Long Suffering Fan wrote:

Overall, I could give our portal grade a middling "C" as we scored big with one player while I found the other 3 to be somewhat disappointing.  Individually, I would grade as follows:

Rafael Castro    A-.    I was expecting more of a Babatunde Akinbola based upon his prior year's stats and minutes but got a very skilled big man who was almost an automatic double/double every night and displayed good hands, passing skills and good court sense.   Why I could not give him an "A" was his need to get physically stronger, his lack of any shooting range and yes...the free throws.

Sean Hansen:   C   I pretty much loved Sean's game, especially after he broke out his Hansen Hook towards the end of the season.   I would love to replace him with another with his exact skill set, only better...and faster.   He did many nice things, just not good enough at A-10 level. and yes...the turnovers.  He will be a hell of a rec league player.

Gerald Drumgoole Jr.   C-   Frustrating because he gave us glimpses as to what he could do, but his shooting numbers were just woeful and his defense was MEH.   A shame, becuase like Hansen, he was a 4 year veteran and filled a  positional need, but again,  did not seem not good enough at A-10 level.  Seemed like a team leader but he did not seem to be able to take charge on the court when things would start to head south and we needed court leadership to get us back on course.

Trey Moss:   D    Comparable to Drumgoole in that he was positioinally what we needed, in his case a very quick guard who could shoot.    Not sure how much of his shortcomings were caused by his injury, but he too, despite a few glimpses, put up woeful shooting numbers and did not seem to be much of a defender, and it was pretty clear early on that he would be replaced as a starter.

 
I agree with all these grades, tho I think I’d give Castro a straight up A. I too had doubts that he’d be any different than stretch though the OOC. But against the odds, he got better against A10 competition as he got used to his new environment, coach and team. His catch in the portal is CC’s best yet.

Last edited by Alum1 (3/16/2025 4:16 pm)

It's a miracle that we won 21 games with not one player playing consistently throughout the season, except for Castro during the conference schedule. Guys had great games and then disappeared for 2 or 3. If you watched Mason this season, you saw that they had several times our talent level. I hope Caputo has more luck with next year's roster, although after following the team for 60 years I know that recruiting and bringing in quality transfers--especially big men--has been almost impossible for GW, made worse by NIL! 

moneybox wrote:

It's a miracle that we won 21 games with not one player playing consistently throughout the season, except for Castro during the conference schedule. Guys had great games and then disappeared for 2 or 3. If you watched Mason this season, you saw that they had several times our talent level. I hope Caputo has more luck with next year's roster, although after following the team for 60 years I know that recruiting and bringing in quality transfers--especially big men--has been almost impossible for GW, made worse by NIL! 

With NIL and open transfering, you can't really compare these past 2-3 seasons with the preceding decades.   As for Mason having several times the talent level, I disagree.    We lost one game in double OT, a second game by 3 points, and outplayed Mason in the first half of that final game, when the wheels came off the bus.  As for consistency, early in the season we had injuries and a team with more new parts than returnees.   Once conference started, I would say that  we played more consistently individually than we did at a team.   Beyond Castro, I thought Jones was very consistent (with included the freshman boo boos), Hansen was consistent (just not that good), Autry was consistent in what he is, namely a streak shooter, Autry was pretty steady after he finally broke out of his forever slump and Bevens steadily improved given that he would not play that long and was generally the fifth scoring option.  The 3 big inconsistent players were Buchanan, Drumgoole and Moss.  Sadly, that was enough to make us, in the end, also rans once again.