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Biggest takeaways from George Washington’s controversial triple-overtime loss

David KornBy No Comments7 Mins Read

(Photo courtesy of Greg Fuime)

FOGGY BOTTOM – The George Washington Revolutionaries began conference play with an exhilarating triple-overtime loss to the Fordham Rams. While the ending may have been marred in controversy, there was still a lot to take away from the performance as GW prepares to face old friend Joe Bamisile and VCU on Saturday.

First, the positives:

1. Darren Buchanan Jr.’s historic night

Redshirt freshman Darren Buchanan Jr. has been a revelation this season. He just put forward his best performance of his career, and one of the best individual performances in all of college basketball this season. His 38 points were the most by a freshman so far this season, a season-high for a GW player and the most by a GW freshman since 1999 when SirVailaint Brown scored 42 points.

Buchanan scored his 38 points by going 15-30 from the field, 1-3 from three and 7-8 from the free throw line. He also recorded six rebounds and four steals and drew a team-high seven fouls in a game-high 52 minutes.

Perhaps most importantly, Buchanan was able to score when GW needed it most.

His driving layup with 26 seconds left in regulation sent the game to overtime.

And then, in the second overtime period, Buchanan was able to capitalize on a miscommunication from Fordham to get a last-second dunk to tie it at 102 and guarantee a third period of overtime.

“The play was not for me, we were trying to go for the win, go for a three,” said Buchanan.”I just heard [Fordham] say ‘switch,” and it clicked in my mind to go backdoor and slip to the rim.”

While Wednesday’s performance was Buchanan’s best so far, it was not just a flash in the pan. He’s been one of GW’s best and most consistent players all season. He’s averaging 15.1 points per game, 6.1 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.2 steals, 0.6 blocks and is shooting 57.6% from the field. Beginning the season on the bench, Buchanan has forced his way into the starting lineup, and it looks like he will continue to star for the Revolutionaries.

It looks like Buchanan’s play as of late has gotten people’s attention across the sport. He recently slotted in at 52 in a recent 2024 NBA Draft “Big Board” from @Kjpistons.

2. James Bishop’s efficiency

Senior guard James Bishop quietly had one of the best performances of his career. In 50 minutes, he scored 32 points while shooting 11-21 from the field, 4-7 from three and made 6-8 free throws. He also collected six assists and a career high three blocks.

Bishop hasn’t been scoring at the rate he scored at last season so far, but he certainly poured in the points. As Buchanan continues to draw more and more attention from defenses, Bishop will have more space to operate. Bishop has never had an interior scoring presence like Buchanan. It could add even more layers to Bishop’s already impressive offensive repertoire.

If Bishop can continue to operate at this level of efficiency, especially from deep, GW’s offense will be even more difficult to stop.

3. Babatunde Akingbola’s minutes

Graduate student center Babatunde “Stretch” Akingbola has been one of GW’s most impactful players this season, especially on the defensive end. Despite that, he’s averaged 25.4 minutes per game, the fewest out of all of GW’s starters with 25.4. Part of this is because of fouls. Akingbola is averaging a team-high 2.6 fouls per game. Another reason is because this is because this is the first time in Akingbola’s five-year collegiate career where he’s playing consistent minutes.

Against Fordham, Akingbola played a career-high 46 minutes and was able to be a factor through all three overtimes. He also scored a career-high 11 points and recorded the first double-double of his career by also grabbing 10 rebounds.

GW has been struggling on defense. With Akingbola on the floor, teams are much more tentative about driving to the rim and GW’s defensive ceiling is far higher. Akingbola has a 4.1 defensive box plus/minus, the highest out of all rotation players by 3.2.

The negatives:

1. Defense

GW gave up 119 points to a team that going into Wednesday was averaging 72.9 points per game, 13th in the A-10. Fordham was also last in the conference field goal percentage (41.1%) and effective field goal percentage (47.3%). They were also shooting just 30.8% from three.

At the under-eight timeout in the first half, Fordham was shooting 61.5% from three at a 8-13 clip and couldn’t seem to miss. They eventually ended up regressing more to the mean but still finished the night shooting 45.25 from deep on a very high volume of 19-42.

While some of Fordham’s success from three could be attributed to luck, it is still concerning how easily Fordham was able to convert shots from deep. Defensive issues have been nothing new for GW. They’ve allowed some staggering point totals so far this season. They gave up 89 points to William and Mary, UIC and South Carolina. They also allowed D-II Bowie State to score 73 points.

Both head coach Chris Caputo and various players have spoken about how they have begun to rely too much on Akingbola on defense resulting in some complacency from the rest of the team.

Yes, GW has shown they can score with anyone in the country. Bishop, Buchanan, redshirt freshman forward Garrett Johnson and redshirt sophomore guard Maximus Edwards can all go for 20+ points on any given night. In order to take the next step as a team, they need everyone on the court to be locked in defensively, not just

GW’s best perimeter defender this season has been freshman guard Jacoi Hutchinson. Hutchinson has said his favorite NBA player is Celtics guard Jrue Holiday, who is known for his suffocating on-ball defense. It’s easy to see some similarities in their games when you watch Hutchinson play. Hutchinson only played 16 minutes against Fordham. An easy way for GW to immediately improve their team defense would be to give Hutchinson more playing time.

2. The bench

One of GW’s biggest strengths so far this season has been their depth. Caputo has felt very comfortable giving seven different players, Bishop, Edwards, Johnson, Buchanan, Akingbola, Hutchinson and freshman guard Trey Autry significant playing time. After that, sophomore guard Benny Schröder and graduate student forward Antoine Smith Jr. should be able to play spot minutes as needed, with Schröder’s role potentially increasing as the season goes on.

Against Fordham, Schröder was unavailable due to illness, Hutchinson only played 16 minutes and Autry only played 10 (season low) despite the game going to three overtimes.

It is concerning that in a game like this early on in conference play that Caputo chose not to go to his bench. Whether it was a mistake, and he should have used Hutchinson and Autry more, or he was correct in keeping on the bench, both potential scenarios are a problem for GW.

They’ll need more contributions from their bench if they want to be able to truly compete in the A-10.

What’s Next:

GW travels to Richmond to face VCU at 4:00 pm on Saturday. VCU also lost their opening game of A-10 play, with Saint Bonaventure coming into the Seigel Center and winning 89-78. The biggest story of this game: facing old friend Joe Bamisile, who excelled at GW during his sophomore season in 2021-22 before transferring to Oklahoma, and then to VCU. .

Bamisile averaged 16.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.2 steals, and 1.0 blocks while being named to the All A-10 Third Team. His tenure in Foggy Bottom ended on a sour note when he failed to convert a windmill dunk down 12 in the A-10 Tournament against UMass.

As a multiple-time transfer, Bamisile’s waiver to play this season was initially denied by the NCAA. However, Bamisile is now eligible to play after the recent court ruling.

In four games so far for VCU, Bamisile has been very effective off the bench. He is averaging 12.5 points and 2.6 rebounds while shooting 34.6% from three in 21.8 minutes per game.

Bishop is the only member of GW’s rotation who was teammates with Bamisile in 2021-22. It will be very interesting to see how the two of them interact on the court and if there will be any added intensity to this matchup.

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