dmvpiranha wrote:

I was debating whether I even wanted to comment on this one...
 

Yep.

IMO JC will be well-served by hiring an older assistant to sit on the bench with him.  Jarvis is available! (JK)

Last edited by BM (3/05/2020 2:32 pm)

GWRising, in what world must the issue be either talent or coaching, but not both?  You make it sound like this team's problems can only be one or the other.  That sounds to me like someone who doesn't understand much about basketball.

I am not arguing that this team does not have talent deficiencies.  (Though it is worth pointing out that this  team has won at UMASS, a much better win than it appeared at the time, at home over Davidson, and at a 21-8 Duquesne team.)  Based on your logic, why even play the games?  We should simply give the reason that we aren't talented enough to compete and forfeit.  Even apparently against a rather untalented Fordham team whose wins over GW this season represent 25% of their total and 100% of their conference wins.  That's right, they have not beaten a single other A10 school but somehow, last night's problem was that we weren't talented enough to compete with them?  Please.

You also seemed to have missed my point entirely about coaching.  The point is that GW did nothing to try to change its fate last night.  How or why do you continue taking 3's when you're behind late in the game and they are not falling?  The coaching comes into play because this team is being coached to play a certain, specific way, and it rarely if ever deviates from this.  Last night's game plan may have been fine.  But, when the execution isn't working, it's time to adjust.  Find a different way.  This is where I am finding fault with JC and staff.  Personally, I like the three point shooting philosophy.  However, when you are the better team (and we are if the full season is to be measured) and you are playing at home and struggling, you find a way to win by trying different things.  In other words, you make adjustments.

FWIW, I am not in the camp of playing a zone defense unless that's something you've worked on extensively at practice.  A team doesn't just start magically playing a zone well out of nowhere.  So if this has not been worked on at practice, I understand not going to it in a game.  

But, if you need baskets to get back into a game, if you need to get to the free throw line to get back into a game, all while shooting 5-23 from three, then stop shooting low percentage shots and start focusing on doing what's necessary to get back into the game.
 

GWRising, my points are:

1) It is entirely possible that the problems last night were the result of both execution and coaching.  IMO, the game's final 10 minutes should have been coached quite differently than the first 30.

2) I never said that we perhaps should have played zone.

3) Battle had a wide open 10 foot shot along the baseline but didn't take it.  Paar had a wide open shot from about 12 feet away (a few steps inside of the foul line) and didn't take it.  There were numerous other instances where we drove into the lane and were far more interested in throwing a pass back out to a three point shooter than we were taking a close-in shot or getting fouled.  It's not as you would have others believe..that the only open shots last night were from 3.

4) No, JC can not take and make the shots.  But, he can instruct his team to take higher percentage shots during the final minutes of a close game rather than continue to hoist 3's on a night where 18 out of 23 were missed shots.

5) I'll use a basketball analogy...I am more like the fan who wants us to do what it takes to beat a lowly Fordham team, even if this means adjusting a game plan, than I am the fan who wants to see his coach stick to his game plan at all costs at the risk of losing the game.

You can respond if you'd like but I really get where you're coming from.  JC and staff can do no wrong in your eyes because they have such little talent to work with so either the players execute his great game plan and GW wins or they don't and GW loses.  By definition, at least for this year and probably next year too, it can never be about the coaching strategy or lack of adjustments in your mind.

GWRising, So you say the problem is that this season JC doesn't have the talent to win even against the worst of the  A-10, then fine, let's assume JC is bringing in the recruits to get better every season. Whether JC ends up on the GW reject coaching pile with Gimelstob, Kuester and MoJo or brings back the winning tradition of his coaching hero, Mike Jarvis, will all depend on the quality of his recruits. We are can argue all day and night about the coaching or talent against Fordham. And sure, it is sad to become first coach to lose twice to Fordham in the same season, especially when Fordham has only two conference wins, but  JC can't be blaming the players two years from now. 

Add 2 losses against an otherwise winless Fordham to the GW Wall of Shame, along with other such events as losses to I*wa, F**rfield, Longwood and of course Morgan State.   A truly embarassing performance that will not soon be forgoten.     Between Morgan State and Fordham, we have come full circle, going from one of the worst teams in the nation, to a team nobody wanted to play in the conference tournament, and back to being one of the worst teams in the nation.  One thing that is clear is that our freshmen have hit a wall and are in regression.   Battle, Walker, Nelson, Paar, even Ace...none of them are as good as they were just a few weeks ago.   Probably some blame to go around as to why this may have happened, including the longer schedule as compared to high school.   Even players like Potter, Toro and Mezie seemed to decline as the season wore on.   Defense rotations were slow and not very strong, and despite Christian's numerous offensive sets, it seemed like our main play was our point guard dribbling for 25 seconds trying to get something to happen.  Nelson's game evolved into one or 2 truly remarkable high light reel plays sandwiched around 30 plus minutes of some pretty poor basketball.   I will continue to disagree with Free Quebec on Battle's defensive development....did you see him try to guard Gazi on Fordham?   By late in the game, Christian was rotating Battle out for Juice on defense.   Likewise, Soriano ate up Paar and Toro.  And Soriano is only a freshman.   Further, I cannot help thinking that Toro could have been used better than he was all season.   Still, no reason to get too down this off season.    The frosh all showed glimpses of what they can be at their best, but will need to do some serious off season training to build stamina and gain strength.   Hoopefully, what we saw from them at the end of the season was not indicative of the players they will develop into, and if the incoming recruits are half as good as the school says they are, we should see some further improvement, although I don't see us much better than 500 for next year.   

I haven’t seen anything this year or in JC’s track record to make me think the issue is coaching.  In fact I’ve seen a dramatic improving in coaching from this year compared to the last three. Just look at how Maceo defends now compared to last year (and even compared to his defense in November/December).

I’m sorry, but the issue is talent.  We have the worst bench in the A10’and that includes Fordham. Starting at the back of it, we have Mezzie and Juicr, who are good guys but not even d1 talents and would not play for anyone, including Fordham (maybe juice could get some minutes for them). .  We have Javi who has been hurt an unavailable, but who I also think is massively overrated by you guys because he put up some meh stats last year when there was literally no one else inside (even D3 teams that lose exhibitions by 50 have guys who make a couple shots and grab 6 boards).   We have a whole bunch of walk ons, some of whom we actually have to play (Ace is like a very poor man’s jabari Edwards before his senior year, in that  he can block shots, but can’t do anything with the ball).

Toro has been hurt and  even when able to play, does not appear able to produce like he used to (perhaps because of inury or other issues).  He’s not the same guy he used to be, even early i the season.

Walker is a freshman who has had a couple of monents, but still looks mostly overmatched by the D1 talent we face. Maybe that will get better with experience, maybe not.  He’s a smart player so I’m hopeful he’ll figure out, but his talent doesn’t jump off the court the way someone like Jordan Roland did as a struggling feshman).

For the starters, we are playing 3 feshmen and no A10 teams win much starting 3 freshmen (Umass a little better but we also pummeled them by 24 when we still had Amir). 

Battle is a real talent and so is Nelson. But they are freshman with a lot to learn and as we reach the end of then year, teams have scoured them and aren’t trying to exploit their weaknesses. 

Paar appears talented.  Not an all league type, but a decent role player.  If Brown can beat him out for the starting job next year and Paar could anchor the bench, that would be such a huge upgrade for us. As a starter he strikes me as a serviceable talent as he gets more experience, but as a bench player he could be a real weapon compared to the bigs  other teams being off the bench.  (But compares to starters, he’s not on the level or Langevine or Ossunyi or Golden or others at the top of the league.  I think his potential is more like a Luka Brajkovic). 

Maceo is a solid offensive player who has become ok on defense (after previously being bad). He not particularly fast or quick but he’s a good shooter and a decent player.  But I don’t think he’s talented enough to be one of the top 2 options on an upper echelon A10 team. That’s just not his talent level.  His talent level is more like decent scorer on a bad team (though surrounded by better talent and able to get more open suits, maybe he would do more - so maybe even next year as a senior with more talent, he’ll take another step forward).  Maceo is also not a stat stuffer and he gives us very little outside scoring, which he is only ok at.  One more thing on his talent, how many teams in the A10 would Maceo start for?  maybe over Jaren English at Bona, but not surif there’s anyone else. (I know it seems like I’m ripping him and others, but I’m just trying to be objective about his talent and others as someone who watches a lot of other teams, not just gw)

Finally Potter.  He’s a good talent being used to the fullest and he’s now worn down.  He’s probably the most improved player in the league, though they don’t give that award to seniors. But in terms of talent, he’s an undersized PG who can’t shoot threes (8-34, 24% this year), who came from Charleston Southern.  He’s being asked to do everything because he’s an excellent playmaker and the only ball handler.

I’ll add, this season is also defined by the injuries - Toro, Amir, Paar, Javi, Juice, etc.  Amir is a very talented guy, but injuries have taken him off the court.

It’s not a coincidence that we played our best ball of the season when both Harris and Paar were healthy.  They were both out early and we sucked.  With Amir our and the team hitting a wall, we have stunk again lately. It’s not accident.  We don’t have enough good players and the good ones are mostly inexperienced.

Llke everyone else, I’m worried about PG next year, but I expect the talent to continue to improve and us to improve. But at the end of the day, I don’t think there’s a coach in the league who could get much more out of this group (with these injuries) this year, in year one; than JC did.