We were finished without Potter! No question about it.
I doubt we would have even beaten Fordham without Potter.

RobSmithoasas wrote:

We were finished without Potter! No question about it.
I doubt we would have even beaten Fordham without Potter.

We didn't beat Fordham.  But I fully agree on what Potter means to this team.  He has gone from an after thought to possibly being named on an all conference team.
 

Last edited by Long Suffering Fan (2/20/2020 12:17 am)

Right you are Rob. I hope he gets 1 POY vote thereby igniting a sports ground hog. POY is it MVP or best player? I don’t mind best player winning as long as the other MVPs are acknowledged.

Not a bad game by our third string center.  16 points and 14 rebounds in 33 minutes.  With all due respect to Chase and Ace, this is what this team needs right now to win.  Chase's development in particular is important; however, it is not imperative that he receives the lions share of minutes right now.  Jordan Roland and Maureece Rice are two examples of guys who played sparingly as freshmen but who went on to have highly productive college careers.  To characterize AT as a guy who should be giving this team 10-15 minutes, which is more than he had been receiving during a recent stretch of games, is still vastly underselling AT's value.  

I'm beginning to think that Maceo read my "proposal" about him several weeks ago because he has been a different player ever since.  Maceo missed his first 3 last night but followed that up with a dunk.  He missed his next 3 but then make a pair of shots in the paint.  Six points, all on 2 point baskets, carries the psychological benefit of shooting the ball through the hoop.  Maceo ended up making 4 of his last 6 three point attempts on the night.  He also grabbed 5 boards to go along with those 20 points.  Very, very active in this game, not at all content to camp out behind the arc and wait for the ball to come to him.

Over the summer, I suggested that Armel would be the player to take the biggest leap on this team.  I honestly could never have imagined this.

I would pay good money to see Meer's end-of-season highlight reel.  There are still a fair share of frustrations but he has an incredible knack for the spectacular.

Three more 3's for Jamison.  Sometimes, he has to make sure he isn't a few steps from halfcourt before launching.  His range really does appear to be unlimited and his shooting touch can not be taught.

Duquense's win over GW in January saw the team shoot 9-19 from 3.  Last night, GW shot 9-20 while the Dukes shot a measly 5-24.  In January, Duquesne won the boards 37-31; last night, GW had a 41-34 advantage.  

Perhaps the most important stat of the night was that the Dukes advantage in turnover differential (17 for GW vs. 7 for Duquesne) only resulted in a 1 point difference in points off of turnovers, 15-14.  This means that GW took great advantage of Duquesne's miscues while also doing a great job at defending immediately after a turnover (except for that miserable late-game stretch where the press could not be contained).

 

I guess a lot of practice needs to be done on facing a press. That's why I never relax till the final buzzer. Can't forget the meltdown against Fairfield or the NCAA Iowa game. The latter especially. However, the comeback against UNC Wilmington (NCAA) kind of made up for it.  

Does anyone thing that maybe - just maybe - Toro was eased back in over a longer period of time due to more extensive injuries than we were aware?  I sat in the Colonials Club and heard that he was fine too, but I think he was hurt, and he has worked his way back into playing shape.  Same thing happened with Potter.  Hopefully we will see the return of the other injured players as well.

Thrilled with two wins in a row, and it absolutely should be three on Saturday.
Turns out winning feels good, and is actually good for morale, recruiting, and even us lowly fans who support the program.
But that doesn't mean you have to be blind to really odd player rotations this season. Some of us have been calling for Toro to play more (he could have hardly played less) for a long time. Frankly, it is and was bizarre and disturbing judgment from a young coach who has a lot of promise.
It sure seems like JC is favoring his recruits, including those from Mojo whom he can say he coached up from their freshmen year. Believe that was the argument before AT (and Potter again) proved it wrong--we needed Chase (yanked after 5 minutes) for the future. Which we do. Just didn't have to sideline Arnaldo, one of the better rebounders in the nation, to do so.
Well, the best players were Potter, Toro and Maceo, all holdovers. Maceo gets to play because he can shoot 3s, but no doubt he is looking over his shoulder, wondering if he should risk his senior year at GW. Le   Toro, coming off as deep in our shallow bench as possible, only had a double-double with 14 points and 16 rebounds. Like Davidson, we clearly lose with Arnaldo.
But really, who could have foreseen this when he was one of the nation's leading rebounders at the start of the season, before he was relegated to being deep on the bench even when recovered from injury? With his tying Yinka's best 24 rebound, 20 point performance, how would a coach know what Toro was capable of?
  Potter is annointed by the coach and all here as our true savior. We pretty much can't live with Armel off the floor for a minute. Personally, I think we really need Armel, but he needs a rest sometimes and a few of his minutes could have been given to others to learn. But Armel Potter is now indispensable to JC.
Well, statistics show how the coaching staff disregarded Potter's ability in the early game.
 He was buried deep on the bench. Played one minute against Howard. Doesn't even show up in the box score against AU. Could he have been injured? Or just riding the pine? In any case, he played very little early on. Did Shawn Walker play something 35 minutes one game,more than a third more than Armel? Potter's emergence came at the Bahamas tournament. 
   So, yeah, there was a bias toward freshmen.
But we didn't have to sideline good players and good people for development, only to overdepend on them later. There were always reasonable minutes and more for Jamison, JNJ, and Chase. The lack of judgment must be noted, if we are to be honest. It's not a fatal flaw in what can turn out to be a really good youngA-10 level and beyond coach, but it's not a good look and cost us games this year without really helping for the future.
  The Toro situation speaks volumes. He literally gives us wins from the third string. We will very likely lose him next year, because the memo he wasn't wanted has been umistakeably sent special delivery.
  And perhaps an insider here could tell us what JC's plans were for our savior Potter coming into this season?

GW73 wrote:

Wait. What? So it is OK for a coach to lie to folks in the Colonials Club and lie about a player's condition? I hope not. That doesn't mean a coach has to reveal all details of the team or a player, but it isn't fair to players or fans to outright lie and say a player is fine when he has an injury. But if we have coaches who lie at Colonials Club, let's just not invite coaches to Colonials Club. Once again, there are plenty of ways for a coach to answer the questions without lying. It would be the same if we had reporters from the Hatchet -- or even the Washington Post -- covering us and asking questions of the coach. I would not want a GW coach lying to the press, fans or players.
Finally, we all know--
1) Toro was struggling and was injured.
2) We wouldn't have won against Davidson or last night without Toro playing as well as he did.
3) Toro has proven he deserves more playing time.
4) How many games we win two or three years from now compared to how many we win this season is much more important to JC's career as a coach -- and I hope GW fans.
 What we don't know is how much the injury affected Toro's ability.  
What I hope we all want is GW off the bottom of the A-10, not as just a middle of the pack team, but competing for the A-10 championship. That means this season is about developing the freshmen, recruiting for future teams and, maybe, just maybe, beginning to develop a winning atmosphere.
Thanks for reading. Drive home safely....  better yet, take public transportation.

Oh wow. Now we've taken the conspiracy theory to lying. Can we just stop. Nobody lied. Nobody has a right to know anyone's health status just because he or she happens to play a collegiate sport. Yes, a healthy effective Toro deserves to play but how much depends on the opponent, the scheme and how well Paar is playing. For whatever reason earlier this season he was neither healthy or effective. Perhaps he is healthier now and therefore more effective. 

jf wrote:

Thrilled with two wins in a row, and it absolutely should be three on Saturday.
Turns out winning feels good, and is actually good for morale, recruiting, and even us lowly fans who support the program.
But that doesn't mean you have to be blind to really odd player rotations this season. Some of us have been calling for Toro to play more (he could have hardly played less) for a long time. Frankly, it is and was bizarre and disturbing judgment from a young coach who has a lot of promise.
It sure seems like JC is favoring his recruits, including those from Mojo whom he can say he coached up from their freshmen year. Believe that was the argument before AT (and Potter again) proved it wrong--we needed Chase (yanked after 5 minutes) for the future. Which we do. Just didn't have to sideline Arnaldo, one of the better rebounders in the nation, to do so.
Well, the best players were Potter, Toro and Maceo, all holdovers. Maceo gets to play because he can shoot 3s, but no doubt he is looking over his shoulder, wondering if he should risk his senior year at GW. Le   Toro, coming off as deep in our shallow bench as possible, only had a double-double with 14 points and 16 rebounds. Like Davidson, we clearly lose with Arnaldo.
But really, who could have foreseen this when he was one of the nation's leading rebounders at the start of the season, before he was relegated to being deep on the bench even when recovered from injury? With his tying Yinka's best 24 rebound, 20 point performance, how would a coach know what Toro was capable of?
  Potter is annointed by the coach and all here as our true savior. We pretty much can't live with Armel off the floor for a minute. Personally, I think we really need Armel, but he needs a rest sometimes and a few of his minutes could have been given to others to learn. But Armel Potter is now indispensable to JC.
Well, statistics show how the coaching staff disregarded Potter's ability in the early game.
 He was buried deep on the bench. Played one minute against Howard. Doesn't even show up in the box score against AU. Could he have been injured? Or just riding the pine? In any case, he played very little early on. Did Shawn Walker play something 35 minutes one game,more than a third more than Armel? Potter's emergence came at the Bahamas tournament. 
   So, yeah, there was a bias toward freshmen.
But we didn't have to sideline good players and good people for development, only to overdepend on them later. There were always reasonable minutes and more for Jamison, JNJ, and Chase. The lack of judgment must be noted, if we are to be honest. It's not a fatal flaw in what can turn out to be a really good youngA-10 level and beyond coach, but it's not a good look and cost us games this year without really helping for the future.
  The Toro situation speaks volumes. He literally gives us wins from the third string. We will very likely lose him next year, because the memo he wasn't wanted has been umistakeably sent special delivery.
  And perhaps an insider here could tell us what JC's plans were for our savior Potter coming into this season?

You have a future as a fiction writer. Either that you aren't very familiar with college basketball because players moving up and down the bench and minutes fluctuating happens most places. Coaches play the players they think will help the team the most. That is dependent on a variety of factors such as past performance, opponent, scheme, health. You seem to forget that Potter played in the opener at Towson. Didn't play very well. Nobody did. Perhaps Potter not playing for a few games thereafter was a reaction to that. Perhaps not. But he was given another chance and not buried. Then, he made the most of it. Perhaps Toro is now doing the same. We will see.

Bottom-line is this team is vastly improved over a year ago so JC must be doing something right. 
 

Gwmayhem wrote:

GWRising, JC had maybe 7 months between the time he was hired and the start of the season to familiarize himself with all of his players, including AT.  AT started 17 games as a freshman, 27 as a sophomore.  He was third in the A10 in offensive rebounds as a sophomore.  He had 3 double doubles in 7 games as a junior.  Your points notwithstanding, JC had to have had some idea of what he was getting in AT before the start of this season.

Keith, nobody is suggesting that injuries haven't played some factor.  It's the erratic use though that makes it difficult to believe this is only about AT's injury.  Starting in UMASS:

DNP vs UMASS
6 minutes vs. Fordham (grabbed 5 rebounds)
DNP vs SJU
Davidson...this was going to be a DNP as AT did not play in regulation.  In the overtimes, he played 13 minutes, scored 11 points and grabbed 6 rebounds.
9 minutes vs Richmond
3 minutes (garbage time only) vs SBU
DNP vs URI (not on the bench)
22 minutes vs Geo. Mason
33 minutes last night

So, he was effective in limited play against Fordham and then did not play the following game.  Then, he helped win the game against Davidson, where he was extremely effective, and then barely played against Richmond or Saint Bonaventure.  More minutes the last two games but still playing behind Chase and Ace with the presumption being that AT would have received few minutes these past two games had Chase and/or Ace played better.

I can't speak to how hurt he was or is, but he sure looked fine in Pittsburgh.
 

Familiar enough to start him the first three games of the year. Then what happened against Morgan State? He got injured. I think there might be more than 1,000 witnesses to that if you can't recall.

Since then and maybe not until recently he has not been completely healthy, And even as recently as the Mason game he came up limping on a play and was taken out but returned.

So Gwmayhem let me ask you this. Can you tell us in the games he played little or not at all, what his practice status was prior to those games? Was he a full participant or was he limited or absent? I would suggest you learn the answer to that question and perhaps your opinion will be changed somewhat. Also, how did he play in the practices that he participated in even if healthy enough to play. Did he look like he could go 100%. Not that Toro had great lift before but if you watch him closely he has very little lift now and way less than he had as a sophomore. I'm just not sure he is completely recovered from the hip and ankle injuries he has suffered over the past 2 years. Only JC/Staff and Toro know the truth.