Did we give up 15 defensive rebounds? Was it 90? 13,000? Lost count.

Many things to note,or forget.
But first,trainer or whatever, seemed to be slow in getting to a clearly suffering Ricky.

Last edited by jf (12/25/2022 10:42 pm)

At this point, it's just best to count down the number of days until the offseason begins. This team has a bunch of high character guys but probably peaked in the SC game in terms of everything going right. No doubt that we were lucky to not have bad injury luck for the most part OOC. Will nevertheless keep rooting for them to do as well as possible (they're likable!) but obviously the ceiling is capped. Again, it's tough to watch these kinds of blowouts knowing that we aren't building towards anything long term outside of Max.

Seattle was very unimpressive yesterday but GW was just that bad (wasn't particularly impressed with Wazzu or Pepperdine either - an average team could beat all three). We're talking about a team that went a quarter of the game without making a shot yet they were still up double digits. The biggest W for the tournament would have been making it out of Hawaii without injuries but sadly that didn't happen either. Hope EJ and Ricky rest up and are able to make it back at some point. Ricky's injury looked pretty bad on TV. Watching Keegan, Qwanzi, and Amir play extended minutes is an eyesore offensively. The refs were nice enough not to call a travel on half of their possessions. With Ricky out Q has to step up the best he can. Interesting that CC only played Hunter for 10 minutes yesterday. I guess he was trying to prevent further injury on the squad.

In the Pepperdine thread some were unfairly comparing this squad to the one that won the tournament. Instead, it would be better to ask which players from this team would get playing time on that one. I would say BA and Max off the bench and that's about it.

Max has been really fun to watch of late. Again, a lone bright spot in the midst of a lot of painful play on the court. He may already be the best two-way player on the team. There was too much isolation ball when we got down early. Needed to continue to attack by moving the ball. BA and JB will always be streaky shooters, but the quality of three point looks was largely bad this tournament. When we actually got open ones they were made more often. Max getting more open looks will help him as well instead of forcing him to create his own shot so frequently.

Defensively, this team doesn't do anything right although they play hard. Harsh, but it's sadly true. Fatigue played a role and obviously it's a personnel thing. But this team cannot rebound defensively, is consistently out of position when guarding, and cannot turn teams over. That's a recipe for disaster. Seattle could make 3 or 4 passes and we would be so out of position they could have 3 different players who could take an open shot. I don't blame CC for getting T'd up after we gave Seattle like a 10th second chance opportunity on a possession.

JB is a versatile player offensively but I would stop short of calling him a good basketball player because he is an awful defender. He jogs back on defense when he misses a shot and consistently lets his player blow past him. I realize he's playing a lot of minutes, but his effort is inconsistent at best. He currently has the worst defensive rating on the team. I do think Bishop has taken some undeserved hate during his time at GW but if I were to build a team around JB or BA I would pick Adams. Maybe a hot take. Ricky is certainly not the biggest problem, but he is another example of a player who can only play on one side of the ball. We need to land more two way players this offseason because right now we maybe have 1 or 2.

Highlight of the game: Santa playing the violin on the beach.
Lowlight of the game: Amir passing up a wide open layup for BA to brick a three from the corner. It was so obvious watching that Harris was still thinking about his airballed three just before that sequence.
 

What you see is what you get, so things are not going to change this year.

GW has some players with good basketball skills, but they don’t have the athleticism of the top Power 5 recruits. Low level mid-majors and Division II schools generally end up with recruits that have athleticism, but perhaps with lesser basketball skills. That’s why every team we’ve played this year looks quicker and faster than GW. Game after game I see these “lesser talented” teams come out and play tighter defense than GW. They play faster going north-south on the court and beat us to balls above the rim.

Our big men play like they have weights in their shoes and mittens on their hands. They need to take a full step and jump from both feet just to get up in the air. Our backcourt cannot handle the ball well enough to break down defenses, and good shots are hard to come by. These teams all beat us to most loose balls, kill us under the defensive boards, and create a ton of wide-open looks and easy layups. With our personnel, that’s likely going to continue this year.

I think our coaches have done a good job of preparing game plans, but with the personnel we have, there’s no margin for error. Bottom line is that you can coach good athletes to become better basketball players, but you can’t teach a good basketball player to be quicker or faster. Give CC a chance to overhaul the roster over the next couple of years and see what he can do with his recruits. Until then, we just have to endure the season the best we can.

moneybox wrote:

Sad performance. Let's just hope that Ricky is OK or we're really in trouble.

I suspect we'll really be in trouble this season no matter what.  What I find interesting is that arguably two of the best three games this team has played came against its two P5 opponents (I would add the UNH win as the team's three best performances).  Not that Washington State would have turned out to be an eye-catching win, or that South Carolina will rank along the lines of UVA, Wichita State, Creighton, and others from past seasons, but I think it says something that this team showed up very motivated to take down P5 opponents, and obviously let it's collective guard down against most others.

It seems both exhausting and pointless to shout out the usual "stay focused for 40 minutes" or "win the 50/50 balls" or anything else that is consistent with how we'd like this team to perform.  It's a lot easier to coax effort out of players when they really have something to play for.  I get that the Seattle game started at 8:30 in the morning and was for 7th place out of 8 teams but if you were to go back and rewatch the first half of that game again, you would be watching a GW team who did not exert itself because what really would have been the point?  It is practrically statistically impossible for a team to hold an opponent without a field goal for ten minutes yet still manage to lose the game by 18 points.  Yet the "less than a year to go" Colonials  managed to defy these odds.

Let's please not kid ourselves.  Noel will occasionally finish in the lane and Amir will make a few disruptive plays on defense and both Keegan and Qwanzi may string together a couple of made 3's if they bring their shots with them, yet the reality is that none of these players can be counted on to be consistent, reliable bench players on an Atlantic 10 team.  All have size and yet perhaps only Amir has the pedigree to control the defensive glass.  CC can state all day long that he has plenty of big men but what he really needs are guards, something he has clearly addressed based on the three November signings.  Yet on this point, I will choose to vociferously disagree...what he needs are different big men, better big men, big men who regardless of opponent, don't have the look of children having their lunch money taken away from them by schoolyard bullies.  

Perhaps the belated Christmas miracle is that CC is waiting until the start of conference season to unleash a whole different style of play, making sure not to put anything on tape in the interim.  No, the more likely scenario is that CC knows what he has this season and like Jamion Christian, Mike Lonergan, and Karl Hobbs before him, has no choice but to make the best of a bad situation.  GW will win some games for the reasons they won the South Carolina game...they will be hot from the start, they will make in the neighborhood of a dozen 3's, they will somehow find a way to outrebound an opponent, and they will be so motivated to play that adrenaline takes over and their defense looks great.  Sadly, this is more a formula for occasional success than it is a sustainable model for this team.

With or without JB next season, I believe our backcourt/wings will ultimately be in great hands with Max plus Jacoi, Trey and Christian.  Probably more lumps to be taken next season but this quartet will learn to play together and should eventually thrive.  That said, the future of this program, at least the short-term future, lies in the program's ability to land big men.  Tough-minded defensive players and rebounders.  Transfer portal?  Out of prep school?  High school?  Some or all of the above?  It hardly matters.  It is disheartening to watch this team's asses get kicked in the paint by some of the opponents who are applying the ass-kicking.  If this program is ever to turn a corner, and we will be going on Year 8 next season of trying to do just that, CC and staff must rectify this.