GWRising wrote:

Sure, but I think what is missing in the analysis is we really aren't scheduling for NET because we really can't to the degree it will make a difference. I think what we and other A-10 teams are doing is attempting to schedule wins. Recent history has shown that unless you win the A-10 or have a phenomenal OOC (which is now damn near impossible) , we are fast becoming a one bid league and the emphasis is on making tournaments like the NIT or the Crown. Look at Dayton last year. Played UNC, UConn, Marquette, Iowa State, Cincinnati, UNLV, and Northwestern. Can't imagine GW ever coming up with that schedule. But what did it get them? They stumbled in conference and were left out.

An attempt to schedule wins generally comes with trying to minimize risk though. This feels like somewhat committing to that philosophy without doing so fully. If the goal is any postseason tournament, I'd still imagine that the possibility of a loss at Army would hurt a lot. I largely agree with your larger points about the A10 (sadly), although I wonder whether rev share will change things in the coming years with most schools in the league not having to deal with football. 

Poog wrote:

A game at West Point goes far beyond the opponent. It’s the venue. “We thank you for your service” has become as commonplace as “How you feeling?-“Fine/good” “Nice meeting you.” The players get the chance to see and compete against peers who are just as dedicated as they are to their passion and commitments but in a far different setting and atmosphere. Undoubtedly, an invaluable opportunity for Caputo and the staff to impress upon their players what it takes to succeed beyond the experience of a Marine Corps workout visit to Quantico. I’m a veteran of the Moratoriums but one can’t but be affected by visits to the Naval Academy or West Point.

I knew this kind of comment was coming which is why I was intentional with phrasing this as purely a basketball per

GWRising wrote:

The scheduling is not going to change much. Nobody is going to buy us because we are now potentially good enough to possibly beat them. The P4+ have no incentive to play us because we don't help them. Neutral court? LOL. At GW? LOL.

This is understood, and is why it needed to be done during the MTE (if possible) like last year's Kansas State. That is possible.

GWRising wrote:

It isn't for lack of trying. It is the system. It sucks but unless we get really good (like guaranteed top 50 good) or really bad (like below 200) the P4's are really hard to schedule. And if you are below 200 do you really want to play P4's?

The P4's are really hard to schedule, period. I would put really bad as below 300, because they aren't playing even a team in the 200s (or an A10 team in general). We are currently 58th in Torvik's preseason rankings (doesn't tell all, but we are at least predicted to be decent) and are struggling to get a high major team to play us. Who knows when we'll be predicted to be this good in the future, especially with Slim graduating. He's the best big we've had in like ten years.

GWRising wrote:

As for Army it's not all that curious. It's a return game so there was no discretion.

That is very curious (again strictly from a basketball perspective). Why schedule a home-and-home with Army to begin with? This is Radford from a couple years ago all over again. It sucks that it's this way, but Army is never going to be good enough to be worth playing on the road. That's just reality. It's all risk and no reward. We may not be able to make the same decisions on scheduling as bigger schools but still have the ability to pick and choose our home and homes against mid-majors a bit better. All I'm saying.
 

I get that the A10 probably has the toughest scheduling situation of all conferences in the country, but man if we are planning on going for it next year it would be great to see a power conference school on the slate. There is probably no chance of this happening even as a true away game (let alone a home-and-home), which means that our only chance is during an MTE like last year. Unless TBD ends up being that opponent (which is very unlikely), this feels underwhelming. That doesn't mean I want to dismiss or not respect Murray State or McNeese, two very solid mid-major programs that will challenge GW, but it doesn't feel like much of a step up from last year's tournament (not to mention the streaming service being a definite step down).

McNeese got a couple of down transfers from the Big East in Garwey Dual (Providence/Seton Hall) and Larry Johnson (Creighton) but in general this squad is not at the same level as last year (I'm surprised Torvik likes them so much in his preseason rankings). Losing Will Wade to NC State plays a role in that. Murray also has a new coach coming in (Ryan Miller) and he's assembled quite a talented roster, but at the end of the day they will have to integrate like ten new transfers under a first year coach (also a bit surprised Torvik likes them so much, as his preseason rankings tends to favor team continuity).

Glad we are playing American at home. They lost a lot to graduation (minus Greg Jones) so hopefully we can reverse our terrible track record against them. ODU should be better, as they added some double figure scorers from other mid majors (they added Jared Turner from Northeastern and Jordan Battle from Coastal Carolina, along with Drew McKenna from Georgetown). Outside of the Trey Moss revenge game angle, W&M is kind of a meh game. They lost their two double figure scorers but their coach recruits skill so a hot shooting performance from the Tribe could derail things.

The one game I don't get from a basketball perspective

Lucas Morillo
Year: 2026
Position: SG
Height: 6-6
Hometown: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
High School: The Newman School (Boston, MA)
AAU Team: Albany City Rocks (NY)

Offers: Boston College, Creighton, Fairfield, Fordham, Georgetown, High Point, Illinois, Iowa, Loyola (MD), Manhattan, Marquette, Penn State, UCLA, VCU, Washington, Xavier

Links
247Sports
ESPN
FIBA
Made Hoops
MaxPreps
On3
Prep Hoops
Recruit The Bronx
Rivals
Twitter Account
Verbal Commits

GW Offer Tweet
















 

Although it's been about a month since the last update, it's hard to say that too much has changed for either team. Baseball is coming off a series win against UMass in which they took two of three games, but given the Minutemen aren't particularly good they really should have swept. RevsBall is still very much in contention for a playoff spot, but are on the outside looking in. They are currently tied for sixth with Dayton and Fordham, two teams they lost series to. There's still plenty of time to improve their standing, but GW doesn't have the easiest schedule the rest of the way, as Davidson, St. Joe's, and SLU are all ahead of them in the standings.

As for softball, they successfully clinched a spot in the conference tournament after taking 2 of 3 from URI. Like the baseball team, it probably should have been a sweep but in game 3 the anemic hitting returned. Still, winning 30 games and making the conference tournament is a step in the right direction after last year. The second half of the lineup needs to provide a bit more support though. Situational hitting is sooo bad. Softball concludes the regular season with a winnable series against Loyola.
 

They didn't play on particularly good teams, but I'd add Armel Potter's second year and BA's senior season with CC. I guess you could make the argument that both had more opportunity those years compared to before (and Armel perhaps benefitted from Mazzulla leaving after the first few games).

Under Mojo, Potter was a bench option on what was one of GW's worst teams in several decades, so expecting him to play a key role on a better team (albeit only marginally better) was a surprise. BA's progression as a shooter was a pleasant surprise given his career averages.

Funnily enough, it was Mike Jarvis who told Armel to stick it out with JC as coach: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/1667025/2020/03/10/george-washingtons-leading-scorer-has-traveled-a-bumpy-road-in-his-career/

Tyrone Marshall Jr.
Year: 2020
Position: SF
Height: 6-7
Hometown: Nashville, TN
High School: Pearl-Cohn Entertainment Magnet HS (Nashville, TN)
Junior College: Colby CC (Colby, KS)

Offers: Western Kentucky

Eligibility: One year to play

Statistics:
(from year 3 at Western Kentucky) - 10.4 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 1.4 apg, 1.2 spg, 0.6 bpg; 42% FG, 32% 3-PT, 66% FT per 28.8 mpg/32 GP
(from year 2 at Western Kentucky) - 8.8 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 2.2 apg, 1.5 spg, 1.1 bpg; 49% FG, 37% 3-PT, 74% FT per 24.5 mpg/34 GP
(from year 1 at Western Kentucky) - 3 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 0.5 apg, 0.6 spg, 0.4 bpg; 50% FG, 23% 3-PT, 71% FT per 13.7 mpg/33 GP
(from year 2 at Colby CC) - 16.2 ppg, 8.8 rpg, 3.2 apg, 1.4 spg, 1.1 bpg; 55% FG, 33% 3-PT, 70% FT per 34.7 mpg/31 GP
(from year 1 at Colby CC) - 14.1 ppg, 7.4 rpg, 1.7 apg, 1.6 spg, 1 bpg; 55% FG, 33% 3-PT, 66% FT per 31.4 mpg/16 GP

Notable Performances (against D1 competition):
2/27/25 @ UTEP: 16 points, 9 rebounds; 6-9 FG, 1-3 3-PT, 3-4 FT in 34 minutes (year 3 at Western Kentucky)
2/8/25 @ Jacksonville St: 22 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal; 8-13 FG, 3-7 3-PT, 3-3 FT in 36 minutes (year 3 at Western Kentucky)
2/1/25 vs. New Mexico St: 24 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks; 10-14 FG, 4-7 3-PT in 25 minutes (year 3 at Western Kentucky)
1/23/25 @ Louisiana Tech: 13 points, 8 rebounds, 1 steal; 5-11 FG, 2-4 3-PT, 1-1 FT in 30 minutes (year 3 at Western Kentucky)
1/11/25 vs. Kennesaw St: 20 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals; 7-13 FG, 3-6 3-PT, 3-4 FT in 32 minutes (year 3 at Western Kentucky)
1/2/25 @ Liberty: 12 points, 8 rebounds, 1 assist; 6-7 FG, 0-1 3-PT, 0-3 FT in 26 minutes (year 3 at Western Kentucky)
12/14/24 vs. Murray St: 10 points, 11 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals; 4-9 FG, 2-5 3-PT in 38 minutes (year 3 at Western Kentucky)
11/30/24 vs. Marshall: 18 points, 5 rebounds, 1 steal, 2 blocks; 6-9 FG, 3-6 3-PT, 3-4 FT in 23 minutes (ye

GWRising wrote:

dmvpiranha wrote:

Need to have Garrett contingency plans at the 3/4 this year, so I wouldn't be opposed to using the two spots on those positions. Adding Dayan late last offseason from a talent perspective looked good, but he had too much of an injury history prior that it was risky.

Hopefully the 4 can slide down to the 5 if needed in an emergency, as expecting Slim/Luke to not miss a single game next season due to injury would also be unwise.

Adding one guy with a bit of size on the wing would make sense to me just to give CC that option that doesn't have to be Garrett (otherwise he would have to turn to Chaudhri who has no experience in college). It definitely appears that Ty or Tricky will see sizable minutes at the 3 as CC opts to go smaller a lot. Maybe even Jean as well. Also not seeing a lot of opportunities for Moss as of now, although would love to see an Armel Potter-like breakout in his second year at GW.
 

 If you are talking about optional roster construction you would be correct. Problem comes when guys want $$$ and playing time. When a 5 looks and sees we already have Castro/Hunger at his position - probably going to look elsewhere. Johnson hopefully can make it through a season. But I do agree we need a 3 and a 4 in the perfect world. The question is are we bringing in backups for depth or starters? A quality starter will be very expensive. So I think CC will opt for cheaper quality depth options unless he can really get a top player. This is getting to be like Moneyball where you have to spend on some positions and find a bargain at others. 

Makes sense to me. I know in the past JC's approach was landing a walk-on 5 who would maybe serve as that option.

One guy that I'm looking at who may be considered a quality starter is Josh Harris of North Florida. UNF never plays any D, but he's still on the younger side and has upside. I'm surprised he hasn't committed anywhere yet, but apparently he wants similar money t

Traditional positions don't mean much nowadays but how do things look at the "3" and "4" positions?

Like last year, there are question marks on the wing. It seems that CC will play either a three guard lineup (which will sacrifice positional size) or play Garrett huge minutes (which doesn't feel ideal coming back from injury) with a freshman (like Chaudhri) backing him up. Wanting more length on the wing might just be a me thing after watching the versatility of players Boise trotted out in GW's last game.

The 4 spot has even more questions, although I would assume at least one scholarship is used for a player at that spot. Garrett I guess could theoretically play the 4, but do we want him banging down low? Pairing Hunger and Slim together won't make a lot of sense most of the time.
 

Jean Aranguren
Year: 2023
Position: SG
Height: 6-3
Hometown: Valencia, Venezuela
High School: Springfield Commonwealth Academy (Springfield, MA)
AAU Team: NY Jayhawks (NY)

Offers: Boston U, Fairleigh Dickinson, Hofstra, Iona, UMBC

Eligibility: Two years to play

Statistics:
(from sophomore year at Hofstra) - 14.2 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 4.2 apg, 1.1 spg, 0.3 bpg; 41% FG, 34% 3-PT, 72% FT per 32.6 mpg with 33 GP
(from freshman year at Iona) - 8.1 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 1.8 apg, 1.1 spg, 0.2 bpg; 48% FG, 40% 3-PT, 80% FT per 21.8 mpg with 33 GP

Notable Performances (against D1 competition):
3/8/25 vs. Monmouth: 19 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block; 9-15 FG, 1-2 3-PT in 36 minutes (sophomore year at Hofstra)
3/1/25 vs. North Carolina A&T: 20 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals; 8-15 FG, 2-5 3-PT, 2-2 FT in 39 minutes (sophomore year at Hofstra)
2/27/25 @ Stony Brook: 17 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal; 7-16 FG, 1-5 3-PT, 2-4 FT in 38 minutes (sophomore year at Hofstra)
2/8/25 vs. Stony Brook: 17 points, 2 rebounds, 9 assists, 1 steal, 1 block; 6-15 FG, 2-4 3-PT, 3-6 FT in 36 minutes (sophomore year at Hofstra)
2/6/25 vs. Northeastern: 35 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 1 block; 9-13 FG, 3-4 3-PT, 14-18 FT in 36 minutes (sophomore year at Hofstra)
1/11/25 vs. UNC Wilmington: 20 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal; 7-15 FG, 5-9 3-PT, 1-1 FT in 37 minutes (sophomore year at Hofstra)
1/9/25 vs. Charleston: 19 points, 11 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 steal; 7-17 FG, 4-5 3-PT, 1-1 FT in 36 minutes (sophomore year at Hofstra)
12/29/24 @ Quinnipiac: 23 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals, 1 block; 7-14 FG, 1-1 3-PT, 8-8 FT in 41 minutes (sophomore year at Hofstra) 
12/15/24 vs. Temple: 16 points, 14 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal, 3 blocks; 4-15 FG, 1-6 3-PT, 7-10 FT in 40 minutes (sophomore year at Hofstra)
12/9/24 @ Norfolk State: 19 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 steal; 6-10 FG