Alum1 wrote:

Before I make any comment on the game, I want to personally call out and thank Benny for his completely ill-advised shot up 9 with 14 ticks left. On a lark, I threw $80 on the Colonials at +9.5 as I thought they’d blow out the Hens today. Not a huge payout ($347.50) but a fun rescue. In true Colonial fashion Benny missed the front end of the one and one to make me sweat it, but he made the second amd Max sealed it with a steal on the in bounds. Made this win even more satisfying. I also predicted 81-70, so pretty good karma for me today. 😂😂. 😔

A gutsy bet.  My hats off to you.
 

Max was kicked out of two of three games.  Better be a disciplinary move.

A few random thoughts on the weekend.

* Winning two of three is a good thing. The chaos we are seeing on the floor is not going to be a good thing next Friday and in conference play

*  We need to figure out a better defensive game plan pronto. Any team that can hit a few threes and has competent ball movement and lane penetration will come into the game with a chance to hose us.

*. We also need a better plan on offense. The all-out sprint down the court for a wild three or an out-of-control coast to coast drive down the lane is a losing strategy. And I have to assume it’s a strategy after seven games of watching it. Good data point is that we had only 8 assists tonight (Bishop had 4 of the 8) meaning the rest of the team had only 4. Yikes.

*  Delaware and Ohio don’t suck, but we ain’t gonna get away with this game plan against better teams.

*  Buchanan, Max and Johnson make me like the future.

*  I’m very glad I made money this weekend which took the sting out of having to pay for FloSports. Possibly the worst broadcast experience I’ve ever paid for. Just to make sure the experience was complete, FloSports made it  very difficult to cancel my subscription. What a shocker.

*  I don’t know who Kevin Johnson is, but it do know he’s a certified imbecile.  Let’s hope his career arc has peaked and he forever remains the happy idiot of FloSports.

Last edited by Alum1 (11/26/2023 9:09 pm)

I spoke with Caputo following the game and he said Edwards not starting was a disciplinary move. Told me he wanted to set an example for him and others that they should play with emotion but not play emotional. Also said he loved how Max responded to it.

Really great win, shooting 77.8% from the field in the second half is absurd. Thought it was important that they got Johnson involved early in the second half and Buchanan was massive down the stretch. Certainly things to work on but I'm satisfied with a 6-1 record heading to South Carolina.

1) Agree with the Wow.
2)We dug ourselves a hole unnecessarily and have to work on the poor shot selection among other things.
Some of the freshmen are pushing too hard. Delaware tutored us on strategic ball movement, especially the first half.
3) What you can't necessarily teach is heart and determination. Instead of being whipped, we made a determined comeback. Unlike yesterday, it stuck.
Well worth the price and frustration of dealing with FloHoops.
On Saturday, I noted the team's mettle in coming back several times. This time, we took advantage of it and it was a lot of moxie and determination. That's a terrific thing to see and hope it continues.
   James' steadiness in dealing with losing or leading is a good example for the younger players. And it was even noticed by the FloHoops announcer, not always a font of basketball insight.
   We haven't seen a team at the A-10 level so far, much less the SEC level.
   But we have some impressive players, and a bunch of talented ones, so with the same determination, a level head offensively and serious defense, no reason why we can't pull off an upset. Last year, proved it.

  
 

gwstudent2024 wrote:

https://gwradio.com/mens-basketball-drops-delaware-with-late-comeback/

 
Is this your handiwork gwstudent2024?  If so, really nice work.

My top 10 thoughts:

1.  Am very curious to see how this past weekend's three opponents fare during their upcoming conference seasons.  I thought the Ohio game was extremely high-level.  I hadn't realized that UIC is coached by Luke Yaklich, a former Michigan and Texas assistant who specializes in coaching defense.  (He was one of the names I was hoping for when MoJo was being replaced).  Delaware was the least talented of the three teams but the experience of their upperclassmen should serve them well.

2.  One thought about the UIC loss.  It was very clear to me that we were only going to get back in this game had we made a series of second half defensive stops.  And while UIC did shoot 41% from 3 for the game, where they were killing GW was on their drives to the hole (most notably Rivera, and most notably during the second half).  So I could not understand why Stretch sat as much as he did as his shot altering defense seemed to be what was badly needed.  Stretch played just 19 minutes and committed just one foul.  I get that he's not a huge threat on offense but playing alongside 4 scorers, his defense was badly needed and therefore, his presence would have been justified.  One of the very few times I have strongly disagreed with this coaching staff.

3.  The slow starts in the past two games seem attributable at least in part to not beginning the game with enough focus and attention to detail.  The team has appeared to be lackadaisical for stretches making unforced turnovers and other careless plays.  Perhaps this is confidence that it's a long game and that the team is good enough to come back against most anyone.  While it's great to have this confidence, what's not so great is digging holes to start games.  Going to be much harder to come back against better opponents.

4.  Case in point...a sucker play where the opponent scores, starts slowly jogging back up the court only to quickly turn around and steal the inbounds pass.  This happened at least twice that I can recall.  Just no reason for this if you're truly taking care of the ball and are focused to start the game.

5.  While I can understand why some of you would like to see more of Antoine Smith or wonder why Keegan can't be used (or similar questions of this type), I think it's very important to understand that this coaching staff gets paid to win games and not to make everyone as happy as possible.  If you're wondering why JB continues to be so ball dominant, it's because this gives the team the best chance at winning.  He has been sensational this year at keeping the team in games.  When he's fouled particularly during the second half, he's near automatic at the line. 

6.  The response to "but he's not going to be here next year" is "true, but he IS here this year."  Next year, maybe Max emerges as THE guy.  Maybe there will not be a sole guy.  But to not utilize the weapon that JB is sounds like lunacy to me.  Fully agree that the ill advised 25 foot shot is not the answer but letting him drive with the ball and either pull up, finish off the glass, get fouled, or find an open teammate are all recipes for success.

7. Already saw DBJ get better defended yesterday and Saturday than he had been on Friday.  He is a tough guard in general but we should not lose sight of the fact that some teams will have the personnel to defend him well.  That said, I thought he did a great job of getting the ball to teammates once he was stopped as opposed to trying to finish through two defenders.

8.  Am hoping that the rest of Garrett's game (defense, driving to the basket) catches up to his outside shooting.  He is one pure shooter.  I also wonder how he's taken in all of the attention, much of it national, that he's recently received.  Seems very level headed but you can't blame any 20 year old for getting caught up in his own headlines (not that I am suggesting this is or may be the case.)

9.  Future backcourt of Trey and Jacoi?  So far, so good.  I think both possess that mental toughness that winning players often display.

10.  Interesting timing for the next game against South Carolina.  Confident team headed into a hostile environment against a team wanting revenge for last year.  Am guessing attendance exceeds 300, a number not so easily reached in the Bahamas.
 

BM wrote:

A lot of the complaints I had about our execution in the last couple of games boil down to our youth and inexperience.  Easy to forget that almost all the non-JBIV minutes go to underclassmen and even Stretch's minutes can be called underclassmen minutes based on how little he played at Auburn.  

South Carolina will be a big test not just because it'll be our first away game (with +9,000 attendance), but because they are almost the opposite in roster experience with almost all the minutes going to seniors.

[edit:  #13 in D-I experience according to KenPom]

Their roster is completely different from last year and now they have several really high level shooters.  Teams with lots of shooters have given us trouble this year - though CC with almost a whole week to prepare gives me confidence.

Last edited by Free Quebec (11/27/2023 11:26 am)

Not concerned in the least with the results this week. We played 3 games in 48 hours, one of which went to 2OTs. We basically played 8 guys. We won 2 out of 3. There was no way we were going to play well the entire time, especially with a lot of players without a lot of experience either playing in college or playing together. I really wouldn't give it another thought. We are where we are supposed to be at this point - a developing team that while better than what we have seen recently, is not yet ready for prime time. Let's see where we are by the second or third week of January. We will have a much better handle on this team's capabilities then and I suspect we will be better. 6-1 is quite alright at this point but we should all know that this team is developing and can grow from here.

Alum1 wrote:

gwstudent2024 wrote:

https://gwradio.com/mens-basketball-drops-delaware-with-late-comeback/

 
Is this your handiwork gwstudent2024? If so, really nice work.

GW Radio / WRGW has had some good hoops coverage over the last few years. The Hatchet however, not as much. I think they are having a hard time finding writers who know basketball. I wonder if they can just collaborate or hire writers who do both, like "Special to the Hatchet..." byline style.