Missed watching the St. Joe's game, but the team still looks awful offensively (and has all season minus the Richmond contest). McCombs NEEDS to bring in an assistant who actually knows how to run a coherent offense. Duquesne had some nice moments moving the ball and they can hit the 3, but they weren't even that impressive if I'm being honest and were extremely careless with the ball (also their head coach is extremely whiny - the refs should have t'd him up a lot earlier in the game). Anyways, a 17 point loss at home (even if the game was closer earlier) is unacceptable for this team.

I can pretty much copy and paste anything I've written for previous games and it would still ring true. Most of the game is just each Nya taking turns heaving shots from deep or another player taking an awful contested shot in the paint. Dribble handoff until one player barrels their way to the rim hoping to get fouled. Where is the passing? The extra pass is NEVER made on offense, and the majority of the shots didn't even look open today. 8 assists to 20 turnovers tells the full story, including yet another play where the team couldn't even inbound the ball. The two backdoor cuts involving Essence in the game were the only plays where the team looked like they were running anything.

Thus far, it seems like this team is always smaller than its competition in conference, or at least plays that way. This is year 3 for McCombs, and she should have addressed some of those shortcomings by now. Unfortunately, this team isn't littered with guards to offset that either. McCombs can't do much until the offseason now but the talent is not to the level it needs to be and there aren't enough scoring threats on the floor at the same time. Durant and Taiwo are still starting together and affecting spacing. At some point, you have to switch things up when things aren't working.

Again, it's not like there are any freshmen in the rotation either. No breakout from Loving this offseason entering year 2. Blethen seems to have taken a big step back this year. Engel plays a ton of minutes only to attempt one shot? There's just an absolute lack of identity on offense. If the offense is just the Nyas the team will struggle mightily and that was the case today. Post touches are inconsistent. Duquesne wasn't that great but just take a look how they move the ball inside out when they looked good and got good quality shots. That was extremely rare for GW.

Glad to see Buford back out there, but she clearly didn't look 100% and I would have preferred to not rush her out there if she wasn't ready. The postgame was definitely funny to listen to - "we are working on building out our depth" when Webster, Loving, and the freshmen don't play at all. You can't blame the players for being winded in the fourth quarter when the coaching staff poorly manages minutes earlier in the game.

Again, the defense was solid (although Duquesne helped by turning the ball over constantly) but this team has a low ceiling until the team has more scoring talent and can pass the ball consistently without turning it over. GW is without a doubt going to have to be a lot more active in the portal this offseason given Robertson is the only player from the HS ranks that has shown anything so far (and I'm not sure the coaching staff has really helped grow her game any either). Hate to be so negative but this team isn't giving me a lot of positives to talk about, and for a team with expectations this team has been a major disappointment. It's not just the injuries, but there isn't a lot of hope building for future seasons either. A storied program like GW being last in the A10 in WBB is very sad.
 

Extending McCombs was a mistake.  Plus you have to wonder why she would turn over 5 of her assistants in her 3rd year?  Did they all take better jobs or is she a bad boss or getting better assistants (for this result)?

Last edited by BC (1/11/2024 10:07 am)