kdb san diego wrote:

Depth wore W&M down, lot of decent substitute rotation.  Somebody will have to explain to me what a charge etc is.  Defender standing still  with hands in the air and the offensive player throws a shoulder into him--foul on defender.  3 point shooting concerns me.  And I know nothing compared to most on this board.
 

On one hand, you have every right to be concerned (as do I) about the 3 point shooting, which was 6-27 (22%), many of which were wide opened looks.   Garrett in particular seems to be in  bit of a 3 pointer slump, as is Dinkins, as the 2 shot a combined 1-10.   On the other hand, we were shooting a very respectable 37.5% for the season coming into the game tonight.    In the end, even with the off shooting from the 3, we scored 99 points tonight and are averaging 91 ppg for the season.  Isn't that how our offense is suppose to be judged?  And as with previous games, there were very few shots put up by GW which I would call a bad shot.    No, the problem is not with the offense...its the defense.
 

Overall, a good performance tonight. I figured CC was going to have the team playing focused given the circumstances. W&M is a very well-coached team, but I do feel that their extremely fast pace starts to hurt them late in games against better teams. Their depth isn't bad, but GW had the edge there and I think that ultimately made the difference. The way they play though is unconventional and definitely gives them the upper hand when it comes to starting games and catching teams off guard. It will definitely be effective against the majority of the CAA. Hopefully we don't have to face Fasasi again. It was looking like he was going to kill GW again (and he was early on) but thankfully he was shut out in the second half.

I had my issues with the offensive shot selection in the Army game, but it was much better tonight. The three point looks were largely good and they weren't forcing up shot after shot from there. Improvement on defense will ultimately determine the ceiling of the team. Much better in the second half preventing W&M's cuts early and in general throwing them off their rhythm. Before that, GW would contest well on the actual shot attempt, but because W&M was already deep in the paint they had so many shots just fall in. I think early on after halftime there was also a bit of delayed double teaming that was effective. I had mentioned in the preview that they take a lot of above-the-break threes, and somehow it looked like they were much less comfortable taking threes in the corners, at least in this game. GW definitely played a role in that after halftime, just in general contesting a lot better.

Slim's mobility against pretty much everyone is such a luxury to have. W&M just had no one who could guard him. His highlight reel dunk was honestly more due to CJ throwing the pass too high, but it was very impressive nonetheless. Bubu is really disruptive defensively and was much better on the layups tonight. I think he will shoot decent from 3 by the end of the year, but he is probably more of a streaky shooter than a consistent one. Tricky was a bit quiet tonight, but whenever he is in the game I feel like good things happen. While CJ missed a couple makable layups and led the team with three turnovers, he was good defensively and is so good at getting to the rim.

How many minutes did Tre play after halftime? Guessing it was a defense thing. He had a few threes that rimmed in and out but had a good sequence early on where he drove to the hoop for a layup (again wish he would do that more) and more impressively had a block on defense preventing a layup. Luke's game is a nice complement to Slim and he has really good post skills. As for Ty, I don't know how effective he will be as a catch and shoot guy, largely because he probably won't get the minutes. It's hard to come in and drill shots without getting into a flow, and I suspect that he's not really going to have that chance unless one of the primary guys is out due to injury.

My two players of the game were Jean and Woo. This is the game I was waiting for from Aranguren. He was doing the other things well but at times has not been confident when looking for his shot. That was different today, and he had a fantastic all-around game. Woo I think might be the most important player on the team, and really lifts the ceiling. I seriously think the final possession against Murray would have been different had he played. He makes a real difference defensively and is a good rebounder. Marshall fouled out today, but honestly some of the calls against him were questionable.

Long Suffering Fan wrote:

kdb san diego wrote:

Depth wore W&M down, lot of decent substitute rotation.  Somebody will have to explain to me what a charge etc is.  Defender standing still  with hands in the air and the offensive player throws a shoulder into him--foul on defender.  3 point shooting concerns me.  And I know nothing compared to most on this board.
 

On one hand, you have every right to be concerned (as do I) about the 3 point shooting, which was 6-27 (22%), many of which were wide opened looks.   Garrett in particular seems to be in  bit of a 3 pointer slump, as is Dinkins, as the 2 shot a combined 1-10.   On the other hand, we were shooting a very respectable 37.5% for the season coming into the game tonight.    In the end, even with the off shooting from the 3, we scored 99 points tonight and are averaging 91 ppg for the season.  Isn't that how our offense is suppose to be judged?  And as with previous games, there were very few shots put up by GW which I would call a bad shot.    No, the problem is not with the offense...its the defense.
 

LSF sums it up well. Hope you are feeling better!

Perhaps I missed this, but did Dinkins play in the second half?  Injured?  He looked frustrated sitting on the bench --- maybe he played a few minutes and I missed it....  Can't afford any injuries...

Really entertaining game to watch highlighted by the Christian Jones to Rafael Castro dunk.  The Pops shout-out was an apt one.  We haven't seen many GW players who've been able to jump this high and throw down the dunk quite like Pops or Slim.

Thought we saw some great halftime adjustments primarily dealing with W&M's backdoor cuts.  We were constantly a step to a step and a half slow throughout the first half, but showed great determination in deflecting these passes in the second half.  W&M also wore down playing its preferred pace against a bigger and more athletic team.  No question that the legs gave in and the hot three point shooting could not be sustained.

Great to see Wu not only back on the floor but doing a little bit of everything to help secure the win.  If you somehow weren't convinced of his value before his injury, missing him play for a few games and then watching him against W&M should more than take care of this.  Really nice to see Jean rack up some points.  He had been giving the team pretty much everything else but scoring but his scoring has come around recently.  As much as I enjoy watching Christian play, I think Jean adds a level of overall fundamental play hat I don't consistently see out of Christian.  

Regarding Tre Dinkins, I have to believe or hope the coaches told him something to this effect:

You have always been the go-to guy but it's going to be a bit different here.  That's because you've never had as talented and selfless teammates as you now have.  There are some games where we will need to count on you significantly, like the South Florida game.  And, there will be other nights where your teammates will pick you up, like the William & Mary game.  Winning games is the most important thing by far.

The hope is that Tre understands this and is fully on the board.  He's a competitor and he wants to play so I'm not going to read too much into how he may have looked on the bench.