Press having a long-term effect. They are scared shitless, gassed, and thank god they're trying to salt clock rather than attack the rim when they do beat it.

Last edited by Mentzinger (12/07/2020 5:59 pm)

Too bad with the technical

In the end, too much Nelson for us to comeback.

Spirited comeback but fell short, no quit in this team, fell way behind, mounted a great late comeback

20 more points and 6 dimes for James Bishop.  Tremendously game from Maceo Jack.

 

Yes, he threw the guy to the floor several steps after the whistle blew.
 

jf wrote:

Darnell smiling broadly

He was awful in the last 10 mins and showed very little to make me want him to be at GW (aside from the whole legacy and ties to a better time thingy).
No one blame JNJr for this loss, it was a complete team effort at sucking for the first 25 mins. Jack and JNJr sparked the comeback and Stallings´s shift at the 15min mark helped kickstart the comeback. 
What you see is what you get.

Repellant and briefly inspiring all at once.
If against a better team,you could say it could turn the season around by showing what's possible.
  Maybe it can be so,since coach most belatedly realized zone sucks.
But not sure what it means when we play better teams,or even lower teams.

So disgusted at how the school has allowed our only mainstream sport to fall so far.  And it’s funny because in this technology age it is easier than ever to follow and support the team.  Virtually their entire schedule is televised either terrestrial or online.  But yet now there is really little reason to watch unless you want to get really frustrated for two hours.  Of course all of us on this board are die hards and will continue to support the program no matter what.  But this is a long road back, if ever.  Those of you close to the program, does the administration indicate that their goal is to return to the days of a Top 100 program?

While it was an inspired effort in the last 10-15 minutes to get us back in the game, it is hard to discount the poor performance prior to that. After all, a herculean effort would not have been needed had we not dug ourselves into as big of a hole.

There were some positives - the team played with more energy on defense than in previous games (which was nice to see given the short turnaround) and we turned the ball over less, but in the grand scheme of things both these things did not matter much. It is nice that the team gets several days off before Delaware, because truthfully there needs to be major reform on both ends.

Offensively as others have said here the lack of passing was a huge problem. Against poorer teams, I was a bit more willing to accept how we were running things because we were finding open looks under the basket, but against a marginally better opponent like UMBC it looked like we were unable to change things up. There is simply too much isolation ball and me me me right now. We are putting up a lot of points, but if you adjust for pace, it isn't very efficient. Yesterday was the first time I would say Bishop was being a bit of a ball hog and not passing enough. It's why you can't infer how a player performed by just looking at the box score. This is not to say he isn't a great scorer, and he definitely made some strides defensively (a bit more pressure along the perimeter, was willing to take a charge in transition - that was a bad call by the refs) but offensively he just didn't get others involved nearly enough. If I was JC I would have benched him earlier in the half (maybe play the freshmen here a bit more), because it was clear things were going south as he was recklessly driving to the hoop or taking contested shots leading to one-and-done possessions on offense. Eventually JC did so and Bishop came back making better decisions when he came back into the game. JNJ doesn't get a pass here either, because he too was driving recklessly to the hoop and not getting any good looks at the basket, which explains his 3-18 shooting the past two games. Our lack of ball movement has hurt his game the most, because his game isn't based on isolation at all compared to others on the team, so there are times where he is just "there" on offense. It's cool to have a leader in assist percentage, but I think this team would benefit from a more spread out approach with the assists. The first option isn't always the best. We actually look like the college team version of the Wizards - we can put up a lot of points, but the other team can as well and often times more than we can.

At the end of the day, the problem is not any one guy (Bishop and JNJ will be blamed the most by default because they are responsible for setting other guys up on offense), but a system that does not encourage more than a pass or two to be made. Since we have a turkey board to track defensive stops, we should have a similar thing for the offensive side of the ball. Any possession in the halfcourt that results in two or fewer passes is a grim reaper (I would say maybe the culprit's face is on the reaper but that might be harsh). We need more of an identity than just playing fast. Passing the ball does not mean you have to slow down the pace - look at a team like Belmont. But we need to play more as a team rather than five individual guys who need to use their talents to create their own shot. We were due for some positive regression to the mean when it comes to three point shooting, but none of our shots are ever easy ones. Whether it's Jamison, Bishop, Maceo, or Sloan each guy has to pump fake or take a couple dribbles to create separation before launching. I believe all the guys on the team are good passers, and we do not need to rely on one guy to make all the passes. Let JNJ run the point some and play Bishop off ball. Have guys cut off the ball so Matt can get a quality shot, or JNJ can get a dunk or something when Bishop is at the point. We have game film from all our opponents to use to study.

Sloan's inclusion in this year's team does not make a lot of sense based on the way this team plays in transition. His minutes have gone down in each game. He would have been a better fit on last year's team. When he is in the game, perhaps passing the ball a bit more would get him a better shot instead of him having to launch from half court.

Nice to see Maceo finally get more minutes. He has been a great fit in the Mayhem scheme prying the ball from opponent's hands and was really impressive finishing in transition. He won't shoot 7-7 from the floor every game, but he gave the team a major lift on both ends today and fueled the comeback effort.

Defensively, there are major concerns that I'm not quite sure are fully fixable for this season. Minus JNJ, there isn't a true impact defender on this end. It's not that we didn't give it a good effort or try, we just simply were not able to stop anyone in the zone. On defense, you either want opponents to take the full shot clock and take a poor shot, or rush them into taking a bad shot. The latter might be what we are going for, but there is not enough pressure consistently right now. When teams are averaging over 80 points a game and averaging nearly 20 assists (UMBC also shot 63% from the floor), there is clearly a change that needs to be made in the system. It was a red flag to me when JC said we are going to be playing zone a lot more because that generally means that the team has some obvious defensive shortcomings that don't allow them to play man. I just don't fully believe that last year's team is much better than this year's when it comes to defense. We saw success in the second half switching things up to man and pressing full court. While I don't think playing like Portland State and pressing all the time will be beneficial for a full game, perhaps we sprinkle that in more and not when we are down by large deficits. What makes VCU's pressure so successful is that generally the players not trapping know where the ball is going to go and can make the move towards intercepting the pass or deflecting it. We did a nice job at times in the second half doing this and this is where JNJ can really shine. We are doing a good job by not fouling but perhaps that also means we are being a bit too passive. While we may foul more, perhaps we should gamble a bit more. The object should be to make the opponent uncomfortable, not play a friendly pickup game.

Really liked the minutes Noel provided yesterday - he is progressing with each game (part of the reason I want to see Lincoln and Tyler a bit more in OOC play!). I believe he saw the most minutes off the bench after Maceo. He held his own defensively and is a pretty mobile big. I do think Chase's defense is better in man and he can certainly hold his own, but he needs help on the front line and perhaps that means a bit more Noel or Hunter when he is eligible. Matt has done a great job on the boards but he isn't much of a rim protector. Whether it's Njoku, Ed Hampton, or Akin, I feel like our three losses have shown that we are missing that on our team - a guy who can be a load down low on both ends. We made Akin look like Mutombo yesterday when he was swatting balls like volleyballs. Chase is a good finisher and big on our team, but he is more of a finesse player. We need someone who can bang down low for some minutes in the game. 

The competition is not going to get any easier, but some re-evaluation is clearly necessary when you give up nearly 50 points in 20 minutes. We were playing from behind, but in the first half we also conceded 40+ points.

Gwmayhem, I believe there was a whistle after the initial foul, but perhaps JNJ didn't hear it. The bear hug afterwards could have been out of frustration for JNJ who missed all his shots on offense and had just front-rimmed a three that would have got us within striking distance of UMBC. I agree that the penalty of two free throws and the ball (on top of the two free throws from the original foul) seemed excessive. The refs gave UMBC a number of favorable calls, which didn't make too much of a difference in the game outside of our late surge but I agree that it was the right one to make there.

Even after all of this, I still believe the team has a lot going for it, but to change the end result there needs to be a lot more team ball.
 

It's definitely a philosophical argument. Unfortunately there wasn't really a scenario where JNJ would come out the winner based on how these kind of plays are called, unless he had just stopped (and it's understandable that he didn't based on the factors of the game). Ideally, the ref would call everything after the whistle was blown at half court as not counting. These refs called it pretty consistently to how others would have - unless there is excessive contact (which unfortunately there was) it is just a common foul, which I believe was the original call before it was upgraded to a flagrant 1.

After the whistle is blown (whether there is a delay in the game, or a foul), the offensive player is protected too much - which is why there was no incentive for Akin to stop heading to the hoop. At worst, it would just be the common foul, but at best it would lead to a scenario like the one yesterday, which isn't actually too uncommon. I do think a delay of game should be charged to the offensive player a lot more to perhaps prevent this a bit more, whether it's off a foul or a stoppage in play. Too many players just hoist shots instead of giving it back to the ref which wastes time - save that stuff for shootaround. I don't think either JNJ or Akin had any bad intentions, but whether either heard the whistle or not, I don't blame Akin for continuing to play through the whistle as he only has something to gain from doing so.

Exactly! So far under JC's tenure, I've been confused why we haven't set screens for the shooters, especially when you consider how many ball screens we run for our ball-handlers. It's actually credit to Jamison, Sloan, and Maceo that they have made 80+ threes in a season despite not having much room to let it fly. They have to work to get their shot, and this isolation system we are running isn't helping as defenses know that whoever has the ball is looking to shoot and not pass. Jamison's weakness on offense is a loose handle, and that happened on one play along the baseline when he was trying to free himself up in the corner and LJ Owens knocked it out of his hands. This wouldn't happen as much if we found better opportunities/direct assists to get him threes where he wouldn't have to free himself up.