I did not realize until today that UVa Wise was a last minute replacement when Md Eastern Shore cancelled a game that was scheduled for yesterday.  Can't say that M ES would have shot up our OCS, but at least it was a D-1 team.   
      
       The team slept walked through the first 10-12 minutes of the game and at one point trailed by 5 or 6.  I was starting to get that same lament  I use to get when we played against D-2 teams for our exhibition, namely "holy crap...we could lose to these guys".  Then at some point, it clicked that Jun could score on every possession against Wise, and that they had nobody who could guard Castro down low, and before you knew it, the deficit became a double digits lead on the way up to 40.    Somewhat frustrating that the team starts off slowly in so many of the games and doesn't seem to play its best until we have dug ourselves a little hole.
      Over the past couple of games or so, it is starting to become apparent that we have a bench that is able to do things other than give the starters a few minutes rest, as had been the case with CC's first two years.   I am excited about Nesseh.  Reminding that it was against a D-2 school, Nesseh seems to be demonstrating a great court visition and feel for the game on both offense and defense, as well as a very good shot.  He shows a confidence on the court beyond what you would expect from someone with only 34 minutes of experience at the college level and seems to do lots of little things that do not show up in the box score but can help a team win.   (I am seeing Christian Jones do the same thing more and more). I am expecting to see him in the regular rotation when conference play starts and it wouldn't surprise me to see him even starting before the end of the season.    
     Although I mostly agree with H&R-71 that Jacoi had a good overall game, most of his scoring came from driving past defenders that were just too slow to guard him.   I am concerned about his prolonged shooting slump.  He took I believe 2 three point shots today, one was an airball from the baseline and the other I believe was around the top of the kay and it was also way off.   We need Jacoi to get his shooting eye back.   Also, the comment comparing the three point shooting of the starters with the subs was spot on.   The bench on the whole are better three point shooters.   They also seem to play with more energy.   
Hope to see some of you in Richmond on New Year's Eve.
     Finally, cannot leave without saying WAY TO GO AMIR ARRINGTON.   That three was buried!   A big bucket too...it put us over 100 and extended the lead to 40.  

The only takeaway from the game is that it doesn't matter who GW plays. The way the game transpires will remain the same lol. Maybe that's why we're 11th in consistency via Haslametrics, which measures how easy it is to predict the outcome of a game a team plays in. 11 points through 10 minutes, then 91 in 30. The latter is honestly very impressive regardless of competition. While I was never worried about how this game was going to go (outside of Dean making floaters Wise didn't do much well) taking a quarter of the game to get going will hurt the team once conference play comes around. This team needs to come out ready to play. GW has played a very weak schedule, but currently leads all A10 teams in steals per game. Hope that can hold up to an extent in A10 play.

I echo what other people say about Nessah. He seems to play the right way and make an impact whenever he's on the floor. The thing with Jacoi is that he was never a consistent shooter in HS (he was a great passer, but I think his shooting scared the high majors off), so I was surprised by his first year shooting performance. Regardless, a down year from 3 shouldn't impact his ability to finish inside. Prior to this game, outside of Dayan (who had limited attempts) Hutch was the only player on the team shooting under 40% from the field overall. At times, he could maybe take an extra step before attempting a layup as he tends to jump a bit early which hurts his balance/finishing ability (maybe just my imagination). Also like LSF's mention of Arrington. Now 2-2 from deep on the season, and halfway to tying Jun's total for the year despite taking 23 fewer shots and appearing in just 3 contests.

Overall, my thoughts now that the OOC slate is complete is that we have the frontcourt to be competitive (Sean will have to hold up defensively and the staff will have to be more creative with how they use Jun) but the guards are not dynamic nor consistent enough (finishing/creating their own shot) to be more than a middle of the pack team. GW's conference schedule should be a benefit.

MVCOLONIAL wrote:

Let's hope we don't do a repeat of last year and go on a long losing streak.

I know Richmond is down, but starting @Richmond, vs Dayton, @URI is a brutal way to start the season.  It’s actually pretty important we win that road game.

And starting Feb 1, we have 6 straight games in which we are underdogs.  Key is to not drop them all - and if we do, not to let the tailspin get even worse.

My hope is that Nessah gets more playing time (so not only the couple minutes Jun gets a break) because I think he will make us better.