Remember that KH team beating SLU I think 56-20, setting a D1 record for points allowed? That's my main reaction here. Rarely, you will luck into things you're not supposed to have. 
This team is doing so many fundamental things so poorly, a win against any team would be luck, not "mayhem." TM
On-court, Paar can't rebound or finish. Battle is the only proven 3-ball threat. Bishop is Potter. Seymour has one skill and we haven't seen what that is. Noel Brown < Joe Katuka. We don't defend the 3 or the post. We don't teach big men anything, not how to box out, not how to screen and roll. No one sets a real screen, because it might hurt. That last one is what I'd say is the biggest thing: We shy away from physical play. If we can't shoot an open 3 or steal and dunk, the middle 80% of plays are simply not being executed.
The body language is horrible. JNJ not getting 30 mpg is inexcusable from a fan standpoint. I think JC has already lost this team, for reasons that may not have anything to do with basketball (although, I used to think that about Toro with the hurricane in Puerto Rico etc., until I saw him play in a St. Johns uniform recently, adding to the parade of transfer-outs in the last 4 years that had national impact once they left Foggy Bottom, including Roland, Marfo, Jorgensen, Nolan, Savage and Bolden).
But again, none of this is surprising. It's OK not to win at GW now. Just don't victimize the players or end up in a(nother) WaPo expose. That's the new standard. We "need more love" in the locker room. No, not THAT kind.

I seem to fall somewhere between theory #2 and #3.  I was very optimistic at the beginning of the season that JC had collected a strong collection of pieces.  Unfortunately, it looks like so far those pieces just don't fit together at all.  While the excuse has been that we need these early games to work out rotations, I don't know if I could come up with a 5 who work together on both the offensive and defensive ends.  It will be interesting to see what we decide to go with against Fordham and the rest of the A-10.

I am worried that all of this losing is really effecting team morale.  You can see that there comes this point in the second half where they just continually make boneheaded plays and/or play with a lack of urgency.   Not sure if it's on the coaches or the players but they need to be able to step on the other team's throats and put them away.  They need to have a sense of pride in their own games as well.  I do wonder if the lack of fans (however small they'd be) is also playing a role in our guys not being able to have any sort of momentum?  Regardless, we are dangerously close to just being "losers" who may take over Fordham's longstanding role as doormat of the A-10.

The next AD should pick the next coach.

Although I am not up on GW budget matters, I imagine GW does not  have or would not spend additional big bucks on a new coach while still paying JC not to coach.

GWMayhem, I'll take your theories and call them observations.

I like your first observation--especially when paired with observation two. JC has a vision of how the game should be played and the pieces moved on the board based on analytics and observations of what others have done.  He takes those learnings and tries to implement them with his own talent.

So far, it's not working--which leads me to my own observation--lack of adjustments.  My own experience in life as a work leader and sports fan is that the leaders who have the most success are the ones who can make adjustments--both at a macro and micro level.  Macro means being capable of observing the world around you, assessing the talent you have, and making changes in your approach to create an environment where each individual can maximize their potential to succeed as a person and colelctively as as team.  Not easy when you're dealing with young egos--but a critical skill toward lasting success.  A good checkpoint on assess progress work product is determining whether players improve over time or appear to regress.  I'm concerned that we are seeing more of the latter  It also bothers me that we lost two sons in coaching families.  Perhaps JM and MJ reinforced negativity in each other, but the bad outcome can't be ignored.

On a micro level, I'm trying to think in 40 JC games how much we've seen GW change up things during a game to counter an opponent's moves.  While Lonergan could be accused of trying to orchestrate every single move on the court, he clearly had an in-game plan with multiple adjustments.  Mojo and JC?  If it's there, I'm not seeing it, Whether it's working to counter an opponents' moves on defense (as simple as trying to force a left handed dribbler to go right) or seeking to exploit weaknesses/mismatches of the opponent while we are on offense--I have a hard time appreciating the adjustments.  

Is that a result of overcoaching and players thinking too much instead of having some basic fundamentals and perfecting simple reads and react?  I'm not sure.  However, several years back a major D1 football with seven future NFLers (including first rounders) on its regular roster probably lost a shot at a national championship because its defensive coordinator utilized complex NFL schemes that repeatedly didn't work at the college level with his personnel. Rather than being a feared steady shutdown defense as it should have been, it was one that could generate occasional great plays, but gave up yards and points well beyond anything that level of talent should have yielded. Bottom Line: That was entirely a function of coaching, not talent.

When I look at this team, even with inexperience, it still has better talent than last year.  So at the end of the day, the question for me is this: Does JC have a coaching philosophy and approach that is trying to hammer a square peg into a round hole of his ideal vision or does he have the humility to take a step back, look at the talent he has, and use all of his coaching acumen to say, "This is what I've got and I'm going to utilize this talent in a manner that maximizes what THEY are actually capable of acheiving rather than what I HOPE they are capable of achieving."
                    
Having said all that--on offense, we still do not have a sufficiently talented point guard whose innate mindset is running an offense that will make everyone look better. 

Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah!        
  

Last edited by CenterCourt (12/24/2020 3:36 pm)

RobSmithoasas wrote:

Dr Mike wrote:

I think you guys have expertly identified the deficiencies in the head coach. That raises an important question on the recruitment of JC and due diligence. In most cases the recruitment for a head coach includes speaking with opposing coaches, conference commissioner, graduates and transfer basketball players, watching his games in person (if possible), speak with former assistants.

The GW AD does not have a background in basketball. 

Did GW put too much faith in the search firm? 

I raise this question (s) because JC did not learn how not to coach at GW. These same faults would have been identified at his other stops with good and broad diligence.

Apparently Vogel doesn't have a background in basketball or those connections. GW appears to have been in a rush to get past the incident (Lonergan/ Nero) so their focus could return to other serious issues. I agree that due diligence was most likely not exercised properly.
 

Hypothetical question: Would you rather have JC as coach right now or Dave Paulsen?  Paulsen's resume looks like the type of resume some have said they'd wish JC had.  He's kept Mason at almost exactly .500 but has never really threatened in conference play. 

As bad as our results have been under JC, I would still rather be in our position than Mason right now.

Last edited by GW0509 (12/26/2020 5:22 pm)