A few fans tweeting something doesn't make it true.

Many of us were skeptical of his hire from the beginning. He had a .500 record after being a HC at 2 schools - Mt St Mary's and Sienna. Doesn't exactly get you excited.

He's a young guy with passion and a good basketball IQ so he might end up being GW's all time greatest coach. He could also be a total bust (like Mojo) who was hired more out of necessity than qualifications. Only time will tell. A few posters here keep saying he will have us in the top half of the A-10 by next year. For his sake, he better because he will have had 3 years to get us above Fordham, GM, Duqu, Mass, RI.

Media perception is never going to be based on a game-by-game analysis.  It's based on the following:

1) JC comes across as a great guy.  Great smile, personable, extremely positive.  There is no reason why you wouldn't root hard for someone like this.
2) JC is a solid interview.  Sure you'll get to hear about all of the love he has for his players and the role he and his staff play in helping to shape them as young men as well as basketball players.  But, with his reliance on data analytics and his willingness to discuss this with reporters, you get more than just the standard coaching sound bites.
3) The fact is that he has enjoyed some success elsewhere.  He took two MSM teams to the dance.  He experienced I believe a 9 win year over year improvement in his one season at Siena.  

The media factors the above points and formulates a positive impression.  They are looking at a much bigger picture than the picture we are looking at after each game.  There may very well have been regrettable losses for JC at MSM and at Siena, losses that may have been avoided had his coaching strategy been a bit different.   These same types of losses will be long forgotten if or when this program achieves enough success under JC's watch.

As far as the skepticism that Joel alludes to, there's a difference between being skeptical about the person and about the process.  My own skepticism stemmed from the fact that GW did not appear to do a national search following MoJo's departure.  This was a hire that the program needed to get right and I felt that additional due diligence was called for.  It appeared very early on that GW set its sights on JC and was ready with its offer as long as JC was willing to leave Siena after one season and that their terms were agreed upon.   This does not mean that JC was the wrong choice for the job.

I will continue to hope that JC will become our greatest coach yet.  That said, beating Patriot League teams, and Fordham, would be great places to start.  

Mayhem, I couldn't agree with you more.
I also felt GW "rushed" this hire (or as you say, didn't do it's due diligence). There may have been various reasons for this (Mojo's 3 year disaster Nero caused, financial constraints, etc) but it doesn't change the fact that we rushed into this. Some may disagree with me (and time will tell) but I thought we did the same thing with our AD hire. Schools that want to be competitive in a D-1 environment just don't act this way. Despite the lack of excitement from our student body and administration towards GW Sports and basketball in particular, we have proven success and can get there again.
I really hope JC grows quickly and finds success soon. This year is an anomaly (and throw away season) but I would hope GW can become competitive again and break the top 100 by next year (3rd year). If not, we will be entering our 7th year of a rebuilding job with absolutely nothing to show for it

We will now take a break from today's GW basketball fiction discussion for some non-fiction discussion.

1. Fact = GW interviewed at least 12 individuals for the job. These included mostly current HCs as well as a few assistants. Head Coaches included AE, Patriot, CAA and Conference USA and one former HM head coach. Assistants included ACC and Big 10
2. Fact = There were several rounds of interviews.
3. Fact = JC was one of 3 finalists brought back to interview with President LeBlanc who had the final say.
4. Fact = The job was not JC's until the very end - the end of the entire process when LeBlanc gave him the thumbs up..
5. Fact = GW did a lot of due diligence on at least 20 candidates during the season (everyone knew Mojo was dead man walking). JC was not even among the initial group but opened some eyes due to his victory over GW early in the season and the fact that Siena overachieved in 2018-19. Some potential candidates opted not to get involved.

Now whether JC was the right hire will be determined over time. However, it is pure fiction to suggest that JC was pre-ordained or that GW did not do a deliberate and careful/thoughtful process across many candidates.

Now back to the fiction discussion.

Mike K wrote:

GWRising, how about some names/programs?  I am more curious about it than anything else.

The problem is that GW did a really good job of keeping names out of the paper often at the request of the coach. I would say that with a few exceptions, most of the coaches are still with their present schools. I don't think it is appropriate for me to confirm even the schools because it would then be obvious. That's why I gave you conferences.

On a separate note, I neglected to mention one other very key aspect to the process. GW hired Parker Executive Search at considerable expense to organize/run the coaching search. There is no way GW spends that kind of money if JC was already their guy. GW didn't need to pay Parker to recommend JC to them.

In the end, JC impressed the powers that be and got hired. Simple as that. It happens. And I think over time it will pay off. JC inherited one of the worst programs in mid-major D1. Not only was it bereft of players but of a winning culture. All the good ML did in building a program evaporated in just three short years. People call this a rebuild. It's not a rebuild it's like an expansion team. Why else does anyone think we have had so much roster turnover?

JC will get this right. People here said exactly the same things about Hobbs and Lonergan at this point in their GW careers (start of year 2) when they were on the edge of some very good years which immediately followed. And they inherited far better situations than JC. How quickly some forget. Patience is the word we should all employ. JC is not responsible for what happened under Mojo. You can look at Steve Pikiell for another example that it is going to take time to get it right. What was his record his first two years a Rutgers? Now look. Let the bread bake!

Turgeon at UMD is hammered every year for good recruiting but poor coaching...so far JC has brought in some recruits but coaching, I am not sure about.  But then again, I am no head coach (unless you count rec leagues!). 

GW Alum Abroad wrote:

GWRising wrote:

We will now take a break from today's GW basketball fiction discussion for some non-fiction discussion.

1. Fact = GW interviewed at least 12 individuals for the job. These included mostly current HCs as well as a few assistants. Head Coaches included AE, Patriot, CAA and Conference USA and one former HM head coach. Assistants included ACC and Big 10
2. Fact = There were several rounds of interviews.
3. Fact = JC was one of 3 finalists brought back to interview with President LeBlanc who had the final say.
4. Fact = The job was not JC's until the very end - the end of the entire process when LeBlanc gave him the thumbs up..
5. Fact = GW did a lot of due diligence on at least 20 candidates during the season (everyone knew Mojo was dead man walking). JC was not even among the initial group but opened some eyes due to his victory over GW early in the season and the fact that Siena overachieved in 2018-19. Some potential candidates opted not to get involved.

Now whether JC was the right hire will be determined over time. However, it is pure fiction to suggest that JC was pre-ordained or that GW did not do a deliberate and careful/thoughtful process across many candidates.

Now back to the fiction discussion.

GW announced MoJo was gone on March 15, 2019. Jamion Christian was announced as GW´s new coach on March 21, 2019. My impression was JC was TV´s choice from before the official search process began.
It really does not matter, Christian is GW´s coach and will guide the team in to its future (either filling the rafters with banners or us with angst).

Mojo was dead man walking way before March 15, 2019. If you think GW hadn't made calls and done a considerable amount of due diligence well before that then there's nothing I can say to change your mind. The entire process was tee'd up way before the decision was announced. 

That said whether TV had zeroed in on JC from the start or came to the conclusion at the end of the process that he was the right hire, you would have to ask her. From my conversations, her thinking evolved towards JC during that week of interviews. However, the decision was not solely hers to make. She had to sell LeBlanc and Mark Diaz on whatever her choice was. With both of those guys coming from U. Miami, I can tell you there was more than one candidate with Miami connections to them and at least one finalist. It strains credulity to think that LeBlanc and Diaz would be part of a charade process and spend a lot of money to hire a search firm. JC got the job because he emerged from the process as the best candidate at that time.

That all said, a good process does not guarantee that a good decision will be made. Just like a bad process doesn't prevent a good decision. Time always will tell. I don't think 33 games is enough time to render a decision about what is or isn't going to happen here under JC.
 

GWRising, I'm not doubting anything you are saying.  Am happy to take your word for it.

It does not though change the fact that something which historically takes more time to complete was wrapped up in much less time.  Do you think this was the only time in history when a second school with an opening wanted to interview another school's strong candidate?  Did any of those searches wrap up in 6 days because school 1 did not want to lose out on a candidate? 

The bottom line is that it would be rare to have a thorough search completed in 6 days, which calls into question the due diligence issue.  I sincerely hope that you are right...that all candidates were properly vetted and that we selected the right coach.  I happen to agree that JC will be great for this program in the long term, but again, this discussion isn't really about JC. 

Not to beat a dead horse, but all that matters is what JC does the rest of this year and more importantly, next season. 
I agree with Rising that GW is no longer the "dream job". Our administration has shown it's incompetence over all things the last 20 years. Every D1 through D3 basketball coach in America knows what happened to ML 4 years ago. Every athletic administrator in America knows the story about PN and how he wanted to "pursue other opportunities 3 years ago. The student support is lacking. The financial support is lacking and will not get better in the foreseeable future because of financial problems due to ineptness and COVID.
Therefore, our candidate pool is more like UMBC than Georgetown or Maryland. Explains why GW grabbed JC when they could. A better candidate was not available. 
I was in the camp who wasn't high on JC, mainly because he brought a .500 winning percentage from low conferences. There are stars who are winning at programs like Vermont, etc that would have been great fits. Winning the NEC Conference Tourney and getting to the play in the Tue/Wed bye-in games with an over-all .500 record doesn't excite many of us. He never won against Top 25 teams while at MSM or Sienna like a lot of coaches at that level have done.
GW made their decision and we are stuck with it. I just hope he can start winning this year and next to give us a little hope. I don't think I can survive a situation where we are continuing our rebuild from 2016 in 2022!

Mentzinger wrote:

GW has never mounted a competitive HC job search in my lifetime. Penders, Hobbs, Lonergan, Joseph and Christian were all single-candidate hires, with the possible exception of Joe Dooley getting a look during Lonergan then being passed over without a follow-up call.

That's not true in 2 of those cases - Hobbs and Christian. Was definitely true for the others.