SACRAMENTO, March 15 -- Before GW's men's basketball team's game against Vanderbilt in the first round of the NCAA tournament, some members of the team shaved their heads to have a fresh look for a potential NCAA tournament run.
The ritual did create a new look, but not one the team wanted: the look of a team getting outplayed and out-hustled. The signs of growth displayed during their Atlantic 10 tournament run - the energy on defense, rebounding and ball movement - were still there, but they had switched sides. With the hair went the Colonials' momentum, leaving the team looking like a group of Samsons. They lost 77-44.
After just four minutes, GW trailed 7-0, enough to force them to play catch-up for the rest of the game.
"From that point on it was just a matter of trying to survive," GW head coach Karl Hobbs said. "We fell behind very, very quickly and that pretty much put us on heels for rest of the game."
The press that had forced A-10 opponents into turnovers was useless against Vanderbilt players, who broke the defense down systematically by moving the ball before GW players could get to them, a strategy Hobbs called "perfect."
"We realized if we just took care of the ball, we were going to get any shot we wanted," Vanderbilt junior Shan Foster said.
Able to get any shot they wanted, Vanderbilt players chose good ones. Whether it was penetrating then kicking the ball out or swinging the ball around the horn, the entire team played in unison, and seven Vanderbilt players had six points or more.
"There's nothing you can do, you just have to hope that they start missing," junior guard Maureece Rice said. "But they have so many shooters, if one's not on, another one is, so it's hard to stop them."
The numbers are ugly: the Colonials shot just 27.1 percent, turned the ball over 20 times and never led. No player scored more than Travis King's nine points. Senior Carl Elliott shot just two for nine in his last game, while Rice, the team's leading scorer, scored just three points and missed eight of nine shots.
The ritual did create a new look, but not one the team wanted: the look of a team getting outplayed and out-hustled. The signs of growth displayed during their Atlantic 10 tournament run - the energy on defense, rebounding and ball movement - were still there, but they had switched sides. With the hair went the Colonials' momentum, leaving the team looking like a group of Samsons. They lost 77-44.
After just four minutes, GW trailed 7-0, enough to force them to play catch-up for the rest of the game.
"From that point on it was just a matter of trying to survive," GW head coach Karl Hobbs said. "We fell behind very, very quickly and that pretty much put us on heels for rest of the game."
The press that had forced A-10 opponents into turnovers was useless against Vanderbilt players, who broke the defense down systematically by moving the ball before GW players could get to them, a strategy Hobbs called "perfect."
"We realized if we just took care of the ball, we were going to get any shot we wanted," Vanderbilt junior Shan Foster said.
Able to get any shot they wanted, Vanderbilt players chose good ones. Whether it was penetrating then kicking the ball out or swinging the ball around the horn, the entire team played in unison, and seven Vanderbilt players had six points or more.
"There's nothing you can do, you just have to hope that they start missing," junior guard Maureece Rice said. "But they have so many shooters, if one's not on, another one is, so it's hard to stop them."
The numbers are ugly: the Colonials shot just 27.1 percent, turned the ball over 20 times and never led. No player scored more than Travis King's nine points. Senior Carl Elliott shot just two for nine in his last game, while Rice, the team's leading scorer, scored just three points and missed eight of nine shots.
