WASHINGTON – Pops Mensah-Bonsu isn’t walking through that door. Nor is Mike Hall, Danilo Pinnock, Carl Elliott or even Maureece Rice, the latter two of whom helped lead George Washington to its last Atlantic 10 title.
Simply put, the current edition of George Washington, while not bad, doesn’t bear much of a resemblance to the teams Karl Hobbs won with a few years ago. That’s also not only true in personnel or bottom line results.
With Atlantic 10 play right in front of them, the Colonials haven’t had as good a non-conference run as they did last season. A year ago they looked to be on the verge of becoming more like the teams Hobbs had a couple of seasons ago, before they struggled in Atlantic 10 play with a 6-10 mark and lost in the opening round of the conference tournament. This year’s team has played a reasonably challenging schedule and is only at .500 after eking out a 58-57 win over Holy Cross on Friday.
The big concern comes at the offensive end, where the Colonials have struggled. It’s not turnovers, which are a concern with a team that plays fast, although this team doesn’t play as fast as those of a few years ago. The Colonials average 12.5 turnovers a game and have more assists than turnovers on the season. The struggles come shooting the ball, where they shoot around 39 percent from the field on the season.
“That’s always a concern because we go through droughts,” said Hobbs.
As if that’s not enough, they have had some struggles at the foul line. Against Holy Cross, they were just 12-27 there, dropping them below 60 percent for the season.
George Washington shot the ball well in three games leading up to Christmas, going over 50 percent in the last two at Oregon State and against East Carolina at home. That gave some hope that they were ready to turn a corner, but then they shot 33.3 percent in a 79-44 thumping at UAB. They shot 40 percent against Holy Cross, which was just enough.
“We’re still trying to find our consistency,” said Hobbs. “Consistency, to me, is the measure of success. We just haven’t gotten to the point where we’re getting guys to shoot the ball consistently well.”
The Colonials aren’t lacking talent, but it’s not what they had when they were winning. Junior Tony Taylor is a fine floor leader who has improved every year in that capacity, as his ability to score was never in question. Sophomore Dwayne Smith has the potential to be an All-Atlantic 10 player, as he’s athletic and can play either forward spot. Freshman Nemanja Mikic is the team’s most reliable shooter, making over 45 percent of his three-pointers thus far. Sophomore David Pellom is long, athletic and not lacking skill, and could become a nice combo forward.
But this team has had trouble consistently putting the ball in the basket. Hobbs noted that one reason the win over Holy Cross was a narrow one was the team’s inability to convert turnovers into baskets. While they got 21 points off turnovers, the Crusaders gave it away 20 times. Past George Washington teams thrived off creating turnovers, but this group hasn’t been able to yet.
There’s enough talent on this team to at least get into the upper half of the Atlantic 10. They’re also defending well, a necessary ingredient to winning. If the offense can come around, they might be able to go a little further, but that’s going to take some pretty good strides now that they will soon be playing conference opponents, who are more familiar with them to begin with. The good thing is that three of the first four and five of the first eight games will be at home, giving them a chance to get off to a good start. Suffice it to say, now would be a good time for them to find their consistency.
