Early odds on GW’s next coach?
Over/under on how many time Caputo mentions Garrett Johnson in the post game presser?

Clock management only the Chicago Bears can emulate. A bad night shooting from the line and from 3. Turnovers galore. The return of heroball. I´d say make them walk back to campus but a) that is not very far; and b) the route would take them past too many bars and pubs where they might have fun.
As for AU, they have to wonder how the heck that went to OT when it should have been a blowout in regulation.
 

Up 3 with a few seconds left, with a hot shooting 3 team. Up course you foul and let them take 2 foul shots. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Just as bad as us losing to VCU in the final seconds on an offensive foul. Whatever the reason for the foul up this this is not good. 

Worked our way back into it despite poor free throw and three point shooting and then pissed it away. Brutal

Disgraceful performance by the coaches and the players. I fear that Caputo is not the answer. Terrible first halves almost every time out. Also why allow Buchanan to almost exclusively handle the ball tonight when he couldn't make a free throw to save his life (in fact, had he made his last attempt the game would have been over in regulation). I dread the conference schedule!!!

As an earlier poster said: You're up three with time running out in regualtion. How do you not immediately foul the AU player, let him make two, and we win the game. Instead the player hits a three at the buzzer and the game goes into overtime .Any junior high school coach would know to foul in that situation!

We lost and it sucks, and I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that the usual suspects are already turning on the coach/calling for his head - but if you can’t see the progress we are making as a program, I can’t help you.

Our defense is much improved and we have our highest ranked team in 7 years.  We’re headed in the right direction.

I was at the game and it just felt like “one of those nights.”   I’ve actually never seen us get to the rim so consistently all game long. Like literally never in 35+ years of watching GW basketball.  The number of missed layups (and blown fast breaks) was truly shocking.  The coach put them in position to succeed and the players just… didn’t. That it happened on an unusually bad FT shooting game probably makes sense. Literally one more layup or one more FT and we win. 

Of course, I don’t remember ever seeing us go 40 minutes of regulation without making a single three. Anyone know the last time we went a game without one?  Or has it ever happened?   

The thing I was most heartened by is that with the exception of the first couple minutes of the second half and the last couple minutes of OT, we didn’t let the offensive struggles affect our defense.  We actually defended well most of the night. That, to me, is real progress.  We’re on the right track defensively and Chris Jones is really an exciting defensive player.

Lastly, I thought what happened in OT is we ran out of gas - or more specifically, Jun and Hutch ran out of gas after playing 2 on 5 the whole game.  I think the clear out, let one of them get to the rim every possession was the Plan B (our plan A offense wasn’t working because no one could make a shot), but ultimately the crazy end of game three pointer gave AU some momentum and our guys just didn’t have the legs to finish in OT. 

I’ll also excuse the rebounding deficit. Some of the offensive board were just long rebounds off missed threes and we didn’t get as many offensive boards as we could because our whole offense was clearing out so there was no one under the basket to rebound.

I think we’ll learn from this game. Hopefully we’ll learn that playing bully ball with Jun and Jacoi for literally an entire half and doing nothing else offensively just wears them down too much, so they have to trust their offense and make shots (we all know we’re going to lose a few games, like this, when the shots aren’t falling).  The bully ball style does work against a smaller, slower team when we finish, but it can’t be literally the only plan when the shots aren’t falling. Coach probably needs to draw up more plays where we appear to clear out but then someone cuts to the dunker spot (like one from Jacoi to Castro late). 

Hopefully we come back strong and get a win over ODU and get back to team ball on offense and strong, focused defense.  Today was just one of those things and we have to learn from it, move on, and keep getting better.

In over 35 years of watching GW basketball, this may have made my Top 10 Infuriating Games.  This game had little to do with what AU did to GW and had everything to do with what GW did to itself.  Countless numbers of unforced errors.  Numerous missed free throws.  Mix in a few boneheaded decisions and what you're left with is a loss to a local rival despite having a clear advantage in size and speed.  Worth noting that knocking Elijah Stephens out of the game should have resulted in an enormous advantage for GW.  Stephens is AU's senior point guard, one of their top two players, and the current Patriot League player of the week. 

Let's begin by stating that nobody truly knows what a coach tells and does not tell his players during a timeout.  While it was clear that CC was urging Jacoi to foul at the end of regulation, the action was on the other side of the court and I'm sure he did not hear him.  If he instructed the team to wait and then foul (which is the correct decision because with 14 seconds left, fouling right away only turns this into a free throw shooting contest which GW was not equipped  to win last night), then it becomes very hard to blame CC who would have told his team during the timeout and while play was unfolding what to do.  

Ironically, GW got what it wanted when Jacoi nearly came up with the steal and burned valuable seconds off of the clock. The problem ensued when Jacoi was caught a step or two behind Smalls after missing out on the steal.  He became far more focused on catching up to him so that he could defend the game-tying shot properly that he lost sight of the correct move which was to foul before the shot.  There is also the consideration (which rarely gets discussed in these situations) that what if I foul a 1/2 second late and the opponent now has 3 free throw attempts to tie the game?  Nobody wants to be responsible for that mistake.

Though it wasn't as consequential at the time, it was the Matt Rogers shot at the end of the first half that was completely inexcusable.  AU had 3 seconds to work with and threw the pass to Rogers who made a barely contested jump shot.  Inexcusable because GW had a foul to give in that situation.  A foul would have given AU about a second to work with making it that much more difficult to score.  While I understand that changing one play does not mean that the rest of the game would play out exactly the same way, it is also reasonable to ask whether those extra two AU points would have made a difference in this game.

The offensive game plan was a bit ironic but also understandable.  Ironic because this team was finally finding its collective three point shooting touch entering this game, only to all but abandon this altogether.  The plan was for Jun and Rafael to dominate down low only: a) AU stood up to them defensively and b) GW exhibited a collection of missed layups, wild shots, awful turnovers (perhaps careless is the better word) and putrid free throw shooting largely from Jun that helps land this game as one of my Top 10 Most Infuriating.  Repeatedly, GW drove their way into trouble with very little effort to find an open three point shooter.  Even though it took a while before we started making them, this offense was consistently producing open three point looks.  By contrast, I turned on Duke-Auburn after our game and Bilas said that if Duke is going to drive, they better drive to score, meaning that Auburn wasn't leaving Duke's shooters wide open.  So the choices are to clog the lane and leave shooters open or try to stop penetrators one on one without giving up easy 3's.

I bring this up because GW was way too predictable.  Without even considering a pass to an open shooter, AU's defense knew exactly what to expect and was ready for it.  This is true in many sports.  Often, the football teams that succeed are the ones who aren't afraid to run the ball on 3rd and 4.  In other words, they thrive on doing the opposite of what the opponent thinks it will do.  And that was a big problem last night.  Repeating the same play again and again rarely pans out unless the opponent truly can't stop it.  GW thought this would be the case, only it wasn't.

Credit to CC and the players for speeding up the game in the second half on defense, which allowed GW to overcome a 13 point deficit.  However, the first half defense still had to many occasions where two GW players would fall for a ball fake, leaving a wide open shooter (often Rogers, Jones or Smalls) available to burn GW.  This really needs to be worked on.

Finally, GW transfers seem to fall into a discernible pattern.  Those who transfer down (Armwood, Creek, Cavanaugh, JB, JoeBam, Castro though not so much last night) tend to thrive and those who transfer up have their work cut out for them.  There are exceptions in both directions but by and large, I point this out to suggest that we've likely seen enough from Drumgoole, Moss and Hansen to realize that while they are all capable of fine performances and making big plays here and there, it is going to be unrealistic to expect a high level of consistency from each of them.  Conference play will likely only reinforce this.  Last night's game left me wanting to see much more of Christian Jones and that would likely come at Trey Moss's expense.

 

GWRising wrote:

I have a ton of thoughts about last night's game ...

1. Let's take the obvious. We shot ourselves in the foot on numerous occasions whether it was missed bunnies, turnovers or bad defensive rebounding. It was not so much what American did to us as it was what we did to ourselves. The fact that we did not hit a three until OT is mind boggling. The fact that we couldn't hit FT's was all us not them. 52 points in the paint seems really good until you realize at a minimum we should have had 60-70. Not to be ridiculous, but for some of those who were arguing "nerves" against Kansas State was this also "nerves" or now are we seeing some of the deficits that we have to improve?

2. We can argue the decision not to foul with 14.5 seconds and while I would have instructed to foul once under 10 seconds (3-4 dribbles) that is often difficult to execute even when you draw it up and practice it. 14.5 was too soon to foul especially in light of the way we had been shooting free throws all night. You don't want a quick foul and 2 FTs leading to another quick foul and potentially 2 FTs for us which if one or more is missed now AU has north of 10 seconds to tie or win the game. Anything between the entire shot clock and 10 seconds is no-man's land for coaches in this situation - potentially damned if you do and damned if you don't.. It didn't work out but that probably had more to do with defensive positioning and a great shot by Smalls than it did with the decision not to foul. Hindsight is 20/20 and again I would have done something different but I understand the decision even if it didn't work out in light of our poor FT shooting all night. You can only coach to the strengths of your team. End of game situations have not been our strength so far and we need to fix that.

3. A word about the OOC. Last night again shows us why the OOC schedule is not as bad for us as we want to believe in terms of what we are ready for. We still have deficits which would be readily exposed by most P5 schools and playing them or better teams would not necessarily help either our execution or confidence. I think after last evening, we are where we should be schedule-wise for the most part even if we don't like that fact. 

4. Darren is a work in progress despite what one misguided poster here believes. He has strengths and weaknesses. He is still learning to play at this level. I think we should tamp down all the accolades talk and let him develop. He is an asset for us but has a lot of room to still grow his game before he becomes the player we all think and want him to be. We do him no favors by overhyping him here or elsewhere. When he is ready for such recognition (he is not yet), it will be readily apparent for all to see. So, he had a tough game last night. I'm more interested in the response. Everyone can have a tough game. The question is what will happen next and how does he respond over the coming weeks and months. That will tell us a lot about whether his ceiling is what we all hope it can be.

5. I would remind everyone that in 2002-03 a GW team went to American and lost. That team had Pops, Mike Hall, TJ Thompson etc. I am old enough to remember the "sky is falling" comments that ensued following that game. A year later that same basic team went onto the NIT and then eventually to NCAAs in subsequent years. No championships were won or lost last evening even though it sucks to lose to a team that we should be better than. Embrace the process because none of us truly knows what is around the corner for this team. 

6. Purely ridiculous to call for CC's head because we lost to American. That either results from ignorance over what we have witnessed over the past 8 years or a lack of understanding about where this team is in its development and reasonable expectations for its performance. Darren uncharacteristically misses a ton of FT's - is that CC's fault? Rafael uncharacteristically drops passes and misses dunks - again CC's fault? No one can make a three despite shooting it well or better over the past few games - again CC's fault? If we win at American by 1 is CC suddenly coach of the year? CC will ultimately be judged on his body of work this season not any particular game. How about we let that body of work proceed without a bunch of single game referendums - pro and con? Don't worry there will be plenty of time post-season for any post-mortems.

 
Who is calling for CC’s head?  I see a lot of people calling him out. That’s entirely appropriate in my view.

This loss falls squarely on the shoulders of Jun and CC.  Tough to watch our featured player miss 11 free throws, have 0 assists, and 7 turnovers.  Worse than repeatedly falling out of control is the impact it has on the other players and the hope of establishing any kind of rhythm while standing around to watch.  Ball security was non existent.  Look no further than the start of OT (should've never gone to OT) when we win the tap and immediately throw an uncatchable 3/4 court pass over Castros head out of bounds.  Then on next play get a turnover and Jun goes flailing into the lane and hands it right back.  First 2 possessions handed over on a silver platter.  There is a disrespect for the value of a possession.  That's on CC.  GW did nothing to secure the win and everything to hand it over to AU.  While attempting to stay interested in watching the so-called offense, found myself asking the same question as last year: "really, this is it?  one guy playing bouncy ball while the other guys stand around with their thumbs up their ass?"  Come on!! 
Is Jun's foul shooting fixable?  I'm no expert, or coach, but the mental/confidence aspect follows the mechanical side of it.  When an airball happens its an all systems failure.  Is he bending his knees differently each time? Maybe. Is he gripping the ball the same way each time? Maybe not.  He randomly places his hand (which may be sweaty) on the ball each time resulting in different spin and touch. Try index finger on rib of ball for consistent feel.  Maybe these suggestions are bs, but hell, can it get any worse?  or do nothing and stay hopeful.  Coaches should dissect it and suggest a fix if there is one.  Or just say all is good and hope he figures it out.  Sort of like Justin Tucker on the Ravens. Still appreciate the energy and effort of this team.  I hope Jun and CC can grow from this crappy performance because it was all them!