I’ll take a win over a loss any day and witnessing the school block record is definitely fun! Sure was sweating though.

Does Stretch have 1 year of eligibility or 2??? He brings a lot to this squad!

Always nice to get a W! 
Setting all time blocks record…nice! Congrats to Stretch (I knew Kevin Hall very well may he r.i.p.)

If anybody wants to beat us, just play a soft 1-2-2 press or leave us open at the foul line, or put us there, and we lose.  Too many sloppy, soft, lazy, stagnant possessions.

Hope we grow from this (I think we’re gonna see new rotations soon)

Such an incredibly ugly game. I could barely watch. Dominate for the first 5-8 min and then just let the smallest team on earth almost beat you.

Absolutely pathetic display from the line. I can't remember the last time I heard sarcastic cheering for the home team at the Smith Center, probably 10 years ago. I'd make these guys show up at Smith Center at 4 am to shoot free throws all day.

The only silver lining to take from tonight's fiasco is that they would have lost this game under past coaches. That's it.

Last edited by Alum '04 (12/05/2023 10:42 pm)

Well that was certainly a basketball game. The talent gap was evident (Navy finished the game with 0 blocks...), but sadly so was the difference in energy between the two sides. Despite Navy taking the lead late, I never felt concerned that GW was going to lose. Had GW made FTs like they usually do it's not a nail-biter. Navy did not look good as much as GW looking bad. Hopefully the freshmen learned a lesson that you can't coast against any team.

Buff&BlueBandit wrote:

Anyone know if there is a bug running through the GW locker room. Almost everyone looked to have zero energy throughout. Both Bishop and Max actually looked like they were sick several times. This team has played with energy in every game and Bishop has been acting as a true leader pumping his teammates up throughout. But tonight I don’t remember a single time they came together on the court to talk or high five each other.

I'm almost convinced that there must be, because the energy has just been off the past two games. There have been injuries, but something just feels off with the team right now. It's multiple guys too.

It shows up the most defensively. The number of straight drives Benigni had to the hoop towards the end was disturbing, and truthfully Stretch was the only thing keeping me from thinking that this was a repeat of the St. Joe's game from last year. This is Navy we're talking about. GW's guards were terrible at staying in front of their man tonight.

Now there were positives in my opinion. I thought guys were better at closing out on shots today, although I felt like there were times where we were closing out more on threes than what was needed (again based on the team GW was facing). I also thought ball movement was better (17 assists) although the execution wasn't always there.

Recovering on defense still remains very much a work in progress. Teams that can pass the ball well can find holes in our defense, and every additional pass seems to catch players out of position, leading to more offensive rebounds for the opposition. Credit Navy though, I expected rebounding to be an advantage for them on the offensive end, especially with the number of shots they miss generally.

I didn't expect to be disappointed by GW fouling too much as the team has usually been good there, but it felt like a return to the JC team from a couple years back that tried to play "Mayhem" but ended up just committing a lot of fouls and not really making the other team uncomfortable. Had Navy not gone to the line they would have struggled to put up 50 in regulation. They shot like 30% from the field. Too many dumb fouls tonight.

While the defensive end was disappointing, I was more curious to see how the offense would look against a solid defensive team. #1 on the list was whether the team was going to be able to dictate style of play in the game. That was a definitive F-. Navy was given every opportunity to slow down the game and keep things within the halfcourt where GW's execution is still very much a work in progress. This may once again be tied to an illness because I was stunned that the team was taking 15-20 seconds consistently to start running anything. Everything was out of sync.

The team is still learning to play together, but some turnovers are just so unforced. Max throwing multiple passes into the stands. One of them I honestly thought the floor spacing was atrocious so it wasn't all his fault, which has happened a few times on the year (there's too much going on in the paint but yet the team tries to squeeze a pass down low). At least none were against Navy's pressure in the backcourt. An improvement from the W&M game.

The blocked shots were nice, but I'm tired of GW always being the team less disruptive on defense (that has been the case seemingly forever). That's the next step the team has to take to get to the next level. All season, GW has really recorded steals from the other team just straight up giving us the ball. Jacoi and Max have had nice moments making plays on their own, but it's a rarity for the team overall. It's more glaring given just how much we cough the ball up on the offensive end. CC needs to tell guys to dribble less, especially when it's into traffic. This team is smart but at times plays with bafflingly low IQ. That's called being young I guess.

The turnovers are a concern, but I'm less worried about the FTs. Just one of those days where everything went wrong. GW entered the day #12 in the nation in FT shooting so this isn't a bad team from the charity stripe. It's unfortunate that it was coupled with Navy being borderline automatic at the other end. UNH missed a few FTs late in their game, but otherwise teams have had zero trouble making FTs against GW. That's bound to regress to the mean to the benefit of GW at some point in the season.

JB - thankful for his shot-making at big points in the game. He still has baffling moments turning the ball over though which is less acceptable given his senior status. The reality is that JB came back to show 1) he can shoot the ball better than he has over his career and 2) he can play better defense. So far so good on #1. I think JB is finally capitalizing on clean looks from 3, but #2 may never come to fruition. JB is just not a good defender. Every time Navy went at him on defense it was a good result for them.

DBJ - through nine games this year, has arguably been the best player on the team. He mixes it up down low defensively and is a legitimate option on offense. I noticed that pretty much every inbound pass late in the game went to him near the top of the key because he's a threat to drive or find another player. He's been usually pretty solid from the FT line before today so he gets a pass for that. A couple plays where I think he should have just gone to the rim instead of attempting a floater.

Garrett - really liked his effort on the boards, and he quietly has nice length which allows him to contest shots. He's just a smart player, and the kind of guy I always used to watch on opposing teams wondering why GW never had a player like that. I do wish he would attempt slightly less deep threes (he could be closer to the arc) but otherwise had a solid game.

Max - I like that he continues to rebound well, but as mentioned above I think he's still trying to figure out when to pass versus shoot. After all, he's still just a sophomore. When he gets deep into the paint, he should shoot more than he has. On the other hand, when he's bringing the ball up the court along the perimeter he should perhaps look to pass a bit more (unless it's in rhythm and in transition - he's earned the right to take those).

Stretch - was fantastic tonight. It's sad that his presence was the only thing keeping Navy from scoring like 90 on GW, but Akingbola rebounded better than usual, was unstoppable down low defensively, and even had some nice finishes down low. Congrats to him on the team record. It's so great to finally feel not terrible when defenses attack the rim knowing that he will alter shots more often than not when in the game.

Trey - I like him coming off the bench. He isn't sticking to the perimeter as much and looking more like that player I was impressed with out of HS. Autry usually takes good shots and is patient which is great for a freshman.

Benny - had moments of brilliance (the take to the hoop) but also is prone to making (as expected) mental mistakes on both sides of the ball. Still, good to see him healthy because he gives the offense an additional dimension with his cutting.

Jacoi - overall a solid game. Really liked his passing and vision offensively, and was as usual pesky on defense although I think he went a bit overboard on some possessions and fouled Navy away from the basket. Still, with so much of the team looking so lethargic his presence was refreshing.

One final point with regards to scheduling. Moving forward when we put games on the schedule for "high morale" or "easy win" or whatever, do not put Navy or William & Mary on the docket. The former will always play GW tough regardless of their experience but won't be ranked high analytically to make playing the game worth it/give GW the opportunity to blow them out. The latter will play absurdly well against GW and then be a no-show the rest of the season which will only hurt GW.

Next up is Coppin State. I feel reasonably confident that GW should not be tested too much in that game, but CC needs to figure out how to get the energy back to the level it was/needs to be for conference play.
 

Navy took 20 more two-points shots than us, and made three less.  The Stretch effect. 

We gave up 20 offensive rebounds to Navy.  They are very good at offensive rebounding but I think Stretch having his back to the basket to make those blocks was a contributing factor.  He has the second lowest defensive rebound rate on the team after James and Jacoi.

For starters, can we once and for all do away with the "lack of energy" comments?  I seriously don't know what game you guys (and gals) watched if this is your observation.  Maybe it's just me but I perceive "lack of energy" as code for "lazy" and even if this is not what you mean, you should know that this is how the comment is being perceived by at least me and perhaps others.  These are 18-23 year old guys who love to play basketball and are afforded fewer than 40 times a year to play on the big stage.  I sincerely doubt anyone is lacking energy.

So, here's what I think happened. With all due respect to GW69, drawing upon my minor in psychology at GW (technically, GW did not recognize minors at least in my day, but I did take 18 credits and was told that 18 credits constituted a minor at most other schools, so I'm sticking with that), I feel what we witnessed last night, with the exception of the final outcome, was a self fulfilling prophecy.  GW coaches had 4 full days to drill these types of messages into our players' heads:

Navy will play smart
Navy will not be careless with the ball
Navy will not beat itself
Navy will not ever quit during the game
No lead will be safe against Navy
You (GW) are more athletic and are better basketball players, but those things by themselves will not be enough

You get the idea.  GW jumps to a 16-5 point lead and now GW starts to feel secure. 

And then, the self fulfilling prophecy sets in.  What if the coaches were really right about all of this?  A self fulfilling prophecy means waiting for the other shoe to drop and GW spent much of the evening doing just that.  Rather than show a killer instinct, they simply allowed Navy to do all of these things that the coaching staff said they would be fully capable of doing it.  They were near automatic at the free throw line and perhaps that got into the heads of our free throw shooters who had an uncharacteristic off night at the line.  They did take good care of the ball while GW often failed to do this. Each time Navy made runs, GW's body language suggested that they were warned this could happen and now, it was actually happening.

I felt that GW's problems had far more to do with the mental aspects of the game than any perceived lack of energy.

On a separate note, I congratulate Stretch on entering the GW record book.  Another example of how well Navy adjusted:  Stretch had either 8 or 9 of those blocks during the game's first 23 minutes.  From then on in, he only had a handful of opportunities at blocking shots as Navy adjusted by finding ways to score without challenging him.  Stretch certainly did his part to cash the Under for me.  Just one more made free throw by Jun or JB in regulation would have gotten it done.  Just horrible luck to lose an under because of overtime.  The right analysis but the wrong outcome.

Other quick thoughts:

there isn't a better solution to poor outside shooting than to take the ball to the hole and score, or get fouled and score.  Putting the ball through the cylinder does wonders for one's confidence.  We've seen this from Trey and JB and last night, it was Max who came alive in this manner.

After game 1, I was wondering whether the proper comp for Garrett might be Nemanja Mikic but 8 games later, I can see it's far more like Jameson Battle.  The difference is that Jameson first began developing his pump fake and take it to the hole game after his freshman season while Garrett already has these abilities.

My two biggest criticisms of this team are: 1) too many careless turnovers and 2) foot speed on defense.  #1 is fixable and should be cleaned up.  #2 will be more difficult because while Jacoi and Trey are ahead of JB and Max in this regard, you know that JB and Max will be receiving the lion's share of minutes (and rightfully so).

How telling was it that Jun had arguably his least consequential game yet over the game's first 30 minutes, and then was an integral part of almost every possession down the stretch and in overtime.  It should be apparent that the coaches want to see DBJ take his defender one on one with the floor spread about as much as any other offensive option they have.  Let's also not forget his huge block which helped send the game to OT.

Rising is correct that we must learn from this experience.  It was to the point of painful to watch our team go through it, but the hope is they will respond better to similar circumstances in the future.
 

The assist to turnover ratio tells the story for this team. 
117/129 needs to be flipped.
JB @ 44/34, Jacoi 20/14 (10 steals second on team,) and Trey 7/5 are the only ones with +a:to ratio.
Max 14/22 (and leads team with 13 steals and 7.7 rebs.)

The low energy vs mental toughness debate is a good one.  Some would say that reaching rather than using legs is lazy.  Not sure here.  Max obviously makes a lot happen with his activity but he is definitely a risk taker with his handle, passing and defense. 

Hopefully discipline will improve with maturity and we won’t take the roller coaster ride when we’re up by 7 and then throw a pass into the 3rd row of Georges Army.

Looking forward to the growth.

Every team in college basketball has bad games. All you need do is scroll through the "Other Games Thread" to see a plethora of superior, P6 conference teams losing to smaller schools from smaller conferences. It happens all the time, not least of which because those games are just much bigger for the small schools. Those games are their NCAA Tourney. The good news is that even though we had a bad game against a very determined team from a smaller conference, we still WON. That's huge for me, as we have lost these games the last few years, some of them badly. When I look at what this team has accomplished so far, they are 0-1 against superior teams, 3-1 against equal caliber teams, and undefeated against inferior teams. That's pretty good, imho, especially for a young team still learning to play together.

If you look at the game, you will see we pulled off a rare feat. We won despite giving up 20 offensive rebounds, making 18 turnovers, shooting 54.5% from the line and giving up 20 points off turnovers and another 20 off second chances. If you told me those stats beforehand I would tell you we would lose 99 out of 100 times. Why did we win? We erased 15 shot attempts. Huge in a game where the other team had nearly 20 more attempts. That is truly rare.

Great write up as always