GW lost to a Vermont team similar to themselves, and then late last night, lost to a mediocre Hawaii team 73-47. The team shot 30% against Hawaii, including 1-7 from 3 for Matt Allbritton (?) and 0-5 from 3 for Noel Willmore.Wynton Witherspoon didn't play for the third game in a row. After last game I emailed Brad Bower about it, and he said "not injured-coach's decision." The Hatchet has more: "Hobbs said after the team’s loss to Vermont Saturday that Witherspoon has not lived up to standards the team has set and would not elaborate on his status for the future." Not good.
GWHoopsters are disconsolate, asking lots of questions about Hobbs and his future at GW. Pretty sad that after 3 NCAA tourneys, an undefeated conference season, and a ranking as high as #6 in the nation these questions have to be asked.
For a long time this season, I was reluctant to panic - GW was 6-2 after all, with only losses to good teams. Now GW is 6-4 with two disappointing losses. I'm starting to worry. It seems that Karl Hobbs has become intransigent and frustrated and has his players on a really short leash - one mess-up and they're out. He's benched Witherspoon, one of the best players on the team, and he's still playing 10 players for at least 10 minutes a game. I can see wanting to get a feel for players, and maybe giving them some experience, but it's not working. It doesn't make sense to me either, as Joseph Katuka had a double-double in the win against Sac State, then played 11 minutes the next game. Maybe it was a match-up, but there's a lot of second guessing going on, and Hobbs is not one to clarify things. It seems like the players have gotten frustrated too, which is my guess as to what's happened with Witherspoon. Ugh.
And I'm working on some more analysis, so stay tuned.
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