The hyperbole kept flowing for a month, soon after George Washington University knocked off Michigan State and Maryland on consecutive days in early December. The Colonials theatrically picked apart two of the nation's premier college basketball programs, earned a top-25 ranking for the first time in six years and made their legions hearken back to the upset-minded days of Mike Jarvis's clubs.
Who wanted to wait two weekends into March to see if the slipper fit? Karl Hobbs's team was already looking elegant in January.
But here's the problem with being the feel-good, Little Team That Could: After enough giant-killing, you become the ogre yourself — irrespective of enrollment or cash-strapped boosters. One afternoon at home, you become someone else's Maryland or Michigan State.
And then a big, left-handed kid with a soft touch gets behind your big guy, 6-foot-9 Pops Mensah-Bonsu. Rashaun Freeman catches an alley-oop pass with less than a second left and does everything but call "Glass" before sucking the emotion out of the arena in overtime.
U-Mass. 76, No. 21 GW 74.
Hello, Atlantic 10 Conference adversity. Goodbye, top 25.
No worries, Colonial brethren. GW will be back, especially after overcoming an 18-point deficit in the final 13 minutes 33 seconds to force overtime yesterday afternoon at Smith Center, where Freeman converted that pretty pass from Anthony Anderson. GW, which lost its first game here in nearly 11 months, went from lasting barely a few minutes into the second half against the Minutemen to nearly pulling off one of the most riveting victories in this quaint, loud gym.
The whole affair was wild. Out of rhythm for much of the afternoon, the Colonials could not buy a basket in their half-court offense before deciding to embark on a 17-0 binge and knot the score with 7 1/2 minutes left. U-Mass.'s Chris Chadwick and GW's T.J. Thompson traded huge baskets in the final 28 seconds of regulation like pugs trading overhand rights.
There was also that battle of diminutive coaches frantically working the sideline, GW's Hobbs vs. U-Mass.'s Steve Lappas, a genuine beggar for calls. They played a no-harm, no-ambulance game approved by a liberal officiating crew.
And with all due respect to Maryland-Temple, Georgetown-Villanova and George Mason-Old Dominion yesterday, when it ended, GW-U-Mass. was the best thrill-seeking, 40-plus-minute ride in local college basketball.
Hobbs got a little testy after the game when a reporter (okay, it was me) asked if his team needed a better half-court offense if it had NCAA tournament aspirations. At first, you figured he was a little sensitive after a rough loss. But his concern turns out to be the concern of many black coaches at many different levels: that his players, most of whom are black, will be viewed strictly as athletes, whose informal dunk contest during pregame warmups will be more remembered than the backdoor cuts and perseverance to get back into a game that was all but lost.
And as a bright, young coach who may one day use this job as a steppingstone just like Jarvis, Hobbs, 43, probably does not want to be construed as a roll-it-out-and-let-'em-play guy whose only forte is recruiting. Fair enough.
The man has put the program back on the national map in the past three-plus seasons. Beyond Pops and hops, George Washington also has smarts and grit — enough of the latter to stage yesterday's comeback.
But U-Mass.'s ability to stick with a zone, pack it in and force the Colonials into mistakes in that half-court game helped lead to the upset. GW kept forcing a high-low game, trying to dump it inside to Mensah-Bonsu even though he was sandwiched near the rim. It led to some crucial turnovers. When the Colonials could not crack that zone, at times it looked a little reminiscent of how Hobbs's former mentor, Jim Calhoun, used to lose games at Connecticut — where Hobbs served as an assistant for eight years.
There was some postgame whispering about Hobbs not putting Mensah-Bonsu back in the game until it was too late, but that's ticky-tacky. Pops got the crowd into it with some woofing after a couple of big baskets and a blocked shot, but for the most part, he was outplayed by Freeman.
Where does GW go from here? The A-10 championship is still the bet. The league is down after St. Joseph's amazing 30-2 season. St. Joe's, Xavier and Dayton are decent, but they're all hovering around .500 and hardly top-25 material. At 11-3, GW is. After this afternoon, their only other losses have come at Wake Forest and West Virginia.
Even at the Colonials' worst yesterday, Hobbs kept shuttling in players — his rotation was nine deep. All of them refused to panic when they got behind, including freshman guard Maureece Rice. The kid has this economy of movement, a little stutter-step game in which he usually makes the right play — no matter how many bodies are flying past him.
As a whole, when neither their vertical leap nor their jumpers worked, the Colonials finally started to move their feet laterally, cutting off angles and lanes. That's why they came back.
They turned the Smith Center into a loud bandbox, erasing an almost 20-point deficit in less than six blinding minutes. They made the building reverberate with noise and hope. Rugby shirts and hideous hats starting bobbing up and down. The annoying Robin-Ficker-in-training fan finally shut up from about five rows back across from the U-Mass. bench. Their Little Team That Could was all the way back.
When Freeman caught that pass behind the defense, he not only quieted the arena but killed a nice little plotline the past month.
It's still fixable in time to wield the stone in March, after the rest of the A-10 stops hunting GW.
Bottom line: As area college hoops go, the Colonials are still the best entertainment value in town. This was less a loss to be crestfallen about than it was a January game to take a lesson from.
