Recap of GW vs Youngstown State: Growing pains

Well, we should have known. GW started three newcomers, and it showed. Freshmen Joe McDonald and Patricio Garino and transfer Isaiah Armwood had their first GW games, while the rest of the guys looked pretty rusty. The good guys had moments of strong play, but a lot of disorganization, lazy passes, turnovers, and bad shots, and Youngstown State (who are the Penguins for some reason) won 80-73. YSU was up double figures at times, and generally played pretty well -- if they had made their open threes, this game would have been a lot less close.

So how were GW's players? The story of the game to me was Argentine freshman Pato Garino, who scored 13, led the team with 7 boards and blocked 2 shots, and just hustled and played smart out there. Isaiah Armwood had a quiet 18 points to lead GW, plus 5 rebounds. Freshman Joe McDonald had a rougher game, with 7 points, 5 turnovers and 2 assists, while the rest of the team was pretty unremarkable. Danish big man Kevin Larsen got a few minutes, and made some nice post moves, but didn't play a lot.

I didn't quite understand the rotation, it seemed like Lasan Kromah didn't play a lot, though he did tally 21 minutes, while Nemanja Mikic talled 14 minutes and Dwayne Smith only 13. Bryan Bynes played the point when McDonald wasn't in there, but only shot 1/9 from the field. The offense looked decent at times, with some nice cuts and such, but other times it seemed befuddled The team only attempted 11 threes, making a lowly 3 (maybe that was why there were so few attempts.)

Defense, however, was another question. GW played a lot of ole' defense, in that somebody would take a swipe at the ball and the ballhandler would go around him for an easy basket. It happened time and again, nobody got in front of their man. YSU also outrebounded the good guys, 43-34, and GW had more turnovers (14) than assists (9.) The Colonials shot pretty poorly from the line too, 24/38, with Bynes being a particular offender going 0/5, including twice missing both ends.

But growing pains are to be expected. There were definitely some bright spots, namely Garino and Armwood, but I hope we see more from the returning guys and the defense gets more serious. In any case, I'll be watching.

See below for some of my tweets from the game, plus a few other folks.