I was hoping we could keep it within two possessions on the road, but all the credit to UMass. They defended very well all game, especially against JB. I don't know that I've seen a team defend him as well as UMass did today. There were virtually no driving lanes for him to get going as the helpside defender always rotated preventing him from going to his left (JB shot just 2 FTs), and obviously his outside shot was not falling today. Even one of his two makes from the field required a friendly bounce in order to go in. I don't even think the other key guys on the team shot the ball that poorly for the most part, but it's tough when JB can't get it going. His timing was off which also led to traveling calls and untimed passes to other players.
As FQ mentioned, unfortunately the struggles on offense affected the defense, especially in transition in the second half. GW got caught under screens at times, but didn't do terribly defending in the halfcourt for much of the game (Garrett had some tough assignments on that end as well). Cohen as a crafty big was expected to be a tough matchup for Stretch.
Obviously the silly turnovers continue, especially in transition. Too much dribbling into traffic and not possessing the ball cleanly when making a move. UMass put on a clinic moving the ball, as was expected coming into the game. It's unfair to compare a young team to last year's veteran unit, but this team isn't as adept at scoring inside (although the team is obviously a lot better at shooting the 3). Jun and JB are exceptions.
GW did a nice job on the boards for the most part. I expected us to get killed on that front, but maybe Cross being out helped. On top of that, we got a lot of second chance opportunities (partly due to missing more shots than usual I guess).
It will be interesting to see how the team responds. This is one of the harder stretches of the schedule with Richmond and Dayton on the road within the next week or so.
MVCOLONIAL wrote:
Bishop picked a bad time to have a bad game.
To be fair, is there ever a good time to have a bad game?
moneybox wrote:
The boys were due for a fall. Same problems keep coming up that they mostly and luckily overcame. Not today. The problems can be summarized as sloppy overall play: poor 3-point defense, not blocking out on defensive rebounds (we are not a tall team and need to do a much better job), spotty free throw shooting (unlike earlier in the season), poor decision-making with the ball, etc. These things must be corrected if we are to succeed in still-to-come, tough league games. No patsies this year. I know we are very young and inexperienced, but we have too many games under our belt now to keep making the same mistakes. Also when the starters are struggling, coach needs to play Weluch Ume, Schroeder, Smith and even Harvey more. At least in todays' game, Schroeder and Harvey made their free throws--something the team has been struggling with lately.
Agree with part of this, although I thought the rebounding effort was pretty good today from GW. I'm not understanding why the FT shooting is being discussed so often on here because that hasn't been a major issue outside of like two games (which is bound to happen over the course of the season for any team). GW shot 80% from the line today, and over 80% on Monday against GMU. Most of the guys who see major action for GW are all above 80% for the season outside of Stretch and Jun. Akingbola doesn't get to the FT line very often, so this discussion is more of a Jun thing. DBJ has been excellent everywhere else this year, but given he's #2 in the conference in FT rate after Holmes he's going to have to convert a bit more often from the line, no doubt about that.
I also think CC did give those other guys minutes today when the starters were struggling, although all of them had some lapses defensively.
