Also, I believe Adams is now shooting 40% from three on the season. Broke the GW record for threes in a game with 9. Sounds like Max also tied the program record for defensive rebounds in a game with 15.

Merrick wrote:

oldish wrote:

Have our starters ever outscored our bench by 100 points before?!?

Has this question ever been asked before?  I think what made this game so incredible to attend was that both teams were knocking down shots when you didn’t expect it. There were very few dry spells in the game where neither team scored so the action kept coming.  And by the way, for 39 minutes the refs were horrible.  They were still horrible the last ten—but more even-handedly horrible.

I don’t think I’ve posted about bad refs but these guys were horrendous

Happier things: Mr. Bishop’s 3 with 26 seconds left was essentially will. He just was going to make that shot.
After being lit on fire from the tip by Duquesne incredible effort and skill to beat a team with a great coach and an identity. Was Richmond a great Richmond team? Nope, but that’s not GW’s problem

Was watching GW piss its season away by blowing a seven point lead in the waning minutes of regulation, only to miraculously force OT and basically shoot UR out of the gym. How does Caputo allow Matt Grace to score 30 points on us and why did he not call a timeout before Bishop's missed layup in the first OT. Set up a play.

Hard to complain too much, they saved their season.

Great article in the Richmond Times Dispatch on the game.  Written from the UR perspective but since Incould. It watch the game - was a good recap

Great win for our guys.  Everyone contributed as they needed to in a 2 OT game. 

Kept waiting for our guys to tire out due to the short bench, but CC was rotating the 3 subs in on a regular basis (prior to foul trouble required it).  Hopefully he finds the right combo of PT and rest for the starters.  That will be key going forward.  

Why were were so few GW students and fans in general at the game? Where do I begin (my Blue Seat section in the center was filled with Richmond fans)? Start with a 30 point deficit at the half against Duquesne which obviously rattled an already shaky fan base. Add in a history of apathy toward the men's basketball team (and team sports in general) by students and non-students alike--even to some extent 

during the Mike Jarvis years when excitement was at its highest. Add also many more years of mediocrity than success in team performance on the court fueled by lack of administration support and poor coaching choices. Also include the lack of decent coverage by the Post sports section (which only likes to cover big winners, loves to endlessly cover GW scandals, and is infatuated with girls and boys high schools sports). Our only hope of turning this around is great success on the court. From my perspective, CC is the right guy for the job (despite
living through the first half of the Duquesne game). Some might say he has been a miracle worker considering the team's record with literally no bench, and I would note he has already lined up three outstanding freshmen guards for next season (solid big men still wanted!).

Great win that was much needed for morale. It definitely looked like we were playing with the right amount of energy from the start and had put together a couple great practices before the game. With the way we were shooting the ball/playing it would have been a bummer to come out with an L (especially at home) so really glad that didn't happen. I thought we were in for another long game originally when Quinn, who had made 1 three all season, began the game with a made shot from distance.

Our inbounding late was much improved in the game. After two rough performances against Maryland Eastern Shore and St. Joe's, it seems like we may have finally turned a corner when it comes to being able to break the press. That football inbounds play is one that I've seen other teams run before but never GW. I know CC doesn't want to be predictable but I would have been fine running that play every time we were going to be pressed in the backcourt late in the game.

Rebounding was a key coming into the game. I thought this was a game where we could win the battle on the boards and we did, outrebounding Richmond by 13. Kudos to Max/Ricky for accounting for 2/3 of the rebounds as that definitely contributed to the win.

The team did enough offensively that defense didn't matter but man I think we did exactly what we didn't want to do against Richmond which is to give them shots right near the rim. Others have mentioned it around here, but I simply did not understand why we didn't change things up against Grace when he was clearly feeling it. We eventually started running him off the line but it was an easy 1-on-1 take to the rim for him after we started doing that (Lynn Greer part 2). I think Hunter should have had help there - Amir was often times in the vicinity before he fouled out and probably should have been asked to help out to force Grace to give it up.

Richmond shot 38% from 3, but this isn't a prolific shooting team from distance (although they have a few good shooters like Roche). Again, you change up your approach if they start hitting but their bigs Grace/Quinn kept backing us down until they were right under the hoop which is almost a guaranteed basket (although they thankfully missed a bunny or two late in the game to keep us in it). Bigelow to his credit stepped up and made some shots, but I also think when Burton got the ball late in the game we needed to do a better job staying in front of him. He made a big three in overtime, but this is a guy who's now 3/21 from three in Richmond's last four games. Burton wants to get to the line, and we almost allowed him to start getting into a groove because of our inability to stop penetration to the hoop.

I liked our fouling approach sending Bailey/Gustavson to the line in the second half. Credit them for going 4-4 (our FT% defense has averaged out in conference play as teams are shooting 74.8% which is 14th in the A10). Of course Gustavson would go 2-2 from the line because he only does that against GW.

GW does seem to come out on top in OT more often than not at home. They have won the past three, with the last loss coming against William & Mary which was one of the lowest points of the past five years.

JB has come a long way from that W&M game (and later against Charlotte) where he developed an unfair reputation of not being a clutch player in what was his first year of getting consistent playing time as a college player. While he didn't exactly had the presence I was hoping for during the three game losing streak there are several instances - last year against URI, this year against St. Joe's and now Richmond to suggest that JB is pretty clutch in close games and has really shown tremendous growth in his time at GW. The three he took when we were down 80-76 was one that I wasn't sure he could make. I thought Gustavson played pretty good defense on him but it was just better shot-making and I'm sure UR could live with a 30% three point shooter taking that shot. What was more impressive was the play that tied the game at 82. It showed great maturity from Bishop that he didn't settle for a 3 despite just making one the previous play. He wouldn't make that play a few years ago against W&M. I truthfully did not see much contact from Gustavson on the made layup (but then again, Hunter didn't foul Burton on a previous play either) but glad it worked out in the end. His 10 assists also deserve mention - JBIV commands so much attention driving to the hoop that he can suck four defenders into the paint with him leaving BA/Max wide open from three that they can make at a reasonably good clip.

What more is there to say about BA? When he is set, he is a good three point shooter. Again, significant growth there compared to last year. JC was willing to give him the green light when it comes to shooting those threes, but too often last year he rushed his follow through and mechanics. Maybe it's having consistent playing time this year, or CC found a way to calm him down but that (along with better ball movement of course) is really the only thing that's changed from last year. Credit to him regardless.

There was a picture that surfaced online of Max practicing his free throws after the game - one that was won by GW. I think that shows tremendous maturity for a guy as young as him to do that. He will be fine there moving forward but deserves a shoutout for his stellar rebounding - whether it was the offensive rebound early in double overtime where he rebounded one of BA's few misses from 3 that led to a second chance opportunity and made layup by JB or jumping high to secure a rebound on a missed 3 by Richmond with under a minute left. He might not have had a big scoring game but he's been contributing with his rebounding and that has been vital for this team.

Ricky also did a good job rebounding, but more importantly he wasn't settling for threes as has been mentioned above. I don't think I've seen him take too many midrange shots this year but he actually doesn't look too bad shooting them. The fact that he wasn't in foul trouble was a major difference maker in the game, especially on defense. I believe Lindo only had 2 going into double overtime before there was the frustrating poke foul trying to strip the ball from behind.

Max and Hunter also had similar plays earlier in the game. The rule moving forward is that only Amir should be allowed to do the "swipe the ball from behind" play because he knows how to do that without fouling (actually Max has been successful a few times doing that earlier in the year but Ricky and Hunter should 100% not be doing that). If the team had more depth I would feel differently but we need everyone to get a win so those silly fouls need to be avoided at all costs. It's very tempting, but not worth it especially against a good FT shooting team like Richmond (who fortunately missed three FTs late in regulation to give us a chance to send it to overtime).

Good to see Hunter convert on his shots near the rim. He's had some bad luck with some of those shots lately. Amir had some key moments offensively (making the extra pass to BA at the top of the key for a 3 to put us up 7) and some key plays defensively as well - his versatility allowed us to go small without either Hunter or Noel on the floor for stretches.

Noel may not have scored, but I really liked his defensive effort. He's not perfect (asking him to go up against Burton is unfair) but I've seen real improvement from him this year. He holds his ground on defense, doesn't bite on pump fakes like he has in the past, and had some big stops when the team needed it.

Qwanzi's bucket was technically the difference in the game. While he hasn't had the season I'm sure he hoped there have been a few times this season where he attacks the basket and makes up for a bad play/missed three with a good take to the rim. I want to see him do that more, because it might earn him more playing time (although he still played only 6 minutes in a 50 minute game). He should take the Ricky approach.

Next up is a road game against a St. Joe's team that will be hungry to beat us after we edged them in overtime. I do worry about how much we'll be able to give after playing an extra 10 minutes. Wonder whether we'll have an answer for Reynolds/Brown/Greer when we run them off the line this time around to prevent the easy layup from going down.
 

It's nice to watch the replays on ESPN+. Especially when I know we win. A side note in The Tennessean is the USA Today article on "Why can't coaches embrace NIL reality?" by Dan Wolken. He really gets down on Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim. Funny note that Jim B. didn't get All Americans  players to come to Central New York just because of weather. 

My understanding is that there was some official Greek Life event or activities which prevented many students from attending last night's game.  Seriously, Greek Life organizers?  How many home games are there per season?  You really can't work around these dates?

I'd say this is as ridiculous as student decisions get, but then again, there is that Colonials name change.

Tennessee Colonial wrote:

It's nice to watch the replays on ESPN+. Especially when I know we win. A side note in The Tennessean is the USA Today article on "Why can't coaches embrace NIL reality?" by Dan Wolken. He really gets down on Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim. Funny note that Jim B. didn't get All Americans  players to come to Central New York just because of weather. 

You just can't ever says it enough: Jim Boeheim is a piece of shlt.