Hope none of you degenerates took GW -22

Glad the team was able to turn it on a bit at the end. Better to win by 20 than 10 against a team like NJIT, but man did that feel like an uninspired performance tonight (although again, compared to previous years a step in the right direction).

Jun was fantastic tonight, and was basically single-handedly responsible for stretching the lead. Great passing from him and nice touch on the FTs (you can see the progress there). He's just a three point shot away from being completely unguardable. Also, love his inner fire - that will serve the team well come conference play. Credit Arrington for mixing it up a bit down low, but Rafael was still solid as well.

It comes down to the guards though. Specifically Gerald, given that he is taking the most shots of the guys along the perimeter. To say that Drumgoole has been a disappointment so far would be an understatement, although it's still early. I still believe his three point shot will come around, but he also had three turnovers. Moss finally recorded an assist, but these two have still been shaky defensively (which was somewhat expected coming into the year based on their history). Improvement from these two will determine GW's ceiling in the A10.

GW is fortunate NJIT is not particularly skilled, because the Highlanders got fantastic looks throughout the night. Agree with Wisconsin Colonial that the team overdoes the switching - Francis and Goldberg were lost on countless occasions. Outside of the Hampton game, the defense has still been quite bad. The team simply takes too many possessions off on D. NJIT playing slow and making GW guard for long stretches was useful I guess in that it exposed GW's ability to guard for a full shot clock.

The problem with playing poor competition often shows up offensively. We run so many isolation plays for Jun (and weirdly Gerald had the ball in his hands a lot tonight - he could maybe benefit from more assisted shots to get him going, although Jacoi being out probably played a role) that it discourages moving the ball in the halfcourt.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment tonight was rebounding. GW should have really dominated on the boards, but NJIT seemed to want it more and out-hustled the Revs on many occasions.

Good to see Dayan on the court, but man does this team need to get healthy. Between the preseason and regular season, who hasn't been sidelined at this point? Hopefully Jacoi can get back soon. This team cannot afford any more long-term injuries. Continuing to like what CJ is giving the team - it seems like he always has a momentum-changing steal in the second half. Autry is steady - left some points on the table but playing better since the Mercyhurst game. Glad we went to Sean on consecutive possessions out of a timeout - maybe the coaches could have him fake a handoff every once in a while and take the ball to the hoop. Other teams are surprised when he looks for his shot right now.

The team could be in for a huge awakening come Friday against Kansas State. Of course, it will be nice to finally see the team finally engaged given the opponent.
 

Gwmayhem wrote:

At this time last season, we were talking quite a bit about a lack of defensive intensity as well as too much "hero ball" and questionable shot selection.  There's a lot to be said for how far this coaching staff has come with a team that has had so much roster turnover in such a short time.  These guys share the ball and genuinely look for one another while taking great pride in their defense.  The numbers of "bad shots" GW has taken this season is drastically less than a year ago.

The points made about Jun and Rafael essentially having their way against smaller and less talented teams are fair.  In the case of Jun, I continue to be impressed by how well he handles the ball, passes while driving, and avoids picking up offensive fouls.  Rafael is extremely active but whether his game will be negated by stronger and more gifted players remains to be seen.

Great to see Dayan score his first points, on a nice fallaway shot, but he was still grimacing over his ankle injury.  The unsung hero of the game was Christian Jones.  Ran the offense, scored 9, grabbed 6 boards (second on the team) and played terrific defense.  Am hopeful that Jacoi will be fine to go on Friday but I like the fact that Christian played so well in his absence.

The elephant in the room remains the team's three point shooting.    To be fair and clear, GW is getting excellent looks from 3.  And, our schedule has been such that the team can afford to shoot this poorly from outside and still win comfortably.  However, this will change starting on Friday in St. Thomas.  Continuing to execute an offense this well while shooting so poorly from 3 will not be sustainable at this tournament or against A10 competition.  

While I expect that our three point shooting will improve somewhat, I think it is also fair to say that we will likely never become a great or even good three-point shooting team this season. There appears to be no one other than potentially Tre Autry who has the ability to consistently stroke threes with Jacoi possibly being the second. I thought Hansen could be a pick and pop guy but so far he is not. I expect we will see plenty of zone soon in an effort to neutralize Buchanan and Castro.

Gwmayhem wrote:

Do you stay with this offense throughout the season?  Doing so may sacrifice some wins but recruits and transfers will see what GW is running and some who can really shoot may say "this offense is for me".  In other words, an investment for the program's future.

Or, do you acknowledge that you don't have the required personnel this season, particularly with Garrett being unavailable, and install a new offense that becomes far less reliant on three point shooting with the hope of winning more games this season?

I think it's sort of like when Jordan Love got injured and the Packers backup was Malik Willis.  Here, Love is Garrett Johnson.

The Packers knew they couldn't run the same passing schemes with Willis that they did with Love and for the most part relied on runs and WR screens to beat the Colts and Titans.  But they also knew they had to have Willis throw the ball downfield on occasion to keep the defense honest. 

All that's to say I think Caputo is a smart enough coach to adjust our scheme when teams pack it in and dare us to shoot 3s.  But I don't see Caputo completely abandoning schemes that get our guys wide open 3s in the corners.  At some point you have to throw the ball downfield (shoot open 3s when they're given).

Hope I missed it what I didn't hear. Correct if I am wrong. But it was frustrating watching the telecast last night and having  Patsos and Wallace  not give any information on Jacoi's injury. Were the announcers clueless or not smart enough to ask for viewers about Jacoi's injury? Gee, I think GW fans would want to know about the injury to Jacoi. How did it happen? What was the injury? When might he play again? Lots of questions.  Wallace didn't even ask Caputo about the injury in the post-game interview. (Ok, I might have missed a mention during the constant blather from Patsos on Loyola basketball and a 1,000 other subjects that he tries to string together that few people care about. (Does he get paid for each name he mentions?)
Thankfully, CC, when asked, explained Jacoi's injury in his post-game press conference.
And one question for the board. Wallace and Patsos said Dayan wasn't eligible until last night, but I never heard them explain why he wasn't eligible. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Why explain anything when you can blather on  forvever? I thought Dayan was inujured. 
So was he injured or ineligible? 
 

A bit of a side bar - but I’m really high on Dayan. He may have only gotten a few minutes, but he seemed like one of the most athletic players on the court, and had some great passes, really hopeful for when he’s fully healthy and back in the fold.

BC wrote:

Medical stuff is (appropriately IMO) not for public dissemination.  It would be nice to know from our perspective, but still HIPAA laws are sound.

This might be the dumbest response I’ve ever seen. No one is asking for detailed medical information. All we need to know is- and even the dumbest broadcaster (ie, Wallace) should be fired for not asking CC in the post game interview -  “hey, you were without one of your key pieces out there tonight. Is that a shirt or long term problem.”  Interestingly, I didn’t hear Caputo used the HIPAA shield to decline to answer when someone asked him after the game.

Calm down everyone and lets not go back to the old ways of insulting fellow posters.
Keep your panties on. We are 4-0 after beating teams we should beat (300+ rankings). We will actually play a decent team in KState then will have another bunch of easy teams to pad our win column before hitting conference play - does this sound familiar (last year)?
Jacoi will play as soon as he's medically cleared, which will be before conference play. These games against patsies mean very little (except to a few here that will be talking about at-large bids once again).

Seems like there's a possibility Jacoi is back for Kansas State but even if he isn't, I can't imagine it will be a long term injury. CC wasn't hiding any info in the press conference when asked about it. The question then becomes whether it's worth it to rush him back and risk reinjury with three games in three days this weekend.

I believe Dayan was injured (I think his ankle) so maybe Patsos just misspoke last night. But maybe he knows something we don't