GWRising, I'm not sure I've ever seen a game in any sport where the coach was solely responsible for a loss while the players should be considered exonerated.  Practically every loss is a combination of the two.  That said, it was pretty clear that JC was outcoached today.  The repeated and I mean repeated ineffectiveness of the zone was in part due to slowness but also in part to what looked like a great deal of uncertainty.  If our bigs came out to the high post, we gave up backdoor baskets.  If they stayed down low, we were giving up wide open jump shots from the foul line.

I don't believe that their guards were any quicker than ours which means that at least trying to play some man-to-man would have been worth a try.  We'll never know if this would have been any more effective because for some unbeknownst reason, JC refused to give it a try.  You seem to believe that because JC sees the team practice every day, he in turn is a flawless coach of his team.  JC made plenty of mistakes today.

As I think you know, a great deal about how coaches are regarded, aside from wins and losses, is based on in-game adjustments.  And I think that sums up the frustration of most posters today.  There was a distinct lack of in-game adjustments.  JC was determined to make this zone work no matter what.  Again, I would rather save zone for the VCU's out there.  I fully realize that Navy was knot known as an outstanding three point shooting team last season so I get why the zone was in the game plan.  However, once it became clear that Navy had nothing but correct answers to compete against the zone, a good coach would have tried something else.  They could have tried a different zone though that would be tough if it hadn't been practiced.  That's why man-to-man was always an option.  For sure, the execution didn't help as you pointed out.  But the coaching today swas also a huge letdown.

TC, I was not irked by this at all.  Not even a little.  Jamion Christian has the understanding that he, and other black coaches, owe pioneers like John Thompson a debt of gratitude.  Yes, it sucked that he ducked us for decades.  Nevertheless, his contributions to the sport make him more than worthy of a posthumous tribute.   

Lot of valid points about our weaknesses, which if there, weren't supposed to be near as glaring this 
year. 
JC gets the big bucks, so he is responsible for the play. He was greatly outcoached by a veteran coach at Navy, which by the way, has a lot less choice of players and was smaller.
If Pete Gillen had left the announcer's table at halftime, we might have been able to win.
The answer to sticking in last year's bizarre lack of zone was spending seemingly every minute in a bizarre
zone which Navy carved up and we didn't make an adjustment.
Note how a team passes the ball with team play.
Bishop knows how to make a pass, but as out of control drives (including on one critical possession) and missed chances to pass to a hot Jamison or even Seymour, shows he isn't really looking to pass. At least this game and from the scrimmage, Bishop makes DJ Williams look like a team player.
  Little effort on the boards. Maceo who can shoot and provide senior leadership largely absent. Much like
Armel last year. Can JC evaluate the talent he has, much less with recruits?
Meet the new year, same as the old year.
And Noel shows intriguing potential, but based on play, we don't have one impact freshman.
Mayhem is more like May I defend?
  JC's players are in place. It's up to him to show improvement, which everyone expected this year.
The only (slim at the moment) hope is that it is a one-time stinker, a wakeup call to the coach, especially and the players, and a learning experience in a crazy year.
  If not dragged to the gym to shoot free throws, players and maybe coaches should start on Friday to plan to do better and salvage this crappy start, while enjoying a safe Thanksgiving as best they can. We can be thankful at least that everyone expected to play is healthy enough to play and hopefully improve. 
   And despite the current difficulties we all face, hope for everyone's, including fans, health and happiness in more important matters, finding happiness in what we have.

  

A tip of the cap to Navy. Their team played very disciplined and always made the extra pass - just a fine coaching performance and executed game plan. Wish I could say the same thing about our team today. Cam Davis reminded me a lot of JoeMac - cool and collected. Just when we had trimmed the deficit to 4 or 5 each time, DeChellis just brought him back into the game and before long the lead was back to 10. Even though this was a projected loss, I hoped the team would play them a bit closer for much of the game.

Will try something different this season, assigning grades for each side of the ball. Since it's the first game, I wouldn't put too much thought into them. I think this should be considered a shaking off the rust game hopefully. Time to overreact based on a single game performance!

Offense: C. Probably a generous grade given how we played on this end for stretches. I liked that we got to the line 23 times, and Navy only shot 9 free throws. Last season, I felt like we were always losing the free throw battle, and I think the successful GW teams in the past have always won this battle. Having said that, hopefully we don't shoot them like we're trying to be St. Louis for the rest of the season. That was one potential red flag I saw in the scrimmage, and I didn't put too much stock into that, but now it is two such performances. Especially earlier on, I actually thought we got to the hoop and weren't settling for threes despite the early deficit (loved the Nelson cut along the baseline for a dunk). In the second half, we kind of settled a bit too much though and fell in love with the jumper. Even despite our poor decision making at certain junctions of the game, we still had a chance to win it at the end (or at least cut the deficit further), but our play calling at the very end of the game was atrocious. After shooting threes all game, we suddenly forgot to look for the three in the last couple minutes and then threw up a randomly contested midrange shot. Two issues that come to mind that existed last year as well against a team like Fordham that plays a lot of zone were 1) the inability to establish the post and 2) making the extra pass. This offensive system seems to be designed on making 1-2 passes max. While a three point shot might be open, it discourages ball movement and the team playing 2 against 5. Even then, Jamison and Sloan had to still make adjustments and pump fake their shot to even get a clean look at the basket. The fact that Chase took just one shot today is unacceptable. I don't know that too much more is needed to be stated there. Even in the pick and roll, we were hardly ever looking for the roll man. There are definitely some question marks regarding the frontcourt. If we are factoring in turnovers, maybe this grade should be downgraded to a C-. I am willing to forgive errant passes in game 1 given how new the team is, but the number of travels this team were called for by picking up the ball and moving their foot was one of the most maddening moments of the game, in which there were a few. These are self-inflicted issues. They usually happen a couple times in the game sure, but 7-8 times??

Defense: D-, although if it wasn't the first game of the season this would probably be an F truthfully. Coming into the year, this end was concerning to me, and it appears based on today's performance that those concerns were justified. JNJ was the only competent defender today. Playing a 2-3 zone against Navy was interesting, but the Midshipmen had no trouble breaking it. Why we didn't change things up after Navy made 6 threes in the first half is beyond me. Even after cooling off, Navy shot roughly 36% from deep in the second half. Giving up threes in the zone were to be expected, but Navy also found holes at the top of the key (usually Davis) and a clean lane along the baseline to convert near the hoop (usually Njoku). We made Njoku look like a superstar down low with dunk after dunk. I actually liked that we forced them to take a midrange shots, the only problem was that they were wide open. A particular issue that stood out was our inability to close out on shots. Get a hand up and at least contest the shot! Most on the team did not seem overly interested. Also, up to this point Mayhem is nothing more than a marketing tactic for the program. I saw hardly any pressure until the last minutes of the game, and we continued to not threaten anyone from running their offense. Navy is sound with the ball, but three steals for the game is not good. It was Mayhem for the team trying to follow Navy's crisp passing in the halfcourt.

Tempo: D. You may wonder why our tempo is getting a grade. Well, one of the keys going into the game was for us to establish the way we like to play on Navy. Unfortunately, it ended up being the other way around today. Navy forced us to play long possessions on defense, and offense we didn't really get things moving. It was pretty much dribble along the perimeter until there is 10 seconds left, then drive towards the rim recklessly and put up a contested shot or pass it out for a contested three. Since we didn't force any turnovers, we weren't able to get out in transition, but man we didn't even really push off Navy misses either. We were pretty good when we looked to push, something I saw during the periods when we cut into the Navy lead. Someone else brought up the weird mix of athletic and not so athletic players on the team, and I feel like this may inhibit us from fully realizing this uptempo potential. Every season it feels like we are told maybe we can get out in transition more, but it never comes to fruition. Not saying we need to just keep sprint up and down jacking up shots, but change something up because right now shot quality isn't high just because we play out a possession for a long period of time, especially since extra passes are not valued in the current system. It's why you see guys like Jamison and Maceo not post higher assist totals either. If they have the ball, everyone knows they are going to be shooting it.

Player Breakdown:

James - I am probably higher on his performance than nearly everyone on this board. On offense, there are definitely times where he probably should have passed a bit more, but we said the same thing of JNJ in the opener against Towson last year. I would expect this to improve over the course of the year. Bishop's shot making is his greatest asset, and that was on display today. There are few players on this team that have proven that can create their own shot, and James is one of them. You could maybe throw Jamison into this category as an emerging one, and while you could argue JNJ as well, his jumper is not as consistent as Bishop's. I think he will have some game changing performances for us this season, although I was a tad disappointed he didn't perform better down the stretch as he did in his MSJ career. Still it was game one, so I'm sure this will be improved upon. I will make no excuses for his bad defense though. The comparisons to Harden definitely seem warranted.

JNJ - thought he was the most consistent player on the team today. The lift he gets on his threes is truly amazing, it feels like several seconds pass before the ball starts to dip towards the basket - probably the only real hole he has in his game currently. Like the scrimmage, saw tremendous improvement on his FTs, and he actually was the best on the team today! Also, continues to progress as a passer, finishing with more assists than turnovers. However, I feel like JC has still saddled him as the secondary initiator much like he was alongside Armel last year. I want to see him in more of a primary role, because I think it will make Bishop more dangerous. If we only played something truer to Mayhem on defense, I could see him on the all-defensive team. A bright spot today.

Jamison - continued his deadly shooting from last year, and showcased his ability to put the ball on the floor. Defense was fine, not bad but not amazing. The 6 turnovers accounted for nearly half of the team's total though. The pass to Chase in transition that he tried to fit in a tight window I won't blame him for early on, but something I noticed in the scrimmage was that he tends to dribble very loosely, allowing the opposition to knock it out of his hands. That happened again today, but if he fixes that, I think he will be fine. It's early, but I think he will probably run away with the most team makes from 3. He just has such a good stroke.

Matt - I will say he did a very good job pulling down rebounds in traffic on both ends. I thought we would for sure lose the rebounding battle against Navy, but we kept it respectable thanks largely to Matt. However, he does not really provide much by ways of offense. His threes were way off. Would have liked to see maybe drawing up some alley-oops or something and using his athletic ability more (maybe in transition?). I don't think his defense was amazing either, but I think that was partly because it felt like Navy's bigs were 7 feet tall despite all being shorter than the guys we had in the frontcourt (thought Moyer's experience with Syracuse's zone would have helped). I think he will be an important piece at some point this season, but I feel like we aren't using him well. His long arms would work great in Mayhem, but those talents just weren't used today.

Chase - as mentioned above, his lack of usage may have been the most regrettable thing to come out of the game. Chase is just so good at finishing near the rim - the one shot he took and made was tough, but he reads angles near the hoop very well. While today was not great defensively from him (he bit on a few too many pump fakes down low) I think he is a decent defender/rim protector, just not vertically explosive. Would have liked a bit more activity on the boards. Moving forward, we need to use him more - that goes without saying. Chase as a roll man in PnR = easy points. JNJ/Bishop just need to find him. I am confident they will moving forward.

Sloan - I feel like I am not high on him, and today unfortunately didn't do anything to change my mind. It didn't help that he had an off day shooting the ball, but his defense was flat out bad and he lacks the athleticism to make the hustle plays. Many of Navy's open shots came from his lack of rotating. I think today was the perfect game script for Sloan (we were trailing, and Navy doesn't have the athleticism that would expose him completely), so I get why he saw so many minutes. He is such a good shooter and I always believe when he shoots it that it will go in, but he shoots from way deeper than he needs to, and sometimes should probably make the extra pass. He warrants minutes without a doubt, but I just think it is highly questionable that he played more minutes than Maceo - maybe just my opinion. Wonder if JC sees it as Maceo is not the future, but Sloan has more years of eligibility left.

Maceo - honestly don't really remember much that he did when he was in the game. I think he is probably one of the more disruptive defenders we have (he has made considerable strides from his freshman year), and probably would have at least provided some energy to our dead defense today. Maybe unpopular, but would like him to be back in the starting lineup in place of Matt. Yes, that puts Jamison back at the 4, but he doesn't have to play there the entire game - I think Battle can hold his own down low more than most we have on the team. At the very least, that might result in more on-court chemistry with four of the five starters being the same as last year.

Noel - would have liked a bit more aggression on the boards, but was very encouraged for his first game, especially with his rebound and finish down low. One of my other takeaways from the game was that we lacked a true post presence today. I like Chase a lot, but am hoping Noel is the long time solution here as the defensive anchor. He is young, but hope he continues to get game time for his progression in the future. Noel also provided good spacing and I think we played a bit better during the stretch in the second half when he played.

Ace - did not look very good defensively in the couple minutes he was in. I liked last season when we gave him a bucket near the hoop for the few minutes he was in. He usually converted it more often than not. His inclusion today seemed a bit random.

Brandon - came in late in the game, I think for JNJ? I don't know that he really exerted that much pressure in crunch time though.

Lincoln - glad he got a couple possessions, although I wish he saw more time and Tyler got in the game as well. Would have been more satisfied with the loss if we got even a glimpse of the freshmen. ML used to get freshmen in after the first media timeout in the first half and play until the following media timeout. Wish we did something like that today.

Overall, a bit disappointed by the transfers today outside of Bishop. Really think Hunter can be a game-changer though and am looking forward to seeing him on the court soon. Next up is a home game against Hampton I think on Tuesday but who the heck knows. That should be a more winnable game which should boost morale.

Article by Feinstein (who I thought watched the game from a TV studio despite a tone in the article implying he may have attended).
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/There-is-little-normalcy-to-be-found-this-fall-15754891.php

"Hand Down Man Down" everyone here must know that expression.

Well,we had hands down perimeter defense far too often and Navy got clean looks and hit a ton of them.  Hopefully the staff is showing that film.... after a nice Thanksgiving for everyone. Lets recall that just like we all did, these kids had to deal with a Global Pandemic, and it was the first game, no real offseason, and a very early start time.   Have a little perspective, we've lost 240K Americans, losing a game by a few points is hardly worth 75% of the over-reaction (again, many are the same human doing all the same things we've seen here for years, using a plethora of fake names, sorry it is what it is and that's what it is)

Give the kids some time to gel and have a little empathy and perspective about the world, they are playing an indoor sport for your entertainment, during very difficult times, not sitting back carping every single thing from the comfort of a couch.  The effort and energy wasn't terrible, it was just not good enough and its going to have to get much better, but a little perspective aye??

 

"We weren't expecting them to play that much zone, but we're a pretty good zone offense team," DeChellis said.

Feinstein should have ended that sentence with “DeChellis said with an incredulous chuckle”.

God, I hope this isn’t true about the 2/3 zone.  Being a childhood Syracuse fan, I’ve seen a lot of good 2/3 zone over years.  What I saw yesterday didn’t resemble that at all.  A lot of people have commented on this already, but the players were entirely too passive at times (not enough movement and lots of hands down on the perimeter), while at other times over-commiting and being completely out of position, which led to open 3s.  Hopefully this can all be corrected after looking at the tape.. 

Couple other things I saw:

Whoever posted that Sloan reminded them of Mikic was 100% right.  He offered nothing outside of his 3 point shot and was a total liability on defense.  He looked a combination of lazy and lost on D.

Bishop was really frustrating to watch on the pick and roll.  There were a lot of time were the big man, was open after the pick, but Bishop didn’t see him.  I like his game a lot, but there is a little too much hero ball at times.

Just in case you guys miss it in the 'Other Games' thread, I wanted to let you know that Navy plays at Maryland today at 3 on Big 10 Network. We'll get to some indication whether losing to Navy was a crushing loss or a good loss. Will Navy get a bunch of clean 3-point looks, uncontested layups and 3 or 4 wide open dunks from Njoku against Maryland?? 

And someone please explain to me why Maceo Jack, arguably our best and most reliable offensive threat on the team and our only senior other than perennial bench warmer Matt Moyer, got only 15 minutes and took only 4 shots for the game?  Or why Chase Paar, a big man who shot 63% for the season last year, got only 1 shot vs. a much shorter Navy?

And therein lies the problem.   This was also a first game for Navy in which they did not have a scrimmage or exhibition.   Navy may not shoot like that again all season (even though I would contend that an unguarded 3 point shot is not that difficult...just look at warmups), but there is the expression about shooting a team out of its zone...well, Navy did that to us, but unfortunately we stayed in the zone, which resulted in our losing that game in the first few minutes.  When a team is as hot as Navy was, you need to guard them man to man so they can no longer take those uncontested shots.  Staying in the zone in the face of Navy's hot shooting, to me, is questionable coaching, whether it is the first game of the season or the last.   Again...only one game, but I don't get it.  The game also exposed us again for what I was concerned about last season, namely that we are slow.    As the season progresses and we play more athletic and skilled teams than Navy, it is going to get worse.