Let’s finish this.   Been a strong effort, need to get it in, either score or make FTs, get a stop and go home with a win.  We can do this.

Another nail biter. We win!!!

Big time road win for the boys!

That was a great win!

19 points 8 dimes for Bishop, 22 points 8 boards for Adams - best backcourt in the league

10 3s from  The  Maximus Bishop Adams big 3.  41.7%   

The kind of win, on the road vs a much better didn't expect to see this year.  Keep it going GW!

Best defensive game of the year to date?  Made life very difficult for POY candidate Oduro 

Liked the full court pressure, something to roll out here and there

Also, sure, you're going to get some calls at home, but that game was officiated like a VCU home game

Last edited by The Dude (1/16/2023 7:39 pm)

It was a great win; I was happy to be at Eagle Bank Arena to enjoy the moment. When GW shoots threes well and Dean and Lindo don't have major foul problems, we are good.
As I was leaving the arena, I heard a young Mason fan say "Well, we could have had Caputo as our coach." I am glad he chose GW.

A truly gratifying win.  Teams lose most of the time on the road so to watch a road win in person is a tremendous experience.  To go one better, this wasn't GW over GM when GW was quite a bit better than GM.  This was one of those "they are going to have to play very well to win" type of games, and they absolutely did.

Am not sure whether CC was outcoached on Saturday (since that question was asked), but he was the one doing the "outcoaching" in this game.  First, the decision to have Dean/Brown guard Odoro turned out to be a great one.  I was fully expecting Ricky to draw the assignment but CC knew he could ill afford to lose Ricky to foul trouble.  Plus, having a bigger guy on Odoro really ended up flustering him throughout the first half.  The one defensive flaw was to allow a few too many wide open 3's (seemed like nobody was picking up Polite, to put it politely) but when you are focused on helping out on Odoro, that's going to happen.  Next, for a team that's playing a maximum of 8 and essentially 7 guys right now, the decision over the past two games to throw out a press haS been both unexpected and effective.  CC realizes this can only be done in spurts in order to conserve energy.  Look for more of the same Saturday against Dayton assuming Smith and Elvis remain sidelined.

On offense, I thought we showed a lot of different looks, and the team shared the ball exceptionally well.  In one second half sequence, we ran the offense through Hunter in the high post on consecutive possessions.  On the first, he found Ricky cutting backdoor for an easy layup.  On the second, Hunter shot and scored himself.  (We tried it again after a timeout but Mason was ready for it and intercepted the entry pass.)  JB is so easy to take for granted but he is such a valuable weapon   Brendan played so under control.  His midrange shots down the stretch were critical.  Ricky shrugged off a bad game and was very involved on both ends.  Max continues to evolve as a two-way player; this experience is going to pay huge dividends in future seasons.  Hunter, Noel, Amir...all continue to know their roles and make timely plays.  Would love to see Q get more of a chance as an effective 8 will be needed in some games, as opposed to an effective 7.

Great atmosphere, great intensity.  Really glad GW got the win because in my biased opinion, the team deserved it,

Last edited by Gwmayhem (1/17/2023 11:25 am)

another maybe underrated coaching move, we switched to a zone on mason's final possession of the first half. I think it was the first time we showed it all game, probably just to give them a look they hadn't seen so they couldn't get a good shot. But it flustered them enough to lead to a turnover, which led to an Adams three before the half. 

A tremendous win and a great response after a quick turnaround. I mentioned after the SLU game that it wouldn't have been necessarily surprising to see us come out a little flat after how that second half went on Saturday (CC even mentioned it himself postgame), but everyone deserves a lot of credit coming out and playing with the requisite amount of energy required to take a hold of the game from the get-go.

This was GW's first Q2 win since February 19th, 2020 on the road against Duquesne via Bart Torvik. Sad that it has been that long but hopefully provides hope for things to come in the Caputo era.

How many times did Mason foul us on a made shot? Can't recall seeing so many in one game. Obviously partly luck, but the fouls reveal that GMU did a poor job of closing out along the perimeter. English looked visibly frustrated in the last couple of minutes of his presser, mentioning his disappointment with the senior transfers. Wonder if that's why Bailey came off the bench.

I thought defensively we did a good job, or at least as well as we could with this roster. I never mentioned double teaming Oduro in the preview because Mason has several shooters that could burn us if we approached the game that way and I thought that was a risk. No Gaines also helped. Again, credit to the guys for recovering well defensively and fighting over screens a bit more than in previous games. I was stunned Bailey only had six shot attempts the entire game, and just four from deep. He clearly looked like one of their top offensive options - that felt like poor management on Mason's part again. The pressing possessions in the second half really surprised me in a good way and was effective.

Gwmayhem wrote:

Thanks for posting the Kim English press conference FQ.  

1) He was really frustrated with the team's early turnovers which I forgot to mention in my write-up.  He was 100% correct in that we were not doing very much to cause them.  They could have easily been up like 17-8 or so to start this game had they took better care of the ball.  

Mason's turnovers have to be the only thing keeping them from being an efficient team offensively. They have the post play and shooters to make an impact. I'm stunned that they are rated as just average on that side of the ball because the talent suggests they should be closer to 100 than 200 in offensive efficiency. They had PG questions coming into this season and that's where I thought Dinkins was going to slot in but he played just four minutes for them yesterday.

Gwmayhem wrote:

2) Interesting that he compared GW to last year's UMASS team.  Bishop is Fernandes. (Up for debate, but I get it.)   The basic similarity is that both teams stand a better chance of winning with better offense than with great defense.  

This felt a little more lazy on English's part. It's like looking at KenPom and vaguely seeing that we are so much better offensively than defensively. This year's Youngstown State Penguin squad might be a better comparison to the UMass team from last year (or maybe Cornell even). GW is streaky at best from 3, and UMass was really good at shooting threes last year (as are YSU and Cornell this year). Also, for as bad as we are defensively (somewhat personnel driven - maybe limited is a better word) GW has put in way more effort than McCall's team did last year. That squad looked like they had given up completely with the way they defended.

Bishop vs Fernandes also feels a bit meh as a comparison other than the fact that they both lead their teams in scoring and are guards. I would say Bishop has the edge in creating his own shot/a bit more talented of an offensive player while Fernandes is more well-rounded as a player overall with the major edge defensively.

Shout out to Amir and Noel for their key contributions yesterday. Other posters have mentioned their positive performances above, but they have been giving GW key minutes during conference play. Amir with that late deflection to make Mason have to adjust their play, and Noel showing promise on both ends. I root very hard whenever Harris attempts a shot because I really want him to have success offensively with the effort he puts in defensively. He had a nice take to the rim in the SLU game. Noel's putback dunk in the first half shows how far he's come this year offensively. I always thought he was a decent enough defender, but his offense was holding him back. Brown's timing is just so much better than it has been since he first arrived at GW. Hunter by no means had a bad game, but Noel being able to play 15-20 minutes a game has been huge.

JB did what he needed to do in the second half. He only scored 4 before halftime, but it's expected that every team we play will put up a ton of points after halftime. He had to be more assertive in the second half scoring for us to keep pace and he did exactly that with 15 second half points. As CC mentioned, would have been nice for him to make that second FT at the end, but otherwise made the right reads in the game.

BA was very much in rhythm - you can tell a lot of times when he launches a three whether it's going to go in or not based on whether he's set and not rushing his follow through - I thought he did a good job of that against Mason. Like Bishop, he's money from the midrange so it's not surprising GW is one of the top midrange teams by percentage in the country.

Max is a player. No need to say anything more there.

Ricky showcased early in the game why he needs to be a factor for this team to have success. If everything is on JB/BA's shoulders, the team will be inconsistent at best and may fall off entirely by the end of conference play. One thing that was interesting to hear during the postgame was CC's mention of texting Ricky after the SLU game and giving him words of encouragement. It seemed like Ricky took it in a positive way and that showed from the start of the Mason game. Making early shots helps, but he was aggressive taking it to the hoop and that helped his confidence a lot. Much better body language overall from him today. I'm fine with two three point attempts a game, but not more than that unless he's having a good day early on shooting it.

Shout out to George's Army for showing out on the road and taking over Mason's student section. That was cool to see.

The schedule gets easier after one more tough home game against Dayton (a chance for another Q2 win!). When it comes to Dayton and VCU, I usually have no expectations at all, which is something that hopefully changes in the future. Five of the past six losses against Dayton have been by double digits. Three of the past four have been by over 20 points. The Flyers haven't impressed me offensively but their length on defense figures to be a nightmare even if we're pretty potent on offense when we attack. Scheduling in the A10 has been kind to us between the break before the SLU game and now a mini one before Dayton. Lord knows we need the extra prep for those opponents.