As you said, no surprise here. There had been rumors for weeks that GW was going to make a change. Just never was able to get any roster continuity or enough talent. 

The biggest issue with McCombs' tenure from my point of view was the lack of talent development. The group that graduated last year (Taiwo, Blethen, Brown, Lok) barely grew at all in their time under McCombs. Robertson showed flashes of talent but couldn't put it together enough (meanwhile, she's averaging 18.5 points per game at SMU). It also seemed to me like there was too much turnover within her staff year to year.

Curious to see where they go for the next coach. This will be Lipitz's first basketball hire (maybe his first HC hire at all?) so I'm sure he will carefully consider his options. My guess is they opt for a high major assistant because Lipitz hired a high major assistant for the women's job at UIC and McCombs was a low major head coach. Some potential names:

Current assistants:
- Lauren Battista (Princeton)
- Bill Ferrara (Florida State; Assistant at GW 2013-15)
- Lindsey Hicks (Virginia Tech)
- Michaela Mabrey (Notre Dame)
- Cory McNeill (North Carolina; my personal early favorite)
- Tyler Cordell (Columbia)
- Melissa Dunne (St Joe's)
- Zach Kancher (Towson)

Current HCs:
- Carrie Moore (Harvard)
- Beth Cunningham (Missouri State)
- Carly Thibault-DuDonis (Fairfield)
- Tricia Fabbri (Quinnipiac)
- Becky Burke (Buffalo)
- Addie Micir (Lehigh)
- Stephanie Gaitley (Fairleigh Dickinson)

Glad that Lipitz is using GW's highs as the reference point for women's basketball rather than the persistent lows we've seen over the last 5 years.

Pretty sure Kancher is out of the coaching game. One other name I'd throw out there is Diane Richardson at Temple. She brought Jonquel Jones to GW, won a CAA regular season and Tournament Championship, and won 20 games last season at Temple. 

She's probably got one more head coaching stop left in her if she wanted to make the trip back home.

Some additional names to ponder

Britney Anderson, Illinois AC
Bill Broderick, Christopher Newport HC (D3)
James Janssen, Davidson AC
Trina Patterson, UNC-G HC

https://x.com/skinshoops86/status/1894106985206775823

Steve Urkel wrote:

I'll say it again - GW should have never fired Rizzotti. I don't care the roster they came with - fact is she delivered two championships (tournament + co-reg season.....it still counts) and an NCAA appearance before being unfairly hamstrung in the wake of COVID. You cannot justify firing a a WBB/UConn legend, championship coach, and Olympic gold medal winning, US Women's National Team and Olympic FIXTURE and trading that in for the last five years of slop from McCombs.

I get some people on this board had bad experiences with her or didn't enjoy her sideline antics (but loved Mike L....?!)....but c'mon..it's okay to admit GW messed up. Look where we are right now. 

I was reflecting on this today. At the time I was surprised, but not upset, that Rizzotti had been fired. I was also quite pleased by what I read about McCombs on paper. She came from the McKeown coaching tree, had thrived at Stony Brook, and seemed poised to bring a similar level of success at GW. 

Despite the obvious and immense potential of Ali Brigham, there wasn't much more that suggested that Coach Rizzotti was going to get the GW program back to its halcyon days of McKeown or Tsipis at the time.

Knowing what I know now? I'd rather GW had let Rizzotti have the chance.
 

I have been involved/following the program since the pre-McKeown era and am surprised only that this happened with games left on the schedule. As more money has poured in to women´s hoops in the last decade, GW has lost its comparative advantage (offering a good education at a school that made women´s hoops a priority under a legendary coach). GW cannot compete with the money and exposure the big schools offer (College Park CC and That School Down the Street used to have jokes for teams, now look at them after cash infusions) and has had trouble carving out a niche with its limited media footprint and resources. Clearly, the blame for the results on the court fall on the coach´s shoulders and is the reason such decisions are made. But after Wisconsin poached our coach with more money, prestige and sentiment, the program has floundered. GW went the "big name" route, and it didn´t work. GW then went the "up-and-coming" route, and it has not worked. So, big splash? Budget-reasonable "rebuild"? Alum with ties to the school? Or another "stepping up to prove his/her worth"?
I viewed the RIzz-McCombs change as a lateral move and a bit as I view the JC-Caputo change, the only difference being that McCombs did not have Rafael Castro come alive in conference play this season. So what happens now is anyone´s guess, but unless Tara van der Veer can be cajoled out of retirement (and that is a joke, not a serious suggestion) I don´t see the new regime returning GW to the Sweet 16 in a hurry. And that may be the saddest part of the whole thing.

There are 3 sports on the women’s side that should be excellent every year if they tap into the DMV. 1. Lacrosse 2. Basketball. 3. Soccer. There’s no excuse to not recruit locally.

One account has linked Norfolk State’s HC to GW

@WorldExposureWB
Molly Miller to Arkansas
Kellie Harper to Auburn
Jeff Mittie to Missouri
Charmain Smith stays at Cali
Vickers to George Washington
Houston gets a P4 Assistant Coach
UCF opens up and gets Abe from Georgia


https://x.com/worldexposurewb/status/1899916699375460527

xAC wrote:

He seems like he would a pretty good choice.
Norfolk State is 28-4 and playing for NCAAs today. They went to NCAAs last year too.
Currently ranked a #5 Mid-Major in some polls (per their website).

Is his c.v. all that different from McCombs when she arrived on campus? Not saying that is a negative, just that I´d be curious to know what makes people think he would do any better here than McCombs.
 

Bart Torvik ranks for some of the recent coaches mentioned:

Larry Vickers (Norfolk State): 314th (2021), 227th (2022), 164th (2023), 129th (2024), 89th (2025). Really like the upwards trajectory there. Offense a lot better the last two years. Open to playing both fast and slow. He would definitely keep the defense-first mentality. Unlike McCombs teams though his Norfolk teams actually forced turnovers (5th in nation in steals). Would love to see that, as WBB generally struggled to erase deficits this year because they couldn't turn the other team over whatsoever. His Spartan teams have knocked off both Mizzou and Auburn this year. That's crazy for a MEAC squad. McCombs came close to beating high major teams (like West Virginia) but never really notched that marquee win. Going this route feels similar to what Mason did with their coach coming from Bethune-Cookman. May not be a bad thing.

Lindsay Edmonds (Rice): 144th (2022), 96th (2023), 91st (2024), 112th (2025). Pretty balanced on both sides of the ball. Obviously getting a coach in an equivalent league like the AAC would be insane. Usually plays at an average tempo. First two squads more offensive minded, last two more defensive.

Alisa Kresge (Vermont): 256th (2021), 184th (2022), 155th (2023), 141st (2024), 86th (2025). Like Vickers, has continued to improve the team's ranking with every season. The Catamounts have strong effective field goal percentage marks on both sides of the ball under Kresge. Vermont has shot the ball very well from the field, but generally eschews the FT line (they keep their opponents off the line as well) and plays slow. That would be a weird sight compared to recent McCombs teams.