Maybe you fully know what to make of the 2024-25 Revs season.  If you don't, I'd have to believe you're not alone.

I keep hearing things spoken as the truth, that leave me wondering if I am missing something.  Chris Caputo is a great young coach.  Is he?  Great?  Filled with potential?  Sure.  Promising?  Absolutely.  Great?  Based on what exactly?

A 21-13 record against a schedule where anything less than the achieved 11-2 OOC record would have to be considered disappointing?  A 2-6 conference record against teams that finished higher in the standings?  And yet, we should not ignore that GW greatly exceeded its pre-season conference record projection, a projection that was reached knowing that one of the team's best players would be out for the season and without the knowledge of a new player emerging as the team's best two-way threat.

The team's calling card, unlike CC's first two seasons at GW, was defense.  Heard this one a lot.  Looking at stats on steals and blocked shots help support this.  But I'm not sure this tells the whole story.  This team was good at anticipating passing lanes but not so much in its one-on-one, stay with your man defense.  Despite some added quickness in the backcourt, even guys like Trey Moss, Ty Bevins and Christian Jones joined returnees in Trey Autry and Jacoi Hutchinson at consistently getting beat off the dribble.   As soon as Boise figured out that getting into the paint would solve its early outside shooting problem (to the tune of 52 points in the paint), the Broncos outscored the Revs by 36 over the game's final 32 minutes. 

I've heard this GW team be regarded as "extremely connected" which they certainly looked at times.  But consistency was nowhere to the found.  How does a team so connected turn the ball over 22 times against a team who quite frankly, doesn't even really try to turn you over?  GW lost its last 4 games by double figures..by 11 to St. Joe's, by 25 to Loyola, by 15 to George Mason and by 30 to Boise. I don't like discussions pertaining to the word quiting, but let's just say that GW had clearly lost its fight by the end of each of these performances.

I've heard that this was CC's best GW team in his three seasons yet this one went 9-9 in the conference while CC's first season, essentially coaching Jamion's players, went 10-8.  Sure, all of the advanced metrics seemed to work to GW's advantage and it was nice for these players and coaches to win an A10 tournament game and receive a trip to Vegas largely because schools like Ohio State, West Virginia and Indiana could not be bothered.  

We saw Slim Castro make all-A10 second team and all-defensive team while Christian Jones made the conference's all rookie team.  They are both building blocks for next season but more on that in a second.  First, there was practically everything else.  Gerald Drumgoole managed to shoot 30% from 3 despite a license to launch at will.  But, CC needed his size on the court and more importantly, this was the way CC wanted his team to play.  Lots of three point shots, even if yesterday's 8-26 fell very much in line with the team's season-long average of around 31%.  What's extraordinary about the 31% is how many of these shots were actually good looks.  Opponents encouraged these shots.  This is the NBA's influence on CC who apparently preferred to "go down the right way" than make a significant adjustment in light of losing the team's far and away best three point shooter last summer.

Trey Moss once started for this team.  Jacoi Hutchinson played his way out of the starting lineup while Darren Buchanan was by far and away the most puzzling riddle of the season.  I have no interest in pointing fingers at players or coaches.  Collectively, it is their job to figure out how to make things work and based on this definition, this was an epic fail.  We all saw what Jun was capable of last season and I think we can all assume that he did not forget how to play basketball.  If opposing defenses were better prepared for him, then deal with that.  Find better ways to incorporate a weapon like this into your gameplan than what we've witnessed these past few months.  Jun did not have to start with the ball at the top of the key every possession, but the answer couldn't have been to have him never again do this either.  Slim's emergence got in the way?  Please.  Figure this out.  It's a nice problem to have.   

So we would normally be left with the optimism that a returning quartet of Slim, Trey A. Christian and Garrett would bring.  However, there is no more normal.  Teams including GW's will need to be retooled annually and there simply are not any guarantees of anyone or everyone returning.  By June, we may be thrilled with next year's potential.  Or, we might be frightened.  The answer will likely lie somewhere in between.