In our special March feature, alumnus Josh Strongin takes over the site to share a special alumni edition TWIP: check back for regular installments of tournament commentary!

AYO team I’m back! This time to talk about the men and the A10 tournament, so everyone strap in and let’s get to it.

Before we talk about the tourney, it’s necessary to take a step back and look at this season as a whole. GW ends the regular season at 22-9 (11-7). To be quite frank, this is a huge disappointment. I genuinely love the guys on this team, but we need to be real about expectations, talent, and what could have been. Since January and A10 play began, this team has been wildly inconsistent, and played like two different teams. There’s the top 25 team whose ceiling is an Elite Eight/Final Four, and then there’s the mediocre A10 team that would be lucky to make it to Saturday of the A10 tourney. Seemingly every time they would put together a 2 or 3 game stretch where it looked like they were locked in, they would revert to the mediocre team for some reason.

Doubly frustrating about this was the fact that three of the starters are four-year starters who have a combined 350+ starts between them. 350!!!! Do you know how often you have multiple 4 year starters on a team? Never. It almost never happens. Not in the A10, the Big East, the ACC, the MAAC, NOWHERE. So you’d think with that being the case, inconsistency would not be a problem – but here we are.  And on top of all this, the inconsistencies have been on the defensive end, where GW has been dominant the last three years. The offense has actually been great; they’re putting up around 76 points a game, and the team is shooting free throws at a 76% clip, which is top 10 in the country.

Meanwhile the defense has left a lot to be desired. In their 7 conference losses, the Colonials lost by double digits once, when they got slaughtered at home by St. Joes. We can let that game be an outlier; everyone has one of those a year, and this year every team not named Xavier or Villanova has had a two week stretch where they’ve been absolute and utter garbage. But those other 6 losses? They were all single digit losses that could’ve been easily winnable games if GW had not taken plays off on defense. It physically pains me to type that sentence but it’s true.

I love this team, I really do. They were constructed pretty perfectly (another big guy or two wouldn’t have hurt, but hey, roll with what you got), and those three seniors (Alex Mitola is a senior as well and he’s been awesome this year, but this is about the golden trio) have done unbelievable things for a program that was a dumpster fire when they got here. Look where we are now, they went 22-9 this year including a win against a top 10 at home and we’re disappointed. That legacy should never be forgotten. BUT there’s a pretty good chance this season ends in the NIT and that is an unequivocal failure for this team. I will be haunted asking what could have been with this team and I think Pato, Joe, and Kevin will also.

The real magic of March is the indescribable joy that it brings. I’ve longed to be able to describe this feeling to people but there’s no way to put it into words. It’s like when you’re a kid and everything seems attainable, that giddy feeling that makes your heart swell, when you’re a part of something so great that you can do nothing but smile and yell and hug the people that are experiencing it with you. That feeling is what makes March basketball magical. Yes, for just about everyone this is going to end in heartbreak and tears but before you reach that it’s pure unadulterated joy. At some point all of you have been a part of that with a GW basketball team, whether you were there in the 90’s, the early 00’s, or now, there have been moments like this, where everything seems possible and nothing can take you off the mountaintop and those moments are the reason March is magical. And hopefully this weekend we can all experience a little magic.

Assuming GW beats their Thursday opponent, they will go on to play Saint Joe’s Friday at 2:30pm. As mentioned above, in their only regular season meeting, GW was annihilated by Saint Joe’s 84-66. The key to beating those stupid Hawks is to contain newly-crowned A10 player of the year, Deandre Bembry. He does basically everything for them, averaging 18p/8r/5a. Stop him and the rest of the team is whatever. Also defending the three-point line is sort of important against this team/something that GW has struggled with this year. Offensively, as always, GW needs to get Kev Lar going early and often. This does wonders for him and the rest of the team even if he’s missing shots, it opens up Tyler and gets Pato, Joe, and Yuta chances at threes. Saint Joe’s has been kinda meh their last few games, so hopefully GW being in a rhythm will help them to win this game.

If GW can get by Saint Joe’s and that freaking hawk, next up would be the winner of Dayton vs Richmond/Fordham. So, it should probably be Dayton, but they’ve been sort of a disaster the last three weeks, so maybe not. GW matches up well with all three of these teams. Truthfully, it shouldn’t matter who GW plays; either GW will be clicking and beat whoever it is, or they won’t and they’ll be on their way to the NIT. GW lost at Dayton 77-70 in a back and forth game that was not decided until the final minute. Dayton may or may not be without their most important player, Kendall Pollard, who has been dealing with a knee injury the last month. They are a completely different team with him and if he’s not playing, they are extremely vulnerable. If GW is going to make an A10 run, I personally believe this’ll be their toughest game. 3rd game in three days wears on you no matter how in shape you are, and at least in the final you can run off adrenaline. I’ve made Dayton out to be some terrible team, but in reality they are extremely talented and probably the A10’s best bet at making a significant run in the NCAA tourney (except GW of course). As with the rest of this season, this game will come down to GW’s effort and execution.

If GW can make it to the championship game Sunday, things will get really interesting. There could be an outside chance GW could secure an at large bid (slightly better chance than me regaining sight in my left eye, slightly worse chance than our dearest Katie showing up to an event late) depending on how everyone else plays this weekend. But besides that, GW will be playing for their lives and an auto bid to go dancing. Likely opponent will be VCU but could also be St. Bonaventure (riding a hot streak and playing for their at-large lives) or even URI (decimated by injury, but still an extremely talented and well-coached team). VCU used to be a matchup nightmare for GW, but now these two teams are evenly matched and bring out the best in each other. Both games this year were won in the last minute by the road team and a third matchup on a neutral court would be incredibly exciting.

All of these games are going to come down to GW’s ability to play defense for 40 minutes. When they are locked in, they are a machine capable of stopping anyone in the country and when they aren’t, prayers up, it’s as simple as that (no it’s not, basketball is not simple at all). Most people will say that Pato is the most important player for GW but I actually think that it’s Yuta Watanabe. His offensive confidence has been shot, stabbed, and run over with a car this season, but his defense has gotten better seemingly every game. He’s quick enough to stay in front of smaller, faster guards and even when they get by him his length allows him to contest shots. That length also allows him to contest shots basically anywhere on the court against anyone, and he’s gotten really good at getting blocks around the basket. Likewise, he finally has enough weight and muscle to deal with bigger guys inside and is able defend them without constantly fouling. Meanwhile, while he’s been mired in a slump all season offensively, Yuta has managed to find a rhythm these last few games which could be unbelievably helpful if he could continue that into the A10 tournament and beyond. Pato gets huge praise (deservedly so) for his ability to play lockdown defense while also being a huge force offensively: he led the A10 in 3pt % this year (!!!!) and he’s also one of the best finishers at the rim in the country. Yuta has the potential to be better on BOTH ends by the time he is a senior. Anyway, I think if Yuta can put it together for this tourney along with the rest of the guys locking in defensively GW can really do this. Again, when they are playing at their best, they can beat anyone in the country. Any. One.

I hope they can put it together for 4 games. I would hate for this to team to go out with a whimper. The seniors deserve to go out with a bang for everything they’ve done for the GW program. Hopefully there’s some magic out there for us, because I would love to go dancing.