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Scouting George Washington!!
By
Andy Mac Williams,
1/31/2012
Major surgery has been performed at Foggy Bottom!! The new GW athletic director shocked a few folks by firing head coach Carl Hobbs. In 10 seasons he'd taken the Colonials to 3 NCAA tournaments and had averaged around 17 wins/season. Last year the Colonials were 17-13 with a weak non-conference schedule,but they finished 10-6 in the conference-just missing a top 4 bye to Atlantic City. St Joe's then upset GW at the Smith Center in an overtime play-in game. Hobbs headed back to UConn where he played and coached under Jim Calhoun. Enter Mike Lonergan!!
He's from the Washington DC area-was an assistant at Maryland and enjoyed a strong 6 year run at Vermont after replacing Tom Brennan. Lonergan arrived too late to recruit much so he's used what Hobbs left him. The style is less chaotic. Hobbs liked uptempo offense and hectic scrambling defense. GW always was entertaining to watch but they made a zillion mistakes. Hobbs actually hatched an excellent more controlled game plan for Xavier last season at Cintas and gave the Muskies a heck of a fight. XU prevailed 81-74. Tu Holloway and Mark Lyons each scored 22. GW All A-10 second team PG Tony Taylor scored 21.
Lonergan's Colonials are 8-13 overall against a better schedule and 3-4 in the A-10 with 2 straight losses at LaSalle and at Fordham.
Their best post player David Pellom(6-8,220) missed those games with a knee injury. His status for Xavier is unknown. GW has trouble scoring(just 62PPG) but their defense is stickier(66PPG).
Their strong suit is the backcourt. Taylor is a very experienced lead guard. 6-5 Soph Lasan Kromah missed last season with a foot injury. He is a talented all court player who gave XU fits two seasons ago in DC. Senior Aaron Ware is 6-5 208 and plays hard. Serbian Soph Nemanja Mikic is a 6-8 three point machine-just the type of scorer that's bedevilled Xavier lately. 6-6 Junior Dwayne Smith is a bull on the offensive board.
6-3 Bryan Bynes is the first guard off the bench. 6-10 Jabari Edwards is a wide body. The lone impact Frosh is 6-8 John Kopriva from Milwaukee who's a pre-med student.
GW has won all 3 A-10 home games so far over Rhode Island,Richmond and Charlotte. I thought XU played pretty well Saturday at Charlotte(74-70 win).
Again,the Muskies seem to have a major inside edge they need to exploit especially if Pellom does not play. Grabbing loose balls and misses and converting fastbreaks is a priority ala Charlotte. GW has some good pieces. Taylor and Kromah and three point sniper Mikic can all score in bunches.
X is in the middle of a wild Atlantic 10 race. UMass,LaSalle and St Bonnies are 5-2. The Minutemen and Explorers have not lost at home while the Muskies have a home loss to St Louis. UMass plays at Rhode Island. LaSalle hosts Charlotte. SBU figures to lose at SLU. Temple at 4-2 with a 4 game win streak figures to roll Fordham in Philly. SLU is 4-3 as is Dayton. The Flyers have Duquesne at UD Arena.
Among the 3-4 teams GW has XU. St Joe's is at Richmond and Duquesne is at Dayton. Xavier needs a road win badly to stay within hailing distance of the Top 4. Only the Top 4 get automatic first round A-10 tourney byes directly to the Quarterfinals in Atlantic City.
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