JEFF ALLEN GAME PREVIEW: GEORGE WASHINGTON at MONMOUTH
The second round of the NIT reconvenes tonight with an interesting battle between Georgie Washington (24-10) out
of the A-10 taking on Monmouth (28-7) out of the MAAC. The Colonials have had an up and down year, playing great
on occasion and inexplicably bad at other times. Monmouth is a top seed in the NIT after their perceived snub in the
Big Dance. George Washington was all all out to beat a rock solid Hofstra team 82-80 on their first round game while
Monmouth stopped Bucknell 90-8-. The game opened with Monmouth as a -3.5 point favorite with w total of 153. Money
on GWub has the Hawks down to -2.5 with the under getting play down to 152.
Colonial HC Mike Lonergan was being considered for the Rutgers job but withdrew his name late last week and it
appears that he will stay in D.C. for the time being. George gets it’s scoring primarily from two players, F Tyler Cavanaugh
(16.5, 7.5) and swingman Patricio Garino (14.6, 5.6) who hits better than 43% of his shots from beyond the arc. The
George’s started the year No.26 nationally in experience and start three seniors.
Monmouth can say or think what they want, the Hawks are in the NIT solely on the basis of a horrific taunting call in the
final two minutes of their MAAC title game vs. Iona with the score tied 72-72 at around the three minute mark and never
recovered. The Hawks use their depth to get up and down quickly and to press getting easy points of turnovers and in
transition. The Hawks best player is 5’8″ PG Justin Robinson (19.6, 3.8, 3.7) who can break down defenses.
It’s hard to tell if Monmouth is in “man on a mission” mode and out to prove everyone wrong. They start no seniors so
the same crew will be back again next year. The Hawks are 14-3 in their L17 but one of those losses was to Dayton out
of the A-10 in their only game against the conference. George Washington is 14-2 out of conference and this veteran laden
team could be looking to make one last run and go out with a bang. The A-10 is 7-3 against the MAAC this year but just
4-4 ATS when favored, 2-0 as a dog as is the case here. A tough game to call as far as the side goes. We prefer to look at
the total over with Monmouth (No.18 in the nation with pace) forcing the tempo against a GW team that can score. The
guests are more defensive inclined but the winner of this game figures to be in the 80s.