TreeTwista10
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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- On the brink of giving George Washington their first home loss of the season, Archie and the Flyers got NC State-shitted by a buzzer beating "putback" in overtime. Based on the small 45-minutes of basketball sample size of tonight's game, I'll give you my assessment of Archie's coaching style, ability, and of course credibility, based on the scope of this one game, and some season stats.
I'm going to assume that the talent level of Dayton and George Washington is comparable. I don't know about any injuries, but glancing back at some scout & rivals rankings over the last half dozen years, it seems all both teams do is land 3 star recruits, with a 2 star and 4 star sprinkled in. They're good teams in the Atlantic 10, but not elite power conference teams as far as their talent. Dayton has a higher RPI and Kenpom but GW's is respectable, and GW is at home where they are now 10-0. George Washington opened as 3 point favorites and the line was -3.5 at tipoff. So basically it should've been a close game, which it was, as evidenced by it ending on a buzzer beater.
As for Archie, you could definitely tell he played for Herb. Good defense, good free throw shooting, worked the 3 point shot into the offense, which was fairly deliberate and slow early on. I didn't notice any back cuts though so it's not like he's running the Princeton offense. But it's slower than State's offense.
They went 19/23 from the free throw line (82.7%) which would certainly be an improvement over what the Pack has. However on the season, Dayton is shooting only 67.3%, which is nearly identical to NC State's 67.4%. So while Dayton had a good shooting night tonight from the stripe, it's a wash with the Pack on the year. Dayton does attempt 3 more FTs per game though (24 compared to 21).
Defensively they are horrid, they play energetic man-to-man defense. I thought they switched to a zone erratically at one point in overtime, but they were just late on switches and helps and ended up giving up an and-1 because of it. So scheme-wise, he's a lot more Gottfried than Boheim, but the intensity did seem greater than what we play most of the time. The defenders played in close proximity to their man, both on and off the ball, and they even seemed to swarm the ball in the paint, like an effective defense in football focusing on the ball carrier. While that did result in some blocks in double teams and other turnovers, it also hurt their ability to cover the other 4 guys, and they ended up giving up some wide open 3s when GW had good spacing. Similar to a press defense, it can rattle the ball handler but there is some risk along with the reward. But from a hustle standpoint, they looked like they were focused on the defensive end. They had some lapses and showed that they were tired at times, but all teams do.
They also had a small-ball lineup. The tallest player on Dayton's roster is 6'6" and the one player that height fouled out late in the game. Needless to say, GW had a big rebounding advantage throughout the contest. I don't know how to factor that into recruiting, but it seems like most mid- and high-major teams have at least one "center" who is 6'8" or taller. He also played a very short roster. Maybe 7 or 8 players tops. The players seemed to be more athletic than GW and were able to often drive past a slower, whiter defender for points in the paint. They were also pretty aggressive and successful in the passing lanes, although both teams had some sloppy passes that led to turnovers. I wonder how he may change up his style of play on both ends if he had some talented bigs?
Free throws kept them in the game tonight, which isn't indicative of their charity stripe success over the course of the season, but their outside shooting was lower than their normal output. They were only 5/17 from behind the arc (29.4%) while they shoot 35.7% on the season. For comparison, State shoots 37.2% on the year, so both teams are pretty good from deep.
As for Archie versus Gott, I have to question Archie's recruiting ability. Gott has proven he can get highly ranked talent, while Archie hasn't. To be fair, he hasn't had the chance to recruit to a power-5 school either, so I'd certainly think the recruiting class rankings were he at State would be higher than Daytons, but would it be higher than Gott's? And would his style of play be effective in ACC play? He would need better and bigger players down low to compete with the bigger and better players in the ACC front court, and I don't know how much he would have to change his strategy. Would have have his centers catching the ball at the top of the key and being facilitators to outside shooters a la Herb's offense? Or would he just go quasi-Jay Wright and live and die by a small-ball lineup?
Either way, he's a good coach, seems to be a good motivator, isn't perfect, and has a bright future. But I didn't see anything tonight that wowed me or made me lust for him to replace Gottfried. I realize the talent he has to work with wasn't ranked as highly coming out of high school, but neither was the talent on George Washington. So while his Elite 8 last year was impressive and I'm anxious to see what he does in the post season, Gottfried has an Elite 8 on his resume too, pal.
 2/6/2015 10:01:54 PM
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