Very enjoyable game, and I’m excited for the season. I think we’ll be good. 

As someone else said, it really showed that Georgetown had multiple games under their belt while this was our first one with fans or tv. You could see us pressuring a bit in all the airballs we shot from three on open looks. We must have had 6 or 7 - doubt we’ll see that in a game.

And to their credit, Georgetown played well.  The difference was the shooting of Caleb Williams and Kayvaun Mulready, who each went 4-7 from deep.  Mulready was 6-23 for the entire season last year. Maybe there’s a big leap coming for him, but more likely this was just a luck variance in their favor today.  Likewise, I think Caleb Williams was 5-19 from three in their international games, so his performance was a huge bonus.   I suspect the great shooting we saw from them today could actually be their Achilles heel this year, along with a pretty unimpressive front court for the big east.

Enough about tjem - these are my observations on us:

- offense: obviously we didn’t shoot well and we had too many turnovers, especially in the second half. I think it’s going to take a bit to find roles and rhythm, but we could be a really good offensive team with a lot of ways to beat you.

- Defense: we were doing a ton of trapping on the perimeter and trying to speed it up. Georgetown handled the traps well (those games together helped, but also their size) and that got them a lot of open threes.  But i suspect that smaller teams and teams we play OOC will have a really hard time with our length and athleticism.  Also, for most of the game our interior defense was smothering. 

- Garrett - great to see him back, but obviously it’s going to take him some time to shake off the rust. He did look bigger and it seems like his all around game could be improved. Just need him to relax and let that deadeye jumper come back.

Castro - I was surprised at how he was used.  Until the last several minutes, it seems like he would play 3-4 minutes, then sit 3-4 minutes. I know CC will work out the rotation, but we definitely were better with him on the court.  The interior defense was outstanding. He had one really nice back to the basket post move in the second half - would have liked to have seen us work that more.

Autry - seemed more confidently and aggressive defensively.  Otherwise, he’s what we expect.

Chris Jones - the best thing I saw today was that twice he attacked the rim and finished with his right.  Last year teams tried to force him to go right. If he can do that successfully, he’s going to take a big step forward. And we know the defense is great.

Woo - we all speculated on the 5th starter, but few guessed Marshall. He seemed like a solid glue guy. Atheltic finishing, good defense, helped on the boards. Seems like he’ll be a good role player for us.

Bubu - as others have noted, he was impressive. Long, athletic, hit some shots, played good defense.  As one of the previews noted (sorry forget whose - A10 talk I think), Colpoys said he could be an all defense type of player and compared him to Billips from George Mason. The combo of Jones and Bubu is going to make us really tough on the perimeter (in fact, I wonder if we should trap as much as we did when those two guys can just press the help out of the ball and disrupt opposing offenses without the trap).   He’s going to be good and a fan favorite.

Dinkins - everyone has already said it.  The three treys were great, but otherwise he seemed to be looking for his shot too much and not facilitating.  He’s clearly a guy we’ll go to when the offense is struggling, though, and I’m sure he’ll play better than he did today as he gets comfortable. Is he the odds-on favorite for 6th man of the year?

Aranguren - when he first got in, he had two really nice drives where he looked for cutters.  On the first one he hit someone (Woo maybe?), on the second one, the cutter was a half step late and it was a turnover.  After that, Georgetown really smothered him when he drove and there wasn’t much in the way of cutters.  He only got 8 minutes, but I suspect he’s going to prove a really strong asset for us. I think as guys get used to playing with him, they’ll cut to the basket on his drives and most teams won’t have the size to shut down his passes.  Looking forward to seeing what he can do as he gets more comfortable.

Hunger - seemed pretty skilled.  Was a little smaller and a little more mobile than I remembered from northwestern (though he’s not small).  His interior defense is obviously a drop from Castro, but I can’t remember the last time we had a backup center at his level. 

Bevins - didn’t really get to do much.  But hard to remember a 10th man as good as him. 

All in all, while it would have been nice to win, I am encouraged by what I’ve seen.  We are deep, athletic, and seem to have some real talent. 

I suspect that unless we sleepwalk through a game or just can’t hit a bucket (like today), we are going to thump some of these smaller OOC teams by margins we don’t always do. 

And I think that when we get to A10 play, we should be in a good rhythm with more defined roles, hopefully a comfortable Garrett, and depth that could wear down a lot of those A10 opponents. 

Bring on Maine!

Alum '04 wrote:

Last night was awesome, truly a "monumental" local event 40 years in the making. Hopefully we can do this more often and again at the Smith Center.

Did not expect to see so many former players in attendance. Shows you how much they cared about this game. 

Crowd was fantastic, even if it was 49% Gtown fans. It was great to be able to do something really awesome in DC that people looked forward to for weeks in this really difficult political and economic climate we live in. Last night's game was truly an escape.

What's with Ed Cooley riding the officials during a game that doesn't count? He was doing that early.

Those grey unis they wore last night are absolutely awful. Like they let a freshman taking graphic design 101 design those unis.

Totally agree about those jerseys. Why go out of your way to wear a gray and navy uniform when playing a team whose colors are grey and navy?  Also those jerseys don’t have their names on them which is not ideal when half the team is made of new guys I’m just “meeting”.

Some player comments.  First, the returnees:

Not sure whether was Slim was pressing to play well in front of his former coach but he really did not look like himself.  Offensively, he had great difficulty handling and even hanging onto the ball.  Am not suggesting that the offense must run through him on every possession but he has to be able to display some effective low post moves in one-on-one situations.  Thought his defense was active as usual.

It was great to see Garrett introduced as the last starter, great to hear the ovation for him, and great to watch him play.  No matter how much conditioning he has done throughout his rehab and practices, simulating a game atmosphere as was the case on Saturday is impossible.  I have no doubt that he will play his way into being the weapon he was for GW during his first season.

Christian Jones.  Really liked the willingness to drive to the hole.  Had several nice finishes including a few with his right hand as was noted.  However, the 6 turnovers in just 23 minutes needs to be corrected.  I thought he was a tad slow defensively as the Georgetown guards had the quicker first step throughout most of the game.  

Trey Autry.  Just always make sure he takes the last shot of the first half, please.  Six rebounds and 4 assists (with 0 turnovers) in 24 minutes...the guy just shows up all over the court.

Ty Bevins.  A bit concerning that Ty would only see 3 minutes of action in an exhibition game without one of the team's other guards available in Moss.  Speaks to CC treating this more like a real game than an exhibition.  Memorably, he annoyed the hell out of Jeremiah Wiliams, who was a genuine asshole throughout the game, by attempting to deny him catching an inbounds pass.  Ty does a number of useful things but with Jones-Autry-Dinkins taking up many backcourt minutes, I can only hope that Ty plays enough to build upon last season.

The newcomers:

Tre Dinkkins..I am not disturbed by the length of some of those three point attempts (unless he can't hit at all from so deep but I know that he can).  I am concerned though about 1 assist in 22 minutes, coupled with 11 of his 12 shot attempts coming from 3.  Tre needs to be a player who can drive and dish, drive and score, and hit three point shots.    Two of those three things were clearly absent on Saturday.

Tyrone Marshall.  Glue guy is a good description courtesy of FQ.  One thing I noted early on is that Tyrone made two outstanding passes early in the game.  Neither resulted in an assist but they were the kind of "outstanding court vision" passes that you don't normally see from a 6' 7" player.  The fact that he played as much as anyone (he and Slim led the team with 29 minutes) tells me that CC is very comfortable with him on the court.

Bubu Benjamin.  Very encouraging debut noted by 3-7 from 3 along with 2 offensive rebounds.  Seems to have a flair for knowing where to be and is not at all hesitant about letting it fly.  Should be very fun to watch.

Luke Hunger.  Was admittedly pleasantly surprised by his two back to the basket buckets.  His one miss was from 3 and he did not show much from long range while at Northwestern.  I do think CC will encourage him to take open 3's (this offense will result in these opportunities) and that's something we all will have to live with.  Hopefully, the percentage improves considerably.

Jean Aranguren.  My takeaway was that this was not a great matchup for him and CC will likely be doubling his 9 minutes against many opponents.  There is always concern regarding players who "transfer up" and whether the skills will translate at the next level.  I am expecting much more from Jean but for now, the jury is very much still out.

 

Gwmayhem: "First, my brief reply to Rising, then some game notes.  Rising, I hope and trust you were in attendance.  After experiencing that game, if you really believe that nobody under the age of 60 would care about a GW-Georgetown exhibition, or that the players and coaches would treat this like the exhibition game that it was, then you simply must be incapable of ever acknowledging that you were wrong about something.  Nobody has argued that this game means anything to standings or metrics.  However, IMO, it was a far more valuable learning experience than going out and beating Bowie State by 30 points in front of 800 people."

I said what I said Gwmayhem but it is not what you said I said or implied. I did not say no one under 60 cared nor did I suggest it was no different than playing Bowie State.

Before addressing the main thrust of your argument, lets state at the outset that the atmosphere was tremendous/fun and the place had great overall attendance. Let's also stipulate that it was a good test for GW to help prepare them for the season. Let's also even congratulate the GW administration and CC for arranging this game..

Now let's cut the bullshit. I believe GW announced an attendance of 4,271 which is not a sellout according to seating capacity. Upon information and belief, Georgetown sold close to 1,500 of those tickets either directly or indirectly. So you are telling me that GW was so excited about this rivalry that a school of over 10,000 undergraduates and more than six figures of alumni in the area, could only muster 3,200 tickets most of which were not paid for (students)? If any other school was so excited, Georgetown might have received its 40 tickets. If your argument is that well it was better than playing Bowie State, my response is "duh, of course it's better than playing Bowie State for all the above mentioned reasons." But that better was probably well under 2,500 tickets better from GW's interest standpoint. The larger point is if GW across the board really cared about this rivalry to the degree you think... 5,000 tickets would have been gone in an hour. 

Further, if you got Kentucky, UNC, Duke, Syracuse or any other household name to scrimmage here the crowd and the excitement especially among the students would have been exactly the same. Don't believe me - how was the Virginia game under ML? This was more about getting a local Power 4-5 school in the Smith Center to a lot of people than the fact it was Georgetown (Maryland would have the same result). That is so rare these days that absent an exhibition game there is almost no chance for it to occur. So of course it was an attraction to students and others. Never said otherwise.

But again my point remains. The rivalry meant something to those who were around 44 years ago. Not as much for those who weren't other than a chance to play a local school that is Power 4-5. Substitute Maryland and the game would have been no different as far as the students are concerned. Maybe even UVA.

The good news here is that no one really made it bigger than it was (like a rivalry loss). I haven't seen anyone crying that we lost to Georgetown. That is a step forward for this board and for GW fans generally. It also suggests that in reality this was a fun overall experience but in the end from a basketball experience and what it means for the season, it remains to be seen if this game means anything other than a fun night. Again, that's why they called it an exhibition game.

But before you further distort what I said all that doesn't mean I think a renewal of a GW-Georgetown series wouldn't be a good thing. If it happens great. But if it doesn't, we've had some success in the intervening years without playing Georgetown. As I told you Gwmayhem ... win and I don't care about Georgetown. Lose, and I still don't care about Georgetown. I am sticking to that. Whatever happens happens. I am far more interested in what happens starting November 3rd.

.



 

Really, we are now bickering over why the house was full? The stands at most GW home games look like COVID restrictions are still in place, and then suddenly we get people turned away at the door (as per The Hatchet) and the reaction is anything other than "FANTASTIC!"?
Would it be great if the crowd was like that every game (even the dead rubber game vs Delaware over break)? Yes. But in a city like Washington and at a school like GW that is just not going to happen, nor should it. This game proved GW can fill the Smith Center but, unlike places where the yokels are starved for stimulation, to fill the gym GW needs to give people a better reason to come other than a banner that reads "Game Tonight".

Great atmosphere, seemed to have a post season feel.  Also it was an atmosphere that recruit Sam Fleming may have seen, as it was reported in another thread that he was visiting that day.  

I love the depth, which is obvious, but was disappointed in Bevins' lack of PT.  Really liked most of the play of the newcomers, especially Bubu.  At times there were 4 newcomers on the floor at the same time.

Who said Slim may be a 20/10 guy?  He did not look good, maybe trying to do too much in from of Cooley?

Hunger looked a lot better than I anticipated.  Why did I feel he was a very thin 6'10" who would get pushed around?

Halftime adjustments: We were down 6 at the half and in the second half it seemed Cooley had more answers than CC.  I have said it before, we could use a veteran coach on the staff as an assistant.  

Looking forward to more talent and athleticism this year.  
 

GW Alum Abroad wrote:

Really, we are now bickering over why the house was full? The stands at most GW home games look like COVID restrictions are still in place, and then suddenly we get people turned away at the door (as per The Hatchet) and the reaction is anything other than "FANTASTIC!"?
Would it be great if the crowd was like that every game (even the dead rubber game vs Delaware over break)? Yes. But in a city like Washington and at a school like GW that is just not going to happen, nor should it. This game proved GW can fill the Smith Center but, unlike places where the yokels are starved for stimulation, to fill the gym GW needs to give people a better reason to come other than a banner that reads "Game Tonight".

 
Amen. Completely agree with this take.

Rising, what I can't agree with is your insistence to measure interest based on the total GW student and alumni universe.  We both know that the majority of each universe does not care about basketball so by your definition, you would have to be correct no matter what.  It's like saying that a movie that does $600 million at the box office is unsuccessful because if everyone had gone out and seen it, it would have made in the trillions.

The much more relevant barometer is to compare student and GW alum/fan interest in this exhibition game compared to student and fan/alum interest in practically all GW regular season (i.e. meaningful) games over the past nine years.  When viewed within this appropriate context, there is no doubt that there was great interest in this game by far many more people than the age: 60+ crowd.  I'll agree that enough has been said on the topic. 

The problem with Bevins’ playing time is that it would have to come from somewhere else. Even on a deep team, you wouldn’t expect a 10th man to play more than a few minutes per game. 

When it comes to a deep non-power team, the one I keep thinking of is Florida Atlantic in 2923 when they went to the final 4.  That team played 9 guys - with every one of those 9 playing between 40%-61.6% of the minutes (so basically 9 guys playing between 16 and 25 minutes per game).  I don’t think we will be quite that balanced, but every guy is really going to have to fight for playing time.

Is a scrimmage different than an exhibition game, at least in this instance?