Armwood provides GW with added (vertical) dimension

WASHINGTON – Isaiah Armwood walked into the post-game news conference after Kansas State edged his George Washington team 65-62 and looked at a stat sheet.

He'd known he'd been swatting at Wildcat shots all day, and he'd successfully deflected some. But even Armwood was wowed by his stat line: 12 points, 10 rebounds and seven blocks.

Seven?!

"I didn't know I had that many before I looked at this paper," Armwood said, smiling. "It's instincts -- seeing if I can go get it. If they come into the lane, I've got a good chance to go for it. Plus, I go for a lot of them, too.

"I wouldn't even consider myself a shot-blocker, but it happened."

That's not a bad way to describe the player himself. Armwood is "happening" right now. He's under the radar a bit, since he plays on a 4-5 team outside one of the major conferences, but he's definitely starting to make some noise.

The Villanova transfer scored a career-high 23 points against Manhattan a week ago, and he followed that up with what Kansas State coach Bruce Weber called "nearly a triple-double" Saturday afternoon at the Smith Center.

"He's a big-time player," Weber said. "He's a tough matchup. If you go small on him, he'll post you up. If you go big on him, they'll step him out to the elbow and he rips and goes by people.

"He had some tip-ins and some big plays that made a difference for them. We knew, going into this one … it would be the tough matchup for us."

Said Wildcats guard Angel Rodriguez: "It wasn't that tough to get to the basket – it was tougher to finish. … It seemed like he was getting a touch on every ball in the air."

GW coach Mike Lonergan appreciated Armwood's shot-blocking and presence in the paint on Saturday, particularly because it helped cancel out some of K-State's second and third chances. (The Wildcats had 24 offensive rebounds in the game.) But Lonergan knows Armwood's value to his club goes beyond the numbers he's putting up and key free throws here or there.

"I just like Isaiah so much because he always brings it," Lonergan said. "He always plays so hard on both ends of the court, and that's contagious. Last year, we didn't really have that."

Last year, Armwood was stuck on the bench, redshirting. He had decided to leave Villanova after the team's trip to France and the Netherlands last summer. On the way back to Philadelphia, Armwood had a conversation with Jay Wright about expectations they had for Armwood's junior season at Villanova. He was set to be one of the team's captains.

By the end of the conversation with Wright, though, Armwood knew the school was no longer the right fit. He wanted to transfer, and he wanted to play somewhere closer to home. Initially, the Baltimore native thought about Maryland, but he said he and new Terps coach Mark Turgeon weren't quite on the same page.

So Lonergan, then in his first season at GW, was the recipient of the 6-8 forward who'd averaged 2.5 points and 3.6 rebounds in 31 games at Villanova (including seven starts). Lonergan got an experienced big man who'd played two seasons in the Big East and had two seasons of eligibility remaining.

He was excited about Armwood in practice, and now he's certainly pleased with what he's seeing in games.

"We play harder as a team because of him," Lonergan said.

Lonergan couldn't help but smile at that stat line, either.