Plus Temple defeats UMass, and St. Louis beats Dayton.  If only the Bonnies had come back against Duquesne, we might be talking about GW getting a first-round bye in AC (!)

As it stands, GW has already locked up a home game and can finish no worse than 6th in the conference.  Wow.  Beat Dayton -- which is in a ridiculous free-fall, having been blown out at home by St. Louis -- and GW finishes 5th in the A-10 with a pretty nice set of matchups in Atlantic City.

I'll say it again:  wow.

Finally a win over a top 100 team (I know, Rhode Island, but hey), and on the road.  This is not that execrable GW team from December that was still adjusting to losing Kromah.  Great defense and with the emergence of Jabari Edwards, a much better 8 man rotation. 

The main remaining weaknesses seem to be an unavoidable over-reliance on their starting point guard (barring a step up in play from Guest Taylor is going to be out on the court for a few too many minutes every game) as both a ball handler and scorer, and an offense that is not able to avoid long dry spells.  How about shooting 1-13 from 3 and starting 2 of 8 from the line and winning by double digits? 

Tremendous effort, and another great defensive effort.  Plus, TT willing us to score enough.  Have to think he's locked up 2nd team all league at this point.

Dayton is going to be a really interesting game -- with them coming off a loss and being such a similar team to us. If we can keep to just 5 men on the court, we have a great chance.  And I'd love to get that 5 seed because I'd much rather play Charlotte or St. Joe's than play SLU or LaSalle. 

Caught some on the radio but it sounded impressive. Yeah URI was inept but sounds like we crashed the boards and controlled tempo in their building. KH will and should be back next season.

Hi folks - If anyone is interested, I did film the post-game press conference after tonight's URI vs. GW game. I excuse the poor audio in advance; I'm just using a point and click camera to do it. You can find audio from Hobbs, URI coach Jim Baron and URI point guard Marquis Jones here:

http://patch.com/A-f4JG

Stephen Greenwell, Local Editor, Narragansett Patch

(Sorry about posting this in two different threads - The format of this board is a little different than what I'm used to.)

Thanks RI Steve.  Losing 4 of 5 senior night games? That's got to hurt.

OK, since LSF is giddy I will be the Debbie Downer here: Yesterday baseball lost to The Evil Pant Loads from That School Down the Street.

Great win on the road.

Love to be in AC again. Still remember being there for the mriacle run.

"Very proud of our effort. 5 road wins in any conference is a major feat. Going for 10 conference wins for only the 12th time in GW History."

http://twitter.com/gwcoachhobbs 

• http://blogs.gwhatchet.com/courtside/2011/03/02/taylor-leads-colonials-past-rhode-island/
• http://www.projo.com/uri/content/GWU_URI_Rams_Baron_03-03-11_KHMQ0QE_v3.1bd2f00.html
• http://www.ricentral.com/content/rams-fall-gw-66-55

For those who couldn't see the game, the defense was shades of the '07-'08 defense. They dictated play all over the court and forced URI's ball movement into all sorts of terrible positions. The defense was constantly morphing into different traps all over. It was very impressive. Obviously, Taylors 21 pts, 5 assists, 4 steals and 3 boards helped, but (as previously mentioned) it was his solo daggers time-and-again in the final five minutes which made it a comfortable victory.

"So good was George Washington’s defense that only once in the second half did URI score successive baskets."

http://www.projo.com/uri/content/GWU_URI_Rams_Baron_03-03-11_KHMQ0QE_v3.1bd2f00.html 

Mikic's first scoreless game of the season? 

It's called plan "B," herve.

I noted elsewhere that DEA was doing a huge happy dance that this game proved something or other. I will say that what it proves is that we are a very decent second tier team that can give defensive fits to a team with weaker ball handling. We also know that the team is very dependent on a solid Tony Taylor offensive performance to take a game against a team that is above .500.

We are a good regular season team. This isn't a winning tourney team yet. Shut down Taylor for even a half like Temple did and there are some issues. I would compare 10/11 GW with the Washington Capitals last year. Regular season wonders. If you get into the post season--with everything on the line--let's see what happens as you get a steady diet of better teams that have the talent to overcome the GW press and also take away Taylor.

I would look at the Dayton game as a dress rehearsal. Play it like it is post-season--in a sense, it is.

Dayton will do everything to impose their will on GW in the paint. They will try to prove to GW that they are the big boys and we are just pretenders. Frankly, the past two games have been a little weak. Katuka has to play with his head. He also has to contribute to get to the next level. Against Rhody, GW got just enough scoring from the rest of the team to seize the day. Mikic and Smith have to find more points to take the pressure off Taylor.

With as much at stake as Dayton has, they will come into the Smith Center to do some damage. In turn, GW has to give Dayton a lot more to worry about than just Taylor. Will Bynes have a good day? Will Smith and Mikic score points consistently and also score from the line? Will GW have a string of empty possessions as they did against Temple?

So, the guy I keep watching is Marshall. Most folks talk about his impact on recruiting. What I want to see is if he is helping the in-game mental state of the team. From the bench, there seems to be a concensus that we could win any game, just as long as they stop halftimes. Good teams adjust us to death. We are going eight deep and our team can easily work too hard for back-to-back games with full effort. The question is, can we win the next three? I say that there is about a 10% chance that we pull that off. If we do, I would be very impressed. Of course, there are a number of teams that can do the dirty work for us.

So, who will show up for GW? Will it be that much better team that can play with anyone or that team that did the second half fold against Temple? Certainly, winning 5 on the road is a good thing. What it also means is that there are teams that we can't beat and that has also been proven repeatedly. If we even make it to OC, those teams are going to be waiting for us. Richmond, in my opinion is the closest to a possible win "in the minds of the players."

Sadly, as Notta and I have discussed, Temple owns us. What's more, the won us in our minds.Temple can easily turn the game into a game of fundamentals. As we know, they will win a 40 minute game with GW. They expose our unbridled desire to get easy slams and also put to much on a drive rather than to pull up for a 10 footer. They don't fall asleep on boards. They move their feet when we don't. Xavier has a higher "beta" and are more likely to just wipe us out, and yet, they are also more likely to get into a tussle with us as they too try to play run and gun when they have no business playing up tempo with a lead. Xavier also seems to be a bit more fragile than Temple on a mental basis. Duquesne is somewhat of a "one trick pony" like GW, but everyone admits that they have better athletes for their trick. Their pony riders can score where ours may struggle. That's a mental thing, as well. Does Hobbs and company have a solution? I don't know... Finally, there is Richmond. They are probably the best basketball team in the A10 on any give day, but they also do not attempt a knock out blow, in most cases. They just string W's and, indeed, that's what it takes to stand a good chance at the gold ring. However, GW has done OK with Richmond recently in the "moral victory" column. We have been sniffing their dead body several times, only for them to come back from the brink.

If you were looking for the 2 to 5% SOLUTION on magic at OC, does it include us stepping over the dead corpse of Richmond?

I hope so! I want another shot at Duke.

Maybe my expectations were brought ridiculously low by the horrible start of the season, but I am actually pretty satisfied with how this team has found a way to build as the year has gone on.  Often it is not a thing of beauty, but they are now playing consistently good defense and enough offense to win most of their games.  Did anybody see this coming back around early or mid December?  I did not.

DM, I'm not sure if that was a 1,000 word post to simply remind everyone that GW isn't a top team in the conference (which I presume everyone here knows) or if there was a hidden meaning that I'm not getting.  I'm not sure how you're defining "second tier " but it's not a very flattering description of a team who will finish in either 5th or 6th place in a 14 team conference, without one of their best players.  If Karl Hobbs ever had the right to say the word "overachieve", now is the time.

The Dayton game may appear like a postseason game to Dayton but it should no longer be perceived that way for GW.  Not that there aren't incentives...capturing the #5 seed gives GW an easier first round game and if successful, what I feel is a more favorable matchup against Duquesne (or URI which would take the #4 seed with a win and a Duke loss on Saturday) as opposed to Richmond.  However, we began last night with the worst case scenario of a #9 seed meaning no first round home game and we not only have now avoided this but have also avoided a match-up against X or Temple until the semifinals.  Not that we shouldn't play hard (particularly on Senior Day) but a loss on Saturday should be accompanied by an "oh well" and nothing more.

Finally, the "wait until the playoffs" mantra is very premature in my mind.  This team is not expected to compete against Temple, Xavier, or even Richmond who I believe many are underrating here simply because we managed to lose two competitive games to them.  This year is all about playing with the house's money.  Expectations have already been exceeded.  (Even Bobo cited a 9-7 benchmark which will now be met if not exceeded.)  Next year, it looks like we will have the personnel to compete with the top teams.

As for today, why not enjoy a winning record in the A10.  Not bad for the worst GW team in the past 20 years.

MV, you are wrong about URI's chances at the 4 seed.  See my seeding thread.

<?php

$MV = "excuses";

?>

FQ, I am not wrong.  If GW and Duquesne lose on Saturday while URI wins, URI and Duquesne finish at 10-6 while GW is at 9-7.  It would be a two team tiebreaker which would go to URI based on head-to-head.

Sorry, MV, but you aren't making sense.  Your comment was that if we are the 5 seed, we'd have a better matchup with Dukes (or, you added, URI who could get the 4 seed).  But you are wrong in that there is no way we could get the 5 seed with URI getting the 4. The only way we can get the 5 is for URI to be the 6.  To be sure, URI can get a 4, but in that case, we'd be the 6.   Your scenario of us getting the 5 and a favorable matchup with URI can not happen.

 DM talk about putting a damper on people being happy about their team. We might not be better then X, Temple or Richmond but we played all three teams very well this year. Ask Richmond or X if they want to run into us in the tournament before the final round? The fact is this team has overachieved this year, whether you choose to accept it or not. I don't know if this team can go far in the A10 tournament but the way this group plays on the road, I wouldn't say it's impossible. 

Going from thinking early this season that it'd be an accomplishment to make the A-10 tournament, to having clinched a home game with a regular season game to spare, I can't see anything but good stuff right now.  It'd be nice if Mikic hadn't gone ice cold with the A-10 tournament coming up, but the fact that we can beat an opponent with a better record on their home court by double digits despite that, says something about our resourcefulness.  I like it.  I don't know what'll happen from here but I look forward to finding out.

FQ, OK I get it.  I was reacting to your post about URI as if you meant that URI had no chance at the #4 seed (which they do).  I now realize that what you were saying is that if they become the #4 seed, then we can not be the #5 (and play them in the quarters).  My mistake.

On another thread (and this is off-topic), I had recommended the book Scorecasting (to FQ although anyone is welcome to read it).  Just want to say that I have finished this book and if ever there was a book written for people like FQ (sports fans who like to challenge assertions through the use of statistics), this is the one.  I can not recommend it enough.

Ugh, please spare me the overacheiving bit.  It's disrespectful to the team and the players to say it.

DEA, I know you weren't around during the 16-0 season, but all through that season, Hobbs kept telling the media we were overachieving and the result was not only some in the media turning against us, but a committee that decided to listen to the coach that we weren't really that good and screw us with a bad seed and two road games in the supposedly neutral NCAA tourney.

I choose to look at it as we MASSIVELY underachieved early in the year, not that we are overachieving now.  We have a decent team with plenty of weapons,. playing a a league that is probably looking at its fewest combined NCAA/NIT bids in a couple decades.  It's great that we have gone 9-2 against the non-NCAA/NIT teams (maybe 9-1 if Dukes can squeeze their way into the NIT) -- that is a really nice accomplishment. And we do now have a top 100 RPI win (albeit not a top 100 Pomeroy win).  But I hardly consider an RPI in the 140 range overachieving. This is what the team should have been doing all along.  Hell, if the coach would have installed an offense and a roatation before January, we might actually be a borderline top 100 team right now and then you can say we were overachieving.

As I said previously, our talent without Kromah is no worse than 7th in the A-10.  Perhaps it's "overachieving" to finish 5th or 6th, although some of that is because of other teams (namely Dayton) underachieving, and some of it just balances out the early season suck-fest.

In fact, I think it's disrepsectful to the team and the players to call them overachieving,

like you are suggesting they really arne't very good.

Hey DEA, just being reality based, man. On the other hand, look what I have posted in the past month that has caused consternation... (1) Tony Taylor is 2nd team and maybe borderline 1st team player (no, the same poeple/person who corrected me on that is saying that this makes no sense; (2) Dwayne Smith should be in the top 15; (3) Mikic has completely upgraded his game; and so on and so forth.

If you read carefully, my point above is that Hobbs' approach now works with "CERTAIN" teams and won't work with the top flight in the league and in the nation... and when i say that, I totally am speaking on average. Every dog has his day.

At the beginning of the season, I had GW in the NCAAs. I think our team has that much talent.

Let me suggest, DEA, that Hobbs has coached himself back into another year. Taylor has become a monster in most situations. What he has really gotten good at is feeling the game. He knows when to take the guy on the dribble and he knows when to make the pass. Scorers also know that they can't just pass up 10 minutes worth of shots and then think that it will just happen.

Hobbs has focused on the winning record. All I am saying is that, to go futher, we need a lot more sharing of the ball and shots.... and that's some how.

At this point, the team that most likely will take it will be the team that can score with the least effort and also play solid straight-up D.

For those who thought this would be where we are at at this point in the season, especially with the swoon, then GREAT!!!!  As a matter of fact, I AM happy as well. I am really glad to see the success as it will spare a bloodbath that most certainly was coming if things hadn't changed for the better.

My point is that the approach to get to this point is likely to be less successful at the next stage. The subtle point for those who are just blathering along insulting people is that we could play a different style of ball. We could make other personnel choices. Also, DEA, I recently made the point that our bigs are playing the trap much better recently. That was critical for any success if we are going to use the D. Last year, we sucked at it from the 4 and 5 positions. If you aren't going to jump the passes in the back, you might as well conserve the energy. This has never been a strength of JK, but JE and DP are really coming along in that D. Joe has struck me as being in his own defensive scheme.

Finally, my favorite stat on KenPom.Com ... Jabari's gaudy BLK%.

The whole Jabari thing has been great, DEA. I am still not over the situation with Rice and the end of his senior season. No matter how rough the ride has been for everyone involved with the relationship with Edwards, it is really REALLY pleasing to see something "seem" to work out in the end.

DEA, if you ever want to get Taylor's confidence up, all you have to do is show him that Post Game session with Jim Baron.

What I really want is for Tony Taylor to go off on X or Temple... really blow up. After how much he has put into his game and the team, he deserves it. I won't bother to remind so of the folks here what they wrote about him when he was a freshman.

What was baron's quote about taylor after the game?

 You definitely make some valid points but I have a couple disagreements. First off, Tony did have a very good game against Xavier. 21 points, 4 threes and spread the ball all over the floor. Xavier probably played a B plus game that night and it was close until the end. If they had played a B game we would have won. It's definitely tougher for him to go off against good teams but that's what has happened with Lasan's injury. Every team is keying on him all the time and he's still had dominant performances. 

I will say with Rice thing that you do not know the entire story. I don't either but I know a lot of it and I know that kids have been kicked off for far less. It's unfair to use that incident as a permanent stain on the program when it was really such a fluid situation. 

You may have had GW in the NCAAs this year, I had us in the NIT but the injury to Lasan cannot and should not be ignored. The comparison I use often is Justin Harper. If Richmond had lost Harper for the year and just had Anderson carrying the load they would not be a tournament team and probably not even the 5 seed in the league. 

This is why I think we've overachieved. We all like our talent because we're fans and that's what fans do, overhype their teams talent. This team completely healthy could have potentially been a top 4 team in the league but the fact that we're still challenging that spot after losing Lasan for the entire year and Jabari for a lot of it is great. 

 Justin Harper is simply not a fair comparison. While Kromah has the potential to be that good, Harper has been phenomenal this year and has a solid chance at getting drafted. It is not reasonable to think that Kromah would have developed that much from his freshman to soph year. 

 Harper averaged 10.6 ppg last year.. Lasan averaged 11.8...both are players with enormous potential. Harper clearly has fulfilled much of that this year but based on what I saw of Lasan this summer and fall and what I've heard, he was significantly improved as well. Maybe he wouldn't be averaging 18ppg but 13 or 14 per game is a pretty fair estimate. 

 It's not just about the ppg--Harper is shooting 55% from the field and 48% from three. Those are absurdly good numbers. He also rebounds and blocks shots. For a guy who is 6-10 to have that type of inside outside game is superb. Kromah is a very capable player, perhaps even a potential star, however as a soph there is little chance he would provide the same amount of value that Harper provides for his team.

 It's not just about the ppg--Harper is shooting 55% from the field and 48% from three. Those are absurdly good numbers. He also rebounds and blocks shots. For a guy who is 6-10 to have that type of inside outside game is superb. Kromah is a very capable player, perhaps even a potential star, however as a soph there is little chance he would provide the same amount of value that Harper provides for his team.

http://patch.com/A-f4JG

Stephen Greenwell, Local Editor, Narragansett Patch

The point is that you can't read it, you have to watch Baron's whole conference. It is just a compliment one statement after another about Taylor and how he ruined their best laid plans.

within the conversation, you will hear Baron make my point that sometimes the path to success is not very "wide." No margin for error. That is my point about going into the A10 tourney with more scoring options and just the go-for-the-throat Defense.  As Baron said, "we knew what they (GW) were going to do.

 It's not just about the ppg--Harper is shooting 55% from the field and 48% from three. Those are absurdly good numbers. He also rebounds and blocks shots. For a guy who is 6-10 to have that type of inside outside game is superb. Kromah is a very capable player, perhaps even a potential star, however as a soph there is little chance he would provide the same amount of value that Harper provides for his team.

great win against the Rams! if someone had told me we'd be 9-6 in conf after our 2-5 start i'd have laughed. i dont think Hobbs is a good game coach but i will say GW comes to play with intensity each game. that's to KH's credit. he also made some significant changes to the offense. let's kick some ass on Sat.

seneca, where are you? while we disagree on many things........you did say wait until the season is over before drawing too many conclusions. OK, but it's fun to offer opinions as we go along.

FQ, you may very well have a problem with the word overachieve and that's likely because it KH used it endlessly to describe his 2005-06 team, which as we know was a very, very good team.  However, the word does have a real meaning and that is when better than expected results are evident.  It is not at all an insult to refer to this team, after their dismal (yes, underachieving) start, as overachieving.  IMO, this team did underachieve in the OOC and it has overachieved in conference play.  Before the season and without Lasan, I would have had this team at around 6-10 or 7-9. Based on OOC play, I was thinking 4-12.  Therefore, this team has overachieved NOT BECAUSE OF their slow start, but because of what was initially expected from them.  This is not only not an insult to the players, it's actually a compliment.

The other part of your post I take exception with is this "this is what we should have been doing all along" mindset.  So do you think KH began the year by telling the team that we're not going to install an offense and we'll just see how it goes?  Or, considering how much Lasan was to be counted on this season offensively, the more likely scenario was that KH needed to see who could step up, which combinations of players could play best together, etc.?  Once these answers fell into place, then KH and staff could devise schemes and get players to understand their roles.  Installing an offense in October, only to have to "uninstall it", craft a revised one, teach players the revised one while "undoing" what they had already learned, was likely considered too much for the players to take on. 

It's worth pointing out that not only are we winning games these days but of course, we are beating better teams than we lost to (by and large) in the OOC.  Prior to Lasan's injury, I thought this team "had a shot" at the NIT so perhaps I am not regarding the talent level (without Lasan) quite as highly as you and others.  Either way, this team has gone from underachieving to overachieving within the same season, and nobody should take this as an insult one bit.

I don't want to get in a pissing match with  you, MV, but I don't have a problem with the work overachieve.  I just don't consider an RPI of 140 or a pomeroy rating to be overachieving for this bunch.  We might be a game or two over what I expected, but I also didn't expect the rest of the A-10 to suck so bad this year. 

Before the season, I knew that SJU and Fordham would suck (I think I laughed at anyone who predicted us to lose to SJU, although I ignored mentz' prediction thread because I had already said repeatedly what I th0ought about SJU).  Had no idea what to expect from SLU after their two guys were booted.  Didn't think Charlotte would suck.  Thought LaSalle and UMASS and Bonnies would surely be worse than us.

So if you had told me that Charlotte wouldn't even be in the top 200, that SLU wouldn't be in the top 150, I'd have told you that we ought to pencil in at least 8-1 against those teams (figuring we should be favored against FU, SJU, twice vs Charlotte, twice vs LaSalle, vs UMASS, and vs the Bonnies and SLU -- but with one slip up in there, probably on the road to LaSalle).  That's what we've done. 

Then, I would have said in exchange for the 1 loss where we ought to be favored, I'd figure one upset against UR, Dukes, URI, X, Temple.  That's exactly what we've done.

No doubt it's impressive to go 8-1 vs the teams we should beat, but I don't think people here follow the league enough to realize how truly bad these teams we are beating up on are this year.

And again, our RPI is 140 and our Pomeroy rating is 147. I just don't buy that as overachieving.

Feel free to accuse me of having a problem with words or whatever -- I'll let you have the last word now.

(oh, and on your second point, every game matters.  The difference between a decent coach and a great one is that the great one doesn't need two months of games against cupcakes to figure out how to properly utilize his talent).

I said for the start of the season that GW should at least have a winning record in the A10 and thus I am pleased with this year's results in conference play.  Credit goes to Karl Hobbs and the staff for producing results on the court.  KH and crew will be back again next season and I'm fine with that as well and expecting a NCAA Tournament bid in 2011-2012.

I'm in Dayton OH tonight (sucks for me) and will tell everyone I see that they are going down in DC this weekend!

FQ, I'm not sure why the phrase "pissing match" has to even be brought up just because we have a difference of opinion.  This difference starts with our assessments of the talent on this team.  It sounds like you have this current team on par with the 2006-07 team from a talent standpoint (not saying you said this; just trying to make an assessment as to how good you believe our talent is) whereas I don't think we're anywhere close to this without Lasan.  This team has one player who can effectively play the point, a solid 2 guard who can't shoot from the perimeter but does practically everything else well, a starting center who can't hold his own against "average" opponents (and who we spent way too much time focusing our energies on earlier in the season), a starting power forward who is talented but undersized, and a starting small forward who can shoot the lights out but is now only really learning everything else about the game.  Our top reserves are a guard who has talent but is very inconsistent, a forward who is a strong defensive presence but who is challenged offensively, and a center who has played great the past several games after being essentially a nonfactor for 3+ years.  TJ, Guest, Warren and Fitz really don't enter the conversation.  So for this group to go 8-1 against the teams you listed was quite an accomplishment.  Even if GW was favored in all 9 games, we both know that upsets happen all the time in college basketball, particularly when the home team is the dog. 

And as for the second point, I'm pretty sure that KH would tell you that the OOC games are far less important than the conference games.  This year was certainly an exception as far as KH needing more time to figure things out given the Lasan injury that so many here seem to feel was nothing major at all.

http://patch.com/A-f4JG

Stephen Greenwell, Local Editor, Narragansett Patch

The point is that you can't read it, you have to watch Baron's whole conference. It is just a compliment one statement after another about Taylor and how he ruined their best laid plans.

within the conversation, you will hear Baron make my point that sometimes the path to success is not very "wide." No margin for error. That is my point about going into the A10 tourney with more scoring options and just the go-for-the-throat Defense.  As Baron said, "we knew what they (GW) were going to do.

Great win by GW last night!  Glad to see the team- and glad to see Hobbs team pull away in the second half against a team that is ranked higher than them.  I didn't see the game- but presumably Hobbs and the team both deserve credit for that.

I'm OK with the word overachieve, but I don't think it is appropriate to say GW is overachieving.  I think overachieving and exceeding expectations are two different things.  I expect the Phillies to win the NL East this year.  I don't expect them to win the world series.  If they win the world series, they haven't overachieved- they exceeded my expectations.  Even without Lasan, this team has a very good point guard, a very good shooter, a solid wing, and 2 serviceable centers.  They are achieving exactly what a team with that type of talent should be achieving- beating the teams they should beat- losing to the teams they should be losing to.  They have exceeded my expectations, because I didn't expect this team to win as many games.....but that's because I thought they would underachieve....and I didn't think Hobbs would coach as well as he had this year.

Actually, I am going to join with MV on this one.  Even in a bit of a down year for the conference, GW has many holes in its team, as has been mentioned.  Most of our talent is one dimentional, and they have certainly shown that they are capable of throwing up the occasional stinker.  However,  since conference play, we have been playing very well, and for all my gripe with KH's Xs and Os, I think this year he has done an exceptional job of getting the most out of the talent he does have. It also helped immensely that he shortened the bench.  On the other hand, I understand his playing the Guests, Fitzs, Warrens et. al early in the season, as he had to see what he had.  I for one am pretty impressed with 5 conference road wins (Charlotte, Lasalle, St. Joes, UMass and URI), and of the 3 losses, we played a ranked X pretty damn toughand put a major scare into Richmond, at least that first half.  Duquesne was the only stinker on the road.  The buzz you hear on the A-10 board is nobody really wants to play GW in the tourney.  And, for the first time in years, I am feeling sadness rather than relief as the end of the season approaches.  So, good job KH.  You have earned your return, even if I would still love to see this same team coached by that good Xs and Os coach.  (And yes, after our first 7 games, our RPI was sub 300 and this was truly the worst GW team in 20 years).