After 45 years as a dedicated fan of GW, basketball, season-ticket holder, club member, and contributor to NIL, I am now reasonably certain that I am done after this season.

There is no longer any meaningful connection between me the players and the university making it worth expending any more emotional energy and time. I don’t blame the players for acting like everyone else around them in getting a piece of the pie and I’m sad that this couldn’t have been fixed before the courts got involved.

Let the gamblers and big money folks have their way.

I really appreciate all those who post here and have made my involvement in the game that much more enjoyable, but life moves on, even after 45 years . God bless all of you.

Both teams are hard to watch—which is an unfortunate theme for several years.

GW0509 wrote:

The one positive thing about NIL collectives is it cuts out the middle man. Gone are the days of complaining about GW’s inept athletics office or the meddling from administrators. Fans can basically self fund a basketball program.

However, the downside is what the article highlights. Someone has to finish last. What happens the year after you max out the credit card and don’t make the tournament?

Yes, fans can theoretically self-fund a basketball program.  But I'm glad you didn't say we can self-fund a traditional D1 "college" basketball program because that's certainly not what it is.  We are still in an evolving shake-out phase. 

Folks, I'm not saying this with any joy, but the curtain is fast closing on GW basketball as we've hoped it could be and had flashes of in the past.  Coaches like CC at GW have to make their own life choices.  Can I make a decent living doing what I love and in a steady position or do I want to climb the coaching ladder and prove myself at the highest levels of the game, either as an assistant or a head coach.  I'm sure a lot of assistants can also make really good money too if their coaching skills are so superior that they can help a top program win with new and different talent every year.  

Notwithstanding some of the positives all of us can list here, the brutal truth is that with a very high degree of probability, GW cannot and will not be able to compete in this new environment.  

 

Truly sad for us old timers, but  exactly where we were headed.  Next step is unionization and collective bargaining.  Not sure how you’d make this binding on future athletes in the absence of a CBA. Of course, a CBA may be an opportunity to restore some eligibility rules and transfer restrictions.

TV, gambling, and cannabis revenue will keep this going for a while—but I’m pretty much done as even just a semi-serious fan.  I’ve got better things to do and that are expected of me.

- 19 assists on 27 field goals.
- back to back steals and fast break scores on consecutive opposition possessions.

Not sure that anything close to that has happened all year.  Never a question on energy all night—especially on the defensive end.  Nice feeling to end the year attending games.

More GWMBB record breaking history.

This is now the third losing streak of five games or more in the Smith Center. 

The others were the 1-27 season and 1980-81.  Among these streaks, this is the only one where every loss was by 8 points or greater.  

And to beat a dead horse, even with those losing seasons, I felt a connection with the team and the players' connection with the university. We were in this together in mind and spirit. 

With NIL and the transfer portal, I'm not feeling that sentiment any longer.  It's now a professional minor league where players come and go--but at least in the minors the players were assigned, and you felt an interest in truly following their careers and seeing an occasional star/top draft pick come through your city--and hoping they made your big-league club.  While nice for a player, I feel little satisfaction in seeing one of our former players succeed at another school.  I'm also happy for those of you who simply enjoy watching basketball without any emotional attachments to any particular team.  I'm just not one of you and have so many other competing priorities in my life.  I've made multi-year commitments to the university, but I'm close to done.      

- Federal spending and debt have hit the tipping point
- the Communist Chinese have so infiltrated western infrastructure and its cyber capabilities --particularly water--that we have planted our own seeds for chaos and destruction.
- Congress cannot pass anything on a bipartisan basis except more spending, less revenue, and higher debt;
- The NATO alliance is under the most pressure ever from a vile dictator that is celebrity to clown "journalists/entertainers like Tucker Carlson;
- the Rule of Law is caving to the weaponization of creative but destabilizing lawyering;
- our citizenry is incapable of meaningfully distinguishing good from evil; 
- most of America's young people are depressed and don't want to bring kids into the world; and
- the two clowns our population has chosen to lead us at this dangerous time are both old charlatans surrounded by sycophants who care more about power and ego than sacrificial service to others.

So, the longest losing streak in 35 years and 1-27 amidst the transfer portal and NIL tumult isn't really that bad!   And the PA system at the Smith Center is now working.

Raise High!     

Long Suffering Fan wrote:

I am pretty high up, but I do not see Schroeder on the bench.

He is not on the bench.

I believe that's our worst home loss since a much better Rhode Island team and Fatts Russell torched us for a 31-point win almost four years ago to the day.   Very hard on the eyes and if JC were still coach, he'd be getting torched this morning.  

Two things stood out for me on CC.  First, was his reluctance to call a timeout early in the second half before the 16U break.  From the very first possessions in the second half, we looked lost on both ends of the court as URI came out with more energy and pounded the ball immediately into the paint with no defensive response from us and the beginning signs of looking desperate on the offensive end.  It looked and felt like we were going to hemorrhage a lot of points in those first few minutes and the team needed a wakeup call.

Second was the presser.  I'll give Buchanan props for a good perspective on life, but this was the first presser where I felt CC came across as lost.  He's not the type to throw his players or coaches under the bus, but he couldn't offer anything more than, "Gee whiz, we were making these shots against much weaker opponents earlier this year and now they are just not falling."  He noted that URI's gameplan was to pound it inside and credited them with execution, but offered no explanation as to why we made it so easy for them to execute.  Personally, I'd note that on multiple occasions we had defenders backing up in the paint before attempting to hold ground and we let URI get those two-three feet bunnies.     

After a five-game losing streak and two bad home losses, I'd hope for a little more accountability--even if it's just lip service saying that we need to a better job as coaches to avoid performances like this one at home. 

       
     

 

​I'm still a working stiff and can't follow college basketball 24/7, but I'm in the give CC a break camp. He is in just his second year as CEO and notwithstanding all of his assistant coach experience, is still learning the job himself.  

I don't think we've fully reckoned how the NIL and transfer portal era is going to create a lot of volatility in the game--as we've already witnessed with so many topsy-turvy games and unexpected losses even with upper echelon schools. 

It was already hard enough to recruit and build programs under the old rules where newcomers were mostly freshman and sophomores (not immediate transfers) who took time to learn the college game and a coach's system.  Now, you're not only mixing and matching multiple starters who've hardly played together and learning, but you're also trying to keep your talent happy enough (and compensated!) such that they don't want to walk out the door at the first opportunity. Comparison is the thief of joy and there's lot of opportunity for comparison these days.  How many talented kids today are saying, "I'll just sit, learn, work hard, and wait for my chance in two years!"  I'm sure there are many, but a lot fewer than just a few years ago. 

Thus, a coach today has to be even more of an x and o's person, teacher, motivator, shrink, in-game tactician alumni relationship builder and more!  At GW, you also have to be confident that you can get your kids a better slice of the NIL dollars surely dangling someplace else. 

More than CC, I worry a lot more about the dynamics of NIL, the rich getting richer in terms of TV and booster money, tourney slots, and eventual efforts to really squeeze most of the mid-majors into a development league for the P6 with a few crumbs heading back our way.   

I think it's going to take five-to-ten years to determine who are the best coaches in this environment.  The ones who can balance most of these demands will rise to the top.  Many looking good now may not