I wrote this on Dec. 17, it looks like. Never thought it would happen this quickly.

"Other players tend to not pass the ball because they know they won't get it back. 
3 point shooters are taking lesser shots because the ball is not given to them in position at the right time. Or when it is begrudgingly delivered, it is little too late, after all personal options have been exhausted.
  We are clearly losing JNJ, Jamison and Maceo and perhaps others to this. It's pretty easy to see on their faces and actions on the court.
    We're not making them better. We're making them worse with this system, with the side benefit of losing games to lesser teams.
   We can live, though unhappily, with the shortcomings of players who try their all on both ends of the court. 
   Selfish play should neither be encouraged nor tolerated."

  Hopefully, Jamison is not out the door, though doubt he is happy and he could be waiting until the end of the year. Those somewhat rare times he gets the ball. it is often a full beat too slow and he loses a lot of the advantage of being open. That's why he is pressing the 2 game (not a bad idea, if we combine with passing to him outside.
Don't know what reins are left to seize, but JC better seize them,
This is a terrible look. 
 

Before I go to bed I need to mention Jameer is a great young man. Good night.

22ndandF wrote:

I wish Jameer great success. He seems like an excellent young man, and obviously he has great talent.  Wherever he plays and whatever he goes on to do after basketball, I feel confident he will make his family and friends proud.

Also, I feel it's important not to panic. Change happens and it's usually good, especially to those that embrace and accept it. I have full confidence in Jamion and his staff. They came into a very difficult situation and are doing what they think is necessary to create a winning foundation, which is the best way to do things, in my opinion.    

This would be one thing If JNJ wasn't a Christian recruit. Jamion now running off his guys too? Disaster. 

FungerHall = TV. Must be.

Thomas wrote:

I agree with Mike K, this shouldn't be a surprise. I think what's happened with Jameer(and Maceo to a lesser extent) is James Bishop has made both of them expendable. J.Bishop is a high usage guy and he's probably the most talented player on the team, when you look at all the ways he can score and his passing, occasionally. Despite the criticisms of J.Bishop's play, it looks like JC is going to "hitch his wagon" with J.Bishop and see what happens. If J.Bishop never left LSU, I believe Jameer Jr and Maceo Jack would still be at GW and probably starting together in the backcourt.  

I am fascinated by the notion that, in effect, the manner of use of Bishop (or to use Thomas' words, JC having hitched his wagon to him), may have turned off two of the better players to the extent that they had go get out mid season.   This was posed to me by another fan (who no longer posts, for reasons I do not know why) and is worthy of some thought/discussion.   Ultimately, making GW a "Bishopcentric" team may be the correct move.  He is an incredibly gifted player, at least on the offensive end even though he still has much to learn (i.e. defense, decision making, on court maturity).   In simplistic terms, when that new baby comes into the home, you  need to let the other children know that they are still loved.  These older children in the household, Maceo (with his status of being a senior and a top flight scorer) and Jameer (with his pedigree and his incredible athleticism and potential) were no longer the darlings of the household and apparently did not get that message that they were still loved (meaning of course wanted).  Yes, I know, it is a team sport, and that you need to sometimes put aside your own wants and needs by accepting a lesser role for the betterment of the team; however it is much easier said than done when you start the season at 6-1 and are a legitimate contender in your conference than when you are 1-6 and dead in the water before conference play has even started.   Bottom line is that I agree with Thomas that neither Maceo nor Jameer would have left but for the presence of Bishop and that carrying that theory one step further, perhaps that notwithstanding the presence of Bishop, they would not have left if they were handled differently.   No fault on Bishop...he is just doing as the coach has instructed him.  Likewise no fault on Maceo and Jameer, as I am not sure that I would put aside my personal ambitions for the benefit of this shipwreck of a team.  Who knows, maybe like Jarvis, Hobbs and Lonergan did before him, Christian is in the  early stages of bringing better basketball players onto the team and we are undergoing severe growing pains.  Certainly players like Bishop, Moyer, Lindo, Dean and Amir Harris appear to be superior basketball players than were brought in by the prior coach, so there is some reason for optimism.   On the other hand, Maceo deserved better, and I thought we lost a potential star with Jameer.

Last edited by Long Suffering Fan (12/29/2020 9:09 am)

I meant 22andF, not Funger, is obviously from the program.
What a shame. Good kid, marquee name, obviously best player on the team, JC's own recruit.
Guess it formally becomes Bishop 1 on 5 now.
And agree with LSF: Screw you Patrick Nero and the echoes of your overactive libido.

Well this just sucks! I was wondering when the painless transfer rules were going to hit GW. So now how the hell is GW supposed to recruit AND hold on to players? What’s a perfect GW coach?

That said plenty of this on JC unless I see a mass exodus from places like Davidson and Bonaventure, places with very good coaches who FIT their schools.

First, allow me to ask Barry not only to keep LSF's post regarding Nero but to also find a permanent home for this post.  Stick it in its own thread called Why We're Cursed.  Even if this is an ugly part of our history, it is nevertheless still an important part. 

Onto Jameer Jr.  Believe it or not, as outspoken as I sometimes (OK, often) am on this site, there are times when a thought occurs to me but I don't post it.   The reason for this is that I view the thought as being detrimental to the program before the fact.  Like many here, I am fine leveling criticism (hopefully constructive) after the fact.

So when last season ended, one of my thoughts was that with Armel leaving, JNJ would need to work primarily on his shooting and ball handling as he would be in line to become our starting point guard.  Ball and/or Brelsford could be possible backups.  And then, James Bishop became available.  What was significant about this is that both Chase Paar and Tyler Brelsford had relationships with James from playing AAU ball together.  Coupled with the fact that James wanted an opportunity to play far more than his LSU experience, and it can be concluded that James almost inadvertently fell onto JC's lap.

Whether intentional or not, this was the very definition of recruiting over someone, in this case, JNJ.  And that was my first thought that I opted not to post, to question why JC was bringing Bishop in which was akin to recruiting over JNJ.  Each could be considered point guards or combo guards, each had three years of eligibility remaining.  JNJ was an exceptional athlete with certain outstanding skills but as a complete basketball player, he was raw.  He had ironically taken up the game late, and missed a large portion of his senior year in high school due to an injury.  Bishop was a typical Baltimore basketballer who lived and breathed the game.  His skills were far more developed by comparison.

My feeling is that JC tried to rationalize the situation as best he could.  They would learn to play together.  They would each play the point.  They would each play off the ball.  During the scrimmage, JC made  a point in his commentary to mention how well the two were playing together.

Yet as we know, this was not at all a true partnership.  James had to play with the ball in his hands pretty much at all times.  His options were either to play pick and roll with a big, drive and dish to a three point shooter, or make a move himself and shoot.  None of these options seemingly involved JNJ.  JNJ subsequently was not being developed at all.  If James had sat out this year, this would have been much better for him personally.  Instead, he became a poor-shooting shooting guard who backed up for a few minutes a game at the point.  Like Maceo, he started coming off the bench.   Suffice it to say that this is not what he had signed up for.  Let's also add the signing of a highly touted point guard to start playing next season and this decision became an easy one to call.  Like others, I would have thought he'd play out the year but if he can transfer right now and play right away, then why not do it now.

I have mentioned Michigan as a landing spot for him based largely on Phil Martelli being on their staff.  At the point, Xavier Simpson graduated last season and David DeJulius, Simpson's heir apparent, transferred to Cincinnati.  Mike Smith who was an Ivy League star at Columbia transferred to Michigan for one year of eligibility and is the starting point guard.  He has been steady but not at all spectacular.  A very highly touted freshman class arrives next season but from a rotation perspective, JNJ could definitely see some minutes in Ann Arbor.

I wish JNJ well (as well as Ace Stallings).  This has ended badly because JC felt he needed all the talent he could get and either wasn't concerned or did not fully realize that he was recruiting over JNJ by bringing James in.  This is exactly what happened here even if JC did not set out to find a new point guard to play this season last March.    

 

Long Suffering Fan wrote:

Thomas wrote:

I agree with Mike K, this shouldn't be a surprise. I think what's happened with Jameer(and Maceo to a lesser extent) is James Bishop has made both of them expendable. J.Bishop is a high usage guy and he's probably the most talented player on the team, when you look at all the ways he can score and his passing, occasionally. Despite the criticisms of J.Bishop's play, it looks like JC is going to "hitch his wagon" with J.Bishop and see what happens. If J.Bishop never left LSU, I believe Jameer Jr and Maceo Jack would still be at GW and probably starting together in the backcourt.  

I am fascinated by the notion that, in effect, the manner of use of Bishop (or to use Thomas' words, JC having hitched his wagon to him), may have turned off two of the better players to the extent that they had go get out mid season.   This was posed to me by another fan (who no longer posts, for reasons I do not know why) and is worthy of some thought/discussion.   Ultimately, making GW a "Bishopcentric" team may be the correct move.  He is an incredibly gifted player, at least on the offensive end even though he still has much to learn (i.e. defense, decision making, on court maturity).   In simplistic terms, when that new baby comes into the home, you  need to let the other children know that they are still loved.  These older children in the household, Maceo (with his status of being a senior and a top flight scorer) and Jameer (with his pedigree and his incredible athleticism and potential) were no longer the darlings of the household and apparently did not get that message that they were still loved (meaning of course wanted).  Yes, I know, it is a team sport, and that you need to sometimes put aside your own wants and needs by accepting a lesser role for the betterment of the team; however it is much easier said than done when you start the season at 6-1 and are a legitimate contender in your conference than when you are 1-6 and dead in the water before conference play has even started.   Bottom line is that I agree with Thomas that neither Maceo nor Jameer would have left but for the presence of Bishop and that carrying that theory one step further, perhaps that notwithstanding the presence of Bishop, they would not have left if they were handled differently.   No fault on Bishop...he is just doing as the coach has instructed him.  Likewise no fault on Maceo and Jameer, as I am not sure that I would put aside my personal ambitions for the benefit of this shipwreck of a team.  Who knows, maybe like Jarvis, Hobbs and Lonergan did before him, Christian is in the  early stages of bringing better basketball players onto the team and we are undergoing severe growing pains.  Certainly players like Bishop, Moyer, Lindo, Dean and Amir Harris appear to be superior basketball players than were brought in by the prior coach, so there is some reason for optimism.   On the other hand, Maceo deserved better, and I thought we lost a potential star with Jameer.

When last season ended, I believe JC was satisfied with having Jameer Nelson Jr and Maceo Jack as his backcourt this year, but James Bishop basically fell into his lap as GW0509 and Gwmayhem pointed out. JC is in for a massive rebuild at GW, and if you have the chance to bring in a former top 75 BCS-level recruit like Bishop, who barely played at LSU and has 3 years of eligibility left, you have to do it in order to increase the talent level. Some posters have pointed out that JC likes to have a high-usage/Russell Westbrook type of guard, who is the primary ball-handler, runs the offense and takes a lot of shots, we could see from Bishop's high school and AAU videos that he was perfect for this role. Also, the team being terrible right now made the decision easier for JNJ and Maceo, riding the bench/reduced playing time may be acceptable for guys if the team is 6-1, but at 1-6, its not worth it

James Bishop is averaging 19.6Pts/ 6.6Asts/ 3.7Rebs/ 47.2 FG%/ 34.4 3-PT %/ 3.3 turnovers, he's actually putting up All-Conference numbers(when is the last time GW had a 20PPG scorer...Sirvaliant, Chris Monroe??). He may be a favorite for A-10 Newcomer of the Year, so JC giving Bishop the greenest of green lights seems to be the right move in terms of his production. It's possible the wins will come if JC can get an Isiah Armwood-like transfer/ freshman soon as GW0509 wrote, maybe Lindo and the return of Harris will be that next season. Now that 2 or 3 scholarships are available, we have a reason to closely monitor the 2021 transfer/free agent market. I'll post the link to verbal commits 2021 transfer list(it's already up) soon.

Thomas, that's because James Bishop is 10x the player that the two guys who are leaving are, and the only person who would deny that is a delusional propagandist, which of course are 50% of the "names" on this board LMAO.

Every game James Bishop shines and the rest of the team looks overmatched and yet half the posts suggest the complete opposite because they are all written from the same man, a purveyor of nonsense who is still "suffering" for the 30th year in a row.

We have Battle and we have Bishop, and we have to add a lot of talent around them, there really isn't a player other than those two that would be much of a loss,and that's just the state of the talent on the team.