Well, all in all it wasn't bad. GW's offense was questionable, but having 6 freshmen could do that. I'll write about the game itself, then the Smith Center upgrades.
First off, GW won easily, 78-44, which is good. The offense for both teams was sluggish at first, but towards the second half GW started to heat up and score a lot. GW's defense was solid, getting a lot of turnovers and holding W. Georgia to 22.8% shooting, and it improved as the game went on -- more trapping and such. Damian Hollis, Joseph Katuka, Tony Taylor and freshmen Tim Johnson and Dwayne Smith started, which was a bit of a surprise.
It's hard to judge from one game, especially when so many players are new, but I noticed a few things. Joseph Katuka had some nice moves down low when he got the ball (mainly on high lob passes, some of which were inaccurate). Freshman Lasan Kromah led all scorers with 14 -- he was quick and made some nice moves to the basket and also hit two 3s. Freshman David Pellom played well on the boards and on defense, getting three steals; I liked what I saw from him. Damian Hollis only played 14 minutes but had 9 points and 8 boards. Freshman Bryan Bynes had 8 points and 6 boards, though honestly I didn't really notice him, despite him playing 26 minutes, more than anybody else -- maybe he'll be an Omar Williams type, getting it done but without being ostentatious. Jabari Edwards played, somewhat surprisingly, and scored 8 as well. Tony Taylor was 0/4 shooting, but did have four assists. Travis King was 1/6 and played 20 minutes and looked kind of off. Tim Johnson looked confident, and the other players didn't make too much of an impression on me.
They tried a few different alley-oops and big lobs passes without success, but the transition game was pretty good -- 15 steals and 20 points off turnovers, although GW committed 18 turnovers. The defense seemed to stiffen and play more trapping as the game went on. GW was only 5/20 from three (with Kromah hitting 2/5) and free throw shooting was also somewhat suspect, 13/25. It also looked like new assistant Brian Ellerbee was doing a lot of coaching on the floor.
I'm interested in seeing more, and seeing how the players integrate with the team.
As for the Smith Center, it's nice looking. The new seats look good, the luxury box under the end seats is pretty cool, and the painted the other wall opposite black, so it doesn't stand out as much as the old white wall. It looks like they made the seats above where the student section used to be at a lower angle, so there are more. The baskets are now attached to the wall rather than the ceiling, which means better views for those in the end seats (like me).
Individually packed dogs and chicken sandwiches
Food, however, hasn't improved much. They have chicken sandwiches now, which I haven't tried, but the hot dogs are still kind of bad. The meat was ok (supposedly it's Nathan's, but didn't taste like that) but the buns were simultaneously hard in some parts and mushy in others. It was also $7 for a dog and water, which used to be cheaper. But still, not too pricey.
They also had King and Hollis jerseys for sale, plus lots of other merchandise. Finally, the band played the alma mater at the end of the game, instead of a Karl Hobbs radio interview. Kind of cool to see.
Here's the box score and recap from GWSports.com, and from the Hatchet, plus two Hatchet blog posts.
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