In case you were under a rock (or out of town) this weekend, GW faced Oregon State at the Smith Center on Saturday with the President and family in attendance. Michelle Obama's brother is Craig Robinson, the Oregon State coach.The Smith Center had a big line about 30 minutes before the game, with folks going through metal detectors run by the Secret Service. I got in late due to standing in line, but spirits were high among everybody waiting. The only negative was that a lot of folks in line hadn't been to a game before, even if they had season tickets. But then again, it's good to have newcomers at the games.
The Obamas (Barack, Michelle, Michelle's mother, Sacha and Malia) sat in the first row behind the OSU bench (that's the President leaning forward in the picture) and they and watched GW play pretty badly for most of the game.
GW came out very flat, turning it over and making dumb plays to go down 14-0 to start the game. Finally they snapped out of their funk and improved, closing the gap to 8 at half time, thanks to a 10-0 run to end the half. The team, however, looked a lot like the team of the last two years, passing it around the perimeter and not really doing anything, then making bad passes and taking wild shots. In all, GW turned it over 18 times, including 6 from Tim Johnson and 4 from Damian Hollis and Tony Taylor. Taylor, however, did get 4 steals, 4 assists, and 7 points.
GW looked good only towards the end, where they brought the game from a 15 point deficit with 4:30 to go to 2 points with :33 to go, thanks to the usual Hobbs offense -- steals, traps, and points off turnovers. The crowd, small due in part to the Thanksgiving break, got rowdy. Other than those few minutes, however, there was no sustained solid play.
The team as a whole shot only 36.8% and 23.8% from three, due in part to a lack of actual plays run. The refs were also pretty quick to call fouls. Lasan Kromah played well again, scoring 15 on 6/10 shooting, while Bryan Bynes had an off game, going 1/7. Travis King looked lost, while Damian Hollis scored 13 on 4/13 shooting. Hermann Opoku played pretty poorly, going up soft, losing the ball, etc, and for some reason Joseph Katuka only played 2 minutes.
GW did force 23 Oregon State turnovers, but not many of those got converted into transition baskets, due to quick OSU resets and a pretty weak fast break game from GW.
The president seemed interested in the games, and clapped for good plays and for the half court shot contestants at halftime. He also spoke to folks sitting near him, and the whole fam looked pretty happy. One GWHoops commenter said Sasha or Malia was rooting for GW, which is cool, and all the players seemed thrilled after the game.
After the game, the players shook hands with the President, and Karl Hobbs spoke to the crowd about how great it was for the President to come to the game.
Here's the GWSports article, box score, Post article, and DC Sports Bog. The Hatchet had lots of coverage too.
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