(Photo courtesy of @hoophallu)
Uncasville, CT – “It felt like this was an NCAA Tournament type of game.” That was the first thing George Washington head coach Chris Caputo said after his team’s 99-95 victory over South Florida at the Hall of Fame Tip-Off at Mohegan Sun Arena.
Most college basketball programs do not usually find themselves playing such high stakes games in early November. That is especially true in this day and age for top mid-major programs where it is so difficult to schedule competitive non-conference games. But that was the feeling for a GW team with high expectations that is looking to make its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2014 playing against a South Florida team with similar aspirations picked to finish second in the always competitive American Conference.
Despite being down two of their regular rotation players, GW flexed its depth in a fast-paced, up-tempo track meet of a game. The Revolutionaries weathered a frantic South Florida comeback in the middle of the second half, made do without preseason All-Conference First Teamer Rafael Castro for the final 4:19 after he fouled out and executed some tough late-game situations in a statement, resume-boosting victory.
GW played from behind for the majority of the first half, but went on a momentum-shifting 10-1 run keyed by back-to-back threes from Trey Autry and Tre Dinkins to end the frame up 44-40. The GW lead increased early in the second half off another big run, using a 9-2 stretch to bring the score to 59-49, the Revs’ first double-digit lead of the game.
Things turned back around for South Florida after they began to consistently employ full court presses and traps against GW’s ball handlers. South Florida’s defensive aggressiveness forced four turnovers in about a two minute stretch and was the catalyst for an 11-0 run that tied the game at 67 with nine-and-a-half minutes left in the second half and forced a GW timeout.
According to college basketball statistician Evan Miya, a team that goes on a 10-0 run, which he coined as a “kill shot,” wins about 71% of the time.
The rest of the contest was a thrilling, back and forth showdown. Dinkins hit a three out of the GW timeout to put the Revs back up and shift the energy away from the Bulls. About three minutes later, South Florida guard Josh Omojafo, who ended with a game-high 33 points, laid the ball up after a turnover from Bubu Benjamin and once again knotted the score, this time at 76.
Autry, who had no shortage of clutch moments for GW last season, most notably his heroic trifecta of threes in the A-10 Tournament second round against Fordham, came up big again with another gigantic three to put GW up 79-76. Autry played a team-high 37 minutes and finished with 16 points and seven rebounds.
A few plays later, Castro contested a shot inside from South Florida forward Izaiyah Nelson and was called for his sixth foul, earning him a seat on the bench for the rest of the game. Once again dealing with foul trouble after playing just 11 minutes in GW’s opening win against Maine, Castro was effective on both ends of the floor in limited minutes. He scored 14 points on 4-7 shooting from the field, went 6-8 from the free throw line, hauled in six rebounds and had two blocks and two steals.
With Castro out, Tyrone Marshall Jr. and Benjamin, GW’s long, athletic wing duo, had to step up and take on more defensive responsibility in the paint against South Florida’s bigs.
“Coming in here, I knew that I would have to play a big role on the defensive end,” Benjamin said. “With [Castro] going down two games in a row now, all of us had to take a big step forward in terms of being versatile in locking down.”
Caputo laughed off any potential concerns about Castro’s early struggles staying out of foul trouble.
“I’m going to have to watch those plays at the rim,” Caputo said with a smirk, “But shot blocking in the Atlantic 10 is allowed so we want to make sure he keeps trying to block shots.”
Castro fouling out appeared to give South Florida some momentum. Joseph Pinion, a usually steady three point shooter, had missed his first 12 attempts from deep, but finally drained one to make it 81-83.
Then Dinkins took over. He hit back-to-back threes to put GW up 89-81. Then on the other end, the Duquesne grad transfer skied up, grabbed a defensive rebound and heaved the ball up the court to Marshall who drew a foul and made both free throws to make it a double-digit Revs lead. While South Florida was able to hang around, even making it a one-point game with 15 seconds left, GW was able to do just enough to stay ahead.
“Those are shots I work on every single day,” Dinkins said. “I have the confidence to shoot them, so I’m going to shoot them.”
Autry, Dinkins and Marshall made their free throws. GW was able to inbound the ball through South Florida’s suffocating defensive pressure and successfully employ the “foul up three” strategy twice in the game’s final seconds. They were able to make the right plays when it mattered most to keep an unrelenting South Florida offense just out of reach.
Despite coming off the bench, Dinkins, the hero of the day, paced the Revs in scoring. In 27 minutes, he had 22 points on 6-9 shooting from the field and 4-7 shooting from three.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time,” Dinkins said after being asked about how he feels coming off the bench. “Anything I can do to help the team win, I’m going to do it. Whether it’s coming off the bench, starting, anything I can do, at the end of the day, I love winning, so I’m just trying to do whatever I can.”
GW had five double-digit scorers, with Autry, Castro, Marshall and Benjamin joining Dinkins. All eight players who touched the floor made at least two field goals. Jean Arunguren, who had seven points, stuffed the stat sheet with four rebounds and four assists, played tenacious on-ball defense and had a team-high plus nine. Christian Jones and Luke Hunger played the fewest amount of minutes, both with 17, but were still very effective when they were in and contributed during crunch time.
This was all without Garrett Johnson and Ty Bevins.
Johnson, who did not travel with the team to Mohegan Sun, has now missed the first two official games of the season with knee tendinitis after playing in the preseason exhibition against Georgetown. Caputo confirmed postgame that Johnson’s knee tendinitis is in the same knee in which he suffered a torn ACL that forced him to miss all of last season. Johnson’s status for Wednesday’s game against American remains up in the air and will likely be a game-time decision.
Bevins, the promising sophomore guard, suffered a back injury during practice on Friday. Similar to Johnson, an update on Bevins’ status is expected to come pregame Wednesday.
As of now, South Florida is ranked 99 in KenPom. If they end up being ranked between 51-100 in the NET rankings, the primary sorting tool that the NCAA Tournament selection committee uses for evaluating teams, then this will count as a Quad 2 win. GW will be closely monitoring the rest of South Florida’s season in hopes that they stay ranked under 100.
Looking at the rest of GW’s non-conference schedule, their game against Florida will almost certainly be a Quad 1 opportunity and there is a chance that their games against McNeese State and Murray State at the Cayman Islands Classic could be Quad 2.
GW had a chance to make a statement and prove that all of the preseason expectations were deserved. They did just that. In the words of the great John Fanta, who handled play-by-play on the Peacock broadcast of the game, “The Caputo Revolution at George Washington is real.”
