So has GW ever been first in any category on KenPom's site? Because after today's win, we are current No. 1 according to KenPom in Adjusted Tempo. Go the site, toggle to sort by AdjT and enjoy seeing GW at the top of the list of all Division 1 men's basketball programs!

https://kenpom.com/index.php?s=RankAdjTempo

One thing that jumped out at me was Bishop played 38 minutes...because he had to for us to win that game.  That isn't suppose to happen any more this season.   I cannot imagine we are going to stay with an 8 man rotation.  I suspect Christian Jones (a top 300 recruit) and Antoine Smith are going to get minutes when they are healthy, with Bishop being cut back to the low 30s.

https://gwradio.com/mens-basketball-defeats-william-mary-95-89-despite-last-minute-inbound-woes/

Long Suffering Fan wrote:

One thing that jumped out at me was Bishop played 38 minutes...because he had to for us to win that game.  That isn't suppose to happen any more this season.   I cannot imagine we are going to stay with an 8 man rotation.  I suspect Christian Jones (a top 300 recruit) and Antoine Smith are going to get minutes when they are healthy, with Bishop being cut back to the low 30s.

It's so early in the season, that it shouldn't be an issue, but isn't it nice that Bishop plays 38 against W&M after sitting for roughly half of the Stonehill as opposed to back-to-back 38 minutes? 

Btw, I almost hate bringing this up, but is has anyone seen our mascot George Washington this season?  Did we get rid of him last year?      

Mascot was there. Glad you mentioned the sound. Seems like the speakers on the blue seats side were off. Nothing but garbled reflections from the student side. At least someone else noticed!

I complained multiple times last year that fans in the Blue Seats could not make out what the PA announcer was saying. Ridiculous! As of the W&M game, they were "still working on it." As for printed game/roster sheets, I was told that no more printed anything would be available from now on for CONSERVATION reasons. Then I find out that Champions Club members have all kinds of printed info sheets in their room. Conservation be damned!

Great win, came back in the first half and hung on at the end of the game.  Freshman and redshirts will be freshman and redshirts... but as we all noticed last year, the ship is going in the right direction.  

A few observations: BM, you were absent (at least I didn't see you!), Stretch and Garret were a little slow on rotations getting out to the 3 point shooters.  Hopefully some practice and tape will cure that.  LOVE that we have many ball handlers and 3 point shooters...so nice to  have that to lean on.  Stretch really does alter a lot shots.  Jacoi can do everything, except maybe drive amongst the trees.    

1) I don't think the intent is to never play James 38 minutes.  All 38 were pretty much needed on Saturday.  I think the objective is to get him more rest during games where his sustained presence on the court will not be essential.

2) While there has been messaging that suggests that JBIV is all about winning right now and is happy to play less for the good of the team developing as a whole, I would not take this to mean that stats don't matter.  After scoring just 5 points in 20 minutes against Stonehill, I believe that CC was looking for James to have a big scoring day if it were needed, which it clearly was.  

3) Really good coaching:  On the in-bounds plays down the stretch, we could have had someone pass the ball to James every time so he would get fouled and be near-automatic at the line.  With the outcome of the game not truly in question, we had James pass to Jacoi who got fouled.  He went 1-2 at the line but the point is you want to give Jacoi that actual game experience of making pressure free throws during a game that is still being contested.

4) As instinctive a defender that Stretch is in the paint, he looked a bit lost while having to come out on the perimeter.  Either he was late on his rotation or on at least one occasion, the W&M big faked a shot and drove right past him.  While this may certainly improve over time, I think you may have to consider sitting Stretch for longer stretches (pun not intended) when facing bigs who are three point threats.  The Richmond game where their bigs can always shoot from distance would be a good example.  I realize this is just one game but something to keep an eye on.

5) Darren Buchanan fascinates me.  In high school, he must have been so much larger than many of his opponents that he could dominate based on size alone.  That said, he has a tremendous handle for a frontcourt player.  Something to make sure of is that he and Stretch don't get into foul trouble during the same game.  I think we will always need at least one of these players on the court at all times.

6) If you don't think that desire has anything to do with rebounding, then you're not watching Maximus very closely.  Between this and the range he has added to his outside shot, he is playing with great confidence right now.

7) The key to this game was asserting ourselves with high percentage shots after getting sucked in to a three point shooting contest earlier in the game (and falling behind in the process).  That and the outstanding free throw shooting.

8) As DMVPiranha pointed out in his outstanding pregame analysis, W&M had 4 players who previously were on P5 programs.  This is a MUCH improved W&M team from the one who inexplicably beat GW a few years ago.  It's always easy to think "oh, it was just W&M" but this is an atypical W&M team.  When recruiting, you can point to Northwestern, another strong academic school who recently snapped its streak of never having made the tournament, and sell smart, quality players on coming to help us make the Dance for the very first time in the school's history.  I think that's working for The Tribe (whose nickname stays while ours goes...but let's not go there.)
 

GWFinalFour wrote:

Life got in the way, so this is coming out later than I'd have wanted. Check out the highlights from our win over William & Mary here https://x.com/GWFinalFour/status/1724158117124972780?s=20

Great highlights again, thanks for compiling 

How good is Maximus?!    Some nice moments for the Freshman here

(Has Patsos ever watched a TV broadcast? The play by play guy does play by play, you dont step all over him rambling in a barely intelligible rasp)

 

Good points above and all around.
Glad we won. The difference from previous years is a good part due to depth, which we have. 
Max had a double-double in points and rebounds, pretty significant, though not amazing.
  Garrett had another excellent game. And he can use his size down low. Don't know why he didn't play more, especially second half.
  Glad James had a 30-point game. He deserves it for his decision to stay.
  He may have been needed all the time. But as a rule, we do better with more balanced scoring and rest for JB, which is better for him as well.
   Thought we overrelied a bit on JB to make something happen in the waning minutes. That was a weakness in previous years.  He won't be around next year, so we have to develop talent for the future. And perhaps not be so obvious to our opponents all the time in crunch time, while appreciating JB's ability to take over at times.
   The inbounds and comeback meltdown at the end, at the hands of a well-coached team, shows something our well-coached but new team no doubt will have been working on these past few days.
  Let's win Tuesday, as we should at home, and keep showing the difference this year.

Last edited by jf (11/13/2023 9:16 pm)