Alum1 wrote:

The problem with any comparison to the “Eastern 8” days is that the model is so fundamentally different now that it makes that comparison useless.

The A10 was in trouble during the NIL wild west days, but I think the new rules that allow schools to pay athletes directly will help the A10. The P4 and most of the mid major conferences have football and will waste most of their money on that. Conferences without football, like the A10 and Big East, will be able to invest more in BB. Things will get even better for the A10 if they start to clamp down on NIL, which is coming. I for one am feeling a lot better about both GW and the A10 these days.

I’ve seen enough from Caputo to believe that we should stick with him for the long haul, even if this season is a disappointment (which I do not expect). This cycle of firing coaches after 3 or 4 years and replacing them with coaches of similar experience and quality is not productive. It only sets the program back to ground zero.

Its a great get by Caputo and it will be great to see them at the Smith Center, but G’town is not anything close to what they once were. I agree 100% with Rising that the only way this game has any real significance is if it leads to future regular season games.

While I respect both of your opinions, we'll just have to agree to disagree on this. Every team in the country, from the blue bloods to the bottom feeders, has a game or two in which they are not mentally prepared and lose to a lesser team. And every team in the country has games in which they are locked in and play better than usual and knock off a better team. But by and large, I believe the record of every team in the country is a pretty good reflexion of how good they are, which is a mixture of: 1) individual talent (the most important); 2) cohesiveness (ability of that individual talent to play together as a team); and 3) coaching (teaching, preparation, and in game coaching). I think expectations and hype play very little roll in how a team's season goes, regardless of their level in the college basketball hierarchy. And also, what exactly are we talking about in terms of hype for this team? While the team might get a bit more attention from local media, the main newspaper in town will still not cover most if not all of our games, let alone the national media. And while we might get a slight uptick in attendance, the Smith Center will still be half empty most games. But if you want to blame the media if the upcoming season doesn't go the way you expect it to, you are welcome to do so.

I honestly don't see any downside to the hype. The best programs in the country (Duke, UNC, Kentucky, Gonzaga) deal with significantly more hype (i.e., being ranked, national press coverage) every year than we will ever get. If Duke doesn't make it to a Final Four, their season is considered a failure. Gonzaga, despite being in a mid-major conference, is now expected to make the Sweet 16 every year. And yet every HS player in the country wants to go to these schools. If the 2024-25 GW squad doesn't end up having a good season, I will be 100% convinced that it will be because we were not good enough (i.e., the hype was unwarranted) rather than because our players noticed the hype, got big heads, and decided they didn't need to practice and play hard. As for what constitutes a good season, for me it's a top 4 finish in conference and/or a deep run in the conference tournament. If we manage that, I will not be disappointed if we don't go to the NCAAs, due to the gradual disappearance of at large bids for mid-majors noted by many posters here.

I suppose I'll weigh in on the annual schedule thread. As much as I would love to see GW schedule more mid-majors and less bottom feeders in the OOC, I think it is pretty clear by now what Caputo's scheduling philosophy is and I doubt it will change. I was thinking about how Hobbs had the same philosophy, and it only hurt the team once that I can think of, in 2006, when we could've gotten a better seed, avoided the #1 seed in the second round, and potentially made it to our second Sweet 16. I doubt the team would have advanced further than that regardless. The other two Hobbs teams that made the NCAA Tourney won the A10 Tourney, so I guess the weak OOC didn't hurt us down the stretch those years.

On the flip side, Lonergan scheduled tougher OOC schedules, which didn't really help the team in 2015, when we won the NIT but should have been in the NCAA. If I remember right, we were actually ranked in late December/early January, but underachieved in the A10. So the stronger OOC didn't help us that year. It probably did help the year before, however, when we got our last at large bid.

I could provide more examples from other coaches, although the game has changed a lot recently as many of your have pointed out, so I'm not sure how relevant they are. The point is that as much as I wish GW would schedule a tougher OOC schedule, it's not happening any time soon, is unlikely to make much of a difference in how the team plays in the A10, and will only very rarely impact if and where the team plays in post season tournaments. I do agree with many of you, however, that a better OOC would certainly enhance my interest in (and sell more tickets to) the OOC games.

I honestly don't think it would be a bad thing for the big money football programs to leave D1, even if they took their basketball programs with them. It might help stabilize what is left of D1, and GW and the A10 would increase their standing in it. There would be less eyeballs on the NCAA Tourney (presumably the schools that leave would create their own tournament), but I would actually be more interested because it would be a more level playing field and GW and other A10 schools would be much more likely to be in it. The P4 teams already won't play us, we have no chance against them in recruiting due to NIL and current NCAA selection criteria, and GW hasn't made the NCAA Tourney in over a decade, so what really is the drawback? Dashing the hope that we might one day win the A10 Tourney and get blown out in the first or second round of the NCAA Tourney by a semi-professional "college" team?

The one that comes to mind for me is the senior year of John Kopriva. Dr. John was a complete non-factor his first three years at GW, but became a solid contributor and fan favorite his senior year, which I did not see coming...

This year's tournament was great if you like to see Blue Bloods and Goliaths duke it out, but if you're like me and want to see some Davids mixed in, it was pretty disappointing. Based on the viewership numbers, however, which were apparently up across the board, then I am in a distinct minority...

As for San Antonio, I haven't been there in many years, but I remember it as being a great town.

GWRising wrote:

As I mentioned before, if the players want to make everything transactional then I guess as fans we should make everything transactional. Zero reaction to Jun and Jacoi and any others transferring out. Simple bottom line for me being transactional. If we want to play in the real post season, we need better players than the ones leaving. The minute they decided to enter the portal is the minute I turn my attention to who is next. They did what is best for them so I am doing what is best for me and GW. Like I have heard said recently "it's all business now". Next.

I agree that this is how we all SHOULD feel, but I can't help that I will miss Jacoi and especially Jun. Although I recognize that Jun had flaws in his game, I think he had tremendous potential and could have reached that potential at GW, with the right guidance. Oh well, on to next year.