Really excited to see what this team looks like once we can get some depth in the coming years

Fatigue setting in

Nice game from Lindo today. I've crapped on him a lot but he's shown great versatility today on offense and some smarts in staying out of foul trouble.

Great win!!

CC and GW win the home opener of the new era

Loved the win. Everyone seemed to contribute. JB4 was on fire and unstoppable. Excellent passing and intensity. Ricky had wonderful intensity but played smart. We made numerous defensive stops in the paint, especially in the second half, when we really needed to. Did not overdo the three, but generally passed it around until we had good shots. A very satisfying win! May this continue....

Big shout out to Hunter Dean. My co-Player of the Game today. Played phenomenal defense and ended up with a double-double. 5 offensive rebounds, 3 steals, and a block

gwstudent2024 wrote:

Finally, I would be remiss not to mention James Bishop. It just seems like there is no way to fully stop him unless he is having an off night. While he often takes low percentage shots, he is just such a fun player to watch. His scoring ability at every level is amazing. I think him scoring 8 of our 10 points going into the first media timeout set the tone. Bishop's passing was great too. That seems like an aspect of his game we were told was much better last year but this is the season in which I have seen significant growth in that department. I wonder if maybe it is personnel dependent but the departure of Joe and Brayon indicate that system and coaching made the difference (would love to know what others think about this). If this team wants to make any noise this year, JB will need to be on his game. As of now (3/15 games into conference play) I think it's hard to argue for anyone else to win A10 POTY (if someone has an argument I would love to hear it) but it's silly to think that it'll go to a player on a team who doesn't get a double bye. I'd go with DaRon Holmes or Yuri Collins.

22.3 PPG, 5 APG, 2.1 RPG; 47.1% FG, 33% 3P, 74.8 FT

He's certainly in the mix after 16 games.   (these are full season awards)    At minimum a candidate worthy of some POY consideration, playing 1st team all A10 caliber play.
 

 

Max played somewhat fewer minutes than he did against Richmond, and it was helpful.   He looked particularly tired in Richmond, not so much vs. UMass.   I also liked that during those last few minutes of the game, CC rotated Maximus in on offense and Amir in on defense. 

Started to post after the game, but got called away and forgot to finish it.

Was a really solid game.  UMASS is an excellent offensive rebounding team, and when they got offensive boards on their first three missed shots, I thought we were toast.  But we really tightened up after that - to end up grabbing about 70% of defensive rebounds (especially after not getting the first three) was huge. 

Other key, I thought, was that when Caputo gave Bishop 2 1/2 minutes or so of rest in the first half, we actually extended our lead.  I was wondering where offense would come from, but the defense got it done and we scored a couple of times (maybe an Adams three, but can’t remember).  I thought that stretch gave the whole team a lot of confidence because early on it was only bishop doing anything, and that confidence really carried the team the rest of the way.

It also helped that UMASS missed a ton of shots around the basket and open jumpers in the first half, while piling unforced errors. At one point toward the end of the first half, Frank Martin was so angry he just sat motionless on the bench with his arms folded and a huge scowl on his face for several minutes.  Figured they’d come out strong in the second half, but we maturely handled that, too. 

Ricky also deserves a lot of credit.  He had a stretch of 9 possessions at the end of the first half, beginning of the second, in which he used 7 possessions with 4 turnovers, 2 badly missed threes, and a trip to the line where he missed a FT.  Normally, a stretch like that would get in his head and he’d be useless, but instead he stayed in the game mentally and made a massive impact the rest of the second half. Was especially happy with his off ball movement on offense and his defensive rebounding.  We had the stretch when UMASS when on their 10-0 run in the second half where we stopped moving the ball and settled for bad shots or TOs, but Ricky’s movement and guys finding him were key to righting the ship.

Dean also deserves a huge shout out for his defensive rebounding.  Two guys with double doubles is amazing.

Bishop with another great game, this time against one of the best PG defenders in the A10.   

UMASS is such a strange team.  Sometimes they look so good (like when they carved us up in the A10 tourney), but other games like yesterday they look like garbage. 

Lastly, I saw a great quote from Frank Martin before the game. He said when a player is described as talented, that usually means they are good on offense, but bad on defense. When they are described as good players, it’s because they play both ends well - and he wants good players, not just talented players.  I’m not sure it’s relevant to the game, but I thought it was interesting and sounds about right.

Pleasantly surprised.  I love being pleasantly surprised.  Given my drothers, my favorite type of season is one where we are legitimate NCAA tournament contenders.  If I can't have this, the next best is to be pleasantly surprised.

This absolutely and unequivocally starts with coaching.  This year's team is last year's team, plus Max, minue Brayon and Joe, with perhaps even less depth than a season ago.  And to be fair, last season's team made some positive strides.  But how could you figure that this year's team, without two of their leading players from a year ago,  with less depth, and coached by a staff who did not recruit all but one of these players, might actually be better than 2021-22?  Think Hobbs Year 1.  Think Lonergan Year 1.  

The team is running a pro style offense.  There is some isolation ball intended to draw switches and create mismatches.  The team runs plays out of timeouts.  Their team (help) defense looks much improved.  They commit to gameplans,  like making sure they hit the boards against UMASS.  Some notable player developments:

James Bishop...I never felt any negative issue regarding his passing as he has always been an adept passer.  To me, it was all about decision-making.  When to pass, when to take the shot.  Taking good shots and minimizing bad ones.  His first year here, he just lacked the experience.  Most talented players would rather do things themselves rather than rely on others, and JB was guilty of this.  As a result, there was way too much "hero-ball."  Year 2, he often played off the ball alongside Brayon, a natural point guard.  Nevertheless, he still handled the ball enough to see that his decision-making was improving.  This season, his game is at a whole new level so far.  Someone with as high a usage rate as JB will ultimately take some bad shots but all things considered, he is getting others involved while still scoring at an elite level.  The A10 POY talk is probably a pipedream (it will be Daron Holmes's to lose as long as Dayton remains a top 4 conference team) but first team all A10 is within reach and that would be extremely impressive.

Hunter Dean:  Talk about pleasantly surprised?  I think back to Hobbs talking up Regis Koundjia before he arrived at GW.  Not that Regis wasn't a fine player but Hobbs was comparing his outside shooting to Rip Hamilton's, for God's sake.  Fast forward to Jamion going on about Hunter's unique athleticism for someone his size and I'm thinking, "really?  The guy who we will be lucky if he gives the team 10 good minutes a game?"  I love to be wrong about these things.  Hunter has been a marvel.  He is explosive, athletic, hits his free throws (along with Noel, something we should feel spoiled that our big men can do as well as they do) and is valuable on both ends.  

Ricky Lindo:  Let's look at the glass as being half full.  Lacking depth means having to make adjustments that may turn out for the better.  In this team's case, I believe that both Ricky and Hunter are being asked to eliminate the needless fouls.  This means letting a guy go for two rather than challenge him at the rim, so as to avoid foul trouble.  With all due respect to players like Qwanzi and Noel, who certainly have roles on this team, but I believe the coaching staff has seen enough to know that extended foul trouble to Ricky or Hunter is a recipe for disaster.  They both need to be on the court, a lot, to give the team the best chance to win.  In the case of Ricky, there's the added element of not putting himself in harm's way.  It's a balancing act to want one of your most versatile players at both ends to remain aggressive yet simultaneously take care of his own body.  Ricky missing time due to injury carries the same effect of his being in foul trouble.  Even worse, missing Ricky for any extended time due to injury is something this team can not at all afford.

Brendan Adams:  Surprised it hasn't been mentioned so here it is:  His defense on Noah Fernandes on Saturday was fantastic.  As has been the case in the past, Brendan started slowly out of the gate offensively but found an even more important sway to contribute...with his defense.  Eventually, he took advantage of the driving lanes and some of the outside shots began falling as well.  Assist to Amir who helped lock down Fernandes as well.  (Like LSF, I generally applaud the late game offense-defense substitutions involving Amir as well.  This has gone on for several games now.  Of course, it nearly came back to bite us when Amir was unsure whether to shoot and turned the ball over late in the game.  Despite this, I do like the strategy.)

Maximus Edwards:  One of the more encouraging things about this team is that we are arguably overachieving despite the fact that I am unconvinced that we've seen anywhere near the best of Max.  He is obviously going through the learning curve that most first-year players go through.  Nevertheless, he consistently finds ways to assert himself, from a true commitment to rebounding to really being the only player on this team who is adept at taking charges (or perhaps that is willing to sacrifice his body to do so). He seems to draw one per game and you really can't say that about anyone else on the team.

One final point...while Hunter was onlty beginning to play his way back into shape in Hawaii, which of course was a factor, I believe that this team, fresh off the resounding win over South Carolina, saw another P5 school on the schedule and was very determined to upset Washington State.   When that did not happen, in the manner that it did not happen (losing the game when a loose ball scamble resulted in an open three point shot to win the game for WSU), I think this team took it very hard.  They had to play the next day, and then lost EJ to a serious injury ion the Pepperdine game.  Two days later, they are playing at 8:30 am local time and just did not have their minds right.  Ideally, the team would have been in a better psychological state to play those Pepperdine and Seattle games, but the fact that they weren't shouldn't be construed as shocking.  Huge credit to the coaching staff for getting everyone "right" to begin A10 play.  We've seen three competitive performances and have reason to feel far more optimistic than we perhaps should have had a right to under what many (myself included) regarded as a lost season.