What a great way to start the new era.  We did what good teams do against inept opponents.  Denied open looks until it was out of reach and kept them on their heels when we had the ball until we found a rhythm and blew it out.

I had forgotten how nice it is to have a bench. Not to mention athleticism and a versatile lineup. 

Bishop - didn’t even have to do anything. Seemed content to get everyone else involved. He only took 6 shots, which is the fewest he’s ever taken in a game for GW. 

Max - looked every bit the all conference player we expected. 5-8 from three and 2-4 from 2.  19 points, 7 boards, and strong defense.  My favorite play of his was when he drove and threw a sick behind the back pass to Garrett, then went back to the 3 point line as the defender ran and Garrett, who passed back to him and he drilled a quick three with basically no time to get set going backwards.

Garrett Johnson- what a debut.  For those who didn’t see it, he looked fantastic. 5-7 from three including a turnaround three and a step back three.  My favorite play of his was a very quick drive when a defender jumped to contest a three.  It was a quick and athletic move that I didn’t expect. He also showed good speed on a defensive play chasing down a loose ball and throwing it off the other team. 

Autry - huge shout out to his defense.  He’s so strong and plays a very mature defensive game.  Doesn’t look like a freshman.  The shots weren’t falling, but they will eventually (1-8 from three).  He also has a sweet alleyoop pass.

Stretch - really nice debut.  Was as advertised as a defensive player with raw offensive game.  4 blocks and 3 steals and forced many more misses by players scared of his presence. Even had two strong buckets.  My favorite play was his back to back blocks followed by the Dikembe finger wag.

Schroder - forced it in the first half, but let the game come to him in the second and gave us so attacking punch off the bench.  Hit a three (just 1-4) but he’s clearly at his best getting downhill. My favorite play of his was a beautiful cut and inside finish in traffic off the dish.

Buchanan - impressive debut. Tried to do too much at first, but settled down. Great speed and agility for a guy that big. Had some sweet drives and gave us 9 points and 4 boards.

Hutchinson - very impressed by his debut. He’s a real pass first point guard with the handle, size; and strength to get inside the paint. He also settled down in 2H and got a lot of playing time (including with the walk one, which I loved because it let the walk ons get into the offense. 5 points, 6 boards, 4 dimes (and could have had more assists) is solid bench production.

Those guys looked like a very strong 8 man rotation 

Zam Weluch-Ume - could see some size and athleticism and even a little handle on one drive, but seemed raw.  Only played when we were up like 30. 

Keegan - looks noticeably bigger and did seem to try when he we under the glass, but he’s lately the same player.

Walk-ons - great fun and I loved seeing the team go absolutely bonkers on the bench hen Laziz had he wraparound assist to Cronin and then hit a three with a man in his face. Also loved when Arrington unselfishly tried to throw an alley oop to Cronin. Any other forward and that’s a dunk. 


All in all, it’s just one game vs a bad team, but the way the team settled into the game and had fun after pressing a bit in the first half was truly a sight to see. 


Can’t wait for the next game.

GW0509 wrote:

Starting 5
Bishop Edwards Benny DBJ Stretch

The real question is O/U .5 points for Laziz!

If you took the over, you are a winner.

Really fun game and you could tell it was cathartic for many of the players (Johnson in particular). Stonehill may not be the best opponent but winning by 45 is never a bad thing.

WRGW sports blog on the game: https://gwradio.com/mens-basketball-blows-out-stonehill-in-electric-opener/

Anyone know where Torvik has GW this morning?  Have we crept into the 280's yet?

While you can say that it was just Stonehill all you want, this was a team that finished tied for second in the NEC last season, behind a Fairleigh Dickinson team which went on to win a historic game at the Dance.  Put another way, we just dismantled a Division 1 team, filled with skilled players as any Division 1 team would have to have.  I don't care who you're playing...it's not easy to make 15 3's in a game, or to hold a team to 7-40 shooting in the first half.  It will likely be rare to see such a thorough domination on both ends of the court again, but it ought to be clear that this team has it in them.  They understand the quality of depth that they have and that understanding translates to confidence which in turn translates to having fun on the court.  And this was all without Antoine Smith and Christian Jones, two players who figure to gain minutes before the walk-ons take the court.

IMO, one of the most important keys to this season is for JBIV to consistently understand that his personal stats will be practically meaningless if this team wins.  He has already proven his ability to score and pass.  Now, it's about improving his defense, three point shooting, and above all else, winning.  Having played just 20 minutes (has that ever happened while at GW?), JBIV was all smiles, taking it all in and cheering for his teammates.  This shows maturity and one can only hope that there aren't any games where he is forcing shots just to get the average up.  After Game 1, there's absolutely no sign of this.

Like all of you, I could not get over Garrett Johnson.  He looked effortless making play after play.  But of course, what makes this so fantastic is that injuries along with a benign tumor on his hip forced Garrett to miss 2 1/2 years of playing competitive basketball.  That first time back would be nerve-wracking for just about anyone but as Garrett pointed out, after the first 3 went down, he was just fine.

Tough night for Trey but there will be much better ones ahead.  Watching him at Kenner, he appeared to be a streak shooter who could easily make his next 4 after missing his first four.  One thing to note was that at Kenner, he was effective at scoring near the rim when his outside shot wasn't falling.  The psychology of putting the ball through the rim should not be understated.  Once he did this, the outside shots started falling.  Last night, all of his attempts were from 3.  He would be wise to revisit the Kenner playbook and go get a few higher percentage shots when the outside shots aren't initially falling.  Aside from this, loved his defense and energy.  Pretty rare to watch a true freshman assert himself like this.

Stretch is just what this team needs.  He not only blocks shots, not only alters even more shots, but he's like a middle linebacker barking at his teammates.  Guys ought to absolutely love playing with him.

Could not help but think a bit of Yegor Mescherikov when watching Benny play.  Benny certainly does not have Yegor's bulk but his fearlessness with the ball while maintaining control (most of the time) was reminiscent of Yegor.  As advertised, this guy is a scorer.

Think Max may have worked on his range in the off-season?

Jacoi looked very steady at the point.  Am thinking that freshman Jacoi is going to help senior JBIV become a better point guard.  And, it will be very exciting to watch the two of them play together.

Darren possesses some very unique talent.  His game does need some refining...I am concerned that he may foul out of a game by committing 5 charges.  A lot of this is over exuberance which is more than fine.  It will be interesting to see how high his ceiling will be.

Great night, great start to the season.  Now, the revenge tour begins.  We owe both William & Mary and Hofstra some payback.
 

adclub wrote:

Johnson has a Garino feel to his game.  Kind of the way he runs and moves, fairly static upper body, even the shot release is similar.  TBD on the defensive end.  I also remember Garino turning the ball over a million times as a freshman, so grateful Johnson doesn't need to bring the ball up and we don't need to find out. 

I had said the same thing about Johnson and Garino.

Missed my first home opener in probably 25 years last night except for the COVID year. Unfortunately, I didn't read the calendar correctly and had a conflict. 

However, I did catch most of it. Here's what I would say. We did what we were supposed to do and put away a terrible opponent. That actually is progress from the last 6 years. I think we have some depth and I think on a given night we have a number of players who could beat you. That bodes well.

That said, I won't read too much into the result as far as to where we are as a team until we play a better opponent. Frankly, Stonehill was awful. However, I suspect our first real test will be next Tuesday versus Hofstra.

 

I've noticed through the years that it is usually hard to come by highlight packages for GW's games, so I'm going to try and put some together this season. You can find the video for last night below!

https://x.com/GWFinalFour/status/1722036624471552325?s=20

If I'm able to keep making these going forward in terms of finding the spare time and not getting nuked by ESPN's copyright system, are there any mediums besides Twitter that any of you find convenient to view these on?

Last edited by GWFinalFour (11/07/2023 6:50 pm)

GWFinalFour, great hightlights, went looking for them last night, didn't see any. 
Shouldn't GW do their own?

Well done, how do you do that?  

Just 1 game but dang did Maximus and GJ look good!!

Garrett Johnson scored  21 points in 24 minutes, shooting 8-10 from the field and 5-7 from the three.  He had 9 rebounds, 1 assist and a steal.   Does anyone remember a more auspicious start at GW for anyone playing his first college game GW?  Or for that matter, his first game at GW, even if not the first college game?   

Last edited by Long Suffering Fan (11/08/2023 10:56 am)