George Washington 2010 CBI Tournament Preview

George Washington Colonials - Atlantic 10 Conference (16-14, 6-10)

Big Wins: 11/24 Princeton (65-50), 1/27 St. Louis (67-62), 2/27 Charlotte (75-70)

Bad Losses: 11/28 Oregon State (57-64), 1/13 at La Salle (64-65), 3/3 St. Joseph’s (71-80)

Coach: Karl Hobbs

Probable George Washington Starters:

• Tony Taylor, Sophomore, Guard, 9.4 ppg, 4.0 apg

• Lasan Kromah, Freshman, Guard, 11.6 ppg, 1.9 apg, 2.0 spg

• Aaron Ware, Sophomore, Guard, 6.4 ppg, 1.0 apg

• Damian Hollis, Senior, Forward, 13.3 ppg, 4.8 rpg

• Joseph Katuka, Junior, Center, 5.9 ppg, 3.9 rpg

Key George Washington Roleplayers:

• Bryan Bynes, Freshman, Guard, 4.8 ppg, 1.5 apg

• Jabari Edwards, Sophomore, Forward, 1.2 ppg, 2.3 rpg

• Tim Johnson, Freshman, Guard, 3.6 ppg, 1.2 rpg

• Travis King, Junior, Guard, 2.9 ppg, 1.0 apg

• Hermann Opoku, Senior, Forward, 4.1 ppg, 4.0 rpg

• David Pellom, Freshman, Forward, 3.0 ppg, 3.3 rpg

• Dwayne Smith, Freshman, Forward, 5.2 ppg, 2.8 rpg

Why The Colonials Can Surprise:
Nobody on George Washington averages over 4.8 rebounds per game, but collectively this is a surprisingly good rebounding team. Coach Karl Hobbs has a bountiful bench and he takes full advantage of his fresh legs. That leads to a ton of players hustling for rebounds. Damian Hollis is one of the few players who average over 20 minutes per contest. The senior forward leads the team with 13.3 points and 4.8 rebounds.

The only other two players who average over 20 minutes per game are Tony Taylor and Lasan Kromah. Taylor, a sophomore point guard, is a decent scorer, but his job is to take care of the ball and he does a very good job of that; dishing out 4.0 assists per game and only committing 1.6 turnovers. Lasan Kromah is the shooter on the team. Kromah does most of his scoring from outside, but he is capable of getting to the basket, but it is really Hollis who is the dynamic scorer who is a threat both inside and out.

Why The Colonials Can Disappoint:
While Taylor does a good job keeping his turnovers down, the same cannot be said for the rest of the team. There is not one individual to blame for the problem, but just about everybody has a negative assist-to-turnover ratio and that is not going to cut it in the postseason. Despite Taylor’s impressive assist-to-turnover margin, it is his job to keep the team under control and put his teammates in a position to score and not turn the ball over. This is not a team that is running up and down the floor all the time so there is no excuse for the turnover numbers to be so high.

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Who To Watch for George Washington:
After Hollis, Taylor and Kromah there are a whole lot of roleplayers and no stars on this team. Nine different players average between ten and 20 minutes. Aaron Ware and Joseph Katuka usually get the starting nod, but it is rare when either one makes much of an impact on a game. Ware is a decent slasher and Katuka is a big body under the basket who can do a little bit of scoring, but there is a long, long list of players who can do the same. Depth is not a bad thing, but if Hollis and Kromah are having off nights from long range, the offense can easily sputter. And despite all the bodies, there is not a big shot blocking threat on George Washington and the overall defense is not that great, so this is a group that needs to score quite a few points to win a game.

George Washington By the Numbers:

Scoring Offense: 70.6 (130th in nation, 6th in conference)

Scoring Defense: 67.7 (170, 5)

Field-Goal Percentage: 43.4 (179, 8)

Field-Goal Defense: 41.2 (76, 6)

Three-Point Field Goals Per Game: 5.0 (281, 13)

Three-Point Field-Goal Percentage: na

Free-Throw Percentage: 65.1 (278, 12)

Rebound Margin: 4.2 (50, 5)

Assists Per Game: 12.9 (177, 10)

Turnovers Per Game: 14.4 (218, 9)