In honor of the upcoming basketball tournament, alumnus Josh Strongin temporarily takes over the GWUBAF site for an alumni edition of the TWIP. Enjoy! – GWUBAF

Ayo team what up!! Katie asked me to write a little TWIP about the women for y’all so let’s get to it.

Quick recap for anyone who needs one. The women are currently 25-6* (13-3 in the A10).

*That asterisk of course is because Jonquel Jones missed the entire month of February with a shoulder injury and all three of the Colonials’ losses came while she was injured. Normally I would say injuries aren’t something to use as excuses, but Jonquel is a top 5 player in the country and is about to be a top 3 pick in the WNBA draft, so it’s a little bit different.

Friday, GW smoked George Mason in the quaterfinals 78-48. On Saturday they got a little revenge on VCU for an earlier loss, taking them down 72-58. GW will take on Duquesne in the final on Sunday. The bigger story of course is the return of Jonquel Jones. By all accounts, there was no structural damage in her shoulder and she just had to let it heal until she could deal with contact. If we keepin it a buck, this injury might be the best thing for GW’s hopes to make it to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament. With JJ down for a month, the rest of the team had to step it up, Kelli Prange especially, and they did with spectacular results. Only losing 3 games without her with 2 being on the road is a pretty big deal and has allowed for the development of Prange into a consistent player. At the beginning of conference play, she was going through what can kindly be put as a sophomore slump but since JJ went down she has turned into a much better player consistently putting up double digit points and rebounds. Her ability to stay on the floor is huge because it gives the team a safety valve if Caira or JJ get in foul trouble, and also allows Tsip to deploy what I like to call the death lineup of Lauren Chase, Hannah Schaible, Kelli Prange, JJ, and Caira. If that lineup gets on the floor and is clicking, it’s pretty much game over for the other team .

So anyway back to the task at hand, Duquesne (24-6, 13-3). The only regular season meeting between these two teams GW won 70-52 AT Duquesne. GW didn’t even play particularly well on offense in that game but they played fantastic D and got 7 trillion rebounds (55, they actually had 55) to win easily. Duquesne is a pretty good team obviously they tore through the A10 like GW, but their nonconference schedule left a lot to be desired. Regradless this is a matchup of two NCAA bound teams. GW of course is also playing for back to back A10 championships. As always if GW can do their thing on defense and rebound they should have no problem repeating as A10 champs!!

Looking Ahead:
Regardless of the result of this game, GW is going to the NCAA tournament. Their seed is tbd. Right now they’re probably looking at an 8 or 9 seed, maybe a 10 if the committee is weird like last year. If they win tomorrow they could end up as a 7. 7 is ideal. Mostly because getting that 8/9 game means if you win your next game is against a 1 seed which is less than less than ideal (y’all can miss me for that double less than, it’s necessary). More importantly though, JJ is back and by the time they get to first round of the NCAA tourney, not til 3/18 or 3/19, she should be good to go all the way. Tsip is doing the perfect thing right now having her come off the bench to get used to the flow after missing a month and also it let’s her get her sea legs back under her. Friday she played 13 minutes, Saturday she got 21, and I would expect somewhere between 25-30 Sunday. In her 34 minutes back she has 22 points and 27 rebounds so her production is exactly where she left it.

Let’s go get that championship yo!

Raise High!

Josh Strongin