Officiating may have cost us the Fordham game.  My understanding is that while it wasn’t a formal apology or public statement, the NCAA director of officials acknowledged that the refereeing was embarrassing and there were an unusually large number of blown calls that went against us. 

Thst isn’t to say we couldn’t have won anyway, but playing 5 on 8 increases the degree of difficulty in a 3 OT game.

Free Quebec wrote:

Officiating may have cost us the Fordham game. My understanding is that while it wasn’t a formal apology or public statement, the NCAA director of officials acknowledged that the refereeing was embarrassing and there were an unusually large number of blown calls that went against us.

Thst isn’t to say we couldn’t have won anyway, but playing 5 on 8 increases the degree of difficulty in a 3 OT game.

 Or maybe we shouldn't have given up19 made threes or 23 offensive rebounds in which case we wouldn't have had to worry about the officiating ... just saying. I find it hard to complain about officials when you do things like that.

Not an either/or folks.  You can feel completely wronged by the officials and yet still do enough things poorly to lose a game on your own.  There was nothing on the Fordham scouting report to suggest that they would set a school record for 3's in a game against GW.  But the fact is that they did, and in the majority of these cases, we did little to contest.  Teams have gone 24-72 (33%) from 3 against GW ever since so apparently and hopefully, lesson learned.

russianthistle wrote:

Gwmayhem wrote:

Not an either/or folks.  You can feel completely wronged by the officials and yet still do enough things poorly to lose a game on your own.  There was nothing on the Fordham scouting report to suggest that they would set a school record for 3's in a game against GW.  But the fact is that they did, and in the majority of these cases, we did little to contest.  Teams have gone 24-72 (33%) from 3 against GW ever since so apparently and hopefully, lesson learned.

To quote a since departed noted GWU Stat Prof. Charles Mann, "Unlike some people, I don't mind telling someone, I told you."

As more time is spent by bigs and most college players invest more time to work on their long range shooting, every team will have guys shooting 3's at a clip that starts to look more like Pros. I, mention that hot shooting nights by opponents will have to be dealt with.

As for the Mason game, I was struck by two very positive takeaways, first, Mr. Akingbola, ability to both menace shots in the paint and still set to maintain an active positioning for pulling  a defensive rebound.  I have been a critic up to this game, but against Mason, Babakunda delivered a master class.

Second, the "maturing of this rotation" to sense the game state of the game, when to hit the gas after a stop or when to slow it down and make safe passes. CC doesn't have to call time outs. Sometimes this TOs allow the opponent to see that they about to roll you.  GW as a team was reacting by working for a down hill drive to the rim and sometimes getting a hoop and a harm which immediate the possibility of a game changing rally into what was becoming a dumpster fire.

I like Tony Skinn as a coach. he isn't a coaching fraud, like so many. Reading between the lines in has post-game, he was saying that he had been out-coached and he was taking it personally. Much of the the credit must go to James and Max as they share the game with the newcomers at GWU.

I think the combo of 19 threes and 23 offensive rebounds was a death spiral for that game. You might be able to overcome one or the other but overcoming both is damn near impossible and, surprisingly, we almost pulled it off.