Thanks to all the seniors for their contributions to the GW basketball program, big or small. They will be remembered as the ones who started getting GW back to relevance (which will hopefully happen in the next couple seasons). Wish they could have gone out on a high note, but really proud of the team's fight all year.

That's one of the things that stands out to me compared to past seasons under JC. Pretty consistently during conference play when we got down by a lot you could effectively stop watching because the team did not even have the ability to close the margin in a loss. Despite finishing with the same seed as last year, our overall record and conference record are both better with a slightly less talented roster (Max has been awesome of course). Last year's team was not able to beat anyone above them. This year, we not only beat Dayton but played both VCU and SLU to the final buzzer. All were at home but last year's team wouldn't have fared any better in Foggy Bottom than on the road.

Now I realize part of this is due to the fact the A10 was mid/mediocre this year. Despite getting down by 17 or whatever midway through the second half I couldn't help but think "this VCU team is the best team in the A10 this year?". Hopefully this is just a bad year for the league and teams can bounce back (there were a number of new coaches this year).

VCU obviously still did a lot of things well but the margin of deficit felt largely due to a tough night offensively (although the shooting percentages don't reflect that in the box score) and the refs making sure that we couldn't get into a rhythm by blowing the whistle consistently. It wasn't a surprise that when they finally started calling things our way a bit late in the game we were able to make a bit of a comeback. At some point I think they were forced to stop whistling everything because every drive to the basket would have been a foul otherwise and we wouldn't have been able to finish the game.

It might sound ridiculous, but the fact that we had an assist-turnover ratio of almost 1 against VCU is a major success. We did a lot better than I thought with turnovers, and a few of the ones GW did commit were honestly unforced. VCU didn't play with as much pressure as they have previously. Playing against their defense is interesting. On a team with limited depth that is prone to make mistakes at times you would think to slow it down but GW isn't the best halfcourt team offensively (although they've improved). However, we were at our best offensively when we pushed off a miss and VCU was unable to reset completely defensively.

It didn't help that VCU always seems to have a great shooting day when they play us. Normally poor shooters made threes in the first half. I didn't hate playing zone against the Rams. Credit them for still finding a way to get to the rim at times. Occasionally we still found success guarding their drives (like when Max took a charge). Johns and Shriver played well. We knew what Shriver was going to do - we lost him a couple times but he was hitting even contested shots at which point you just have to tip your cap. Baldwin had a rough shooting day, but it just didn't look like he was 100% out there which helped. Nunn was also pretty quiet.

Truthfully I thought we maybe took 2-3 bad shots all game against a top 25 defensive team. That's a real credit to CC and staff. The past several years against VCU 75+% of our shots were awful low percentage ones that played right into what VCU wanted us to do. I didn't see that yesterday which was very encouraging and points to bright things for GW under CC moving forward. VCU worked hard to take away JB + BA but GW adjusted. There were times where we maybe passed too much (the ball handler near the rim should have just taken a shot instead of making an extra pass in traffic) but I'll take that problem every day over not passing at all and jacking shots which has been a trademark of GW basketball over the past five years.

There have been a number of examples during conference play where it's clear we simply don't have the horses right now but the idea of what we want to do is right. Hunter has really improved there of late as the zone-breaker and he had a great game yesterday. I still want Noel to come back next year, but he has to be more aggressive. He rebounded pretty well yesterday but needs to go up strong with the ball. Was rooting for Q to make that three from the top of the key on his senior day, but there's a reason he is always open from 3 this year. While inconsistent playing time hasn't helped the fact the guy can't get more than 4 minutes on a team in foul trouble up front with eight healthy players says it all. Imagine actually having someone from off the bench who has the ability to create for themselves. We have no one right now. Looking forward to that changing next year.

GW faces the winner of Loyola/St. Joe's on Wednesday. The Hawks are probably the worst matchup for us of any PIG teams, but the Ramblers have been pesky at times late in conference play. Was hoping to get the 6 seed, but now a potential rematch against Dayton would be in the cards with a win. Can't bank on Holmes struggling so much inside again but I just haven't been impressed with the Flyer offense all season. They will be a much harder out the second time around but it's not a total impossibility that our offense can make enough plays to win. Regardless, rooting for this team to win as much as they can next week before moving on to see how we address the shortcomings from this year. Year 1 has been a big success under CC and is just the start.