66-48. 

30 points for Drum.  75-57

Shooters confidence.  Drumgoole having a career night- so confident- we will need that during A10 play

82-62 Final

Not that it is needed, but a shout out to DMV for his preview.  He called #5 a guy to watch in his preview.  Side he can “really shoot it”.  He torched us - not sure why the Lafayette coach did not maximize his playing time since he was almost automatic.  I would have played him a lot more for sure.

If you're noticing a certain "sameness" regarding many of these OC games, you're likely not alone.  GW has almost always been the athletically superior team.  GW plays imperfectly over the game's first 30 minutes or so.  They go out to a lead but can't put teams away, or they fall behind but make sure to get back into the game.  Then, sometime over the game's final 10 minutes, GW pulls away for the win.  All but one of their 10 wins have come by at least 8 points and yet many have had a "GW is better than this team...why are they struggling" vibe even though the actual outcome of the game has rarely been in doubt.  Even the 28 point victory over Hampton saw GW leading by just 8 with under 14 minutes left in the game.

The consequence of watching a team play like this is that we are quick to point out the imperfections.  GW turned the ball over 15 times, a number that seems too high.  GW struggled again from 3 though a few big shots helped break the game open.  As fans, we are sometimes guilty of expecting or anticipating a near-perfect game against lesser competition, something that may be feasible when watching a great team but not this GW team.  It is flawed.  IMO, it has a chance to be a good team (i.e. 20 wins) but it likely has no chance of being a great team.  

What really works in this GW team's favor is a trait that I've been trumpeting going back to KH's most successful teams.  Namely, GW is a more dangerous team when defenses can't key in on one or two players but instead, when everyone on the court represents a legitimate threat to make defenses pay.  Now, I wouldn't begin to compare a top 6 of Pops, Mike, Carl, JR, Omar and Maureece to whoever you deem the top 6 on this year's team to be.  Nevertheless, take a good look at what's been happening lately.

Gerald Drumgoole's game may lack consistency but when he's on, he's most definitely on as was the case last night when he shot 4-4 on two point shots, 6-11 on three point shots and 4-5 at the line.  The game before that Trey Moss practically single-handedly kept GW in the game with his performance against Army.  The game before that, Christian Jones came off the bench to score 17 points and play great on both sides of the ball at Old Dominion.  We know that Rafael Castro has had some big games, as has Trey Autry.  Sean Hansen looks far more comfortable playing his role.  Different guys are "stepping up" each game.  Please note that this is a lengthy list of guys for opponents to have to be concerned with and I have not even mentioned Jun or Jacoi.  Jun stands to benefit in a big way if opponents have to stop double teaming him.  I wonder about Jacoi and whether his earlier injury might still be lingering.  He is clearly a far better shooter and more explosive distributor than he's been showing of late.

Finally, there's the mystery man that is Dayan Nessah.  Unlike Benny Schroeder who arrived at GW with great fanfare but never really put things together in games, Dayan has shown flashes of a very high basketball IQ despite his limited minutes.  He has great length on defense and can be very active with the ball.  His instincts allowed him to keep two offensive rebounds alive last night.  Those show up on the stat sheet for his teammates but it's Dayan who made both of those rebounds possible.  He still looks understandably raw yet appears healthy enough to warrant more playing time.  It will be interesting to see how gradually or how quickly CC and staff bring him along.  If he can reach the point where he's a 6th man/20 minute per game player by February or March, this team might be far better as a result.
 
 

I agree with LSF that this was one of the better performances of the year. Outside of a few minute stretch in the first half where it seemed like the team was starting to let the missed shots on offense affect the way they guard, the defense was pretty good throughout the game. Double teaming their ball handler along the perimeter/allowing open looks from the midrange rather than distance was very effective since Lafayette hasn't shown to be particularly competent from inside the arc.

PKGW wrote:

Not that it is needed, but a shout out to DMV for his preview. He called #5 a guy to watch in his preview. Side he can “really shoot it”. He torched us - not sure why the Lafayette coach did not maximize his playing time since he was almost automatic. I would have played him a lot more for sure.

I really appreciate it! I also agree 100% with your post. It may be picking nits, but if there was a disappointment with the defense (outside of those two runs Lafayette had) it was that Chaikin was allowed to take too many shots last night. He shot 3/6 from 3 last night and his percentage for the season is actually going to go down. His near 60% 3 point shooting wasn't on some fluke small sample size, he had taken 41 threes through 10 games. Dare Butler to shoot the 3/take shots instead.

I also like GWMayhem's mention (thanks for the shoutout on the preview as well!) about the balance of the team. In previous years, this team went as JB goes. That's not the case this year. Jun took just four shots last night. On a side note, I also have to mention that there was no need for his T in the first half - always let out your emotion to the crowd or look away when doing it, not the opponent's bench. Jun didn't have to "run it up the middle" which is what I'm going to use to describe his move to the basket from the top of the key. Yet, the team put up 82 points. Lafayette is by no means a juggernaut defensively, but they aren't awful either.

Good to see better rebounding and FT shooting as mentioned above. Will also echo the praising of Dayan. He does a lot of the little things well, something that Schroeder did not. I am not going to be hard on him too much coming back from injury, but through two games he's had around four layups or so bounce hard off the backboard and not even draw iron (I think Ty may have had one of those too last night). Dayan's pass to Gerald in the first half was a thing of beauty, and his offensive rebounding was big - including a putback when Lafayette took the lead by 3.

I know Kenner is not reflective of much, but watching Gerald shoot it over the summer I was honestly surprised he started as cold as he did this season. I'm really happy for him that he was finally able to get into a rhythm, resulting in a career high 30 points. I wonder if he remembers that he was originally offered by GW back in July of 2018. He's certainly come a long way since then.

Turnovers haven't been a glaring issue for this team, but last night it seemed too many came from not being on the same page. I think against ODU I said Jacoi has no chemistry with Rafael. Honestly, it's not just Hutchinson but all the guards (youth probably plays a role). I'm sure the team is practicing the lobs in practice but they have generally not been executed well during OOC play.

One thing that I'm looking at moving forward will be paint touches. It's clear that when Rafael starts the game, we are going to try a few times to get him the ball, otherwise kick it out for a three that's an open look (often missed by the team in the first half). The ball movement is just straight up better when Sean is in the game. His ability to pass and find cutters is something that I haven't seen at GW for years and I'm glad we were able to find him in the portal before Richmond did. Additionally, while he may not be the most mobile player out there Hansen has great anticipation skills on defense.

When Sean is in in the game, there's less of a need for a point guard to set things up. Having said that, I'm looking to see both Coi and Trey (Moss) do a lot more of that. When both players are settling for deep threes behind screens, they aren't particularly effective. The couple of times Moss in particular drove yesterday resulted in really good plays. In the mid paint area, he knocked down a short jumper. In transition, he got to the hoop and found Rafael for a nice bucket underneath (honestly, Moss may have the best chemistry with Castro based on what I've seen, again it may be experience).

As for Jacoi, I think that can help with his efficiency as both a scorer and facilitator. I can joke and say his two best performances both resulted in losses this year, but I think it will help if maybe 25/33% of his shots are coming from 3 rather than closer to 50%.

That's why I liked that Trey (Autry) decided to attack the hoop rather than settle for 3 when his jumper wasn't falling last night. The play before halftime sticks out. Autry could have easily just settled for a jumper with time running down, but he attacked the hoop and was rewarded before the buzzer sounded.

The UVA-Wise game will hopefully provide the chance to work on some things before conference play officially starts in under two weeks. Overall, this is a solid performance to build from.
 

   Feel good for Gerald that he reached his potential and exceeded any expectations.
Hope it continues even at a more modest level during league play.
As mentioned above in some very smart posts: consistency, not relying on one player, and sharing the ball is important for this team (and pretty much every team). 
    We've really been feeling our way, masked by an ultra-patsy schedule, but when healthy, we have more
depth than in previous years. CC used that to our advantage yesterday.
    So far, players clearly have their roles and have sometimes rose to the occasion, sometimes less so.
Yesterday was an example of what everyone can bring to the table. In just one example of that, as noted above, Sean can really help the offense. (and Christian Jones seems like a new weapon, along with maybe Dayan Nessah at some point).
       Don't have a feel for what will happen in league play because we haven't faced A-10 level challenges. But last night was certainly at least a hopeful sign. And hope, though the jury is out, we don't look past UVA-Wise (really, UVA-Wise?) and continue to gel for the league season.