Game 30: AT George Washington University, Tuesday, March 1st, 8 PM, CSN

[Five Two]

Why did this game start at 8pm? CSN showed Dan Patrick Radio Show highlights prior to the game so it wasn't like they were trying to squeeze in a 6pm game. Did the A10 think we needed the extra hour to get through rush hour traffic?

 

[mkaufman1]

Why did this game start at 8pm? CSN showed Dan Patrick Radio Show highlights prior to the game so it wasn't like they were trying to squeeze in a 6pm game. Did the A10 think we needed the extra hour to get through rush hour traffic?

Maybe for their senior night?

 

[Leesburg Chankenstank III]

Maybe for their senior night?

Maybe for Super Tuseday voters? Polls closed at 7PM I believe.

 

[Leesburg Chankenstank III]

This year has obviously been frustrating, but we all need to keep reminding ourselves that Year 1 of the rebuild is mercifully almost over. I disagree with anybody here who thinks we are a .500 team next year, because we won't be.

Maybe not Tom, but if we are in the PIG again next year, I will absolutely be disappointed.

 

[CHRISTOPHER JAMES JOLLAY]

On one of Shevon's turnovers Paulsen was screaming at him, you are 7 ft tall put the ball above your head.

The one where the 5'11" guy ripped it out of his hands but was ob was inexcusable.

 

[CHRISTOPHER JAMES JOLLAY]

I'm surprised Lonergan even came out of the 1-3-1, but it didn't matter. Plus no doubt Mason wasted time focusing on it at halftime.
Lonergan is a good coach. I would continue to zone us up if I were anyone. Our best offense against one is bricking a shot and letting our bigs clean it up.

 

[CHRISTOPHER JAMES JOLLAY]

Why did this game start at 8pm? CSN showed Dan Patrick Radio Show highlights prior to the game so it wasn't like they were trying to squeeze in a 6pm game. Did the A10 think we needed the extra hour to get through rush hour traffic?

We decide when IT'S TIME TO PLAY THE GAME.

Fake 52 did a poor job last night, by the way. I think he was drunk.

 

[mkaufman1]

The one where the 5'11" guy ripped it out of his hands but was ob was inexcusable.

That actually happened twice, sadly, lol. Mitola took the ball right out of Shevon's hands like it was nothing.

 

[gmutom]

Maybe not Tom, but if we are in the PIG again next year, I will absolutely be disappointed.

I really have no idea how tough the league will be next season, but avoiding the PIG is a realistic goal. I think our biggest adjustment will be playing more 4-guard lineups since that will be our strength, compared to this year when we've relied so much on our interior play.

Without Thompson, being a dominant low-post team is very unlikely next season. Other than Jenkins — who could have a very good year — our frontcourt is a giant question mark. We have no idea what Revalo will bring to the table, there is still no indication that Temura will even be here, and the jury is still out on Dixon.

That puts a lot of the burden next year on our backcourt. We are lucky to have some stability with Moore and Otis returning, but Abrams, Murrell, Boyd, Newman and Kier will all be fighting for significant minutes.

 

[Five Two]

We decide when IT'S TIME TO PLAY THE GAME.

Fake 52 did a poor job last night, by the way. I think he was drunk.

I think he was too

 

[psyclone]

Fake 52 did a poor job last night, by the way. I think he was drunk.

Fake 52?????

 

[MasonCrew]

The worst part about last night was when my gf left with a GW fan and went to vote for Trump because she wanted to be with a winner

In all seriousness though... that was the worst game I've watched in a long time. We can't shoot for shit. But that's nothing new. Next year is going to be ugly too... but have to look to the future. Freshman got some good minutes last night.

 

[99 Patriot]

Tough game to sit through. Couple of observations:

• Our players to a man watched longingly at the video introduction on their big video board, Paulsen was pissed that the video ran so long and the ref even apologized to him for it.
• I've never seen the call before where Shevon holding the ball in bounds, had a GW player get a hand on the ball while standing out of bounds, and they gave GW the ball saying it was out of bounds on us. I still don't understand what I saw there.
• Our diving on the floor, making hustle plays, high energy bench persona was completely absent from the tip last night. I'll chalk it up to fatigue and hopefully not to players tuning out coach.
• Our best game would not have won tonight. GW was hyped for senior night, pissed after vcu loss, and is just far more talented than we are at this point. They lose a lot though. Could be beatable next year.
• Jollay's lost son who came in late for GW was the highlight of the night. He's a better human victory cigar than even Rudy is.

 

[gmujim92]

I really have no idea how tough the league will be next season, but avoiding the PIG is a realistic goal. I think our biggest adjustment will be playing more 4-guard lineups since that will be our strength, compared to this year when we've relied so much on our interior play.

Without Thompson, being a dominant low-post team is very unlikely next season. Other than Jenkins — who could have a very good year — our frontcourt is a giant question mark. We have no idea what Revalo will bring to the table, there is still no indication that Temura will even be here, and the jury is still out on Dixon.

That puts a lot of the burden next year on our backcourt. We are lucky to have some stability with Moore and Otis returning, but Abrams, Murrell, Boyd, Newman and Kier will all be fighting for significant minutes.

DP has acknowledged that the only reason we played the way we did this season is because we had Shevon and no shooters, and he smartly opted to play to the roster's lone strength: rebounding.

We will be a much more perimeter-oriented team going forward, with PFs who can hit the 3 and versatile Cs like Jalen who are capable of passing out of a double-team or facing up and hitting a 15-foot jumper.

DP's offense creates spacing, ball movement and loads of wide-open shots. The most noticeable difference will come once we're able to put 5 guys on the floor at the same time who can make them.

 

[gmujim92]

Next year I hope we put pressure on teams'offense. I will say again, experienced teams will destroy our man to man defense as it does nothing to disrupt shooters. We saw it last night. Being last in forced turnovers will not bode well in a guard heavy league. Book it.

I know you're gonna keep beating this drum until your arms fall off, but once again, there is nothing wrong with the fundamentals of our defensive scheme.

We need more players who are capable of guarding more closely and rotating more quickly without getting blown by for layups. That comes with recruiting.

But if you will only accept a system that stresses high ball pressure, trapping and denying the wings, you may as well go root for someone else.

 

[Petey Buckets]

I know you're gonna keep beating this drum until your arms fall off, but once again, there is nothing wrong with the fundamentals of our defensive scheme.

I think "can we be competitive in the A-10 without trying to generate turnovers?" is a fair question to ask, and there's probably a happy medium somewhere between Paulsen's current defensive scheme and the halfcourt traps that GW threw at us last night. Here are some numbers:

Opponents have taken 69 more shots than we have this season. That's over two field goal attempts per game. It's somewhat mitigated by the fact that we've shot 45 more free throws (despite frequently fouling late in games we're trailing) but not entirely.

We're murdering opponents in offensive rebounds. We have 116 more offensive rebounds than our opponents this year, close to four per game. More offensive rebounds = more opportunities to take shots.

So what accounts for the difference in us taking fewer shots per game, despite our tremendous offensive rebounding advantage? It's all turnovers. We've turned the ball over 12.6 times per game this season, damn near double the opponents' rate of 7.0 per game. We have a ton of possessions that end in us not even getting a shot off.

Yes, we can expect turnovers to decrease next year, but we can also expect our offensive rebounding advantage to disappear with Shevon gone. If we don't have a defense that creates turnovers (remember that Paulsen's Bucknell teams were consistently at the bottom of the Patriot League in this category) and we don't have an offensive rebounding advantage, we will likely have to live with opponents taking more shots per game than we do.

You can overcome this by holding opponents to a poor shooting percentage, shooting well yourself, (our win against vcu is the best example of both), or getting a ton of offensive rebounds, but it makes your margins razor thin. I wouldn't be confident that we get where we want to be if we're consistently at the bottom of the A-10 in generating turnovers.

 

[gmujim92]

I think "can we be competitive in the A-10 without trying to generate turnovers?" is a fair question to ask, and there's probably a happy medium somewhere between Paulsen's current defensive scheme and the halfcourt traps that GW threw at us last night. Here are some numbers:

Opponents have taken 69 more shots than we have this season. That's over two field goal attempts per game. It's somewhat mitigated by the fact that we've shot 45 more free throws (despite frequently fouling late in games we're trailing) but not entirely.

We're murdering opponents in offensive rebounds. We have 116 more offensive rebounds than our opponents this year, close to four per game. More offensive rebounds = more opportunities to take shots.

So what accounts for the difference in us taking fewer shots per game, despite our tremendous offensive rebounding advantage? It's all turnovers. We've turned the ball over 12.6 times per game this season, damn near double the opponents' rate of 7.0 per game. We have a ton of possessions that end in us not even getting a shot off.

Yes, we can expect turnovers to decrease next year, but we can also expect our offensive rebounding advantage to disappear with Shevon gone. If we don't have a defense that creates turnovers (remember that Paulsen's Bucknell teams were consistently at the bottom of the Patriot League in this category) and we don't have an offensive rebounding advantage, we will likely have to live with opponents taking more shots per game than we do.

You can overcome this by holding opponents to a poor shooting percentage, shooting well yourself, (our win against vcu is the best example of both), or getting a ton of offensive rebounds, but it makes your margins razor thin. I wouldn't be confident that we get where we want to be if we're consistently at the bottom of the A-10 in generating turnovers.

Forcing a long, heavily contested shot and rebounding the miss isn't exactly the same as a turnover -- obviously, the opponent has a chance to score every time it shoots -- but it accomplishes the same effect.

In order to heavily contest shots, our guys need to get 1,000,000 times better at guarding ball screens, reading off-ball screens and rotating to open shooters. We have given up way too many wide-open looks this season. I'm hopeful that changes as our freshmen get stronger and more experienced and don't have to run themselves ragged playing 35 MPG.

Also, the turnover discrepancy won't be as glaring once our players are no longer committing a dozen unforced turnovers every game. I'm willing to bet 75 percent of our total turnovers this season have had absolutely nothing to do with the opposing defense.

There is nothing wrong at all with playing tough, straight up man-to-man and forcing the opponent to shoot contested shots instead of trapping and gambling for steals. Plenty of coaches have won NCAA titles doing just that.

 

[GSII]

Petey, thats what ive been trying to tell everyone. thank you for the detailed explanation.

We can't afford to be at the bottom in forced turnovers if you want to be in top four. One would think if you play man defense, you would create these but even at Bucknell, it didnt happen. Whatever reasoning or formula DP is using will need to be tweaked.

 

[GSII]

There is nothing wrong at all with playing tough, straight up man-to-man and forcing the opponent to shoot contested shots instead of trapping and gambling for steals. Plenty of coaches have won NCAA titles doing just that.

Would like to see which Coaches won a national title sporting a forced turnover number close to Bucknells best number.

 

[99 Patriot]

Much as I love Otis, part of the problem is that you can tell he is still programmed to help a lot and sag into the paint. He doesn't commit all the way to where he's generating steals (not the goal of our defense), but also sags way too much that his men can almost get open 3's at will. For our system to work everyone needs to stay tight and contest shots, which is tough to learn if you were coached differently in the past.