Stepped out of bounds and fouls 3 point shooter. UgH!

Tennessee Colonial wrote:

Stepped out of bounds and fouls 3 point shooter. UgH!

 
Amazing.

GW0509 wrote:

We are now 1-9 in games decided by 10 or fewer points

With 9 losses in a row.

I realize this is a win with Castro (as is Fordham probably), but I don’t know how the team recovers its confidence with the season unfolding this way.  They can’t pull ont a close game, and all that’s left to play for is to make a run in the A10 tourney. 

I’ve always been in Caputo’s camp - obviously we’re far far better than anything we saw under Jamion or Mojo at a time when college hoops is tougher than ever for a team at our level and he’s a great salesman for the program - but that stat of 1-48 when trailing with 5 minutes left, along with losing 10 straight games decided by 12 or less, has to be causing a crisis of confidence.  I’m sure he’s smart and experienced enough to figure it out (maybe he’ll look for something different in recruiting guards?), but he’d better figure it out soon.

jf wrote:

  Some teams find a way to win.
  We find a way to lose.
    
  

Not sure much more needs to be said.  Nailed it, jf

Free Quebec wrote:

GW0509 wrote:

We are now 1-9 in games decided by 10 or fewer points

With 9 losses in a row.

I realize this is a win with Castro (as is Fordham probably), but I don’t know how the team recovers its confidence with the season unfolding this way.  They can’t pull ont a close game, and all that’s left to play for is to make a run in the A10 tourney. 

I’ve always been in Caputo’s camp - obviously we’re far far better than anything we saw under Jamion or Mojo at a time when college hoops is tougher than ever for a team at our level and he’s a great salesman for the program - but that stat of 1-48 when trailing with 5 minutes left, along with losing 10 straight games decided by 12 or less, has to be causing a crisis of confidence.  I’m sure he’s smart and experienced enough to figure it out (maybe he’ll look for something different in recruiting guards?), but he’d better figure it out soon.

 
What we are seeing with Caputo is all we are ever going to see, in my view. He has an approach and sticks with it no matter what. After four years, has anyone seen any developmental advancement in his approach? In-game management? Nope. I guess you could say he improved the OOC this year. Was that him or the AD?  Other than that?  Not seeing much evolution four years in now. He has been a good face for the school, but going into year five that isn’t good enough for me. And that attention was coming from the basis that he was “turning the program around.”  That momentum is being squandered. Going back to The Crown would have been a letdown to me this year. The likelihood of having no chance to go anywhere is unacceptable.

A few months ago I had plans to blow off work this afternoon and train up to Philly. 😂😂😂

Last edited by Alum1 (2/04/2026 10:01 pm)

Just curious but did anyone ever check on what Chris Caputo's responsibilities were at George Mason or at Miami. He started as the film guy but I have a feeling that his in-game decision making was never his forte. Of course Larranaga would never speak badly about Caputo but there must be a way to check the role of specific assistant coaches.
Every close game seems to be a problem for GW. That's not a good sign.

Last edited by RobSmithoasas (2/06/2026 12:59 am)

Thanks for the kind words GWRising and GW Alum Abroad!

dmvpiranha wrote:

I am curious to see the offensive gameplan tomorrow. SJU may not be Fordham-level dominant on the glass, but they are still quite good, don't foul defensively, and they have better rim protection. Finishing at the tin will still be a major challenge when Ajogbor is on the court. Will CC ask the team to settle for three after three again as a result? I hope to see more cutting off the ball from the guards. Hopefully, GW doesn't shoot themselves out of the game.

The answer to settling for threes was unfortunately yes. Slim being out is one thing (and obviously would have made a difference), but the offense looked absolutely horrendous tonight. Even in a universe where it's okay to take 2/3 of shots from deep, the looks need to be good. St. Joe's seemed to know what GW was going to do every step of the way. I lost track of the number of times a player would pick up the ball and in midair decide to pass it instead because they didn't have a clean look to get the shot off. GW was fortunate to not turn the ball over more times than they actually did and make some circus shots that weren't exactly great looks. Shot selection entirely too predictable. Garrett in particular looked out of sync. Tre also forced it a bit, although I know he had to somewhat at the end. He did try to rally guys between plays which was nice. Still, to make 15 threes and lose is pretty demoralizing. It's hard to win without any balance on offense, and the inability to get easy shots tonight for GW made the difference. The times Ajogbor was out and Smith was in the approach did not change at all. Also, I'm not sure what it will take for CC to stop Luke from taking a 3, even if he's wide open. He's just not a good shooter. Outside of that, Hunger was at least serviceable tonight.

The extra pass is never made and players have to operate heavily in isolation. Going inside was always going to be challenging, but Joe's ball movement under a first year coach was infinitely better than GW's. Are players not allowed to cut off the ball? Trey did it early in the game. The reason that stuck out is because I don't really remember seeing it afterwards. This team is also extremely sloppy with the basketball. A live ball turnover between Luke and Trey just after the under-8 timeout is a prime example. In fact, that ended up sparking another Joe's run that eventually forced CC to call timeout. So many unforced turnovers with this team. It's hard to believe that they've played 23 regular season games together.

In order to win, GW kinda needed to get a bad shooting performance from Joe's. Unfortunately, that did not happen. What didn't help matters was the lackluster effort guarding Glover-Toscano from the perimeter. Finkley to his credit went 2/3 tonight, but how do you let one of the known shooters get a ton of open looks? The effort closing out was terrible. Then late in the game, it was allowing Simpson to get into the lane trip after trip. 20+ games into the season, and players are still late rotating over. That or they go under screens and can't fight through picks. The over-switching isn't helping either, because Ajogbor's layup late came with Tre on him of all people...

Enough has been mentioned about the late game execution so I won't go much more into it (CC needs to recruit more guards that can break down a defense) but as a couple others have mentioned not being able to substitute properly is an issue that goes beyond the players. No excuse for that kind of mixup by all parties involved.

I thought the rebounding effort was good and while I don't usually shout out players after losses, Jean definitely earned one. He hustled on both ends, rebounded, forced turnovers, setting up others. He wasn't perfect, but his effort was apparent.

And on top of being lackluster, this team is also stupid. I'm tired of guys like Bubu jawing with the other team and talking trash without earning the right to do so. Save all the flexing and focus on not fouling on a 3 in a one point game. Flexing is earned when the team is winning games, not sitting at 4-6 in A10 play. The flapping on the made threes was a bit tacky as well and looked even worse when GW came out with an L.

A loss to Duquesne on Saturday after GW took their leading scorer from last year could be another low.

Dmvpiranha, while it's apparent that we feel similarly about this team, I'm going to point out a difference of opinion that may or may not be simply chalked up to semantics.  

First, I don't believe this teams settles for 3's.  This would imply that they are seeking higher percentage shots and when those are unavailable, they resort to taking a 3.  Instead, I believe this team is seeking three point shots to begin with.  Now, the compromise is to suggest that they are looking for good 3's that are either wide open or taken in rhythm and then must settle on lousy 3's when better shots do not materialize.

Of course, Slim plays a pivotal role in enabling the offense to locate these good 3's.  The key is to have an option that can win one-on-one matchups if the opponent decides not to double team.  With our options for the most part being Luke and Wu to fulfill this role in Slim's absence, there just isn't a need to double team.    In the case of Luke, 5 of his 12 FG attempts came from outside the arc which really defeats the whole purpose of this offense.  Granted that Luke had a tough assignment down low in Ajogbor yet there was at least one instance when Luke went right at him and scored.  So, it can be done.  As for Luke's three point shooting, he can make a 3, is not good at it, has never been good at it, and has reached the point where I miss Sean Hansen's three point shooting.  As for Wu, he had one FG attempt in 17 minutes and, wait for it...it came from 3.  Counterproductive.  Meanwhile, he got to the line 6 times and it was not from being fouled taking a 3.  Luke and Wu must assert themselves in this offense as a threat to score off of a drive or down low.  Both are very capable passers so if there's nothing there for them, they can hopefully find that open 3 point shooter that the offense desperately needs.

Defensively, this is just a really bad team, an opinion that's becoming more and more apparent in Slim's absence.  Just incredible how many deficiencies he more than made up for.  Piranha hit the high notes.  I mean, how many 3's does Glover-Toscano really need to make before you commit a defender to just go out on him?  He made a few nice midrange shots as well but it's not like he was a threat to blowby his defender.  How many floaters in the lane must Simpson make before some defender, any defender, challenges him?  He was 0-6 from 3 which should have been a sign that he was going to attempt to do damage from closer in down the stretch.  I appreciated the shout-out to Jean who played his heart out.  Even when Jean drove the lane and had nothing available, you can tell he was trying to make things happen by finding an open shooter.  But to the rest of the guards...Christian, Trey and Tre, I am officially disgusted by your defense.  It's not like they never pick up steals but when it comes to the most basic fundamental of keeping your body in between your man and the basket, the breakdowns occur way too frequently.  Sometimes, the opponent drives right past you (happened repeatedly in the Fordham game).  Maybe this is what Rising is referring to by a lack of grit.  

We seem to have no shortage of players who want to make the big basket or have an unbelievable shooting night.  On the other hand, we seem to have way too many who either don't want to or just can't commit themselves to playing hard-nosed defense.

GW began the game making two of its first 18 three point attempts.  Joe Lunardi gets quite a bit wrong but the one thing he was right about is the huge variance in GW's play based on whether they are making or missing their 3's.  It sounds simple but the fact is that this GW team qualifies as a streaky team, both making and missing 3's in bunches.  

I don't mean to be critical of Garrett Johnson, given all that he has been through, but he has been really hurting us of late.   In his last 3 games, he has been 
4-13, 3-9 0 assists  (St. Joes)
4-13   1-7  1 assist  (Fordham)
3-8  1-4  2 assists  (St. Louis)
All losses
composite
11-34   5-20   3 assists.
Further, he is hardly a player that makes his teammates better.   When you add that to some pretty bad defense (he was on Toscano for much of last night, when he wasn't being pulled for offense/defense substitutions), he has become a liability rather than an asset of late.   
Further, Hunger taking 5 three point shots (he shoots 20% for the season) and Bubu taking 6 3 point shots (where he shoots .269 for the season) was not a particularly good game plan.
Finally, I was nearly blown away when I heard CC's record of 1-48 when trailing at the 5 minute market, that likewise speaks volumes about him as a game coach.   I very much like the guy...he is a great spokesperson for the team seems to be an excellent recruiter (although he clearly needs to put more emphasis on recruiting defenders rather than offensive stat stuffers), he needs help on the bench.   Honestly ask yourself...when the game was close down the stretch, did anyone really feel confident  that we would win the game?    Not advocating for a new head coach, but clearly some changes need to happen this off season because these years of blowing through the OOC schedule but then having a disappointing conference schedule may beat the days of the 20 loss seasons, but it is getting tiring.   As a fan, the Davidson loss was staggering and then the Fordham loss was the knockout punch.    Right now, rather than playing for the double bye in the conference tournament, we are playing to avoid the first round play in games.   Yes, I would say that this is a disappointing season.

Long Suffering Fan wrote:

I don't mean to be critical of Garrett Johnson, given all that he has been through, but he has been really hurting us of late.   In his last 3 games, he has been 
4-13, 3-9 0 assists  (St. Joes)
4-13   1-7  1 assist  (Fordham)
3-8  1-4  2 assists  (St. Louis)
All losses
composite
11-34   5-20   3 assists.
Further, he is hardly a player that makes his teammates better.   When you add that to some pretty bad defense (he was on Toscano for much of last night, when he wasn't being pulled for offense/defense substitutions), he has become a liability rather than an asset of late.

I forget if I've said it on here or elsewhere, but I wonder if it would make sense to try and have Garrett run more "old man at the YMCA" type plays a la Patrick Steeves?  Not only would it help ease the wear and tear on his hip, but I think if the matchups were favorable, he could really exploit a small defender close to the basket. 

Of course, this would require CC allowing players to take a shot that is not a layup or a 3.