Early Season Review

In short, not so hot. GW started out 2-0 against meager competition but shuffled to a 3-4 record following a mauling by Virginia Tech. So what's going on?

As most people know, this is an inexperienced and skinny team. That means the team makes dumb mistakes, doesn't work together well (90 assists versus 130 turnovers) and gets beat down low. Sizewise, the team is basically the GW teams of the past few years but with all Omar Williams and no Pops Mensah-Bonsu, Mike Hall, or Dokun Akingbade.

The team as a whole shoots a lot of threes, and I would argue way too many, despite the fact that they're shooting 37.4% as a team. It's almost a Grinnell style offense, but without 20 players who can shoot well to pull it off. But more threes means fewer offensive rebounds and more time for the other team to get a break going.

Here's what I'd like to see for the rest of the season:

-Taking fewer threes and driving more on offense
-Getting back on defense more quickly
-Better transition play in general
-More offense from Mo Rice (almost forgot this one)
-And a new starting lineup: PG Beatty, SG Rice, SF/PF Witherspoon/Hollis, C Diggs. First off the bench Alexander or Moore, depending if the team needs steady or high energy play.

After the jump is my review of each player individually. What do you think the team needs to do?

Here's my review of the players' performances:

-Mo Rice is playing out of position at the point, and he's not scoring or manning the point too well - averaging 11 points on 37.7% shooting (although 42.4% from three) and only 1.3 assists. I don't know if Karl Hobbs thinks his future in the NBA is as a point guard, but it's not working so far.

-Wynton Witherspoon has been a very pleasant surprise, scoring 12 per game to lead the team, but this is his first season with the team meaning there are some missed cues from time to time.

-Rob Diggs is averaging 11.9 points and 7.4 boards, but has had some bad games (0 points, 0/6 shooting against V-Tech, for example).

-Damian Hollis has seemed timid, not taking open shots and not driving the paint as much as he used to. When he drives it makes him harder to guard from the perimeter.

-Xavier Alexander has a good overall game and has started 5 times as a shooting guard/forward, but is only averaging 5 points and 2.6 boards on less than 40% shooting.

-Cheyenne Moore shows flashes of brilliance and some utterly boneheaded plays (sound like Regis Koundjia?).

-I've been a fan of Miles Beatty since the UDC game, and he's been pretty solid with some freshman mistakes.

-Noel Willmore plays his role well.

-Haven't seen much time for Jabari Edwards (who was hurt), Hermann Opoku, or Joseph Katuka.

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