Joel Joseph wrote:

Come on Rising, stop being an apologist for CC. Of course he spends sleepless nights trying to figure out how to turn this thing around. Like anyone, he wants to keep the job paying him $750,000 a year. He needs to start recruiting, teaching and winning in a hurry.
Don't compare this years schedule to last year because last year was God awful (with a D-3 and D-2 team to go with the bottom feeder D-1 teams).
Fact is we suck, have sucked for the last 7 years and will continue to suck in the foreseeable future while the board "experts" give their opinions on what factors are causing this. News Flash! - it's a combination of all 25-30 factors we have been discussing for years.

 
I’m not sure why some of you guys don’t get it. The schedule isn’t something he got boxed into. It’s the schedule he wanted .  He literally told us his strategy is to schedule as many cupcakes at home as the University would pay for. Because he would rather post a lot of W’s and have a winning record going into the A10 and then see the tough conference schedule buoy the NET. . His basis for this belief is his experience in the ACC where the conference schedule IS actually tough. I don’t think this philosophy works in the A10 for many obvious reasons.

So let’s stop the parlor game of how the schedule came together. He put it together. He wanted it this way. He’ thinks it’s a good idea. And he told us that was what he was going to do. Short memories?  Wishful thinking?  Get ready for a replay next year unless the pressure of a horrible season  (read: donors) forces  him to change. You can cover your ears amd pretend not to listen do him, but this is what he said from the outset. I’m betting on another box of cupcakes next year.

Can’t help but think the frustration over the OOC schedule has as much to do with our feeling duped by this team as it does with the actual merits of the schedule for this part of the season. Normally, I’d say that the OOC doesn’t matter until we’re really competitive for the postseason, and we’re clearly not there yet.

I’m much more worried that this team hasn’t stumbled into a win in 11 games. Joseph never lost more than 5 in a row during his 9-24 campaign. That’s not an issue with playing the Little Sisters of the Poor, that’s a collapse somewhere in the locker room, in the playbook, or in recruiting.

GW0509 wrote:

creeksandzeeks wrote:

Can’t help but think the frustration over the OOC schedule has as much to do with our feeling duped by this team as it does with the actual merits of the schedule for this part of the season.

THIS.  Really the first 8 games of the OOC are what 90% of the A-10 schedule in the OOC.  It seems like it's only the rest of December that annoy people so much.  

Speaking of Mojo's 9-24 team, they played Virginia on the road, and then Michigan and South Carolina at a neutral site, losing the last game by 35 points.  Played a few other KenPom 75-175 teams and lost to them all.  Went 4-9 overall in the OOC with 3 of our wins coming against KenPom 290+ teams.  That tough OOC didn't seem to do much for preparing that team for conference play, except for maybe being prepared to regularly lose by 20+ points.

 

You are seriously comparing Mojo’s 9-24 roster and that godawful coach to what we have today?  I must say, you never cease to amaze me.

Decided to hold off on writing anything for a few days since emotions were clearly running high on here after the game and I didn't really feel like saying anything right away. If I'm assessing the game based off process rather than result, I actually thought the UMass game was a step in the right direction. The very first possession defensively was definitely inspired, although at this point the team is clearly limited on that side of the ball. If Antoine isn't making threes and Stretch isn't blocking shots, the frontcourt is pretty rough outside of Jun. Somehow the ball slips out of Smith's hands more than any other player, and Stretch just doesn't close out on shots beyond a few feet of the rim. If a player pump fakes like Cohen did, it's usually an easy two. GW still needs to work at getting back defensively in transition. It wasn't just the long caroms off missed threes, but plays like where JB misses a layup and then lightly jogs back on defense which just cannot happen.

There were improvements offensively as well with ball movement. After the SLU game, I said "way to waste a great shooting performance from JB" but maybe I should have said the team in general because a shooting regression like the one against UMass was on the horizon and inevitable. Still, I liked the shot selection a lot more. Sometimes a bit too much passing (Trey should have taken a three with a couple ticks left on the shot clock instead of making an extra pass to Jun in the corner) but would rather see more passing than no passing at all. Speaking of Jun, it was good to see him back out there, especially since he's one of the very few players on the team who can actually score inside the arc at a decent clip. I do have some concerns moving forward that we are using him like JB rather than integrating him within the flow of the offense. It's certainly a good thing to have a go-to player who can create his own shot, but it discourages moving the ball when he gets the ball going downhill. It would be nice to see post ups mixed in a bit and if possible minimize the number of threes he takes. Perhaps the best offensive play of the game came off a timeout when JB had a wide open path to the rim, cut, and finished an easy layup. More of that is needed more often.

DC Native wrote:

Another way to look at this is that of our 6 "good" wins this year (i.e., wins against higher NET ranked teams), half of them were in the OOC.

Winning only three games in conference will do that lol but I understand what you're trying to say.

DC Native wrote:

Caputo took a gamble by playing such a young team this year.

It's hard to say how much of the construction of the young team was lack of NIL money and how much was his belief that the NCAA rule for second time transfers sitting out was going to stand. No doubt CC has been screwed on both fronts. I agree that a more experienced team is a must moving forward.

Merrick wrote:

The transfer portal opens March 18 and runs 45 days into May.  We should have most of our answers and reasons for hope or varying degrees of despair after the portal closes.  I remain skeptical that GW can fully compete or meet some of our highest expectations in the new NIL world and college free-agency, but I will reserve judgment until that time. 

Yup this is where I'm at. I haven't exactly felt great about GW's transfer portal performance the past two offseasons under CC (I understand things are tough the first offseason a coach is hired, but even considering that the haul of players we landed was disappointing). The number of bigs GW struck out on before landing Akingbola has summed up the on court issues up front. I guess we'll see what happens with apparently a bigger NIL budget this time around. The team needs to become more physical, and not one that's more about finesse and just making threes offensively. Miami has had similar issues defensively and I feel like it's not a coincidence that they are also on a long losing streak right now.

There are additional questions with regards to the backcourt but perhaps that should be tabled for a couple weeks from now. The way things stand currently the team will have one junior (Max), two sophomores (Jacoi, Trey) and two freshmen (Christian, Ty). Having a young backcourt would be problematic next year, and unfortunately I don't know that Max should be a #1 or #2 option although he does bring some positive things to the team. How many guards is too many? At least one if not two pieces will need to be added in my opinion.

Gwmayhem wrote:

I'd also say that South Carolina did help us.  After giving up a barrage of 3's in that game, the team held its next two opponents to a combined 20% shooting from 3. 

I don't disagree with your entire post, but come on - we're talking about Navy and Coppin State as the "next two opponents". Neither team is shooting even 30% from 3 for the season. Even ignoring shooting variance from a two game sample size, I don't know that the SC game led to a better short-term performance.

GW0509 wrote:

creeksandzeeks wrote:

Can’t help but think the frustration over the OOC schedule has as much to do with our feeling duped by this team as it does with the actual merits of the schedule for this part of the season.

THIS.  Really the first 8 games of the OOC are what 90% of the A-10 schedule in the OOC.  It seems like it's only the rest of December that annoy people so much.  

YES to both of these. As someone who is somewhere in the middle when it comes to gripes with the schedule I can say that it was the December slate that annoyed me. I actually had no issues with the November schedule and the schedule being light overall. The team is young, CC wanted to improve the perception of the team from the outside (yes he won't fool people on this board, but you'd be surprised how many people just look at number of wins and ignore the slate) in the short term, and have GW come in with a high enough NET so that the team will not be a bad loss for contending teams. Things haven't worked out for various reasons (young team, injuries, roster construction, etc.) but I understood the approach.

The team was playing at its best (and healthiest) in November. I think back to the Ohio game where Garrett made the last second pass to Max at the end of the shot clock for the swished three. I also remember the last ten minutes of the Hofstra game where GW legitimately played good defense, shutting down a team that's fairly good offensively (Tyler Thomas is going late second round on some NBA draft boards and the team held him in check down the stretch of the game).

The team was playing well until December came along. Illnesses hurt performance no doubt, but the stretch of Coppin State-Bowie State-Alcorn State-UMES did the team no favors. I mean no disrespect to these schools - the talent isn't at the same level, but the players on those squads bust their tails off (it's why it was so easy to root for EJ Clark in the short time he was here) to compensate because that's the way they can win. It's fine to schedule two of these around exam time, but nearly a full month of playing against this competition isn't beneficial. It's a lot more up and down, less organized basketball. The team was noticeably passing the ball less as a result. From what I watched, the team was equally as limited when it came to defending the perimeter defensively as well so it's not just the schedule but I do think some bad habits were formed. You can point to other factors, but that felt like a turning point for me. It's one thing to schedule light, but it was in the best interest of the team to at the very least play against different styles of basketball. Scheduling is tough in general but I thought that was a misstep by CC.

I also don't think the plan is to schedule weak forever (some will disagree with this) but it was necessary in the short-term. We'll see what happens on this front. In the future, I do think GW should get creative - schedule a "President's game" home and home with JMU (even if they aren't as good as they are now in the future, I think it's worth it). Also, why isn't the A10 scheduling any challenges with other conferences? It feels like they're the only conference not doing it. The Mountain West challenge sounded like a good idea a few years ago, but I wonder if the MWC feels like they're better than the A10 at this point and won't do it. Still, the conference should find another partner to do this. It may require more travel, but it's worth it imo.

H&R..71 wrote:

Honestly, the past 7 years of this program have been bizarre and this year is no different. We’re searching for reasons to explain the catastrophic turn for the worse.
It’s safe to say that energy and spirit have left this group.
One thing that hasn’t been mentioned much, and no doubt is sensitive and controversial is drug testing. Is it unheard of for young college students to dabble in certain peer group behavior detrimental to athletic performance? Just asking.
Just another factor to rule out as we play Sherlock Holmes.

No idea what you're specifically referring to, but 1) there's no evidence that I'm aware of that says this true, so raising the question seems inappropriate and 2) if the NBA has removed cannabis from its list of prohibited substances, I assume it's not as much a detriment as had been assumed.

I think it's equally likely that Bill Gates has a vendetta against GW Basketball and is using the 5G transmitters in the COVID vaccine to hurt our reaction times on defense.

Gwmayhem wrote:

True road games for the conference this season:

Richmond played at Boston College and at Northern Iowa.  Also played Florida in Sunrise, FL.  (And this was a projected medium to down year for the Spiders.)

St. Joe's at Kentucky, at Villanova and at College of Charleston

LaSalle at Duke, Miami and Temple

Duquesne at Nebraska and at College of Charleston

Davidson at St. Mary's, also beat Maryland in a MTE

Dayton at SMU and at Cin. 

URI at Providence, at College of Charleston (are we sure the College of Charleston is not yet an A10 member?)

SLU at NC State, at Drake

Fordham at North Texas, at St. John's

Mason at Tenn.

Loyola played at South Florida.  Also played Creighton and BC on a neutral floor, and Florida Atlantic at home

VCU had Iowa State, Boise and Penn State on neutral, McNeese St., Memphis and Temple at home

I comprehend that some of this is apples to oranges.  It would be great to play the three schools at home that VCU played but that's not going to happen.  Nevertheless, my point is that road games against P6 and high quality midmajors can be made available to GW in abundance.   You have to be willing, and we clearly were not.

Fully on board with the Alum's (1 and '04).
 

Ok, GW played South Carolina, Hofstra and UNH. Go check out the rankings. Not that different.GW OOC schedule was not dramatically different from Fordham, La Salle, St. Joseph's, and UMass.

Last edited by GWRising (3/01/2024 6:09 pm)

Joel Joseph wrote:

Let it go Rising.
Doesn't GW have a policy about their employee's using the internet and surfing the blogs during business hours?
Last 2 school employee's who I knew to have been a frequent user of the GW Basketball blog was Nero and Serrano.

Funny. I am about three steps removed from being a GW employee so no such restrictions here. In fact, to be clear, never worked there at any time.

Last edited by GWRising (3/01/2024 6:07 pm)