jf wrote:

Prediction: Game rides on James dribbling with ball in his hands.
Good for many games (and halves) last four years.

Appreciate James staying and note all his points scored.
But will not miss this predictable scenario at all.
Not good results.
Not good for team morale and players staying who may also want to be involved at the end of games.
 

Free Quebec wrote:

Ugh. End of season.

If hutch’s tie up was a foul, so was the defense on Bishop.

But regardless James missing twice at the buzzer seems a sad way a great scorer to end his career, even if that’s what he did in end of game situations for his whole career.

Sad (but fitting) end to a sorry episode

The hope for next year is that we play better as a team. We seem to have the individual development part down, but can’t say the same for the collective.

Thomas wrote:

CC should get another year, but finishing 1-14 with 3 losses to La Salle is just inexcusable!! We didn't expect GW to win the A10 but they shouldn't have been this bad with Bishop, Max and Buchanan playing on the team

Bishop, Buchanan, Edwards and Hutchinson (were) four of the A-10's best players. How do you lose 12 straight with those guys?

Uuuuggghhh! Another nail biter. Another game we would have won had it not been for the ref's.
Dead last in the conference. Dead last in attendance. Dead last in alumni support specifically to men's basketball. Nothing will change until we get a new AD. Why is Tanya still here? Forget about men's basketball. Has anybody looked at the overall performance of our athletic department and sports since she's been in charge? Obviously, the administration hasn't noticed.
Time to take a break and get ready for year #9 AD (After Disaster, not Anno Domini).

Alum '04 wrote:

Thomas wrote:

CC should get another year, but finishing 1-14 with 3 losses to La Salle is just inexcusable!! We didn't expect GW to win the A10 but they shouldn't have been this bad with Bishop, Max and Buchanan playing on the team

Bishop, Buchanan, Edwards and Hutchinson (were) four of the A-10's best players. How do you lose 12 straight with those guys?

 
It’s called doing the same thing over and over amd expecting a different result despite any evidence that it will work . That’s what is now hung on CC. Let’s see if he comes back next year and allows a team to fling up three after three every game with zero success adjusting. Only chance of winning with this team was for them to basically outperform from the arc. That’s a losing strategy amd it led to the losing season we deserved.

Press Conference GW Starts at 16:23

https://www.youtube.com/live/V4hu-q2k7q4?si=3NWWE5MbpxiB_0sp&start=984

Last edited by GW0509 (3/12/2024 5:17 pm)

What a way to end the season. I thought it was one of the better defensive performances of the year for sure, but offensive execution had a lot left to be desired. It looks like GW will come up just short in their quest of finishing as a top 200 KenPom team for another year.

At times ball movement was good in the halfcourt but there were long stretches where GW reverted to the horrible isolation scheme. Dribble at the top of the arc for 15 seconds and jack up a contested shot or long heave. If not that, give the ball to Jun and hope he finishes in traffic or gets fouled. Option #3 is have Jacoi drive and then dribble the ball back out in a full circle, by which time there's like five seconds left on the shot clock. There were also a ton of plays where a GW player (many times Stretch) would get the ball at the top of the key and then be caught in no man's land. La Salle would deny JB or Jacoi from getting the ball leading to additional seconds being run off the shot clock. This to me is more concerning moving forward - GW's ability to take better quality shots regardless of who is on the floor.  The ceiling is capped until that happens consistently.

Too much is generally made of "playing fast" or "playing slow". Regardless of pace, you need to move the ball and take open shots. The problem is GW never moved the ball when playing fast early in the year (watch Belmont to see how it's done) or just stood around and did nothing when playing slow more recently which was equally as bad. The Revs will need to rebound better defensively next year and get stops more consistently in order to get more transition opportunities.

At the end of the day though, this game was very representative of GW's struggles offensively all season. They just could not score inside the arc (night and day difference from last year) and that was magnified when some of Jun's takes to the hoop didn't fall like they usually do. GW shot under 27% from inside the arc! I don't even know how that's possible, especially against a team like La Salle. The only player who shot over 40% from inside was Akingbola on a whopping two attempts. This is something that has to be addressed in the offseason. JB went 1/10 from 2 today and had just 1 assist!

It'll be weird to not see JB on the squad next year but I am going to be rooting for him in the professional ranks wherever that might be. I wish he had a more efficient shooting day in his final game at GW, but he leaves 1-4 all-time in the A10 tournament, including three consecutive losses in GW's first game played. It was definitely uncharacteristic to see him miss four FTs in a game - something he hadn't done since 12/4/22 against Radford on the road.

Jun was very impressive again today, and tied a career high in assists with 6. Hopefully he comes back, because I'm interested to see how the offense looks running through him first instead of JB. Can he develop more consistency from 3? That corner three he made which would be GW's final make of the game was huge. He also needs to hold onto the ball better when he drives into traffic but I'd imagine he will improve there. It will be nice to have a go-to player who can make things happen offensively, but team play needs to be prioritized.

The best moments on offense today I thought actually came with Trey in the game and I wish Autry played more. I think he can be a breakout player next year. He's quietly worked hard on the boards as well recently.

Jacoi had a rough game today (a number of missed open shots, including a possession where he passed up a three, had a wide open lane to the basket, and then passed the ball back out which led to a miss by JB) but I have great confidence in his ability to lead the offense next year. That's not to say that more doesn't need to be added to the backcourt though.

There were points during the losing streak where I wasn't sure if it was best for Max to return next year but that's changed in the last few games. If he can continue to play the game the right way next year, he certainly brings a lot to the team with big shots and rebounds. There were a couple missed rotations on defense from him today but he's played a lot better on both ends lately and hasn't always looked to hoist shots when he has the ball. He did a great job making extra pass in transition to Trey for a corner three in the first half. Will CC continue to bring him off the bench next year? That will be a tough decision for him to make.

I thought Stretch had a pretty good game on both sides of the ball today. He really fought for rebounds on both ends, and I liked his defensive activity in general apart from just blocking shots. GW had a couple wasted possessions early on trying to force feed the ball to him down low which was a dumb decision in more ways than one, but Akingbola made the most of his chances today and showed good effort. It was a nice end to what was a very complicated season from him. The highlight was watching him go 2-2 on a trip to the FT line, something that only happened three times all year (twice in the past week though, as he did it on Senior Night as well). The fact that he only took 39 FTs in 32 games summed up his offensive limitations. That's crazy low for a big playing as many minutes as he did every night. It goes without saying that CC will need to get a more offensively-abled big man next year. Post-ups are a lost art in modern basketball, but I want to see a few from GW next year. It's crazy just how poor GW has been at the 5 for a very long time now.

Antoine had some moments both offensively and defensively this season but when he wasn't making shots, it was often not worth putting him out there. The number of and-ones he gave up on defense was insane and he shot a career worst 33% from deep at GW. Today was a great example of that - he played seven minutes, did not attempt a shot, and finished with just one rebound and two fouls.

We now move to the offseason and see who comes and goes. I think at this point it would be a surprise to see Keegan back, meaning that CC will have a team full of his players next year and expectations will be higher. Who stays from the bunch of players that didn't play much or at all? Will Christian play a role next year? Can Zam play rotation minutes with another offseason under his belt? How does Benny fit into the puzzle? It's actually crazy to me that he made his first three at GW (and was fouled) in the opener and then proceeded to never make one the rest of the year (12 consecutive misses after the first make). Obviously Garrett showed a lot of promise when healthy, but can CC bank on his hip holding up next year? Can Johnson finish better inside the arc and hold his own defensively? Maybe it's a hot take, but I think it may be preferable for GJ to be more of a rotation player than a guy playing heavy starter minutes. Outside of Jun and Jacoi, no one is a lock to start. Hopefully GW has a more successful offseason in the portal than what CC has been able to do his first two years here.
 

Would rather rehash the game for awhile. James trying to make something happen at the end while everyone else stands around is the last 4 years, to a great lack of success.
    But as we start to talk about the portal (or spring signees), as the roster is constructed now, we need: big men, big men, big men, big men. Either traditional rim protectors who can do something on offense or a forward who really can play big enough and rebound like Tyler Cavanaugh (not that we could be so lucky).
    But several bigs and/or those who can play big. That was a huge failure last year and despite our handicaps, not acceptable at all next year.  
 

GW0509 wrote:

jf wrote:

    But as we start to talk about the portal (or spring signees), as the roster is constructed now, we need: big men, big men, big men, big men. Either traditional rim protectors who can do something on offense or a forward who really can play big enough and rebound like Tyler Cavanaugh (not that we could be so lucky).
    But several bigs and/or those who can play big. That was a huge failure last year and despite our handicaps, not acceptable at all next year.  
 

Since 2018, our big men scholarship recruits have been: Stretch, Lee (never played), Dean, Brown, Moyer, Paar, Langarica, Littles, Sodom (never actually played). 

Truly impressive how bad that’s been. I bet most NEC schools have been able to recruit better bigs than we have over that time period. 

You could extend this back even further:

Marfo Toro Cimino Goss