Alumnus Josh Strongin continues the tradition of alumni TWIPs for tournament season.

Hellloooooooooo again my people.

It’s March. Our most holy month and a time for us to say thanks to the basketball gods for the magical mess we call college basketball. Let’s get to it.

Season Recap: 18-13 (10-8)
A season that began with major turbulence has come to a close with a lot of questions answered and a team whirring on all cylinders. First off, the coaching thing. Maurice Joseph, who at 31 years of age is younger than some alumni reading this blog, took the reins a week before practices started under circumstances that can best be described as an unmitigated disaster. That he was able to corral this team into anything (and recruit a bunch of guys on the way!) is incredible. A-10 awards were yesterday, and although MoJo didn’t win COY, that he was even mentioned in the list of finalists is a testament to how well he did. I personally think he earned this job full time. While would be a disservice to the team and MoJo if Patrick Nero (who also just won an award for being a kickass AD!!!) didn’t do a complete search at the end of the year, I still predict MoJo gets the full time job. If they end up not doing that, MoJo will still likely be hired as a coach somewhere. Despite being so young, he’s really good at this already and has the player thing down pat. Part of the reason he got the interim job in the first place was because of how much the guys love him. There have been some bumps and bruises along the way this season as he figures out the strategy stuff, but overall he’s done a phenomenal job of playing this team to their strengths. Give him 5-10 years and he’ll be an elite coach, whether it’s at GW (hopefully) or elsewhere.

It’s funny what perception will do. This year’s team ended up with the same conference record as last year’s. This year’s team is a raging success, last year’s was a significant disappointment. Tyler Cavanaugh (2nd Team All-A10, and All Academic Team) was the undisputed best player and leader on this team. I don’t have it in me to yell about awards right now but suffice it to say he was definitely one of the best 5 players in the league and for sure top 30 in the country. He increased his scoring, rebounds, and assists this year. His field goal and three percentage went down but that was because he had to take more shots. His free throw percentage went up and he actually took more of those. He’s amazing. Honestly I don’t know what else to say about him except he’s amazing. This two-year run at GW has been stupidly fantastic. There were two games his entire GW career where he hasn’t scored in double figures. In college, those kinds of stats are almost impossible even if you’re a top 3 lotto pick. At the back half of this season when the team really found their identity, he’s been absolutely absurd. Over the last month he’s basically averaging 20 and 10 while shooting 50-40-90 (FG-three-FT). That seems… not real. And that is… not terrible.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team has slowly but surely come into their own as well. Yuta was injured for a good portion of the year; combined with the fact that his 3-point shooting hasn’t improved, this means he hasn’t quite become the superstar we’d hoped. He is, however, an all-world defender, earning himself a nod on the A-10 All-Defense team, guarding dudes who are 5’9″, 7’0′ and everywhere in between. I cannot stress enough how good his defense has been. It must be so deflating as an opposing guard to see him at the top of the zone or to have him be assigned to you. This year, Yuta’s gotten better at blocking shots of all varieties (without fouling! *praise hands*) His offense struggled, but a lot of that was due to dealing with injuries. Finally healthy, his offense has been really really good the last month or so. The same goes for our resident YMCA-er, Patrick Steeves (Also a Canadian! Also on the All-Academic Team!!); he was injured for a large part of the season but now that he’s healthy (and can dunk with one hand apparently), he’s been a huge contributor, more so on offense than defense, but we should take what we can get.

The freshmen, much like this team, have been good not great. Jair has really grown up since conference play started. He’s a legitimate starter now and is gonna be amazing very very soon (next year). Part of GW finding their identity was slipping Jair into the starting lineup. The combo of him and Jaren (not a freshman!) is a good duo because they play so differently, and neither needs the ball in their hands to be effective. For the record, I’m a big Jaren fan. He’s not fast, and he struggles to create his own shot at the rim, but he does exactly what this team needs. He doesn’t turn the ball over. He shoots threes at a 37% clip. And he makes free throws at the end of the game. A 7 point, 5 assist, 1 turnover game. where 5 points come at the end on free throws to ice it is a perfect Jaren Sina game FYI. Also coming along has been Jordan Roland (Also not a freshman!). Dude is perfectly suited as a 6th man. He can come in, get his own shot, and get on a hot streak to carry the team for a whole half. He shot 42% from 3 yo!! Since we’re talking about sniping, Matt Hart is good at that too. Also shooting 41%, my man came into games for one thing only and did it extremely well. MoJo and the team did a really good of designing and executing Matt Hart plays; Hart himself has done a really good job of capitalizing on these chances, serving as a turning point in a number of games.

Meanwhile in big people land, Toro and Smith have both developed since the beginning of the year. Not at the pace that you or I’d like to see, or at one that allows them to play a lot, but enough that both can now hold their own defense. Collin still fouls way too much, but we’ll get there. I’m excited for future lineups where they are in together, Toro is the primary defender, and Smith is the help guy who blocks whatever shot goes up into the netherworld. Everyone should be happy that both of them are already quite good at the rebounding thing, on both sides of the ball. Neither is there offensively yet, that’s ok; I’d rather the defense come first and the offense come later. If both of them can add just a little bit more composure and a little bit more touch, they’re gonna be great. Marfo has not progressed really at all, but end of the year rotations tighten up and you don’t have time for go-show-me-something anymore so it’s unlikely he will play much. There’s a lot there to work with, and a lot more to work on. But it would be awesome to see him figure it out because if all three of these dudes can get to another level, they gonna be dirttyyyy in a few years.

I pretty much managed to talk about everyone who contributed to the team this year. I could talk about Collin Goss? Do you want me to talk about Goss? Nah, it’s probably still too soon (til at least he graduates).

A-10 and Beyond

So here’s the deal. We’re going with the flow this year. After the off-court turmoil, this team’s expectations were literally “just don’t turn into a flaming pile of trash.” Mission accomplished and then some. 10-8 and the 6th seed. Which is exactly what they had last year when they were playing for an NCAA tournament bid. This year they are just playing. And they’re hotttttt. Like multiple flame emojis hot. 5 straight wins and an offense that’s pumping out 3’s at over a 40% clip and over 80 points a game.

Which version of this do you want? There’s the boring real analyst version and there’s the Josh lives in a fantasy world with magical creatures version.

The real version is that with the hot streak and Tyler turning into a super nova they could win a few games but they’re gonna have trouble against Richmond and probably won’t make it past Saturday.

The magical creatures version is that this team has the magic, momentum, and matchups (3 M’s of March Madness!!) to do this thing for real and actually win the A10 tournament. They got the easy side of the bracket and are riding a hot streak, which is sort of important for tourney season. They also have a senior player who is literally just shooting fire at this point and they’re a team that can put up a lot of points on 3’s. That’s pretty much the formula for how you pull off upsets in March. So yeah. This is absolutely doable. Dayton is great (and beatable it turns out), VCU is whatever (they are Satan reincarnated), the rest of the A-10 is a bunch of meh who may or may not play well. GW does have a lot of babies who have never done this before so a lot of this is gonna fall on the shoulders of Yuta playing defense like a super-powered ninja and Tyler not losing his flamethrower touch (have you figured out the theme yet).

St. Louis/Duquense should be a nice warm-up. The Richmond game is the one I would circle, regardless of which version of this tournament you believe is gonna happen. They are GW kryptonite this year and also boast the A-10 player of the year in TJ Cline. GW hasn’t really had an answer for them in two matchups, but again who knows with this hot streak and whatever else. That game could end up being who makes more threes; after that it’s gravy. That Richmond game will be the hardest game in this theoretical run. Once you’re at Saturday, Tyler might turn into an actual dragon and the rest of the team is just gonna be playing to play. This team is best when they’re loose, and the most loose they ever get is when Yuta gets a steal and slam (aka the Pato) and does the salute thing or when Tyler turns into a volcano. Also, probably a good reminder that GW is undefeated when Steeves dunks, so keep that in your back pocket. We’ll see what happens. A hot team in March, possibly playing for their coach’s job, with a senior who might not ever miss again. This wouldn’t even be that crazy. But again. This year we’re just gonna go along and enjoy this ride, whether it’s a quick loss or a magical run to dancing. This team was left for dead and that they are where they are, needs to be appreciated for what it is.

Next year should be great. Regardless of whether or not MoJo is the coach, this team is set up for long-term success. Sure they have to replace Tyler, but to that I say, they literally just had to replace the greatest triumvirate in GW history and managed pretty okay. So be excited. For this tournament, for next year, for possibly seeing Tyler turn into a heat seeking missile. Hopefully we get unicorns and rainbows but if not, it has been a pleasure, as always to write made up words for y’all to enjoy.

Throw up them deuces and Raise High

Josh Strongin