moneybox wrote:

We covered the spread! For GW, that's almost as good as winning a national championship. If the bar gets any lower, it will be below ground!

I actually took them on the spread after seeing it go up! Glad I made that call

Not a lot to say other than the fact that I look at this SLU team and become completely envious that this can't be us.  This program graduated two of its best players in Goodwin and French, and then loses its best returning scorer in Perkins before the season starts.  If ever there was a reason for a school to lick its wounds, it was this year's SLU team.  Instead, it goes out in the OOC and had the #1 ranked team in the nation on the ropes before losing. 

They have an amazing point guard who looks to score only when the opportunity is clear; otherwise, he excels at his first priority which is to get his teammates the ball in the best position for them to score.  They have a sharpshooter who knows how to slip defenses and whose teammates always seem to find him open for a three point shot.  They have a freshman who is incredibly athletic.  They have a low post player who is tenacious on the boards, and backup bigs who know how to play.  They make their free throws.  They play really hard and really smart basketball.  They are not perfect as evidenced by a much higher than desirable number of "easy" missed baskets.  And yes, they are extremely well coached.  They play with a desire, enthusiasm and aggressiveness that is set by Travis Ford and his staff.

Hard to shed too many tears losing to a team that we're not nearly as good as.   

Dmvpiranha, your analysis of the team is like a doctoral dissertation. Well thought out and very informative. Now we have to get the coaches to look at your analysis. Good job!

Garbage Mentzinger?  Ford has been to the dance 7 times, not twice.

Kind of like referring to Tom Crean, a coach who has brought 9 teams to the dance, as America's Worst Coach.  Not that I'm comparing the two of you from a credibility standpoint.  Believe me, I'm not.

GWRising wrote:

Mentzinger wrote:

Travis Ford is garbage. 2 NCAA Tourneys in like 20 years of NCAA D1 coaching. 

 Not a huge Ford fan. Think generally most of his teams underperform. However, he went to 7 NCAAs since 2004-05 - one with Eastern Kentucky, five with Oklahoma State and one with St. Louis. His record is 1-6 in the NCAAs so you might not recall it. lol.

Is that his fault, or just a lack of execution from the players?

Gwmayhem wrote:

Not a lot to say other than the fact that I look at this SLU team and become completely envious that this can't be us.  This program graduated two of its best players in Goodwin and French, and then loses its best returning scorer in Perkins before the season starts.  If ever there was a reason for a school to lick its wounds, it was this year's SLU team.  Instead, it goes out in the OOC and had the #1 ranked team in the nation on the ropes before losing. 

They have an amazing point guard who looks to score only when the opportunity is clear; otherwise, he excels at his first priority which is to get his teammates the ball in the best position for them to score.  They have a sharpshooter who knows how to slip defenses and whose teammates always seem to find him open for a three point shot.  They have a freshman who is incredibly athletic.  They have a low post player who is tenacious on the boards, and backup bigs who know how to play.  They make their free throws.  They play really hard and really smart basketball.  They are not perfect as evidenced by a much higher than desirable number of "easy" missed baskets.  And yes, they are extremely well coached.  They play with a desire, enthusiasm and aggressiveness that is set by Travis Ford and his staff.

Hard to shed too many tears losing to a team that we're not nearly as good as.   

  This, along with Dan J's comments on a lack of identity, says a lot about missing parts and the composition of a team. 
 

GWRising wrote:

danjsport wrote:

GWRising wrote:

 Not a huge Ford fan. Think generally most of his teams underperform. However, he went to 7 NCAAs since 2004-05 - one with Eastern Kentucky, five with Oklahoma State and one with St. Louis. His record is 1-6 in the NCAAs so you might not recall it. lol.

Is that his fault, or just a lack of execution from the players?

I'm not close enough to the St. Louis program to know. Each program and coach is unique. By and large though most guys can coach to some degree especially those who have been coaching for more than 20 years. Not a huge Ford fan for other reasons beyond wins and losses. Not a fan of him personally so that might shade things.

So on some teams it’s the coaches fault and not execution and on other teams it’s the execution?

GW0509 wrote:

Free Quebec wrote:

We won in the Bahamas over Evansville and Milwaukee in JC’s first year.

What kind of map are you looking at that has the Bahamas further west than Tampa Florida?

I was responding to your comment that the furthest we’ve won a game since then was Tampa.  Didn’t realize you meant furthest west.

GWRising wrote:

Free Quebec wrote:

GWRising wrote:

By and large though most guys can coach to some degree

And the Captain Obvious Award goes to… GW Rising. Take a bow.

Obviously most college coaches can coach to some degree. You’ve moved the goal posts so wildly that you are now just stating what everyone already knows.

The entire point of this discussion is to what degree can JC coach? No one would disagree that he “can” coach, to use your words (and you are fond of repeating that he didn’t forget how to coach, a strawman that literally no one on this board has ever suggested).

The question is can he coach to a degree needed to win in the A10, a metric which includes recruiting a team of players that can execute his coaching. It’s not a binary, can he coach or not coach, it’s to what degree.

To me, despite my high hopes, I have lost faith that he can coach to the degree needed to win at this level. My evidence is that in year 3, when all other successful GW coaches have started paying off their promise, we are staring at the second worst Colonials squad since at least the 1-27 season (no efficiency ratings then, but we were like 295 in Sagarin ratings, and we were 293 in MoJo’s last year.).

I doubt you will find anyone here who would dispute that JC is included in the “most guys” who can coach to some defeee. In fact, I’d say he can coach to a degree that if we gave him 10-15 years here, he might even stumble onto a couple of players good enough to have one season where we contend for an NCAA berth. But from what I’ve seen it’s unlikely he can coach to the degree needed to see GW teams in the top 100.

No, the entire point of that comment was directed towards Travis Ford. You then turned it into a discussion on JC.

Further when I said "can coach" it was pretty apparent that I meant "can coach well" referencing the 20 years of Travis Ford's tenure. Travis Ford is an asshole but as I said, he apparently can coach well enough for 7 NCAA trips..

But on to your diversion back to JC. It's not a strawman when people seriously suggest here among other things he's never seen a press (VCU), can't run an effective offense (almost every game), doesn't coach post-defense (numerous times), can't figure out who to play (numerous games), etc.. Maybe it's me, but I'm pretty sure that people who say that believe JC "can't" coach to the level that is required in college.
 

Rising- you've spent so much time here explaining that JC's problem is the team can't execute, and that coaching is overrated; you followed it up with a post about Travis Ford being a bad coach because his team's underperform. I don't see how these to can be reconciled. Either the coach can be the problem (resulting in underperforming teams), or they can't be. Right?

danjsport wrote:

GWRising wrote:

Free Quebec wrote:

And the Captain Obvious Award goes to… GW Rising. Take a bow.

Obviously most college coaches can coach to some degree. You’ve moved the goal posts so wildly that you are now just stating what everyone already knows.

The entire point of this discussion is to what degree can JC coach? No one would disagree that he “can” coach, to use your words (and you are fond of repeating that he didn’t forget how to coach, a strawman that literally no one on this board has ever suggested).

The question is can he coach to a degree needed to win in the A10, a metric which includes recruiting a team of players that can execute his coaching. It’s not a binary, can he coach or not coach, it’s to what degree.

To me, despite my high hopes, I have lost faith that he can coach to the degree needed to win at this level. My evidence is that in year 3, when all other successful GW coaches have started paying off their promise, we are staring at the second worst Colonials squad since at least the 1-27 season (no efficiency ratings then, but we were like 295 in Sagarin ratings, and we were 293 in MoJo’s last year.).

I doubt you will find anyone here who would dispute that JC is included in the “most guys” who can coach to some defeee. In fact, I’d say he can coach to a degree that if we gave him 10-15 years here, he might even stumble onto a couple of players good enough to have one season where we contend for an NCAA berth. But from what I’ve seen it’s unlikely he can coach to the degree needed to see GW teams in the top 100.

No, the entire point of that comment was directed towards Travis Ford. You then turned it into a discussion on JC.

Further when I said "can coach" it was pretty apparent that I meant "can coach well" referencing the 20 years of Travis Ford's tenure. Travis Ford is an asshole but as I said, he apparently can coach well enough for 7 NCAA trips..

But on to your diversion back to JC. It's not a strawman when people seriously suggest here among other things he's never seen a press (VCU), can't run an effective offense (almost every game), doesn't coach post-defense (numerous times), can't figure out who to play (numerous games), etc.. Maybe it's me, but I'm pretty sure that people who say that believe JC "can't" coach to the level that is required in college.
 

Rising- you've spent so much time here explaining that JC's problem is the team can't execute, and that coaching is overrated; you followed it up with a post about Travis Ford being a bad coach because his team's underperform. I don't see how these to can be reconciled. Either the coach can be the problem (resulting in underperforming teams), or they can't be. Right?

I didn't say he was a bad coach. I did say his teams underperform and that he is an asshole. I said admittedly that might shade things a little.