Gwmayhem wrote:

Roster construction boils down to assembling a group of players (the pieces as it were) that are both talented enough to play competitively as individuals as well as can be taught to play cohesively.  Someone made a similar reference but I get the sense that our current roster was constructed in a manner befitting fantasy basketball.  Let's attract the best possible players who are willing to consider playing for GW without much regard for how these pieces will fit together.  Even with Ira Lee failing to fill an important role which is otherwise going unfulfilled, there is simply too many holes to plug with this current team.  As much as our current staff may understand about analytics and trends the sport seem to be gravitating towards (such as positionless basketball), I don't think we're ever going to move completely away from the importance of teams fitting together and playing like teams rather than playing for oneself.  That said, let's look at the pieces we have, what could work, and what hasn't been working.............  

Where does this leave the program?  Additional depth will not be arriving during this season so this is really about how the pieces can fit together.  Playing cohesively as a unit.  Multiple touches on offense.  A far better assist to turnover ratio.  Helping one another on defense, and really giving the effort on defense.  JC talks often about how great the players are as people.  If this is true, then they should be easy to coach.  Coach them.  Run plays.  Get everyone on the floor involved.  Sit someone, even briefly, who makes a blatantly selfish decision.

We can and should be much better than what we've witnessed so far in 2021-22.  While roster construction may be scrutinized, depth is lacking, and certain pieces are missing, there is enough in place to play much, much better.

  Well said. But time for Brayon to be given the keys on a trial basis.
Joe, when he's on and under control could be a forward because he can leap. Put his mind to it, he might even be able to play an undersized PF in a pinch, though hardly desirable. Ricky, a warrior, really has it tough because he has to battle multiple players down low, as noted above.
Couple of questions: Why not give Knapp some reasonable tries in several games, not just sink or swim? Not as athletically gifted, but more of a team player, more defensive-minded if less athletic, and frankly, has showed he can perform on a D1 team. Also, Nixon, if whatever it was is over (he got a couple of minutes last game). A select walkon or two. It's not working. Noel (1 minute), even Hunter needed more time against Dayton's big men as pointed out by one of our in-depth analysts, just because of their size.
Bottom line: we can't squander any resources we might have, because this said to be upgraded talent isn't working consistently or effectively.
  But most important, we don't take good shots, analytics be damned (and they seemingly are ignored on the court). 
And we don't play anywhere remotely like a team. Pinnock's comment about that reported here that players seem afraid they won't get the ball back, echo here. We do have brief moments, like JB passing up a shot to feed hot Brayon last game.
   Still, virtually every team we play, good, bad or indifferent, feel envy for the way they share the ball, compared to us.
Let's stop highlighting players of the game, points leaders, etc. at the end of the game and in email. Highlight team play instead.
  Frankly, if the NCAA allows, may be time to at least consider the old-fashioned coaching move of taking the names off the uniforms. The point needs to be made somehow because it's not sinking in.

I’m no expert, but I think coaching is overrated. I think 90% of what makes a men’s NCAA coach successful is recruiting. That’s why coaches like Coach K and Calipari can consistently win even with one and dones, who they don’t have much time to coach. For a GW example, its why MoJo was able to win 20 games his first year. That dropped to 15 and then 9 because he wasn’t establshed enough to successfully recruit. The most important thing a coach can do is play your best players, which I think JC is doing. To me, the solution to the problem that your best players can’t win is not to play worse players. IMO, the biggest lesson of this year is not that JC can’t coach, but instead that his recruiting strategy (getting transfers that don’t play on Power 5 teams) is a failure. Past coaches have brought in one or two of those guys but focused on incoming freshmen (and international players). If JC is to succeed at GW, we need more Freemans next year.

Absolutely loved DMVPiranha's response.  

DC Native, I think we can agree that both recruiting and coaching play into the success or failure of a coach, but disagree over how much weight to provide to each.  Looking at this year's team, it's pretty clear that JC landed some talented players.  Players who several Power 5 programs saw enough in to welcome to their teams.  Players who received strong grades from the various high school/prep school recruiting analysts.  Your point of view would make more sense to me if it turned out that the top players on this year's team simply weren't good enough to compete in the A10.

Instead, what we're finding are two things, one admittedly related to recruiting.  The list of what JC gambled and lost on provided by DMVPiranha makes perfect sense.  It speaks to roster construction.  JC counted on a healthy Lee and a healthy Harris.  Particularly in the case of Ira, there is nothing suitable on the roster to come remotely close to filling this void.  Ricky can never leave the floor without there presumably being a serious drop off.  To clarify, I am not suggesting that subs ought to be every bit as effective as starters.  What I am suggesting is that the drop-off needn't be so steep.

The other factor though has a lot to do with coaching.  Some games we show up looking like we're not running any semblance of a structured offense while some games start off like we are but we eventually abandon this.  We rarely help one another on defense.  We often don't take good care of the basketball.  

We seem to be beating ourselves far more often than teams are beating us.  (Dayton being an exception to this.)

I'll throw this out as a theory...Jamion is a young, personable coach who would like to come off as a player's coach.  His primary assistants are all younger than he is.  He wants his skilled, athletic players to show off their skills and play athletically.  He does not want to be a demanding coach who stifles their creativity.  If JC takes away the fun within their games, he may feel that he will lose his team.

I understand all of this.  However, like most things in life, a balance can and should be achieved.  That's why a Bamisile 360 should be applauded, but selfish or boneheaded plays should not be ignored.  It's why maximum effort should be demonstrated every second or others should be given an opportunity when a player is phoning it in.  It's also why each game should have a game plan, and execution of this plan should not be abandoned when the team falls behind.  All of this falls under the area of coaching.

Brey is not coming here. We tried to get him when he started his coaching career and he declined. Most importantly, GW would never come up with the money to pay a successful, seasoned coach like Brey. The University never has and never will. 

To be clear, Brey was not offered the job so technically, he did not decline.

He was the head coach at Delaware after a very successful stint as an assistant coach at Duke.  Mike relied upon Coach K to offer his professional opinions even after he left Duke.  A year earlier, the Auburn job became open and Coach K advised against Mike pursuing this, citing that this would be a very difficult place to win at.  At the time, Auburn was a lower echelon program within the SEC.

When Jarvis left for St. John's, Mike again reached out to Coach K.  Coach K encouraged him to speak to Jack Kvancz but with a specific strategy in mind.  Coach K felt it would be near career suicide for Mike to be listed in the papers as one of several candidates at his own alma mater and then be turned down.  Not landing the GW job could very well mean that the Power 5 programs would stop showing interest.  So, Mike spoke to Jack and essentially said that he was very interested in the GW job and wanted to let his accomplishments speak for themselves.  These included assisting two national championship and 6 Final 4 Duke teams, as well as an NCAA appearance with Delaware the preceding season.  Mike essentially said that if GW was interested in him, they should forego other interviews and start discussing contract details.  Otherwise, he would withdraw as he did not want his name mentioned as a candidate at his own alma mater.  Jack ultimately refused to honor Mike's wishes and would subsequently hire Tom Penders instead.

Gwmayhem wrote:

To be clear, Brey was not offered the job so technically, he did not decline.

He was the head coach at Delaware after a very successful stint as an assistant coach at Duke.  Mike relied upon Coach K to offer his professional opinions even after he left Duke.  A year earlier, the Auburn job became open and Coach K advised against Mike pursuing this, citing that this would be a very difficult place to win at.  At the time, Auburn was a lower echelon program within the SEC.

When Jarvis left for St. John's, Mike again reached out to Coach K.  Coach K encouraged him to speak to Jack Kvancz but with a specific strategy in mind.  Coach K felt it would be near career suicide for Mike to be listed in the papers as one of several candidates at his own alma mater and then be turned down.  Not landing the GW job could very well mean that the Power 5 programs would stop showing interest.  So, Mike spoke to Jack and essentially said that he was very interested in the GW job and wanted to let his accomplishments speak for themselves.  These included assisting two national championship and 6 Final 4 Duke teams, as well as an NCAA appearance with Delaware the preceding season.  Mike essentially said that if GW was interested in him, they should forego other interviews and start discussing contract details.  Otherwise, he would withdraw as he did not want his name mentioned as a candidate at his own alma mater.  Jack ultimately refused to honor Mike's wishes and would subsequently hire Tom Penders instead.

Close to the truth but a few significant differences (at least one side of the story). Jack and Mike met at the Hunt Valley Marriott early one morning for breakfast. The meeting was supposed to be confidential and was at a central meeting point between DC and Newark, DE. Jack told Mike that GW was very interested but was not ready to offer him the job. Mike said he would not be part of a public process that resulted in him not getting the job for two reasons. First, it might damage his future prospects if his own alma mater did not hire him. Second, it would damage his standing with Delaware. And yes, Coach K did advise Mike not to be part of a public process.

My understanding is that Jack agreed not to make it a public process (search committee, multiple candidates and interviews etc. )  but said he had another person he wanted to speak to first (presumably Penders) and he would get back to Mike after that and either Mike would be the guy or not. Mike was apparently ok with that at first. 

However, and it's a big however, guess who was sitting in the Hunt Valley Marriott at 8 am having breakfast? None other than a Baltimore Sun sports reporter who recognized both men and reported on the meeting. At that point, Mike called Jack and told him he was out because there was a public process going on and if Jack couldn't guarantee him the job right then he would have to withdraw his name from consideration. At that point, Jack had not spoken to Penders in detail about what it would take to get him and was in a tough spot. There was a decent chance that he could lose both options. However, as we all know, GW made some financial concessions and Penders was ultimately hired.

So, yes Mike made clear he was not going to be part of a process but there never was a process and but for the Baltimore Sun article, I wonder whether GW would not have yielded to Penders' demands and instead hired Mike Brey. I guess we will never know. 

Last edited by GWRising (1/11/2022 4:44 pm)

At the time Penders was The 208-110 Texas Coach who had taken Rhode Island to the Sweet 16 previously

Mike Brey was the Delaware Coach

Hindsight is 20-20, the only guarantee in life is Mailvan would've been crying about Mike Brey at GW 

DC Native wrote:

Serious question. Would any of this year’s players start on GW’s 1993, 2006, or 2016 teams? If so, who, and in place of who?

Start? No chance, but that’s because those were all experienced teams.

And at least for the 2006 or 2016 teams probably not much more than 5, 10 min max.

Joe Bam would be an upgrade over Anthony Swan. Pauly J still probably beats out Brayon Freeman.

Gwmayhem wrote:

Come on BM.  I specifically went out of my way NOT to discuss any prior relationship with Kvancz and Penders, in a concerted effort to keep some peace on the board, and YOU had to be the one to bring it up anyway?  Pretty funny.
 

 
Couldn’t help it!  That and blowing off Wally Szczerbiak are the two biggest GW basketball whiffs in my book.

I think Lindo, Bamisile, and Bishop would get quality minutes off the bench, but I don’t think any of them would start on any of those teams. I agree its not really fair to judge Freeman since he’s still a freshman.