Richmond -8.  Hoping for a bounceback after Saturday's disappointment.  Let's pop their bubble!

Last edited by The Ross-Man! (2/26/2020 10:32 am)

Good first half, although my fear is that all GW has done is make Richmond angry. It is cliche, but the first five mins of the second half will set the tone for this game.

Could we please "scrub" from all archieves that series where Paar missed the dunk and Jack missed the follow-up lay-in? Getting all those turkey stickers on the whiteboard for defense is not going to do any good if they can´t score on the other end of the court.

I have to be at the airport at 0730hrs tomorrow, I cannot stay up for a 4OT game!

9-19 with Potter the main failure.

Free throws and situational thinking processes need to improve. Still, chalk this down as a "good loss" instead of the blowout we all dreaded it being.

This was the most tired I have seen our guys. Potter is an Ironman and a warrior, but he was totally gassed, which is why I think he missed those free throws.  Richmond is a really good team and we were working so hard to stay with them - not sure if you could tell on tv but at the game, every dead ball in the second half, Potter and battle and Nelson and jack (especially Potter) were rugged at their shorts, hands on knees. 

Richmond won because of depth (our guys were worn out and missed key opportunities and FTs they normally make), and some luck.  I think Blake Francis alone shot three total bricks that somehow bounced in, while we had shots going in and out or taking bad bounces.  But mostly it was the depth that did us in.

Really proud of the effort though.  They never quit, played hard, and came really close to knocking Richmond off the bubble.

Btw, watching Potter torch them over and over reminds me of all the years we’ve seen a small Richmond guard do that exact thing to us down the stretch of games.   I would imagine any great PG would love to go to GW given the great position JC puts his PG to pile stats and make plays.

I will not repeat what has been said so many times....missed free throws and turnovers, but as the adage goes, "good teams find ways to win and bad teams find ways to lose".   We played equal to, if not better, than Richmond tonight, yet they walked away with the win.  We are certainly a better team than last season or earlier this season, but we are not yet a good team.   Having said that, I completely agree with the sentiment expressed by Free about the team effort and belief that Potter was exhausted at the end.  All Potter did was play 40 minutes and guard Gilliyard.    Team has to figure out how to give Potter a breather in both halfs.  It is harder with Amir out, but stick Nelson at the guard for a couple of minutes in each half and let Potter sit.   Now, just a couple of questionis on coaching decisions.  First, was I experiencing an hallucinogenic flashback from my days in Calhoun Hall in the early 70s, or did I really see both Juice and Mezie in the game together, at the same time, with less than a minute left in a close game?  Next, someone needs to tell the team that when you are down 6 with about 30 seconds remaining, making a 2 point shot still keeps it at a 2 possession game.   And now, when Richmond gives us a gift by missing 2 free throws with  under 10 seconds left, call time out and set something up.  Its real easy.   Play #1....screen for Maceo for a 3 point shot.  P lay #2...screen for Battle for a 3 point shot.  I do not know what the heck that was about in those final seconds, but it shouldn't have happened.  I heard someone say that we tried to call time but didn't get it.   The solution to that is you tell the ref before the 2nd free throw is taken that if the player misses and we get the rebound, we want time.   On the upside, we played tough against a top team.   And I not only got to see Swae Lee, but I learned who he is.   OK...one final thing.  What was with the "Divest" demonstration at the start of the 2nd half?   Was that an anti-Israel thing or was it referring to something else.  Whatever it was, it was inappropriate and the school should not allow political demonstrations during sporting events.   Not a surpression of free speach...there is a time and a place to voice your political beliefs and it isn't at a basketball game.   

LSF, three responses:

1) Mezzie and Juice were just there for defense/fouling.  They came out as soon as we fouled. FWIW, juice played ok in the first half going i think 1-3 from deep.

2) it looked from my angle Potter was driving the defender and about to kick to someone in the corner for a three (Maceo I think). The play was totally bottle up on the left side and I think potter saw his best option was to drive and Kick. It even looked like he looked to the corner as he we driving and was starting to pass when he got fouled.  I could be wrong but I don’t think he was trying for two. 


3) the divest from fossil fuels protest was bad.  I agree with the message, but they could have done it during a time out. Instead they were screwing with their fellow students who work so hard and need support from their classmates.  It would be one thing to protest the administration (I.e. at a time out, to drown out whatever advertisement or whatever is happening).  But to do it at the start of the second half in a close game was hurting the students who were trying to win a game more than hurting the school.  Our worst minutes of the game when Richmond took control were during that protect and I don’t think it’s a coincidence - it sucked the energy out of the building, energy their classmates needed. 

Maybe we should all go start shouting about divestment while those kids are trying to concentrate on their finals?   Sure that would hurt the students, not the school, but it would be the same thing they did tonight in protesting their fellow classmates instead of the administration.

The thing that annoyed me most about the divestment protest wasn't just that it happened, which I think definitely took the team out of the game and was a factor in why they lost, was that after they finished, all the students in the upper level who protested left.  I can see using the basketball team as a platform to get your message out, but when you are done, do the guys a solid a stick around to support them.  Otherwise, the whole this just comes across as kinda selfish and makes us, the people who your protest is supposed to sway, think poorly of you and your cause.

​As for the game itself, this reminds me a lot of those early Hobbs and ML teams, where they had a lot of young talent that played and lost a bunch of close games.  It was just a bunch of little things that kept them from winning.  A bad shot or foul here, a charge there,  This all is great learning experience.  Its games like this I see the team being able to close out in 2-3 years, when Parr, Nelson and Battle are upperclassmen.