The writer, a senior majoring in international affairs, is a Hatchet columnist.
GW’s first real snow day in years was supposed to be joyful. Instead, as the snowfall accumulated Tuesday morning, news broke and good feelings about GW men’s basketball faded.
Foggy Bottom jubilation subsided when the team announced that guard Kethan Savage’s breakout sophomore season would be put on a six-to-eight-week hiatus due to a broken left foot.
While the Colonial Army will miss his thunderous slam-dunks, his teammates will miss his ball handling, scoring and great rebounding even more.
Head coach Mike Lonergan was getting more out of Savage than any other player on the floor. The sophomore guard was second on the team in scoring (13.4 per game), third in rebounding (4.6), and second in assists (2.7), while playing the least minutes out of any GW starter (26.9).
The burden of replacing savage in the starting lineup falls on fellow sophomore Patricio Garino. This is no cause for concern for Lonergan, as Garino is more than a capable starter and was primed to grab a spot in the starting lineup before the Savage injury.
The concern comes in the form of two relative unknowns who will likely see extended minutes themselves: freshman guards Miguel Cartagena and Nick Griffin.
Successful integration into the Colonials’ tight rotation will be a challenge, as the two freshman offer only portions of the skill Savage brought to the team.
Cartagena will need to run Lonergan’s offense like a steady point guard if he’s going to find success. While Joe McDonald is the starting point guard and Garino is another capable ball handler, they don’t have the quickness of Cartagena or Savage.
The question that has yet to be answered is whether Cartagena’s quickness can translate into assists and made baskets, something Savage did rather easily. Cartagena hasn’t recorded either an assist or a made field goal in any of his last four outings.
While Griffin could provide scoring as a capable jump shooter off the dribble, I wouldn’t be surprised if Lonergan challenges his starting big men Isaiah Armwood and Kevin Larsen to chip in with more baskets as well.
Armwood is averaging 10.9 points per game, but is shooting 38 percent from the floor in his last five games. While his three double-doubles during that span have been immense, GW will need a more efficient game from their senior leader.
It will be Griffin’s job to provide a handful of buckets a game while not disrupting the flow of fellow shooters Maurice Creek and Nemanja Mikic.
The success of the Colonials doesn’t rest with those replacing Savage, as the team coped well earlier this season when it was without Garino. The Colonials were undefeated during the seven games the 6-foot-6 guard missed due to a hand injury because they constantly found new sources of offense.
The success of the Colonials is to continue to piece together scoring from different players during the remainder of the A-10 regular season.
The injury news is crushing for the Fairfax, Va. native, as the Colonials travel to Savage’s old stomping grounds to face new rival George Mason on Saturday.
But GW fans shouldn’t temper their enthusiasm or relinquish any hopes. This hurts, but it’s not unmanageable.
