Gwmayhem wrote:

GWRising, I don't know how literal to interpret your use of the word "allows". While I don't believe the timing is accidental either, what if Bishop was not coming, Shawn was told he'd be playing, and yet Shawn wanted to leave nevertheless?  Your wording suggests that a coach can block any player from transferring, period.  I just don't think this is the case.

They can't block but they make it easier or harder by agreeing to support a waiver claim. If your scholarship was not renewed by the school you can get immediate eligibility. An immediately eligible transfer is in much more demand than one who has to sit at most schools - the reason = cost. That's an extra year of school they have to pay for.

Last edited by GWRising (4/06/2020 12:40 pm)

Posted this in his recruiting profile as well, but a great display of his scoring ability in the 39 point game vs a loaded Paul VI team in last year's Alhambra tournament.  Definitely a shoot-first guy.  He has some nice dishes in other highlight clips, but I think it's safe to say that if he has the ball, his first inclination would be to put it in the basket.

It just doesn't seem like a very impressive 21 and 8. His game is very self-focused thus far. That said, it's two games ...

If we are talking about just the offensive side of the ball, then 100% agree. JB has always been recognized as one of the best scorers coming out of HS and is a well known guy in the Baltimore area (you just have to check out the videos on YouTube where he battled NBA guys like RJ Hampton). I'll probably be a bit kinder on his passing than others on the board, but it's worth noting that JC's spread ball system is a cheat code for the point guard racking up assists and kind of pads those assist totals - that is part of the reason you only see 1-2 passes at most in the PnR system and the PG is accounting for often times the lone pass. Guys like Jamison and Maceo will always have poor A/TO ratios because they will be asked to shoot when they have the ball, not pass. You could argue this makes us more predictable and easy to scout, but Bishop has overall not been too careless with the ball.

If we are adding his defense, then I wouldn't consider him to have had a good start at all. To put it nicely, it has been dreadful and disinterested from the way it comes across on the court. There have been too many cases of his guy driving past him and him just following along. His DRtg through two games is 116.4 which is the worst on the team taking into consideration guys who are playing significant minutes.

In terms of all-conference consideration, this is a particularly tough year for a player from a projected bottom half of the conference team to crack it. The A10 is better this year across the board. Ryan Daly was really an exception to the rule last year, and unfortunately he is still in the conference so I don't know that there is much room for Bishop. Right now his "name recognition" is more than Bishop's having made third team last year. If our team finishes a lot better, I like Bishop's chances a lot more.

That being said, I would say the star is born should be focused more on JNJ. While it feels like he is playing second fiddle to Bishop at times so far, he has been playing pretty well so far on both ends.

Since the score is what matters, a simple question: Does he lead the team to wins?
Second question: Does he make his teammates better? Despite the gaudy assist total, with maybe one
or two a game impressive ones, DMV's keen eye notes the system seems more responsible than looking for the open man. Do you feel like he is taking advantage of others, particularly JNJ, Jamison and Maceo's strengths when they are the better option? Are we getting the ball inside to our bigs?
   Val Brown was second in the entire nation in scoring his freshman year, missing out on the
title by 2/10 of 1 percent. It looks like the team was 15-15 that year.
   James has great talent as a scorer, when reined in somewhat (particularly last minute possessions), and as a passer, when he chooses to utilize it. Perhaps JC is prodding him to look to score first, second and third, but he may want him to pass more. And in any case, this style hasn't worked so far in two games with lesser conference opponents. He needs to work on his defense and become more of a team player. 
    It's his choice: become Val Brown or be someone who goes down in Colonial history as an impact player
who led his team to victories.
  

Last edited by jf (12/03/2020 7:34 pm)

Credit to those of you who gave legitimate responses.

When we watch this team lose two games against a Patriot League school and a former MEAC school now playing in the Big South with our own eyes, and then read through two games worth of posts about Bishop, how he's putting up numbers but not getting our outside shooters involved, how his decision making with the ball needs to improve, how his defensive effort has been lacking....and then someone posts:

James Bishop, Star is Born?

I could be wrong but I can't help but think that there's some trolling going on here.

dmvpiranha wrote:

If we are talking about just the offensive side of the ball, then 100% agree. JB has always been recognized as one of the best scorers coming out of HS and is a well known guy in the Baltimore area (you just have to check out the videos on YouTube where he battled NBA guys like RJ Hampton). I'll probably be a bit kinder on his passing than others on the board, but it's worth noting that JC's spread ball system is a cheat code for the point guard racking up assists and kind of pads those assist totals - that is part of the reason you only see 1-2 passes at most in the PnR system and the PG is accounting for often times the lone pass. Guys like Jamison and Maceo will always have poor A/TO ratios because they will be asked to shoot when they have the ball, not pass. You could argue this makes us more predictable and easy to scout, but Bishop has overall not been too careless with the ball.

If we are adding his defense, then I wouldn't consider him to have had a good start at all. To put it nicely, it has been dreadful and disinterested from the way it comes across on the court. There have been too many cases of his guy driving past him and him just following along. His DRtg through two games is 116.4 which is the worst on the team taking into consideration guys who are playing significant minutes.

In terms of all-conference consideration, this is a particularly tough year for a player from a projected bottom half of the conference team to crack it. The A10 is better this year across the board. Ryan Daly was really an exception to the rule last year, and unfortunately he is still in the conference so I don't know that there is much room for Bishop. Right now his "name recognition" is more than Bishop's having made third team last year. If our team finishes a lot better, I like Bishop's chances a lot more.

That being said, I would say the star is born should be focused more on JNJ. While it feels like he is playing second fiddle to Bishop at times so far, he has been playing pretty well so far on both ends.

DMVPiranha, thank you for posting this information. I would agree about JNJ, but I also feel James Bishop is also a star.  I read your analysis regarding the structure of JC's offense, so I understand why the assists are not high. Also, I understand better that we are more predictable, which, IMO, makes the play of JB and JNJ even more admirable.  As for the defensive numbers, I am not too worried about them at this point because I feel JC is playing a lot of zone.  Please correct me if I am wrong, but I think it may take the team some time to understand how to play it more effectively.  Actually, I feel it may be somewhat unfair to identify JB as not doing enough defensively, because he has to rely much more on all his teammates executing their zone defensive responsibilities correctly as well.  So I feel, with enough time, support and encouragement, the team D will be quite effective.  While I certainly would have liked to have won the first two games, I am very encouraged that this team has what it takes to be very good.  I feel it may take some time, but I believe JC and his players are going to make the fans very happy! 

I think it was GWRising who said we must wait for the bread to be baked!!!  That sounds very true to me!

Last edited by 22ndandF (12/04/2020 4:15 pm)

dmvpiranha wrote:

22ndandF wrote:

[
DMVPiranha, thank you for posting this information. I would agree about JNJ, but I also feel James Bishop is also a star.  I read your analysis regarding the structure of JC's offense, so I understand why the assists are not high. Also, I understand better that we are more predictable, which, IMO, makes the play of JB and JNJ even more admirable.  As for the defensive numbers, I am not too worried about them at this point because I feel JC is playing a lot of zone.  Please correct me if I am wrong, but I think it may take the team some time to understand how to play it more effectively.  Actually, I feel it may be somewhat unfair to identify JB as not doing enough defensively, because he has to rely much more on all his teammates executing their zone defensive responsibilities correctly as well.  So I feel, with enough time, support and encouragement, the team D will be quite effective.  While I certainly would have liked to have won the first two games, I am very encouraged that this team has what it takes to be very good.  I feel it may take some time, but I believe JC and his players are going to make the fans very happy! 

I think it was GWRising who said we must wait for the bread to be baked!!!  That sounds very true to me!

22ndandF, no problem! About the offense, it is not as much that the assist totals aren't high but that the majority of our team's total assists come from the PG position (Bishop). There is actually another stat that tracks this - assist percentage. Armel finished I believe top 5 nationally in this category and was #1 at one point. This is because the only real designated passer in the offense is the PG in the PnR so by default they will post high assist totals. That's not to take credit away from Bishop - he has done a good job so far and improved in game 2 finding his teammates more. I am not really that upset by our offensive performance so far - I believe that those missed layups and dunks will be cleaned up and don't disagree with JC that turnovers will also be slightly high given the tempo we are playing right now. I was actually happy that we weren't settling for threes in the Hampton game when they weren't falling and that we found other avenues to score, because an over-reliance on deep shots can lead to inconsistency on offense from game to game. We have done well getting to the line, and fared better knocking them down in game 2.

Without a doubt, it's early and the team will improve with anticipating and perhaps generating more turnovers defensively (that is the key - if we are going to be turning the ball over offensively, we will want to at least try our best to break even on the other end, but so far not so good there). We will hopefully be better about rotating as well - getting the opposition to take a midrange shot near the top of the key is the goal and we have done well forcing the shot, but there needs to be a defender there to at least close out on the shot, not give them a wide open shot.

I'll also clear things up and say the problem is not solely on Bishop, I only brought him up specifically because the thread was about him. However, the reason I said what I said has more to do with effort. This is something that can't be coached - before going down the path of defensive coaching, energy and effort on defense transcends talent and coaching. The reason I brought up JNJ vs Bishop is the effort that I've seen so far from the scrimmage and two games. I mentioned the defensive rating number to provide more validity to just an "eye test". There is no doubt that if the team as a whole improves defensively, Bishop's numbers will be better in his rating. However, there is a reason that Bishop's rating is 116.4 while Nelson's is 102 so far. JNJ fights through ball screens, stays in front of his man, and tries his hardest to generate pressure along the perimeter. In the Navy game, Bishop had many possessions where he watched his guy just shoot the ball. He did a better job in the Hampton game by putting a hand up, but there was a clear lack of energy minus possessions here and there. Bishop himself admitted as such in the postgame interview, and the good news is that this can be changed. An average defensive rating is 100 (the number of points given up per 100 possessions - the lower, the better). If he can be at least around the 105 range, I think the team will benefit. Anything over 110 is a liability on defense. Looking at those on the team who are playing significant minutes, only James and Sloan are over the 110 rating currently. If Bishop can stay in front of his man, it will also put less pressure on the frontcourt, where we still don't have a true rim protector to bail our guards out if they take possessions off and let their man drive past them. We surely would have benefitted from having Amir healthy on this end.

Again, very early and no cause for concern. The defense and team's performance as a whole will improve. Just some initial observations.
 

DMVPiranha, thank you so much for the additional information.  I certainly always learn a lot from you and I appreciate the way you take the time to explain your points. I can't speak for everyone here, but you are one of people I respect so much here not only for your basketball analysis, but also for your willingness to share in the most human and nice way possible how you feel about so many important subjects that have come up as we discuss GW basketball.

I'll be watching the game today with a more critical eye on the defensive end.  I feel one of the most important things to me is what you pointed out about JB understanding and acknowledging that he has a some more work to do to improve and polish his defensive play. This is just my opinion, but the first and most important step to self-improvement is recognizing something under your control should change. It certainly sounds to me as if JB has this most important quality (which can be applied to all aspects of life).  And, of course this is just my opinion again, with his skills and dedication to the team, he certainly is capable of being a great player for GW.  I feel he is already a star, but to me, the question will be how brightly he will shine!

Sorry I’m not buying. To be a star point guard on any team the team would be playing with more cohesion offensively and defensively than last year. To my eyes we look like garbage.

Now I’m not saying the players are terrible. The pandemic has upended college life. Players families could be facing illness, job loss, anxiety. Maybe it is all the coach can do to manage health protocols.

So NO outrage here. I’m just disappointed. All the other A10 teams I’ve seen so far are tighter. With Jarvis by way of comparison, I understood the improvement immediately.

Last edited by FredD (12/05/2020 7:04 pm)

I am a huge Joe Mac fan - one of the best leaders and toughest point guards ever.  But Bishop and Joe Mac - while the position is the same, the offense is as drastically different so Campari g the 2 is like apples and oranges.  JC system is point guard focused - the PG will handle the ball 60-70% and have to create.  His Mac played ina weave/ball movement offense.  Joe Mac in jCs system would not be successful - he was not as quick to create his own shot - and Bishop would never fit in Lonergans system.

Now where you can compare them is on defense and Joe Mac was a Much better defender and rebounder than Bishop has shown for sure.