Overreliance on James.
Someone's gotta be open

Too much hero ball.

Another loss. At least baseball teams will be good. No. They seem to be bad also. Bad leadership from the AD. Ugh!

One silver lining is the streak of giving up 80 points was broken

Last edited by GW0509 (2/21/2024 9:10 pm)

Proud of the way the team fought tonight without either Jun or Garrett. For the first time in a while the defense seemed to have some purpose and the ball movement was better for a longer stretch of this game compared to previous games.

JB was feeling it offensively and showed visible effort defensively. Jacoi really impressed offensively and defensively, leading the team in rebounds and assists and finishing second in scoring. I still don't know how I feel about Trey, but he had some moments early in the second half making consecutive threes. I guess I had high expectations coming into the year given what he did at WRA, but he deserves another offseason before a judgement is made. Stretch looked better offensively and played with great motor (although maybe benefitted a bit from Essandoko not being 100%). Zam's dunk was the highlight of the game and looked pretty good out there overall. Certainly less lost on defense compared to earlier in the season. Credit to Max as well for toughing it out despite not being 100%.

dmvpiranha wrote:

Strengths (2023-24 Season):
3-PT Field Goals Made Per Game - 10.4 3PM (9th) (hoo boy...)
3-PT Field Goals Attempted Per Game - 28.8 3PA (13th)
Assists Per Game - 14.7 APG (T-86th)

The team deserves a lot of credit for holding SJU below their season average in threes made (and attempts). It actually felt like most threes were contested and an attempt was made to run the Hawks off the line. The one exception was the unfortunate second chance three made by X Brown at a critical juncture of the game when GW went up 5. It was a scramble play but it felt like guys just allowed him to set himself and launch a three from the top of the key (his other made three earlier where Max flew at his pump fake could have maybe been defended a bit better but Max wasn't 100% so that gets more of a pass).

Still waiting for the day where we hold a team under their season average in assists though. Joe's finished with 16 for the game.

dmvpiranha wrote:

Weaknesses (2023-24 Season):
Opponent Personal Fouls Per Game - 15.8 PF/G (293rd)
Opponent Assists Per Game - 14.2 APG (T-297th) (feels like a miracle that GW would even approach this number right now)
 

Included the personal fouls stat because SJU certainly drew a lot more fouls than they usually do. The refs may not have been the reason GW lost, but it can't be ignored when the differential is 21-10. At halftime, I assumed that things would even out in the second half but no it was more of the same. Outside of that horrible over the back call I didn't have a problem with the calls (some ticky tack ones) but it's a semantics thing. It's not like GW wasn't attacking the hoop. A short handed GW team has five players with 3+ fouls. Meanwhile, a healthy Joe's team has no players who picked up 3 fouls.

GW did move the ball well for much of the game but towards the end the ball began sticking again. It was clear as day that the score was getting in the head of guys and the team went away from what was working for most of the game. With three minutes left down 3, Jacoi over-dribbles in the lane, loses the ball, and SJU makes a three on the other end. It feels like every game GW is met with some resistance when they are in transition, but when the other team is in transition guys don't run back and they consistently have an advantage to make a shot. This happened several times today.

Both MBB and WBB have lost their composure in close games the past few weeks with mental errors costing the team. I actually liked CC's decision to foul with 30 some seconds left given SJU was still only in the single bonus (although they could have played it out with 8.5 second difference between shot and game clock). The team had a lot of success last year extending the game when down by a couple possessions. Unfortunately, X Brown made both FTs but if you are going to extend the game, shouldn't you be trying to maximize the number of possessions you get? I hate to blame JB on this because he played a great offensive game overall and did a great job picking up the slack as the team needed it, but he made multiple mistakes on this play. GW should have been looking for two as quickly as possible and then committed another foul. Instead, nearly 20 seconds run down and when JB isn't able to draw a foul from behind the arc he throws the ball out of bounds. If things break down, call a timeout. SJU knew who was going to take the shot, another reflection of the ball sticking down the stretch of the game. JB had his usual stretch where a number of layups rimmed out for whatever reason. GW finished with just 5 assists I believe after halftime, and just 1 came in the last 11+ minutes. As a result, the team still fell below SJU opponent's averages for assists per game.

Time for some "only against GW" moments:

dmvpiranha wrote:

Fleming is 0/9 from deep in their last three games.
 

Fleming went 1/2 from 3 today after going 0/9 in the previous three games combined.

dmvpiranha wrote:

It's worth noting that Reynolds has had a very rough stretch shooting the ball lately, as he's just 11/48 (23%) from the field and 5/31 (16%) from 3 in the last four games. Playing GW should help that!
 

Reynolds shot 6/12 from the field overall tonight (although just 2/8 from 3).

Now my personal favorite...

dmvpiranha wrote:

Greer is more of a drive-first guard. He shot just 33% from three (down to 29% this year) and made just 29 last season. He hasn't made a three since January 10th.
 

Greer takes just one three today but makes it. His first made three in 42 days.
 

Free Quebec wrote:

Gwmayhem wrote:

Best we've looked in a while.

 

To be fair, it was just two games ago that we had Loyola beat before Buchanan got hurt and stretch fouled out. But yeah.

I am going to acknowledge that I wrote this as a joke.  Due to ESPN+'s technical difficulties, unless you were at the game or watching on NBC Sports Philadelphia, you couldn't "see" this game making it challenging to know exactly how the team was looking.  Kind of like when Johnny Carson was invited to Mary's apartment for a dinner party on The MTM Show and there's a complete blackout in the building.  Upon his arrival, the first thing Johnny says is "nice place you've got here."

 

Two points:

1) As Rising likes to say, two things can be true at the same time.  Like last night's officiating.  It's entirely possible that officiating did not cost the team the game, but that it did contribute somewhat to the loss and is therefore worth pointing out.  Again, the only thing one can hope for is consistency whether you're calling the game loosely or tightly.  Just call it the same way for both teams. 

2) I'm beginning to feel like I have it in for this guy, but he keeps doing stuff like this.  Some people felt that the call on Zam taking away his putback turned the game around and it certainly did not help.  But, I look at this play with more anger:  GW up 5 after making its second half run.  With the ball, Max takes an NBA 3, I don't know, maybe five seconds into the possession.  He was open because either nobody was expecting him to take a 24 foot shot without working some clock first or because the defense was inviting him to do so.  He missed, SJU scores on an old-fashioned three point play on its next possession, and the Hawks firmly took control of the game from there.

While I understand that you don't want to discourage players from taking open 3's, this was clearly the wrong shot at the wrong time.  Low percentage, seconds into the possession, and with complete momentum at the time.  The momentum clearly swung from that moment on.  Come on Max.  You've got to know better.
 

jf wrote:

GW0509 wrote:

Keegan clearly is not an all league player but crazy to think he can’t even get 5 mins in there to spell Stretch for a stretch 

Not worth trying to find out privately, since the die appears to be cast on Keegan and our issues are many.
But this is beyond odd. Can Keegan physically play more than the 1.3. 4 and 6 minutes he has played in
a whopping 4 games out of our total of 26 games? There was some report of sickness once.
  Or we trying to a) redshirt him or b) send a message to him that he may be better off elsewhere or c) trying to prevent anything related to work on his visa? Because of the serious options, if Keegan is physically able to play and not being redshirted, the message doesn't need to be delivered this way to both our and his detriment.
   At this point, we may as well walk on campus and ask anyone over 6'9 or over if they want to join the basketball
team.
  

 Not sure why this is odd. Keegan recruited by previous regime. Coaches evaluate Keegan everyday in practice. Coaches want to win. Coaches know Keegan is 6-11. Coaches also know that they need front court help. If coaches thought Keegan could help why wouldn't they play him? 

Because Keegan is tall doesn't mean he can help. Listen, I am sure it is nothing personal. Seems like a great kid and teammate. But unless you know something the coaches don't (doubtful), not sure why it is odd. Coaches play the players they think can help. Right now, they have obviously determined Keegan can't help even in this particular situation. For better or worse it's time to move on to another topic.

Last edited by GWRising (2/22/2024 4:45 pm)

If you’re pining for Keegan Harvey, you’re delusional. From what I’ve seen, he might very well get some limited minutes in a bottom half NEC or MEAC team,  but let’s be honest, he doesn’t belong in the A10 on his best day.  That’s not a knock on the kid, he got recruited amd he signed. That’s not on him.  But he’s on the roster because we couldn’t find anyone else.

Don't know and was just pointing out how odd it was that he couldn't come in and give a foul or stand
in the middle for a minute or two at the end of the half when Stretch has his 2 fouls, if no one else with height is available.
        For example, we gave 5 fouls in one game--and it may have been a 6th unintentional. Not saying he should start or play major or substantial minutes. A scholarship player should be able to come in for a minute or couple of minutes when needed.
    Not a vendetta, it's just doing things the same way, which has resulted in a 9-game losing streak.
At which point, most fan bases would be a bit concerned, especially when it seemed like the team was less than motivated. No one's giving up on the coach and personally think CC still has potential and the smarts to hopefully turn things around next year.
   Interestingly, our best game during our long and painful losing streak was one in which lesser and rarely used players had to take over and play some minutes. 
  Try actually reading the posts.
    Thanks for informing us what I and others think. And the repeated reassurance that no matter what, things are always going in the right direction.