(Photo courtesy of Greg Fiume)
BROOKLYN, NY – George Washington will be facing an uphill battle during the Atlantic 10 Tournament. After undergoing some difficult circumstances during conference play, including injuries to their star redshirt freshman forward duo of Darren Buchanan Jr. and Garrett Johnson, the Revolutionaries ended the season in last place and will be the No. 15 seed in the tournament. They will face No. 10 seed La Salle in the first round on Tuesday at 2:00 pm at the Barclays Center.
Despite finishing last in the A10 and being the lowest seed in the tournament, GW is entering the week with some momentum. In their penultimate regular season game, they beat St. Bonaventure 86-75 and narrowly lost 65-67 to Duquesne in their finale.
“We felt great, I thought we played well, we didn’t win but we liked what we did,” said senior guard James Bishop. “We were in the game at the end and had a chance to win against a good team on their senior night so we feel great going in to the tournament.”
Despite playing well, two controversial calls by the officials at the end of the came, including a soft shooting foul on graduate center Babatunde Akingbola with about two seconds left that led to the game-winning free throws for the Dukes, spoiled the end-result for the Revolutionaries.
The biggest difference in the last two games is that GW is defending at a much higher level. Starting from the second half against St. Bonaventure, GW has allowed 33, 34, and 33 points in each half. In conference play, GW’s opponents scored 81.9 points per game, or 41.0 points per half.
Bishop was asked about what’s led to the improved results on the defensive end.
“A lot more effort, a lot more attention to detail,” said Bishop. “We’re all just playing for each other.”
GW’s first round opponent, La Salle, is one they are very familiar with. They’ve already played the Explorers twice this season. They lost both games, losing the first matchup 70-80 at home and the second 66-72 on the road. “The teams are very, very familiar with each other, obviously,” said head coach Chris Caputo. “Just the recency of playing them 10 days ago, there are no secrets.”
“You’re just kind of familiar with what they do, but you know they know they’re familiar with what you to do,” said Bishop. “Just going in there trying to execute the game plan, trying to get that win.”
According to a FiveThirtyEight study in 2022, when relatively evenly-matched teams that face each other for the third time in a season, the team that lost the first two games has an advantage, even if they would normally be expected to lose based on other analytics.
Additionally, GW will be much more healthy than the last time they played La Salle. On March 2, when they travelled to Philadelphia for the final game at Tom Gola Arena, GW only played a six-man rotation and was missing redshirt sophomore guard Maximus Edwards and graduate center Antoine Smith Jr. Johnson was also out for that game, and will continue to be out for the rest of the A10 Tournament as he continues to deal with hip issues stemming from the rare benign tumor that kept him out of basketball for two-and-a-half years.
Caputo described Johnson’s injury as a “re-aggravation,” but ensured that it was nothing long-term.
After Edwards missed the second La Salle game, he has really come into his own as GW’s sixth man and has given the Revolutionaries another dimension to their offense.
Having Smith Jr. back also allows GW to more effectively use small-ball lineups that feature Buchanan Jr.
as the de-facto center and allow Smith Jr. to space the floor.
Despite coming into the tournament with some momentum, La Salle is still a very solid team. They are led by two of the best guards in the conference, junior guard Khalil Brantley and senior guard Jhamir Brickus. GW must stay active and engaged on the defensive end against the Explorers’ star guard duo and try and prevent dribble-penetration.
If Brantley and Brickus are able to get in the paint against GW’s young guards, Akingbola, who is averaging an A10-leading 2.7 blocks per game, is going to need to continue defending the rim at an elite level.
La Salle is also coached by the legendary Fran Dunphy, who, in his 32 nd year as a head coach has a .629 winning percentage, has made 17 NCAA tournaments and has helped this Explorers group largely over-perform the last two seasons. Last year, Dunphy was able to bring the Explorers to the A10 tournament quarterfinals as the No. 11 seed.
Beating La Salle isn’t going to be easy, but this GW team may just be getting hot and healthy at the right time.
“We’re going to surprise a lot of people with how well we’re going to play, said Bishop. “How hard you’re going to play, we’re going to be a tough matchup.”
In what could be Bishop’s final collegiate game, do not expect the Revolutionaries to go down quietly. This GW team’s story isn’t over just yet.
