FredD wrote:

“A part of me feels like a whiner for saying this but the Mason was getting allllll the homecooking from the refs today.”

Absolutely but home jobs have been the A10 way since the Eastern Eight. Looks like our conference record will be 8-9, which is a ton better than they looked early January. Still this stings

I’m not conceding the game at Fordham.  I don’t see any reason why shouldn’t go to their place and get a win, let alone already count it as a loss.

Bishop now 19-71 over the past 5 games.  That is 26.8% folks...  When you are going that poorly over an extended period of time, you have to come up with a different end of game scoring option.   With what I believe was still a 3 point game in the final 2 minutes, he launched what had to be a shot from 27-30 feet out.  

Tough loss. We've been pretty good in close games during A10 play but found ourselves on the wrong end in this one.

Mason has the more balanced team, but I think the fact they went away from Oduro in the second half was pretty questionable and they are fortunate to have come out on top despite that. Oduro could have easily put up 40+ on us if they kept going down low to him instead of launching from three.

Tough weekend for both the MBB and WBB teams. The refs called literally everything on us in both games and we struggled to put the ball in the hoop to offset that. I could live with most of the calls today, but there were a few that were pretty questionable. Whenever Oduro touched the ball, the refs seemed inclined to blow the whistle. The and-one called on Ricky late had such little contact that I don't think you call that so late in the game. Brayon was also called for a foul #4 on a steal that looked like he got all ball against Oduro. These seem like small calls, but they made a real difference in momentum.

I thought JC did a good job with rotations today, but Bishop so clearly needed more rest. He looked pretty winded during the second half which probably hurt his efficiency. By comparison, I thought Joe's minutes were handled a lot better when he rested during the second half which enabled him to come back into the game and make a number of shots. Liked Amir coming in during the second half to provide a breather for others and wouldn't have minded him getting a few of Bishop's minutes to keep JB fresh.

Compared to the Richmond game, I thought we did a great job defensively for the most part. Mason had a couple open threes, but we did a good job doubling Oduro and recovering back to the three point line (that is outside the couple of times Oduro just broke through the double team and put the ball in the hoop). Polite also burned us a few times late driving to the hoop because we didn't get back on D.

We gave ourselves a chance at a win despite JB squared going 8-33 from the field. Unfortunately with this team, it's tough to come out on top when our top guards shoot that poorly from the field. You can pretty much copy and paste the same headline from game to game that we get absolutely nothing from the frontcourt and that hurts us in a game like this one where we had a chance at a W because of good defense. As WI Colonial 2021 mentioned above, credit JC for guiding the team to a bunch of wins despite that, but we have yet to have a big who can post up and force the opposition to spend less time guarding our backcourt. That helps us win games even when JB squared inevitably have an off game shooting the ball (which happens). That's what is keeping us from being a good/above average team.

Hunter, Noel, and Qwanzi battled like hell down low, but offensively gave us 2 points in 44 combined minutes. Each had a nice play or two in the game but we simply need to find more production there this offseason. I like what I've seen from Keegan in the highlights, but both him and Jabari West will be pretty young. If the news is true that Ricky is planning on going pro we have an absolutely massive hole to patch in the frontcourt which is concerning.

Brayon was really good again today. He plays so hard defensively and seems to always make the right read. That's not to mention his ability to make shots. Something is definitely wrong if he doesn't make the all-rookie team.

Great game from Brendan as well. He gave us what we need - a few made baskets getting to the hoop, some great ball handling bringing the ball up/finding the open man, great on-ball defense, and even did a great job crashing the glass. Also only one attempted three!

Liked Ricky's aggressiveness today. I had mentioned in the last game that he settles too much and shoots a bunch of threes. In the 11 conference games he's played prior to today, he shot just 2 combined free throws. Yes, you read that correctly. He commands enough respect that he should be able to draw fouls and get to the line much more than that. If he could only stay out of trouble and avoid the silly ones, that would be really big for us. Nothing against Qwanzi, but I think JC realized today that he needs Ricky out there as much as possible by starting him today.

The only other thing to mention is our shot selection. A bit too much one-on-one today and 7 total team assists has to be one our lowest marks in quite some time. The shots we took in the final two minutes were simply not needed given the time and score of the game. I don't hate Joe shooting an off-balanced three earlier in the game because he's shown that he can make it, but I don't think that should be the primary option late in the game. After JC called a timeout down three, we ran a really good play to find Joe wide open from the top of the key. The ball ultimately rimmed out, but it was a good shot. We ended up with an offensive rebound and James launched a three a bit too early in the shot clock. I like that we are playing more uptempo this year, but in the final minutes I think we can afford to use a bit more clock to find a better shot (maybe one that isn't a three right away). That is especially true on a later play where Joe launched a three in transition with 20+ seconds left in the game. Our play in the final minutes sums up our issue on offense at times. We settle way too much on jumpers when we could easily get to the hoop and give ourselves a chance at drawing a foul. JB squared are really good at doing that but don't do it enough. I thought Bishop did well in the second half to get to the line a bit more to get him going, but it wasn't consistent. Our opponents never find themselves in foul trouble against us because we aren't always aggressive on this end. That's what I really like about Brayon's assertiveness going downhill when he's in the game. It's much needed on this team. 

We figure to be favored at home on senior day against Duquesne. We should be plenty motivated after dropping the last two games. Hope Knapp gets the start.
 

It is very questionable that given our shooting woes, Knapp does not sniff the court.
But it would be really problematic if he doesn't start on Senior Day, though I think JC has been good about that tradition.

THAT SUCKED. We led throughout, executed a great game plan, played intense team defense, and lost anyway? To THOSE fuckers? We OWN the fakking Patriot Center!!!!

gwstudent2024 wrote:

He had 13 fouls drawn and  wasn't called for a single foul.

Three things contributed to varying degrees to our loss:

1. Awful officiating
2. Inability to defend the post
3. Late second half shooting woes.

Need to be better in the last 2 areas. #1 we can't control.

Officiating did not cost us this game.   In fact, at least for most of the second half, the fouls were pretty even on both teams.  We are generally going to get more fouls called on us because (1) our interior defense is so bad that we are forced to foul; and (2) along those same lines, the other teams attack the basket and draw fouls and we generally settle for outside shots, with some notable exceptions of course.   We lost because of our inability to defend the post; our being outrebounded 48-30 (including 16-8 on the offensive boards and because our two leading scorers shot a combined 8-33.  Second chance points by the opponants have been hurting us all season.  It also didn't help that our centers shot combined for 2 points iand 3 rebounds and 7 fouls in 30 minutes, and those 2 points were on Brown picking up a loose ball under the basket and laying it in. Our selfish play (7 assists on 19 made baskets, to go along with 9 turnovers) certainly did not help the cause.  We did not lose because of the referees, even though I am sure we can all point to a few instances of blown calls that went againt us.

Last edited by Long Suffering Fan (2/27/2022 10:44 pm)

Two thoughts after being at the game (didn't see any other GW fans but there must have been some): First, GW needs a big man that can play offense and defense. What else is new? Nobody on the current roster even comes close. Second, down the stretch in games, Christian is literally nowhere to be found. Players essentially do what they want--including taking bad shots. In games where they make their shots against lesser competition, GW may win; if they don't like yesterday, forget about it. No discipline, strategy from the coach. This is getting old. Yesterday's game was so winnable I could spit! I don't care that they've done better in the league this season. So many other games that could have been won with some coaching. Mark my words, Christian will not be taking this program to the promised land!!!

Postgame Press Conference: https://twitter.com/gmugiantkiller/status/1498053088644526081