A win is a win but it wasn't pretty

I really thought about rooting for Alcorn State because, good for them, they were really trying harder. They fought (to have a chance at their 2nd win in 13 games) and never gave up, despite a brutal 12 game travel road schedule. Alcorn outhustled out and as noted, out wanted us. And frankly, deserved it more.
    When Alcorn chose, they lived in the paint, feasting on layups and putbacks, especially with Stretch out. They were smaller than us, but more athletic, and certainly quicker, as pointed out by others. No. 3, who appeared to be approaching middle age, really torched us. Maybe he wants to transfer here before he retires.
    This is, as DMV tried to point out very politely, another of several lack of intensity/attention to detail game. Others would indeed see it as low energy. We also got caught in several traps. Don't know if is pre-and post-exams or some bug that lasts for weeks, or just thinking we're better than these guys before actually proving it. But it has to stop in A-10 play.
   CC was clearly unhappy with the performance (or lack thereof) while grateful for the win. He termed it
the worst defensive performance of the year.
    James, who can will us to a win, also very manfully and leader-like said in the press conference the team wasn't up for the game as it should--and even blamed himself as the senior leader. He may have been too hard on himself. But it is another aspect of James' growing maturity that will serve him well in basketball and life.
         Still, a great group of talented guys.
     As long as we beat mighty Maryland Eastern Shore at home, and stay focused and compete as hard and intelligently as we can in A-10 play, we can put it in the rear view mirror.

      

The offense was fine.   Took mostly good shots, shooting 48% from field and 44% from the three.   Turnovers are still much too high, with 16.   It is all about the defense, or lack of the same.   We simply cannot defend anyone it seems.   They were running layup drills against us for a good part of the game.  We would lose our man on defense. The front court, in particular, is woeful.  We gave up 20 offensive rebounds and were out rebounded overall 44-28.  And Alcorn State was not tall..  Between the lack of rebounding and the turnovers,  Alcorn State a whopping 22 more shots in the game than we did.  We have a serious problem up front.   Stretch is a wonderful shot blocker but overall  is not a good defender.  Schroder is giving us nothing on offense or defense.   To me, it looks like he is pressing, and each time he was put in the game he was pulled shortly thereafter due to his poor play .  And as much as we all like Garrett Johnson, he too is not a defender,.  I am not sure what 6'8" Zam, 6'11" 230 pound Harvey or even 6'7" Antoine Smith need to do to get in the game, but one of them surely has to be an  upgrade over Schroeder at this point.  My game guest Wisconsin Colonial pointed out that despite their record, Alcorn State has played a brutal  schedule (4th hardest in the country), all on the road whereas GW has played mostly cupcakes at home, and has strenght of schedule of 350.   This may be the reason that Alcorn State seemed far more prepared to play us than we  were to play them.   This schedule has given us a gawdy record, but has done us no favors when it comes time for conference play.  As for the announced attendence of 1,149, that included a sizeable contingent who came to see Stonehill in the women's game, as well as those who came to see our women.   I cannot imagine that there was more than 500-600 in the house to watch the me.  

Noting that Alcorn St played upperclassmen exclusively while we relied on underclassmen (mostly freshmen) outside of Bishop and Stretch—who only played 17 minutes.  Also it would’ve been a much more comfortable lead throughout if both teams had hit their FTs at their normal clip.

Lots of opinions this morning, not just about the Alcorn State game but about season-long patterns that have turned into concerns.  Let's start by saying that all of us have a right to our opinions so if you're of the mindset that nobody should have the right to bitch about a 10-2 team, then maybe this post isn't for you.

The 10-2 record is in my mind, more of an expectation than anything else.  This schedule is ridiculously easy and this was known before the season ever started.  But what about winning all of these games we're supposed to win, something this program has been unable to do in some time?  All I can say is if that's your barometer for success, beating teams like W&M and Coppin State who GW has lost to in the past, then my opinion is that you're shooting way too low.  There's a reason why there are schools that you are "supposed to beat".  It's because you have better teams than they do,

It remains to be seen whether this OOC schedule prepared us, did not prepare us, or had no bearing on the team's ability to compete at a high level in the A10.  Taking a step back, what I do think has emerged are a number of patterns or habits which become harder to break the longer they endure.  What is clear is that if we don't change our ways, at least with respect to some of these areas, we will have a difficult time achieving any realistic goals.  So, here are these thoughts:

1) This team is very talented offensively, and it knows it.  Simply put, we have more weapons on offense than ever before.  More guys who can reliably make three pointers.  More guys who can bring the ball up and start the offense.  More guys who can make creative passes by seeing the whole floor.  There are reasons why our tempo is as fast as it is and our PPG is as high as it is. 

2) So, what does "it knows it" mean?  Perhaps due to the level of competition it has faced, supreme faith in one another, or both, this team seems to often make things harder on itself.  It ignores clear path layups to try fancy passes instead.  It routinely throws cross court passes which often result in turnovers.  Or, it simply makes one too many passes.  Kudos to unselfish play but at the same time, this often ends up being the incorrect play.  Guys need to understand when to make the easy play.

3) My sense is that several players very clearly prefer to play offense to defense.  Sometimes, this may be because one's defensive skills are limited.  In other cases, it may simply be more about desire.  No need to name names other than to say that this team's offense is miles away from its defense right now.

4) The lackadaisical, careless turnovers may again be the result of knowing this will not cost the team wins against this schedule, or it may be signs of a team that does not know how to minimize these.  Turn the ball over 16-20 times against A10 opponents and you will be making wins much harder to come by.

5) Who isn't excited about Stretch going for a blocked shot?  It's great when he succeeds but not at all great when he doesn't.  Either Stretch ends up out of position after a missed block attempt or the other teammates on the floor are not boxing out and are clearly not providing any weakside help on the boards.  It's one thing to get burned by this once or twice a game but the amount of times that opponents are scoring off of putbacks is inexcusable.  My feeling is that you have to let Stretch keep going for blocks because that's where he offers enormous value.  But the other 4 guys....start hitting the boards. 

6) In general, the defense just seems to be one step behind, late to close out shooters, and just overall apathetic.  It's great to watch Jun take over a game defensively late in a game as he did yesterday and against Navy.  However, and I'm addressing most everyone and not just Jun, where is this defensive intensity throughout the game?  To be clear, nobody is capable of giving 100% defensive intensity all of the time.  That's not how it works.   But right now, this team is coasting defensively for the first 37 minutes and then turning the defense on late when it has to.  Not a great recipe for future success.

There are of course exceptions.  Stretch going for blocks does constitute important defense, and I enjoy watch Jacoi and Trey work as hard as they do on the defensive end.  That said, we simply need a lot more from the others on the defensive end.
 

As usual, good points, especially by LSF.
Do wonder why if Benny was sick, why we would play him against Alcorn State--or why he was even on the bench if it was contagious? However, CC said postgame he didn't know about it. Glad Benny's a competitor and his game didn't seem particularly different. But if we need Benny or really anyone against Alcorn State, we have a problem. Apparently, Alcorn State was missing its best player and still played us down to the wire.
One the positive side, Jacoi's defensive effort is pretty consistent and impressive. A very smart player from the start of his college.
And of the true freshmen, Trey and Jacoi do look really look like players at least so far. Provides hope for the future, along with Garrett and Darren and of course, the great Max, if the interior problem is fixed.

jf wrote:

As usual, good points, especially by LSF.
Do wonder why if Benny was sick, why we would play him against Alcorn State--or why he was even on the bench if it was contagious? However, CC said postgame he didn't know about it. Glad Benny's a competitor and his game didn't seem particularly different. But if we need Benny or really anyone against Alcorn State, we have a problem. Apparently, Alcorn State was missing its best player and still played us down to the wire.
One the positive side, Jacoi's defensive effort is pretty consistent and impressive. A very smart player from the start of his college.
And of the true freshmen, Trey and Jacoi do look really look like players at least so far. Provides hope for the future, along with Garrett and Darren and of course, the great Max, if the interior problem is fixed.

Thank  you JF.  FYI...we were told at the pregame dinner that Alcorn State was missing both their best player AND their starting point guard.   
 

Long Suffering Fan wrote:

Given his credentials of having been on the Under 20 team in Germany, I was expecting Schroder to be more ready to play, however he has not shown me much over the season. On offense, he seems to have no interior game other than the occasional dunk, has thrown up nothing but bricks from the 3 (albeit on limited attempts) and has more turnovers than assists for the season. On defense, I have no other way to put it other than he regularly gets beat like a drum. I have no reason to believe that he won't develop into a solid player, but at least at this time, I would like to see one of the 2 aforementioned players (Zam or Smith) or Keegan get some of his minutes and see what they can do other than in garbage time. Someone tell me why I am wrong.

I don't know that I agree with this. If we're comparing him to Garrett or Darren, then I guess but that's moreso a credit to those guys for playing really well than I think Benny being a disappointment. I think Benny has shown flashes of doing a number of different things on offense, whether it's cutting to the basket, knocking down a short jumper in the paint to break a zone, or driving the ball to the basket himself. I feel like he's pressing partly due to him not playing a lot of minutes. I agree that he will need to become more of a threat from 3. After he made his very first attempt where he was fouled against Stonehill, none of the others have been close but as you mentioned he hasn't been 100% due to illness and injury.

Benny has been beat off the dribble defensively, but let's be honest. Who on this team hasn't? That's an area where the team is going to have to show more effort come conference play. It's been a long time since I've seen a GW team not be beat off the bounce. The only difference this year is that we have Akingbola to erase some of those times guys get beat. I think the international guys also need a bit more time to adjust defensively (Mara from UCLA is a guy who comes to mind - a highly rated international guy who is still trying to find his footing). Benny has room for improvement there, but he has the strength/length to be a factor.

As for Zam, Antoine, and Keegan, I'm not sure that any of them taking Benny's minutes would solve anything at the moment. I like that the coaching staff is bringing Zam along slowly, but he is definitely not ready right now. The few minutes of court time that he's had he has shown very little to no awareness defensively (worse than Benny). Antoine I feel like was brought in to be a backup plan in case Garrett wasn't ready offensively. Smith is a good shooter but isn't strong enough to contest consistently on defense and isn't going to be on the team long term either. Hopefully Keegan feels better soon but again he just doesn't have the strength to compete down low (although I liked his energy in garbage time against SC).
 

Benny is currently averaging just under 13 minutes a game which isn't a lot to begin with (it's actually closer to 10 if you take out any D1 games that weren't blowouts). Cutting his minutes decreases his margin for error and doesn't help him work through mistakes. I'd imagine come conference play his minutes are probably going down by default anyways as the starters log more minutes. CC also isn't likely to go with more than eight guys barring any injuries.

I'm not sure that it makes sense to go with additional guys just because the defense can't get worse. Zam is the only one with actual defensive potential of the 3 you mentioned and he just isn't ready to play non garbage time minutes at this point - especially against A10 foes. When he's been in, he's straight up forgotten to rotate allowing his man to get wide open layups. He just needs time adjusting to CBB. While Benny has been burned on drives, he hasn't completely missed rotating over to the extent that Zam has. Weluche-Ume probably gets more run next season and I'm excited to see him develop.

Also, Schroder is one of the few players who has actually played passing lanes on occasion defensively which I'd like GW to do more of (Max and Jacoi are others that come to mind that have generated pressure defensively).

Antoine probably only plays if GW is down by a lot and needs three point shooting to get back in the game. Keegan has height but isn't a long term solution. I wouldn't play either over Benny if we are considering Schroder to be a key piece on future teams. I think he has more potential with his length than them and wouldn't sacrifice that by playing Harvey/Smith for a few minutes but perhaps we just see that differently. It's a good debate for sure.

The issues being burned on defense apply to all the guys who spend time along the perimeter, not just Benny. Others may have an edge on offense, but that shouldn't give them a pass on defense either (again, love what JB has done for GW, but he just isn't a good defender - I believe his defensive rating is the worst on the team). After all, they are playing more minutes than Benny. Credit Garrett for acknowledging this during the presser yesterday.