Karl Hobbs, we hardly knew ye

Haunting the Flyer Faithful for all eternityWhen we drew straws to see who would be lucky enough to write the recap for this boring game, you can imagine my pain when I drew the short end.  It has been well documented on this site that I fucking HATE the George "Warshington" Colonials.  In one of my famed "Five for Flying" columns, I talked about how Alexander Koul and Shawnta Rogers were my all-time hated enemies.  I will never forget the game where GW hit a half court shot to beat Dayton (at home no less), or how Mike King would tear up Dayton every single time out.  That, and I really wanted to watch the Temple/Xavier tilt.  Fuck it, I'll be honest. Two eyes were on the Temple/Xavier game and my one good ear was listening to the Dayton game. At halftime, they had a nice segment on London Warren.  It was awkward, not unlike the Kenny Frease segment.

Before we get into the recap, I honestly felt like I was listening to my grandfather call the game with all of Bucky's George "Warshington" comments.  Why do old people add an "R" to the word "wash?"  Sort of like saying, "Cincinnata" or "Miama."  True story, my grandpa always says, "I saw a snake down by the crick." Guess what suburb of Dayton he lives in?  That's right, Beavercreek.  But does he say, "Beavercrick?" No, he doesn't!  What the fuck, grandpa?  Also, I-75 was shut down northbound and southbound -- and there was an earthquake in Haiti.  Just making sure you all heard Larry say that about 15 times during the game.

First Half Highlights

• Luke Fab was in street clothes and Paul Willie is not feeling great.  Dayton is down a few players but I don't think it will matter during this "soft" part of Dayton's schedule.
• Chris Wright became Dayton's all time leader in dunks tonight.  Our girl Julia asked the question during the live Xavier chat, "Who keeps track of dunks?"  Well Julia, mid-major schools do, that's who.   Let me tell you, the NBA scouts are DROOLING over CW's 1-9 shooting in the first half.
• Dayton jumped out to a 38-26 lead at halftime thanks to both teams being absolutely dreadful from beyond the arc.  When you miss so many 3's (GW was 22% and Dayton was 27%), you get a lot of fast break opportunities (as seen by Dayton's ridiculous 25 rebounds of the first half.
• I LOVED Larry giving a big sigh when the news break person said President Obama wanted Congress to quickly push the healthcare bill through before Senator Scott Brown is sworn in.  That and Sean Hannity commercials give me a semi.  Rock on Larry, rock on.
• CJ and London lead the way with 7 points a piece and combined for 7-of-8 FT shooting.  That my friends, is practice.  Dayton as a whole shot fairly well from the charity stripe at an 11-of-14 clip. Wish we could have seen that on Saturday.
• GW plays a lot of players so one player is not going to stand out.  Lasan Kromah lead the way with 8 points, 2 below his nightly average per game.
• GW got a technical in the first half for, get this...6 players on the court.  Seriously GW?  AGAIN??? Koach Karl Hobbs is 100% going to get fired at the end of the year.

Second Half Highlights

• I rip Chris Wright for sucking ass and he comes out strong in the 2nd half by scoring the first 6 points of the half.   I should rip on the players more often.
• It's nice to see Marcus Johnson slowly coming back to life.  Big game vs. Xavier, coming on strong this game.
• Random programming note: the wife is watching American Idol.  Fucking christ, Kristin Chenoweth is hot. There is no need to ask Hot/Not.  Also, fuck you America for canceling Pushing Daisies.
• Dayton's defense came out strong, and jumped out to a ridiculous lead (54-31).  I was hoping to see Logan Nourse come in when Josh Benson went down after running into a pick.
• Joseph Katuka of GW fouled out with about twelve minutes left in the game.  I would say that is a record but something tells me that there is a former Dayton player named Bob Fiely that once fouled out in a minute.  Let Blackburn tell you that story.
• Bucky kept saying, "A lot of time left in this ball game" when Dayton was up by 20+ points.  At first I thought he was fucking crazy.  Then I remember Dayton was down to Towson by 17 points and came back to win.  Anything could happen...
• ...but this is George Washington.  They played absolutely dreadful tonight.  You have to credit Dayton's stellar defense.  So much so that with 6 minutes left in the game, we had a Dan Foxxx sighting.
• Not sure if any of you watched Temple/Xavier, but the Owls are REALLY good.  And I'll just say it because you all hate me anyway.  Xavier played like shit on Saturday folks.  Do I think that Dayton will win the rematch?  I already told you I did.  But it is going to be a lot closer than many people think. Temple is well on their way to the #1 seed in Hotlantic City.
• Matt Kav finally on the floor with 2 minutes left.  Yes folks, he is going to be AWESOME!!!  Keep thinking that.

Final Thoughts

It's hard to pick a player of the game when this was such a one-sided affair.  Chris Wright came through with a ho-hum double double.  CJ got his.  Marcus, as stated above, is coming out of season long slump. London had a good game.  Rob Lowery needs to fix his shot.  All in all, a good win for the Flyers to give them 30 in a row at Dayton.  As all of you are well aware, despite us ripping on Wright a lot (he IS a projected first round NBA draft pick), he has never lost at home in a game in which he has actually played in.  Despite sucking ass this year, St. Joe's is still a tough place to play.  Let's hope Marcus can keep it up and lead this team as one of it's senior leaders.

George Washington vs. Dayton

Effective Field Goal Percentage (eFG%): adjusts for the fact that a 3-point field goal is worth one more point than a 2-point field goal.
Turnover Percentage (TO%): is an estimate of turnovers per 100 plays.
Offensive Rebouning Percentage (OR%): measures a team's ability to get offensive rebounds.
Free Throw Rate (FT Rate): is a measure of both how often a team gets to the line and how often they make them.

		S	MIN	PTS	FGM	FGA	FG%	FTM	FTA	FT%	3PM	3PA	3P%	OR	DR	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF
	L. Kromah	*	26	14	4	10	40	5	8	62	1	5	20	1	1	2	2	1	0	3	1
	T. Taylor	*	25	7	3	8	37	0	0	0	1	4	25	0	0	0	5	0	0	0	1
	A. Ware	*	21	5	2	4	50	1	2	50	0	0	0	1	1	2	1	0	1	0	2
	D. Hollis	*	12	5	2	5	40	0	0	0	1	2	50	0	0	0	1	0	1	1	2
	J. Katuka	*	11	6	3	3	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	3	4	0	1	0	1	5
	H. Opoku		18	4	1	2	50	2	3	66	0	0	0	1	4	5	0	0	0	0	2
	D. Smith		17	2	1	4	25	0	3	0	0	2	0	1	2	3	0	0	0	0	1
	T. Johnson		17	4	2	2	100	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	3	1
	B. Bynes		16	0	0	5	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	2	2	0	1	0	3	1
	D. Pellom		14	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	3	3	1	0	0	1	1
	T. King		12	2	1	3	33	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	0	2	1	2	1
	J. Edwards		11	2	1	1	100	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	0	0	2	0	1
		S	MIN	PTS	FGM	FGA	FG%	FTM	FTA	FT%	3PM	3PA	3P%	OR	DR	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF
	M. Johnson	*	34	13	5	10	50	3	3	100	0	4	0	2	4	6	3	1	0	2	3
	C. Johnson	*	29	10	2	9	22	4	4	100	2	4	50	3	5	8	0	1	1	2	2
	C. Wright	*	28	14	5	14	35	4	6	66	0	1	0	4	8	12	2	1	1	1	2
	K. Huelsman	*	20	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	3	1	0	3	0	2
	L. Warren	*	18	7	2	5	40	3	4	75	0	1	0	0	4	4	6	1	0	3	3
	R. Lowery		24	3	1	4	25	0	0	0	1	4	25	1	3	4	2	0	0	5	2
	M. Perry		16	11	4	9	44	0	2	0	3	6	50	2	1	3	2	0	0	0	1
	D. Searcy		15	4	2	3	66	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	2	1	1	0	1	1
	J. Benson		11	4	1	1	100	2	3	66	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	1	1
	D. Fox		3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	M. Kavanaugh		2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1

Comments

[Adam]

I don't hate you. But Xavier didn't play like shit on Saturday. They played about average. So did Dayton.

Temple's really good. Didn't see them tonight obviously, but they are very good in the mid-range game, and just good enough from three to force you out, therefore keeping the 15 footer wide open. The way to beat them is following what Kansas did, which is take away the mid range shot. Of any team in the league, I think UD has the best chance of doing just that. Odds are Temple wins at home, but it's not a foregone conclusion. Dayton can dominate them on the boards just like they did at Xavier.

[BrownsFlyer]

I was at the game tonight and was stunned when GW had 6 guys on the floor......again. The best part about this, is the student section would count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 after every GW substitution to remind them of how many players they had on the floor and yet they still had 6 guys on the floor and got a T. How does this happen? This doesn't even happen during Special Olympic games, let alone a D1 college basketball team two years in a row.

[rosemasw]

london should be playing more minutes than rob. anyone know where to find a +/- stat for both players this year so far

[sancho]

and now for the DUH comment of the night: "I’ll be honest with you, I’ve never been a zone coach. " -BG

here's the article: http://www.daytondailynews.com/o/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/daytonflyers/

[John]

Was kind of in and out on the game tonight but the end result and the box score looked good.

I ended up not putting money down, good move. I still thought it would be a 7-10 point game, glad to see it was a blowout.

I really think Saturday's game is a big game for UD. I think it will tell us fans where exactly this team is at. St. Joe's in a new building will be a tough place to win (even though St. Joe is below average) and factor in Martelli doing a good job of managing the game. If UD can win this game by 6-9 points I think that would be great. I think it will give us (the fans) a lot more confidence that they will win at St. Bonaventure next week. If that happens and they clean up the four HOME games (including this one) that would be 6 straight. It would also mean two wins over top 30 rpi teams.

So here we go, good start to this little 6 game stretch. Just think, at the end of it UD could be sitting at 19-4 with three top 30 rpi wins and 8-1 in conference before heading to St. Louis.

[timmycouch]

london has been managing the game very well lately and has been taking high percentage shots. his minutes need to go up.

Anyone have thoughts on the richmond-charlotte game? Or is this strictly just a 4 team league?

[Adam]

We're not allowed to talk about Richmond. Blackburn is still weeping.

[Secaur]

@timmycouch: To me the A10 is a two at-large bid league. Temple is one, and I'm hoping UD can be the other. I see a different team winning the conference tourney to give the league a 3rd bid, but I think 4 is a pipe dream at this point.

@Donoher/Adam: I agree that XU didn't play a superb game on Saturday but don't the Flyers get some of the credit for that? That's what UD does. Sort of a "we don't play great, but I bet we can make you play worse" approach. Also, X has been so up and down this season. Remember, they were getting dominated for 30+ minutes by the same GW team that looked like it had never played organized basketball before last night. Hobbs and Co. collapsed down the stretch and allowed X to escape with a W (imagine that). The Muskies are a bubble team right now, esp. if they lose to Rhody Saturday.

[Harry Baujan]

In terms of the X game, no dayton does not get too much credit for that, the referees do. The main reason why X did not play very well is that they had the conference POY on the bench for a majority of the first half. If Crawford plays that entire game, it is a completely different story. And don't bring up that CW was out as well because Crawford is much more of a game changer.
@Adam, the key to beating Temple is to play like the 3rd ranked team in the nation which has 2 preseason All-Americans? Ok we'll get right on that.
@John, I don't think beating a bad team on the road can be a barometer for how a team stands. If you really want that, you're going to have to wait until 2/24 to see if UD can beat a quality team on the road, thus far they have not been able to (UNM, XU).

[BRPride]

@Harry
Such pessimism...not a whiff of unreasonableness in your expectations...listening to you is like taking the under on life.
You'll fit in nicely here.

[Harry Baujan]

@BRPride, I sincerely apologize for not living in the land of hypotheticals. I'm not sure what you're pointing at as being pessimism, the fact it is unreasonable to expect us to play like kansas? Do you remember the tourney game against them last year...they've only gotten better. I think that UD can play with any team in the country on any given night, but the key to beating better opponents is to play an up tempo game. With a bench that does not seem to end and athleticism out the ass, tempo is the key to any UD victory. Lastly, why would you include unreasonableness in your expectations unless you love failure and disappointment: under commit, over deliver.

[Dough Hauschild]

another great quote from the BG post game show

WHIO: Loved the zone coach where did that come from
BG: I liked it too, I'm not sure where it came from.

Really? are we serious my god

[Secaur]

So the refs kept US in the Xavier game ... at Xavier? Not buying.

[Harry Baujan]

@Secaur I was being facetious, the closeness of the game can be attributed to Crawford seeing more bench time than normal though. XU did not play like shit, but UD did not play so well either. It is important to note that in this "rivalry" no matter who the favorite is, it has a good likelihood of going either way.

[John]

A-10 gets three ... maybeeeeee four if someone separates itself from the pack. But, I would bet on three again.

With the Pac-10 licking a dog dick its possible those three can be at-large bids, we will see. The great thing is with all the press the A-10 is getting and how it is two-fold better than the Pac-10 you can have a slightly worse record than years past and still dance.

I will be worried if UD chokes away one against St. Joe's or St. Bonny's on the road. But as I said, I think they win the next six and basically lock themselves in before the end of the season ... like last year ... meaning only a disaster would keep them out.

Also, Donoher it is your birthday today. You are 78 years old. My two second scroll of UDPride today resulted in that little tidbit, so it worked.

[juliaflyer]

for the record, during the chat my "who keeps track of that?" was directed at the stat of 59 substitutions.

As far as the game last night. I was there and I was ashamed of how quiet the student section was. But, it was Wednesday, and we were playing GW. Even I couldn't muster up that much excitement.

And are you happy? the USA chant is officially dead.

[BRPride]

@Julia
The 1-2-3-4-5 chant is infinately better and will need to be a staple for all future games against GW. Teaching the Colonials how to master something most two year olds have down pat is just another example of UD trying to make the world a better place. Now if we could only figure out a way to teach X how to work a clock...

[BRPride]

@Julia
The 1-2-3-4-5 chant is infinately better and will need to be a staple for all future games against GW. Teaching the Colonials how to master something most two year olds have down pat is just another example of UD trying to make the world a better place. Now if we could only figure out a way to teach X how to work a clock...

[Rossi]

I would like to see more of Josh Benson. When he is playing, the Flyers are more athletic. But the negative side with Wrigtht and Benson on the same floor they seem out of control. One thing I noticed is Lowery MUST slow down. Clearly Blackburn is right. BG is going with more offense. I believe when Josh Parker is plays next yr with Staten this position wont be as frustrating to watch.

[Jim O'Brien]

How much longer does Marcus have to play well before we make Blackburn apologize for calling him a faker with his wrist injury?

[The Situation]

Josh Parker will start.

[Tom Blackburn]

@O'B: never. Even if he is playing better, I still contend that the various "injuries" were just a cover for his shitty play.

[juliaflyer]

@BRPride, I agree on all counts (though there was confusion if we were going to continue to 6 in the following substitutions (after they sent out 6 players) As a graduating senior, I would love to be a part of the continuation of the 1,2,3,4,5 chant, but cannot. It was a thing of beauty, and the looks on the faces of the red sweaters (blue hairs) after they realized what we were doing was priceless.

And it's not that X doesn't know how to work a clock, one of the X cheerleaders looked at it, and it broke. Shit happens.

As far as the actual game. Josh Benson is a beast. Seriously, awesome night for JB. And I believe it was Mickey who had the ball on one possession with 3 seconds left on the shot clock...and he passed it to LONDON WARREN who proceeded to brick a 3 at the buzzer (of the shot clock.) Really. 3 seconds on the shot clock and you pass to London for the 3? Sad face, Mickey, sad face.

Oh, and side note. SportsCenter today talked for a good ten minutes on how UNC is bad at basketball. I found this amusing because
1. they are ranked (proof that rankings are such a joke)
2. Fordham is a bad basketball team. SC never talks about them.
3. I watch sportscenter to catch up on the top teams in the country, not the teams with the most history. get off my tv unc.

[Tweeds]

GW's motion,wheel, weave offense (Larry/Bucky called it all of those) was pitiful and nearly made this game unwatchable.

@Harry B- In my tenure as a diehard UD fan, a game on the road against a sub par St. Joe's team would be a game that we would lose during the "Binnie,Alvarez, Norman Plummer, and Big Des era" While this team is significantly better then those .500 piece of shit teams of years past, I've grown to appreciate these types of wins and not take anything for granted. If we soundly beat St. Joes (Fuck 6-9 points) by say 15 then this will be a positive indication of where we are this season. Keep in mind St. Joes gave Nova some trouble earlier this year as well, same game where Taylor King tried to dunk and came up a foot short. I hope someone saw that.

On a complete tangent, for anyone making travel plans to see the Flyers this year the game at St. Louis is the same weekend as Mardi Gras, which for those of you unfamiliar with Mardi Gras celebrations supposedly STL is 2nd only to New Orleans. The game at SLU was over Mardi Gras weekend last year. That game ended with myself and a bunch of guys wearing blue sweater vests in their 60s all blacked out talking shit to each other. Hopefully this year I can do more of the talking.

[Tweeds]

I think we'll find out the answer to the question I posed yesterday, how many Ls will it take to get UNC out of the top 25...probably 7. Thank God.

[juliaflyer]

This whole UNC ranking debacle is making me hate them even more. UNC lost to Clemson, GT, Wake...the list goes on. What does a team have to do to lose their ranking?

Apparently all UD has to do is lose to the number 4 (Villanova) team in the country.

And for the record, I think we play better when we are unranked. Suck it, UNC.

[The Situation]

@Julia: we're in no way worthy of being a top-25 team... scenario: game's on the line, need a basket, who takes the shot??? We have noone...

[The Situation]

We will never go far until we have shooters/gamers...I hate to say it, but its the truth...good teams knock down open shots, dayton does not...god i miss b-rob

[Secaur]

Anybody else think the whole "UNC's ranked and we're not" bitching just comes off as Napoleonic? The only good thing about being ranked is that you get highlights of your games on SportsCenter. It literally could not matter less.

@Harry: Call me crazy but I'd argue that the closeness of the game can be attributed largely to the approximate equality of the 2 teams.

@John: The St. Bona game def worries me too. You wanna talk about a place where the Flyers have not played well in the past, Olean, NY, is just that. Saturday's game, not so much.

[rosemasw]

god i miss b-rob

[Tom Blackburn]

i still miss T-Stan

[Jim O'Brien]

btw, that was London's first three point attempt in two years

[BRPride]

More likely to occur before graduation...London attempts another 3 or Kurt has another dunk...?

[Tom Blackburn]

@BRPride: I'll go with LW trying another three. He might end up with the ball with the shot clock winding down at some point this season.

[Tweeds]

I'm not complaining that UNC is ranked and we are not...b/c we are not a Top 25 team right now. I'm just complaining b/c UNC sucks and it took them this long (next weeks poll) to drop out.

[DiSab]

Let's just say I'll be shocked if the Hobbster is still the coach next season.

[chips]

Let's just say I'll be shocked if Disab ever gets laid.

[DiSab]

@Chips - trust me, I would be shocked too.