Definitely a game for the team to build on.  Would have loved a win, but no problem with this loss!

Good defensive effort from the squad tonight in a venue where we've never won. I especially liked how we rotated defensively when double-teaming French. In the Vermont and Bona games we gave up several easy baskets when their bigs passed out of the low block when doubled, but tonight we were hedging much better to close passing lanes and also backed out of the double teams more quickly when French had given up his dribble. Unfortunately going five and a half minutes without scoring had us down 23-7 in the first half and that was too much of a hole to come back from. I also would have liked to see us have the guards crash the defensive boards more since we were giving up some second chance points, and it didn't look like we were making a concerted effort to run in the first half. We also could have put French on the line a few more times especially after he missed a few freethrows badly, and with Ace ending up with only one foul. Another bright spot was Paar, who has shown improvement each game. I like how quickly he's getting his shot up when catching the ball in the pick and roll. There were a few times I thought he'd get his shot blocked, but he was able to get the ball in the glass quickly and scored. As he gets stronger he's going to finish more consistently and draw more fouls too. I'm surprised we haven't seen him shoot the 3. He's been left open on the perimeter occasionally when setting screens but hasn't looked to shoot. During Kenner he had a few games where he looked very confident draining threes. Hope to see continued improvement with another tough game this weekend with Duquesne at home. After that, the next three look winnable.

Feels to me like a few games ago they learned how to battle for 40 minutes, today felt like they added to that learning by learning how to play something closer to the havoc defense we’ve been waiting for.

By that I mean, the team was really doubling and putting pressure on the SLU everytime the all went in the paint, but also still doing a good job of getting back out on shooters and rotating.  We also contested everything inside, and forced a lot of tough shots in the paint, rather than give up our usual bevy of uncontested shots in the paint.   SLU fans, I assume, were frustrated by how many shots around the basket they missed which they would normally make, but having watched our team all year, we all saw a different level of contesting those shots than we are used to.   When we are able to pressure on the perimeter the way we did inside, that’s when we will really see Havoc and start forcing turnovers.

What held us back today was not enough offense, especially inside (and credit to SLU, who played good defense).  We just don’t have the offensive talent inside and some of our guys were overmatched by their size and strength.  Aside from Battle, there was, though one other thing I thought we did well on offense, which was attack Yuri Collins effectively.  I think of the freshman as a good defender, but it felt like a lot of the times we scored (at least in the first half) involved isolating and taking it at him (tbf, maybe it was just 3 or 4 times and I happened to notice them, so maybe a coincidence and not a game plan).
Aside from Battle

Lastly, it’s worth noting that we were down by 3 with 4 seconds left to a team thst in the final minute or so banked in a free throw and had two other FTs clank hard off the heel of the rim, go straight up and somehow fall in.  Those three lucky free throws were really what kept us from having a real shot to steal the game.

A ton of credit should be given to JC and his staff on an outstanding defensive game plan.  To The Dude and anyone else who wanted to see a zone, the defense was still able to pack it in through swift double teams in the post.  SLU was still unable to take advantage from 3 largely because this is not what they do.  In fact, several of SLU's misses from 3 played right into GW's hands as they were able to get the ball back quickly during the comeback. 

Unfortunately, this was yet another game where the team started slowly.  It reminds me of an underdog boxer who gets knocked down early in a bout but then gains confidence as the bout goes on, only to barely lose the fight based on the judges scores.  If only the fighter began the fight with more confidence and avoided the knockdown, maybe they could have ended up the winner.

This season...

We trailed American 14-7 to start the game and lost by 2.
We fell behind 17-2 and 29-10 to South Carolina but only lost by 9.
We fell behind Boston by 7, at 20-13, and at the half, before winning by a point.
Delaware jumped out to a 14-4 lead before falling to us by 9.
GW trailed Longwood 20-8 to start the game before coming back to win by 13.
SLU opened the game on a 23-7 run before winning by just 5.

Am not sure what the pregame pep talks sound like but this is a trend that needs to change.  Maybe there was an intimidation factor playing at South Carolina and St. Louis but this would not explain the other examples.  My hope is that greater emphasis be placed on how the team starts games.  Those points count the same as the ones scored late in the game.  Incidentally, in The Bahamas, GW jumped on all three opponents early, winning two of those three contests.  

dmvpiranha wrote:

Pleased with our continued improvement and fight. It was hard to not think we were in for a long night after SLU raced out to a 23-7 lead, making basically all of their shots. Goodwin wasn't missing, and between him and French they started off 3-3 from the line. I was like of course SLU is going to shoot 90% from the line against us. Thankfully, things reverted to the mean, but it's worth noting that SLU still made their threes and FTs above their season average and we made our threes and FTs below our season average (in terms of percentage), so things could have been even closer if we shot our average.

Offense: I was pleased that we weren't just hoisting continuously from three (especially since everyone not named Jamison went 1-10 from deep, and the only other make was JNJ's to open the scoring for us). It isn't easy to finish down low against SLU's bigger guys but we did well to draw contact and get to the line. Early on, we rushed a number of shots on drives to the rim that had no shot at going in - we did better to adjust for that over the course of the game. The refs for once seemed to give us a few calls - given how rare that has happened of late (especially at home) I'll take it. We did well especially in the second half of finding open lanes to drive to the basket. As the commentators said, SLU was expecting the ball screen before it happened. I think Collins turned his head a few times allowing Armel to coast to the basket. My favorite play was seeing Jamison cut to the basket and get fouled. After watching the offense last year, it's really enjoyable to watch guys cut and move off the ball instead of being glued to the court when they don't have the ball in their hands. I assumed we were going to need threes to stay in the game against SLU, but we did well to generate offense from other avenues. I know 58 points isn't a lot, but SLU is a long and disruptive defensive team.

Defense: I thought we executed the hacking strategy pretty well in this one. I second FQ on his points - specifically the rotating stood out in terms of a big improvement from the Bona game. I think in the first half, we put a little too much focus on just stopping French which still opened up things for Goodwin and Perkins to operate. After halftime, we did a much better job of getting back out to defend the perimeter after the ball was passed out. Our halfcourt defense was overall disruptive and confusing to break in the second 20 minute period. Apart from the early parts of the game, we made SLU work for their points.

I want to mention one other thing - our turnovers. We had 13, which may not seem that much (around our season average) but there were about 4-5 possessions where we didn't give ourselves a chance to score. This has been the case for many games, not just today. The number of unforced errors our team tends to make is always more than the opposition. The late Armel turnover along the sideline is of course the one that sticks out, but I also want to focus on some of the earlier ones in the game - Amir getting the ball knocked out of his hands (though credit him for recovering nicely on defense with the block), a couple of instances where we let the ball slip out of our hands either trying to pass it or receive it (one was going to be a backcourt violation). Inbounding the ball is similarly a struggle compared to when other teams do it. This has been an issue going back to Mojo's teams. I don't know if it's personnel or what, but it shouldn't be so stressful to hold onto the ball and pass it in. Maybe the guys are thinking too much. I've never seen our opposition have this problem. I will say we have been a bit better with getting on the floor for the 50-50 balls, but that still remains a work in progress. There were times where it looked like SLU just wanted it more on some of the loose balls.

Game Ball: I don't tend to give these during losses, but man Jamison is deserving of one with his continued growth on both ends of the ball. This was perhaps his best overall two-way performance of his young career. Offensively, of course he is just a gifted shooter. His stroke is clean, and many of his shots are nothing but net. The number of contested shots he has had to take that he still makes is impressive. He has also shown growth with his drives (and the aforementioned cutting to the hoop play and drawing the foul was nice). If we can put him in positions to get to the line, that will be helpful with generating offense on this team. Defensively, it definitely helped that he had a help defender to guard French, but even in the few one-on-one possessions he held up well against him. This was probably his best defensive performance in a while. Jamison is a great foundational piece to build on for the future and I'm thrilled that he's only a freshman.

Player Breakdown:
Jamison - see most of my thoughts above. I do want to also add that the times he has pump faked or picked up his dribble, he has done it correctly. This may not seem like a big issue, but many guys in college (especially first years) tend to be called for traveling or double-dribbling for making such moves. I know Maceo still gets called for this sometimes. Jamison has rarely had such a problem. He is showing advanced skill for a freshman. A commentator during the game asked how a guy from Minnesota makes it to GW. Recruiting in Minnesota may no longer be the best kept secret. Since there is only one D1 school (Minnesota) most of the D1 talent is forced to leave the state. Thankful that is the case because we are fortunate to have Jamison. I believe Holm recruited him out of HS.

Chase - happy to see him improve by the game. Not concerned about him fouling out as guarding their bigs isn't easy. It was mentioned earlier on here, but Chase is already really good at going up strong with the ball under the hoop. That is something that Javier wasn't able to master yet, leading to him getting the ball knocked out of his hands when going up with it. Paar was able to avoid a couple potential blocks down low and finish on some nice buckets early in the game. He even pulled down a pretty decent four boards and had a block to boot. I'm fine with him continuing to start - the court time he is receiving now will pay off in the future, but he has also earned it.

Amir - somewhat of an off game. He didn't really take too many shots or even play all that much (just 18 minutes). HIs free throw stroke looks a bit unorthodox. I'm guessing Armel's hot hand in the second half played a role in that.

JNJ - seems like you can always count on him to provide that spark in the first half when seemingly the rest of the team is asleep. Although he was pretty quiet in the second half, he probably would have had a number of nice finishes against any other competition other than SLU with their rim protection underneath. His three point stroke is coming around. It hasn't translated to actual stats yet, but he is making them a bit more than he was earlier in the season. The trip where he missed two free throws down the stretch was a tough moment, but one to learn from. Also helped out on the glass nicely with 6 boards.

Maceo - didn't realize he even played 27 minutes based on his activity. I will say that is a positive based on the number of times he's had to play 40 minutes without coming out recently - that deserves a lot of kudos as it's hard to maintain the energy without break. Unfortunately, we weren't able to give Maceo good looks at a three. All his attempts were deep contested ones not shot in rhythm. His only basket was a broken play near the hoop that probably should have been another turnover for us. I think SLU was trying hard to take him away, and they succeeded there. Credit to them, but given how long both teams were in the bonus, I would have liked to see Maceo get to the line with his 95% free throw shooting.

Armel - turned it on in the second half, scoring all of his 17 points after halftime. The lanes were just not there for him in the first half. We did a better job screening for him to get to the hoop. He can be really fast getting quick points going to the hoop. After he burned his defender three times late in the game, I noticed Travis Ford decided to pull all his guys back on the last possession. Potter still found time to dish out four assists (with a particular focus to feed Chase and Ace underneath) and also came up with two steals and a block underneath the basket which was particularly impressive. Nice bounce back game after a couple off ones. I will certainly miss his penetrating ability next year. Neither JNJ nor Amir have shown the ability yet to get to the rim with ease, but maybe that will come with time.

AT - surprised he only saw 15 minutes of action against SLU, but I think we found success playing smaller which allowed us to blow by some of their bigger guys, and just foul them on defense. AT had a nice finish on a cut to the basket and pulled down some much needed rebounds on both ends of the court. Unfortunately, he still missed on a few bunnies but I'll say that had something to do with French's length.

Ace - had a nice finish underneath after halftime and added some rebounding in limited time. He looked hobbled a few times after going down with French on one possession on offense. Hope he is okay because we need him for frontcourt depth and you can count on him giving you 10 solid minutes of action.

Adam - glad he was able to make it into the game earlier. Unfortunately, his first three rimmed out, but man if possible he should not try to pump fake and shoot. His second attempt barely drew iron because of that. As a set shooter, he can be effective, but we shouldn't be asking him to create his own shot. Draw up plays for him in the corner to shoot it. He made that shot against Bonaventure.

Next up is Michael Hughes and the red hot 3-0 A10 Duquesne Dukes. This figures to be another tough contest at home, but it's nice to see us be competitive in both our games so far against decent teams like Bona and SLU. I think if we keep up our intensity and focus, we can make this another close one. Happy with the way the team is coming along.
 

Nice review dmvpiranha.

A couple of quibble points on two players. First, not surprised at all that Toro received so few minutes. His play has been spotty at best lately. He had easy finishes that were blocked. His rebounding was just fair. His post defense not great. He is in a rut and we need him to be better. Hopefully, the time on the bench will serve as a wake-up call and we re-discover the old Toro.

Somebody told me a shocking statistic which I then checked and found was true. Maceo has played 67 consecutive minutes over two A-10 games without a rebound. Let me repeat that - 67 minutes without a single rebound. That is in inexplicable and he has to do a better job at that putting aside any shooting woes.