Poog wrote:

87.5% from the line. Not sure how many of these games GW can win missing 3 FT’s…out of 24. Hope Caputo addresses this shortcoming by having his team out shooting FT’s in the snow under the lights. Not enough to get to the line. Should be shooting 100%, if not higher. Well, at least they won.

This will be my favorite postgame post.  I want to win every game by 30, but I'll take a 1 point win every night over losing, I hope folks take the time to watch to Coach Caputo's postgame pressers, because he provides both interesting insights on the game and measured assessment of working with a young team that is not filled to the brim with four or five-star recruits, but players that work hard and almost certainly want to get better.  Today, we worked hard on the boards, limited Mason's offensive rebounds and second chance points to 11 (just four in the second half).  

Re officiating: I understand and often support letting them play, but IMHO the first half officiating was train wreck with the conductor asleep at the controls. Never mind the early foul disparity, there were multiple high velocity collisions, grabs, pushes, and over the backs that were never called--including several on us down low.   Each non-call led to even harder collisions on future possessions.  We're fortunate nobody got hurt.  

Finally, I'll bet Mason has those same scarves as a giveaway  when we play in Fairfax.  Lots of people and fans of both teams have degrees from each university--including me--and I love it.  I heard the same feedback from many others, so just like everything else where we are so divided, I like a little bit of unity.  If you don't liek the scarf, don't take oneor give it away.

 

Last edited by Merrick (1/15/2024 5:30 pm)

Mason:





GW:

Patrick Steven’s with an article covering the game in the Post.

I asked why Mason was on the scarf.  I was told it is a soccer thing, in which it is the rivalry that is being celebrated.   I responded that I didn't like it and I gave my scarf away.

This was a really outstanding win. Short of a few unnecessary turnovers, this was as complete as we’ve played.

Against Davidson, we seemed to learn after the half that we had to be much more physical and aggressive on the glass - just boxing out isn’t enough, you have to want the ball more than the other team.  And today, I thought we competed on the glass as well as we have all year. Need to keep that mentality up.

Stretch was especially outstanding today with his 11 boards (and 5 blocks).  He was stopping the weak side rebounds and competing for every ball even when he went for the blocks.

Defensively we were also playing as hard as I’ve seen us play.  At times we were really swarming them, but they also spent a lot of time trying to back in Buchanan, who stood strong.

In fact; what a game for Buchanan. Great on both ends. Grabbed rebounds, blocked two shots, held his ground to force turnovers and tough shots, and of course had 21 points and 4 dimes. Hard to believe he’s a freshman and playing such a mature game.

Jacoi did his thing on defense (I don’t remember whether Jacoi or Bishop mostly had Polite, but we totally locked him down to just 3 points on 1-5 shooting).   Antoine Smith played really hard on D to go along with his timely shots. 

Max was again terrific on defense and the boards, really setting the tone. And though he had a couple of turnovers from trying too hard at times, I also thought his clutch FT shooting was absolutely key to the win. He hit 6 in a row, I think, when Mason had closed the gap a little - a huge part of why we were able to keep them at arm’s length every time they tried to make a push. 

Bishop was his usual self, which is such a high level. Autry battled on D.  Garrett couldn’t get a rhythm with the early fouls, but still hit a couple threes and some nice boards. 

And despite all those individual performances, we were better than the sum of our parts today because we really played hard team defense and on the boards. 

Let’s hope we can bring this effort on the road at UMASS Saturday because if we play this hard every game, we are going to be extremely tough to beat.

Was very impressed with the way the team played, especially given the quick turnaround and coming off an overtime game. GMU might have got the short end of the stick there having to play a road game two days before with a later start time as well but I guess that's just how things go sometimes.

GW's intensity from the get-go was noticeable. Both teams are no strangers to slow starts, but it looked like we were more ready to play from the jump. That was the difference from the Davidson game. GW actually got off to a 5-0 start on Saturday, but the lack of intensity allowed the Wildcats to get right back into the game. That wasn't repeated today.

As mentioned from everyone above the defense was the best I've seen all year. It's been great to see the team pull it out in close contests, but the inconsistent defense still led me to believe this was a play-in game level team. That changed with today's performance. A larger sample size will be needed before I go overboard with double-bye or anything (and the schedule is going to get harder), but this team definitely seems top half of the league and that's great to see.

This was especially noticeable along the perimeter where the JB, Jacoi, and Max were recovering well. It wasn't just Stretch erasing the interior, although he was fantastic as usual there. Akingbola's ability to hold his ground and contest shots without fouling is a special skill, and one that doesn't show up in the A10 very often. He will have some maddening sequences offensively where he has to kick it back out when he's not in position to put a shot up, but he makes up for that with his defensive activity. Kelly missed several shots due to Stretch's presence alone (thankfully his three point shooting didn't burn us too much). On top of that, he was excellent on the boards and seemed to more actively grab those off misses as FQ mentioned.

Credit should be given to GW's defense first, but I'll also say Mason's offensive execution was pretty awful at times. Maddox in particular took some head scratching shots that were not remotely within the flow of the offense. Hall was scouted well by CC + staff but got his points because he's a good player. I came away most impressed with their freshman Okojie. JB won the battle against him overall, but Okojie swiped multiple balls away and plays confidently. GMU would benefit from moving the ball around a lot more on offense. They settled for way too many shots in isolation.

My favorite defensive play that stuck out was a GMU turnover out of bounds caused by combined pressure from Jacoi and JB. Jacoi came from one angle, Mason tried to dribble the ball away but JB came from the other side and that caused issues for GMU. You want to talk about mayhem? That play is actually deserving of that title - not stuff from previous years. Coi Hutchinson is a dog on defense. JB has been playing some of the best defense of his career lately. He was great as usual offensively picking his spots but there are times where he commits more turnovers than he should. Again though it puts a smile on my face when I see how much fun he's having out there.

Also how nice is it to see the other team throw the ball into the stands more times than us? I thought that day may never come. That's not to say we didn't have turnover issues of our own late. One play where there was a lane for Jacoi to just take the shot, and some other cross court passes that didn't need to be made but for most of the game the team did a solid job there. It would still be nice to get a few more assists, but that's nit-picking. It's just that this team looked really dangerous when whipping the ball around fast in the halfcourt and finding the open man. There's too many threats to cover everyone on GW. Credit CC for assembling a great roster and successfully evaluating guys who didn't play much previously.

Jun is fantastic. It's amazing that even as a freshman we can just give him the ball and he can make things happen when the team needs something on offense. How many and-ones does he have on the year? He's probably on pace for a GW record there (if that's even tracked). DBJ is simply stronger and more skilled than most guys he goes up against. Defensively he leaps for rebounds and contests shots. I think we know already at this point that either him or Garrett will win RoY. Depending on the matchup, at least one of them will go off, and given both are freshmen that's something we're really fortunate to have. Garrett's range is seemingly unlimited. Trey can be late closing out on shots which is why I guess he doesn't play more. The inconsistent minutes has probably hurt his offense a bit, but I think he'll still be solid moving forward when given the chance.

Max is probably the starter with the highest variance from game to game but he's been consistent with his rebounding and that's filled a huge role on the team. He can be electric scoring the ball in bunches as we saw in the Ohio game at crucial times. Today, that came from FTs, but there are times where he can still be a little reckless giving the ball away. He was a bit fortunate on one play where he would have been called for a travel underneath the hoop had Mason not fouled.

The difference in depth and versatility on this roster compared to last year is like night and day. It's becoming harder to scout GW because CC doesn't always have to play the same guys off the bench beyond Jacoi and Trey. Against VCU, Zam may get a few minutes and make a 3. Another day against Davidson, Benny may play to exploit an athleticism advantage + use his height when Stretch or someone else is in foul trouble. Today, against Mason it was Antoine who spaced the floor and made impactful plays on both sides of the ball. Smith really played a large role in setting the tone early on which I didn't expect but was happy to see.

With upcoming road games against UMass, Richmond, and Dayton in the next couple weeks this team is likely to be tested and will go through adversity. Still, every game has shown that CC will get GW playing to its strengths. If the attention to detail continues on the defensive end, this team could do some special things.
 

Very apparent that a point of emphasis was placed yesterday on defense and overall toughness.  I actually liked the matchup from the standpoint that Mason appears to be an offensively challenged team and not a lot of teams are going to play 54-52 games against this GW team.  The key was to stay strong and be physical without committing silly or untimely fouls.  What was gratifying to see was that this GW team COULD play this way.  Certain teams don't play intense defense because they just don't know how to be good at it.  They lack the athleticism or foot speed or skills to play strong team defense.  GW was up to the task yesterday and it showed.

Seemed like just about everyone contributed.  Max's shots were not falling but came through at the line, on the boards, and clearly played his best defense of the season.  Stretch committed himself to moving for/grabbing boards while also being a shot blocker/alterer.  Antoine provided a tremendous spark.  Garrett had an off game but still managed to hit a pair of 3's.  Jacoi's steady influence is starting to become something which I hope I'll never take for granted.  JB helped win the game at the line,by getting there for a recent change, as well as with his improved defense.  And I'm not sure what else can be said about Jun aside from the fact that he's becoming this team's unicorn.  As long as he knows when to finish himself and when to find the open teammates (3 assists, 1 TO..I believe he assisted on both of Garrett's 3's), this will be a tough team to beat because I don't think very many A10 programs will be able to effectively defend this even when they know what's about to happen.

Really nice win.
 

Garrett was clearly deferring Monday so Darren can take the A-10 Rookie of the Week honor this time.

Gwmayhem, more than blown calls (there are going to be some) and more than the home/road discrepancies (road teams generally understand they aren't getting the benefit of the doubt from officials - one of the reasons it's tough to win on the road), if you ask coaches what they want most from officials it's consistency. If you are going to call it tight, then call it tight but do it consistently. If you are going to let them play, then let them play, but do it consistently. Changing officiating standards within the game makes it very hard on players and coaches to adjust. 

I know we have some fans that are uber focused on the officiating. However, in very few instances do basketball officials decide games. There are so many possessions that usually bad calls even out. We only see the ones that hurt GW. Almost always it is missed shots, missed free throws, offensive rebounds allowed, and turnovers that doom a team. Officials are loathe to decide games. That's the reason they swallow their whistles in a close game down the stretch. They want the players to make plays and decide the game. They will generally only call the more egregious stuff. That is their training. Many fans need to understand that. 
 

Last edited by GWRising (1/16/2024 6:54 pm)