33% from 3 OK that’s not the problem. But despite the TOs, still in it

The Ross-Man! wrote:

I get not wanting to use up all of your timeouts early, but how could CC not call one this half with how things have gone?

 
He’s got a secret plan.

Im convinced Carl Elliot sold our ability to win for 20 years to make that shot in 2005

not sure i'd tip my hat to the flyers. They didn't beat us, we beat ourselves

RyanPuleo wrote:

not sure i'd tip my hat to the flyers. They didn't beat us, we beat ourselves

Probably a lot of both.  In all fairness, Dayton had quite a bit to do with our 22 turnovers and our leading scorer only taking 5 shots and 30 minutes.  Their game plan was to keep the ball outside and let us beat them from the 3, but unfortunately, 2 of our better 3 point shooters (Garret and Autry) shot a combined 3-14, most of which were on open looks. Further, we missed 8 free throws and committed far too many "frustration" fouls.  A bigger picture is that we do not seem to play our best basketball in our bigger games, and we land up playing tight.
 

As FQ said, Dayton is 15th in the country in forcing turnovers for a reason. They played the game they needed to play to win. Not saying it was our best effort, but playing on the road at Dayton is never easy, and sometimes you need to give credit to an opponent. 

Winnable game and a missed opportunity. Dayton was smart to dial up the pressure and prevent Castro from getting the ball but that's pretty much what we should have expected them to do so it's disappointing we weren't able to handle it. Dinkins was on fire tonight. I almost wish we went to him more since Dayton straight up could not guard him.

Very frustrating when you can point to all these seemingly simple errors after a close loss. I think Loyola is better than their record shows and will be a tough game although after this game I hope we'll come ready to play

On the one hand, I was looking at our schedule before the game and in a best case scenario of us going 14-4, I still counted this as a loss, along with @SLU, @VCU, and @GMU. On the other hand, with two of their best players out, a 5 pt lead at halftime, and all the TOs and missed free throws, we gave this one away, which is frustrating…

(For the record, I still think we will be more like 10-8 in conference. The 14-4 was a best case scenario.)

Thanks for the kind words FQ and GW73!

dmvpiranha wrote:

Has the team learned from the McNeese game?

Well I guess the answer is no after tonight's performance. I'm surprised more teams don't press GW. UD Arena is a tough environment to play in, but as LSF mentioned getting called for more than one 10 second violation is just not acceptable. GW knew what Dayton's gameplan was going in (get to the line on offense, pressure the ball defensively) and the guys allowed them to go through with it. There was one moment where Garrett was standing with the ball in his hands and a Dayton defender was coming up the court behind him. I could see what was about to unfold before the ball was actually knocked out of his hands. The same exact thing happened against McNeese.

The FT shooting was rough too, but I have to give Dayton's fans a lot of credit there. They really make it tough on away teams. If we could get the Smith Center even half full, I think opponents would have a much tougher time shooting as well. Unfortunately, GW does not have a schedule that's very forgiving. At Mason, SLU, and VCU this year...

I thought the halfcourt defense was as good as I've seen it this season minus a couple silly fouls due to over-rotating. Good game from Tre, and I liked Woo's energy. This did not feel like an ideal game for Jean given his turnover issues in the past (combined with a good shooting day from Tre) so I get why he didn't play much. Still, I don't feel like Jean and Bubu are fully integrated in the offense. Bubu has still not scored in conference play. Hopefully Aranguren gets more run in more favorable matchups against Loyola and Davidson.

I continue to just shake my head at CC's reluctance to call timeouts earlier in the second half of games. Moving forward, he's going to have to live with having just two timeouts late in close games otherwise GW is going to continue to allow opposing team runs that decide the game. I know pocketing one for a potential challenge is part of the consideration, but it was so clear that a timeout was needed when GW was consistently struggling to get the ball past halfcourt and nothing was called.

This post may read a tad negative, but it's more out of frustration that this was a winnable game without their bigs playing. The turnovers really decided the result. UD also deserves a lot of credit for how they defended Slim tonight. GW shot the ball well enough that if the turnover count was closer to 15 I'm confident that it would have been enough to win. Oh well. Although his game is not flashy, I thought Simon's play tonight was a real difference maker. Grant made a smart adjustment to start him over Conner after halftime.

At least the team is hopefully not going to look past Loyola after tonight. Overall, I thought the team played decent. Given that GW hadn't kept a game at Dayton within single digits since 2016 before tonight, it was refreshing to not watch a blowout for once. Hopefully those days of consistent poor play are behind us.
 

I'm sure CC has spent more time thinking about (and reviewing data about) when and how to use timeouts than anyone on this board. I trust his judgement. 

Last edited by Hugh (1/07/2026 9:52 am)