GW0509 wrote:

Tennessee Colonial wrote:

Thomas, I was just wondering if these new age players and the new NCAA rules may make some teams un coachable. A lot of old time coaches are just bailing out. How can you get players to buy into a team concept if they just think of themselves. If I don't get enough playing time I will leave. Penny Hardaway just has too many players who have NBA ambitions. Too many fine lines with players have to be addressed and there are very few coaches that know how to do that. Our teams are an example in that the coaches just allow way too many turnovers in the games so far. Many are terrible unforced turnovers that have led to a lot of losses. In the old days these repeatable turnovers were not tolerated by a coach.

The fans of some of these schools are to blame too.  Shaka Smart said at UT he was more or less told to sign as many 5*'s as he could even if they don't all fit well together.  In the old days talent was much more evenly spread out so you could actually construct a team.  Now some of these BCS teams are 3-4 deep at a position so of course there's going to be a lot of movement and demands for instant gratification for those that do transfer.

Both of you make great points. Penny Hardaway has basically recruited a bunch of SELFISH 5 star/top 100 players who are only focused on the NBA. Since he's fairly new to college coaching, he's been unable to establish a winning or hard-working culture/identity which could rein in young, selfish players who don't want to buy in. John Calipari, Coach K, Tom Izzo and Nick Saban(to a lesser extent, he has the luxury of keeping guys for 3 years at least) have a culture in place, so one or more 1-and-done types aren't going to come in and dictate anything. Even the long-time, HOF coaches like Coach K, Calipari and Roy Williams(before retirement) have struggled a bit with the new age player and mindset. Remember a few years ago, Coach K had a 1-and-done guy just quit playing during the season so he could focus on the NBA draft!!

That's an interesting point about Shaka Smart because if you look at the make-up of this year's Marquette team(physical, hard-nosed, great defense) it's the complete opposite of his Texas teams that would always have one or more 1-and-done guys who didn't appear to buy into "havoc"

Last edited by Thomas (12/22/2021 10:21 pm)

The pride of GW, Mike Brey, stuns #10 Kentucky 

66-62 Notre Dame.  Has been a rough stretch and few years for ND, huge win for them

Jamison Battle is torching Michigan.  He looks like an NBA reserve.  I thought so at GW too, but watching him in the Big10, I'm even more convinced.  a frontcourt guy who can stretch the court like that can find a spot at the highest level

Last edited by The Dude (12/11/2021 7:58 pm)

Thomas wrote:

Jamison Battle had 27(a lot of those points came in the 2nd half where Minnesota took control of the game) in the win at Michigan. It was their first win at Michigan in 10 years. Juwan Howard may be having similar problems to Penny Hardaway with freshman and returning players being selfish, and not caring about the team.

Aminu Muhammad is not only Patrick Ewing's highest rated recruit, he's also the highest rated incoming freshman in the Big East. He can basically do everything on the court, hit 3's, defend, rebound, mid-range game. Ewing needed the win to get the Georgetown fans off his back!!

Thomas,, my first post in decades, but I watched M vs. M and watched the Battle that I loved at GW. In th e 2nd half of the game we saw the Battle who could carry us last year. It was not just the scoring it was also the key rebounding. It was a clinic.

At GU, it is a case of a job saver.

Good to read your posts!!!

Saw a good amount of the game.
GWMayhem describes Jamison correctly. In the second half, he caught fire from 3, unsurprisingly.
But he also rebounded and penetrated, splitting through Michigan (arguably better than Cal State-Fullerton)
defenders. 
   Battle was the man in the second half, but did not unduly shoot or hold on to the ball and his other teammates looked for him, but took plenty of shots on their own. Got to wonder whether he should have been the man at GW, arguably not the level of a Big 10 team.
  Alas, if only our vaunted love could have wrapped it's arms so tightly around Jamison that he couldn't bear to leave us.

Minnesota had an incredible 29-30 turnovers ( They were -21 in that dept sometime late in the game) amazing Minn could go on and win.  

Thomas wrote:

Jamison Battle had 27(a lot of those points came in the 2nd half where Minnesota took control of the game) in the win at Michigan. It was their first win at Michigan in 10 years. Juwan Howard may be having similar problems to Penny Hardaway with freshman and returning players being selfish, and not caring about the team.

Aminu Muhammad is not only Patrick Ewing's highest rated recruit, he's also the highest rated incoming freshman in the Big East. He can basically do everything on the court, hit 3's, defend, rebound, mid-range game. Ewing needed the win to get the Georgetown fans off his back!!

A notable A-10 score from last night was St.Joe's pounding Temple, 68-49. St. Bonaventure also lost by 10 at UConn, so the chances of them becoming a highly ranked team going into the NCAA tournament are non-existent at this point, even if they dominate in conference play.

Fordham vs Miami             11:30AM - this game is at the Barclay's Center so it may be part of an OOC event 
Davidson at Northeastern  1
Virginia Tech at Dayton      2 ESPN2 

#20 Florida vs Maryland    4:30 Big 10 Network - this game will be played at the Barclay's Center, and Danny Manning's 2nd game as coach. Maryland didn't look good in their last game which was a loss at home to Northwestern

27 against Michigan!!!!!!!!

Mentzinger wrote:

St. Bomb losing to Va Tech by 30. Time for a new conf standard bearer ...

St. Bonaventure ended up losing this game 86-49!!! The Bonnies hit a 3 at the buzzer to avoid losing by 40 POINTS!! They still have some good OOC wins, and they'll probably still finish 1st or 2nd in the A10, but something is definitely broken with St. Bonaventure, there is no excuse for them to lose in that fashion. 
 

George Mason pounded... POUNDED Georgia, on the road.

Tom Crean's team is now 4-6, and he appears headed for yet another firing.  

 

What a fantastic win for Davidson over top 10 Alabama
Davidson putting together a nice at large bid resume.

 

- Iowa State, picked last in the Big 12 poll, is now 12-0. I guess Otzelberger just feels more at home in the midwest. He did great at South Dakota State but was somewhat stuck in the mud at UNLV. I was surprised Iowa State took a chance on him because of that (even with his tenure as an assistant there), but it seems to have paid off. A stiff test awaits them on New Year's Day against Baylor, but finishing the year in the top 10 nationally is a huge success.

- Samford upset Ole Miss on the road. The Bulldogs are 10-2 on the year after going 6-13 last season. They haven't really played a strong schedule, but they don't have any bad losses. San Francisco and Belmont are good teams. They also have a win against a struggling Oregon State squad (2-10 on the year, ouch).

- Wright State upset NC State 84-70. By the law of transitivity, that means we would beat the Wolfpack by 25. I don't make the rules.

- JNJ had 29 points, 10 rebounds, and 4 assists for Delaware in a losing effort to Pitino's Iona squad. Happy for him.

- Mike Hopkins is one step closer to getting fired as Washington fell to Utah Valley by 16. UVU has a dominant big man in Fardaws Aimaq (also an A+ name) who was easily the best player on the floor.

- Belmont, Colorado State, and Furman are three teams that I try to watch when I get the chance. They just run such fundamentally sound basketball (and are strong offensively). I miss the days we had that and it's a lot of fun to watch a team with actual shooters.

- Utah State had the play of the night. What was intended to be an alley-oop ended up being a three pointer: https://twitter.com/USUBasketball/status/1473482597606912001