Great win and awesome visit by the incoming prez to the locker room!

Any road win is a great win, especially at a place we hadn't won in nine years! Credit the team for coming out hard and building a lead. GW needs to play with a lead (or only be behind a possession or two at best). The last 3 wins have all been in overtime. Hopefully we only drop one game before another win if the pattern holds up. We clearly came out with the right energy/game plan and glad to see it resulted in a W.

GW got enough stops to play even with the Bonnies for the first 12 minutes before really having control for the next 26. Unfortunately, the last two minutes have to be discussed because this game should never have been as close as it was. Truthfully, we've been very lucky in three games this year - Maryland-Eastern Shore, St. Joe's, and now Bonaventure. All three of those teams trapped us a little and we completely fell apart. There's no excuse for blowing an 11 point lead with that little time left, once again because this is a veteran team. The Luc game-tying shot wasn't an issue (that was mostly bad luck with good defense) but rather everything else leading up to that. We were throwing deep passes time after time that were not only poorly thrown but to players not even open. CC can't call timeout every time. The football play Mike K mentioned earlier needs to be run more often and once the ball gets in other players need to help out to make the passes more intermediate ones to break the press. The recurring issue all season has been guys not helping out the trapped player. It seems likely that the games we have a chance to win moving forward will come down to the wire and the team needs to learn this to not drop a heartbreaker. I wouldn't bother working on anything else against URI.

At least in the early going the team was getting enough stops that they didn't need to put up 35-40 points in the first half. Hopefully, that's the case moving forward. I think overall even in the Mason game the defense wasn't terrible either down the stretch but GMU just made some tough shots. The 3-2 zone was great and I liked that we were running their guards off the three point line. We left the midrange shot open, but I think that was by design. Bona undershot that attempt seemingly every time.

If I was Bonaventure on that last play in overtime, I would have let JB take that three and force him to make a tough shot. He's 29% from 3 on the year. Credit JB for knocking down three FTs in crunch time and Bona for giving us a break. I'm actually curious if that's the play CC drew up because we only needed 2. It seemed like it was going to Ricky originally but after he was double teamed he lofted a pass out to JB which didn't at least look planned.

Other thoughts:

- Ricky and especially Max were fantastic again on the boards (how about BA with 7 as well!) The rebounding improvement under CC hasn't been talked enough. Apart from streaky shooting, that was arguably the most well known issue for this team going into the year and the team has progressed so well in that department. GW was the worst rebounding team in the A10 last year - they are 7th this year.

- The team only took 19 threes, which feels like the right amount for this team.

- Passing was significantly better with 17 assists compared to just 6 on Wednesday. This team needs JB to have at least 5-6 assists by himself to have success offensively.

- Drawing up cuts for Ricky and Max also make a world of difference instead of forcing them to make perimeter shots (although Max is a decent shooter).

- Really loved the trapping/transition opportunities. Bonaventure is a bit young so that was definitely the team to try that against.

- BA had a fantastic game, scoring 28 between 12 FG attempts and 10 FTs. I have to say though that I think JB is better at the line in clutch moments despite BA being a better FT shooter for the season (not that he's bad, but the road game at Mason also comes to mind where he missed a front end late in the game). Regardless, it was clear this game meant something more to him playing at his brother's former school.

- This to me was one of the biggest takeaways from the game: Hunter's presence offensively opened up things on offense yesterday. For the first time in maybe ever (at least a long while) Dean actually shot multiple jumpers when left alone instead of waiting for a guard to secure a contested handoff. In some ways, it was a bit frustrating to see him make multiple midrange jumpers because we should have been giving him that ability once or twice a game all season. He even shot a 3 which shows improved confidence! Hunter is 0-7 from 3 in his collegiate career but I like the aggressiveness and I think he can make one at some point if he's allowed to shoot more (opportunistically of course).

- Max's 360 dunk brought back memories of Joe from last year. It might be an interesting discussion for another thread as to who you would rather have on the team. I assume many people would give up some of Bamisile's scoring in favor of the rebounding Edwards provides. Max also had a big save late in the game falling out of bounds.

- Bona finally faced a team that uses their bench even less than they do. I thought Noel did a decent job defending (although having to switch out on Flowers was tough) and his timing going up the ball has improved significantly. It was interesting to see CC ride with Noel late in regulation - perhaps a better matchup against Venning? Amir and Qwanzi didn't do much in the game. It's unfortunate that Harris has to play the point for stretches because he is pretty loose with the ball and everytime he drives into traffic it's a turnover more likely than not. Once he crosses halfcourt he should just give up the ball. Would like to see both him and Qwanzi get the backdoor cuts Ricky and Max get sometimes.

- Finally, as someone who doesn't like to complain about refs they were AWFUL in overtime (and probably in regulation as well). I think early in the game there was a play or two where we were fortunate to not be called for a foul, but most of the calls late went Bona's way. The two things that stuck out were 1) the bear hug that was called a foul when Bona had the ball and a jump ball when we had possession and 2) the fact that every time Bona knocked out the ball they would go straight to the monitor to review the play but after a play where we did the same thing in overtime with 45 seconds left they just played on. I know we all hate reviews after every play with two minutes left, but CC needs to work the refs a bit more there to force that review. Worst case scenario the play stands as SBU ball but we get free time to go over plays. At least the Banks foul and JB foul were called evenly.
 

Ralphie wrote:

Why am I still so disappointed we gave away our 18 point lead and allowed the game to go to OT.   I'll admit it, I was so disheartened I turned the game off after regulation, having no interest in watching another wrist-slasher end in defeat.  I really wish I could just see the grit needed to hang in there on the road and prevail in OT - and not retain the despair of watching a squad seemingly hell-bent on letting Bona all the way back in the game over the final 5 minutes or so. 

Had to look who posted this twice as this is exactly something I would have posted.

Ralphie wrote:

Why am I still so disappointed we gave away our 18 point lead and allowed the game to go to OT.   I'll admit it, I was so disheartened I turned the game off after regulation, having no interest in watching another wrist-slasher end in defeat.  I really wish I could just see the grit needed to hang in there on the road and prevail in OT - and not retain the despair of watching a squad seemingly hell-bent on letting Bona all the way back in the game over the final 5 minutes or so. 

This was my plight as well. ... too nice a Sunday to watch GW lead for 39:58 and ultimately lose, and the dog needed a walk, and there were chores to ignore. 
I'll take my crow medium-rare with a side of paella. Congrats to the team for gutting it out and to CC for absolutely befuddling SBU and its joyless fan base with an array of defensive schemes. Really need to figure out the out-of-bounds plays and beating the press, and to do it as quickly as we figured out that the best Ricky Lindo Jr. is paint Ricky Lindo Jr.

I agree with the other old timers. Good post Ralphie. 

Mentzinger wrote:

FredD wrote:

Truth be told what Bonaventure lost, what Schmidt’s done is staggering!

Meh. 3 NCAA tournaments in 16 years and last year's pre-season Top 25 team -- most of whom were around for 4 years -- did not even make the field, only the NIT semis. His 2 A-10 tournament titles is the same as KH but took him twice as long. Even his alma mater (BC) turned him down. SBU should be shopping -- they actually have some pretty nice tradition from the mid 20th century -- but he's probably the only coach who'd voluntarily live in Olean these days. 

Bonaventure returned 35 points this year. Not average total! they have a clear idea of the kind of player they want to recruit and you said it: They have THE coach who wants to be there.  They expect to be a top 4 team. Seems pretty good to me.

Merrick wrote:

Setting basketball back 100 years!  Gotta love the fan energy to do this with a two-year on your lap.  

George Washington-St. Bonaventure recap. - YouTube   
 

Really well done.  Quinn hung in there, and dad did a commendable job.  Interesting that he thought the 3/4 court pass was off Ricky whereas I did not think this was close (and certainly did not warrant such a lengthy review).  I suppose bias does play into how we perceive these questionable officiating calls.  

One final note...I believe this was the last time GW won in Olean since the game when ML left the starters in with around an 11 point lead and a little over a minute left, only to then lose Kethan to a season-ending injury.  Am not sure that an 11 point lead is insurmountable in that situation, but we obviously saw the downside of leaving starters in during a game that was all but won.