise not the best of games for him. Does anybody have a timeline for when Chase can play? I think he can see quite a few minutes right away up front when healthy.

A matchup with Dooley's squad could be in the cards tomorrow, which will at the very least be a good story. On to the next.