MBB Game 03 @ GWU, Nov 14 (Tue), 7 PM

[Polito]

Yikes. I'm going to hold off until the end. First half they get an F. Not quite sure what was worked on from the last game... or all summer for that matter. Not impressed with much thus far.

Fortunately GW isn't great, only reason HU still has a chance. Let's see how they come out in the 2nd. Still winnable if they can find it in themselves to play a level of acceptable D1 college basketball.

[Cards]

2 assists from Sunday and only 1 from rest of team. Really bad!

[triplec2195]

Fritz very ineffective so far in this game sitting most of the first half but Sunday looked awful trying to set picks for Tyler and Carlos.

[triplec2195]

This game is like a schoolyard game just run and gun non stop. Robinson throwing it up like Silverio almost every time he touches the ball. He's also very quick and active on D.

[triplec2195]

Got a few steals and took the lead but now down again by 4. Fritz sitting with 4 fouls.

[triplec2195]

11+ minutes left we're up by 1 47-46.

[triplec2195]

Playing better in the second half getting stops and getting out in transition up by 3.

[triplec2195]

Robinson looking very good on D and quick on offense too bad he's missed quite a few shots but impressive for a freshman.

[triplec2195]

6:59 left down by 5. Keep getting beat off the dribble

[triplec2195]

Again we get beat down the lane they get easy layups. Our last 4x down we attempt threes and miss badly

[triplec2195]

Under 3 minutes we're down by 14 we're playing awful at the end of this game. This team I don't think will score enough points to win a lot of games. Awful

[Polito]

How to put this nicely...

This team is not good. Embarrassing performance against a mediocre GW team. Really disappointed in this staff and team.

Don't rebound, chuck threes, can't defend, post play is awful, everybody too slow, sloppy with the ball, I could go on... issues abound. I'm ok with development early on, but not an ounce of improvement was seen here from the last game. And everything this team is at least supposed to be good at to start they are not.

Not even going to bother going down the player list, everybody guilty in some capacity. A few more games like this and my interest will dry up. Get it together staff, this was gross.

[dutchPride86]

Yikes. The lack of cohesion on offense and overall lapses in defense and intensity from this team have been really startling. For the amount of guys that did return the on court chemistry shouldn't be this bad. And stop chucking 3s 5 feet behind the line!

There are not a lot of winnable games on this non conference schedule based on what we've seen so far.

[joeg1]

Zoinks

[The Shadow]

HU53-GWU51 with about 9 minutes to go in the 2nd half. So, HU scores 7 and GWU scores 20. JF line in 8 minutes: 0 points, 0 rebounds, 2 turnovers, and 5 fouls. Looks like the offense is mainly take and make 3 point shots.

[Wags]

Looks like Dubar, with 18 (all in the second half) last game and the 17 tonight has established himself as the 2nd guy behind Thomas, but they really needed a third scorer. Carlos took the shots (13) to do that but didn't make them (only 3 FGM). Three AST and 5 TO also isn't going to cut it. That's only part of why the offense dried up down the stretch. Not going to win too many games scoring just 60 points and only seven over the final 9 1/2 minutes (22-7, GW to close).

Defensively, they didn't let Bishop go off like last year (held him in check - 17 points on 17 shots), but GW had five scorers in double figures. Hofstra needed Robinson's 10 off the bench to get a third scorer to reach that. Plotnikov didn't miss but only took two shots in 20 minutes. He needs to be more involved offensively when he's out there. He can be a good spark if they let him be.

Thomas seems to be falling in love with the 3 too much early on. Shot it great from there in the opener (8/13), but against D-III competition. I was worried that was fool's gold after he did that but took only one shot from 2 in that game. Since then, he's taken more than half of his shots from 3 (20 of 38) despite going only 6/20 from there. I think he needs more balance with his approach, attacking the paint and pulling up from mid-range more along with mixing in the 3s a little less than he has been trying to do. No FTA for him tonight, yet 12 3-pt attempts (making only four). Some of them were from NBA range.

Speedy insists after a second straight loss that they'll be fine. So far, he still deserves to be believed after how it went OOC vs. in CAA play last year, but this team is also different than last year and there's no one like Estrada on the roster along with Thomas this time, so that remains to be seen. Way too early to panic, but it may be a challenge for a while with a very difficult OOC slate still to get through. Hopefully this tourney in Florida, win or lose in any of those games, will be a good learning experience before they can come home and get some good practice time.

[The Shadow]

Wags, Thanks for the game analysis. It is always good to read what you think.
Are you still writing for the NY Sports Day website? I can't seem to find your articles on HU.

[triplec2195]

Very concerned about what we have mainly what we don't have on this squad. Over and over everyone voiced their concerns about how we were going to make up Estrada's 20 point departure and now you see this come to fruition. I'm the eternal optimist but after watching this game I no longer have that optimism. At least in the early going Kijon proved he can handle the ball and score so it would seem to me after playing 24 minutes yesterday he will be a part of the equation here. He also plays with a lot of intensity and has size.

What is the story with Jacco Fritz? A lot of us were counting on him giving us 10 points a game and he fouls out playing only 8 minutes not scoring making a negative contribution in this game. He clearly hasn't forgot all of a sudden how to play basketball. A major disappointment so far.

JC now put in a roll to have to score struggled last night and looked bad on both sides of the court. He turned the ball over twice at halfcourt leading to easy baskets. Also just to mention quickly Dubar while he is playing well in the early going after three games he's 1-9 from beyond the ARC!!

They only hit one more three then us hitting 8 to our 7 but really win the game in the paint scoring 36 points to our 24. They all game long beat us off the dribble and were able to score layups. If Sunday played more then 14 minutes we would have been better off, 0-1 no points but 5 rebounds, 2 assists and a block.

It will be interesting to see what our starting lineup will be in our next game. Nobody mentioned Washington's ineffective play going 1-5 in 17 minutes 4 rebounds scoring 2 points. So could it be we start Robinson in the next game and have Washington come off the bench. Also Barrouk who only saw a few minutes came off the bench to give us an Offensive boost missed two open three's and found himself on the bench after only playing two minutes.

As has already been said we won't win many/any games scoring 60 points or maybe less. We need to find a way to generate offense.

[HUSID80]

Guys, lets hold off on hitting the panic button, the sky is not falling...yet...there is a lot of talent on this team and we need to find the right combinations...that's what the OOC is for...did not see the game...traveling...but I was impressed that we came back to take a lead...now we need to figure out how to close games out...stay tuned.

[cactus]

Thomas is not efficient on the offensive end when he’s the main focus of the defense. He's so much better as a second option being able to score in catch and shoot situations, hitting at a high percentage from mid range and deep when he's not forcing shots. I don't think this team goes anywhere this year with Thomas as the main guy. Robinson was a bit reckless last night but he seems like he has #1 guy potential.