As a GW basketball fan, I used the season as motivation to study for the GMAT in order to get my MBA from a different school

GW0509 wrote:

Battle showed he's not just a shooter and should continue develop into a possible first team all-conference player when it's all said and done.

Absolutely correct. In fact, if there is more ball movement both he and Bishop could get first team together. The team was at its best when Battle was involved in the offense.

If two seasons with 17 wins and 32 losses under Coach Christian is good enough for the majority of people on this board, so be it. I just don't believe that Coach will be taking the program to the promised land. 

DC Native, same here.  Basically, my thought watching every GW game this year.

The JC HS recruits have disappointed to date, those 3 shined, Mojo's HS recruit and 2 transfers brought in by JC.  

3 building blocks

Nothing is ever based “solely” on a player decision.  Stop with that.  They may make a decision, but what has happened around them, to them, and with them makes a difference.  Can’t give a coach credit for recruiting guys, and then call them leaving the coach only a “player’s decision’”

GWRising wrote:

danjsport's reasoning is exactly why we have 1000+ transfers. You should work in AAU and tell players how they've been disrespected when the coach doesn't let them play the minutes they think they should play, the position they think they should play or the the offense doesn't run through them.

That said, at GW, the players always hold the cards. GW will not pull a scholarship absent a rules or academic violation. So it is almost always the player's decision to stay or leave despite the fictions we hear here.

First, your post assumes that 1000+ transfers is a bad thing.  As if letting people choose where they work is bad.  Second, you assume that I care whether the player leaves because he is “disrespected” or some other reason.  If I go to a law firm that tells me I’ll get a corner office, certain resources, a good work-life balance, etc,, and they don’t meet those expectations, I can leave and find a new law firm.  If just I leave, people may think I was the problem.  If 20% of people leave, people
Will likely believe the law firm is part of the problem.  These kids will get virtually the same education at all of the schools.  They will get varying levels of basketball positives and negatives.  I just don’t care if they leave their job for another.  Certainly not until they are unionized and/or compensated fairly for the revenue they bring to the school.

Its hard to argue with the sentiments expressed by Danjsport, but on the other hand, I can't believe that the free transfer of players from school to school is good for the sport of College Basketball.   That almost dooms programs like GW to become a waystation for kids on the way up and kids on the way down.

I would like to think that receiving a free college education that is valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars is a fair tradeoff for playing basketball for the school team.   Once you start paying players dollars, it stops being an amateur sport and becomes a professional league.  But I do agree that the current system needs  tweaking.

danjsport - Yes, when a quarter of scholarship players transfer in a given year that is not either a good thing for the sport or very conducive to the spirit of student-athlete. We approaching a place where every year the teams are comprised of hired mercenaries (either one and dones, transfers or first year players)

But you've made my point. You get to decide. If you don't like what the law firm pays you etc. you can find another job. It is not a requirement for the law firm to pay you more just because you don't like what you earn, etc. Same thing with players. It is the responsibility of the coach to play the players in the manner he thinks can best help the team. If you, as a player, don't like it,  you can transfer. But that's not always or even mostly on the coach in a sport where you have 13 scholarship players but only 5 can play at a time..

So I'm not against transferring just against the ridiculous notion that kids today always think the grass is greener elsewhere, don't want to compete for time like their predecessors did, and realize that for 99% of them, the education is what matters first and foremost. And adults are exploiting them more than the colleges because if you look at the transfer portal every year about 20% never find new homes but gave up that scholarship.

Also the notion that a $300,000 free education at GW is worthless compensation is ridiculous. How many of these kids have skills coming out of high school where they could earn more than $75,000/year? You know the answer. There would be a line stretching for miles to be "exploited" like that in the general population. What makes playing basketball so much more "special"?

BC wrote:

The reason that we should pay kids some reasonable amount maybe $100 a week during the weeks they are required to practice is that 1) many are so poor that their parents can't even give them pocket money
2) they are not able to work if they're practicing and going to classes so how are they able to earn money?
Make it needs based - that's ok with me.   Certainly allow them to earn money at basketball camps or if their likeness is used in a video game.    We're not really talking about giving the 150K per year, we're talking about having a nice dinner with a date (do kids still date?) or going to a movie (do kids still go to movies?) - after Covid  if course.

BC, what you have proposed is eminently reasonable. However, that is a far cry from what danjsport is suggesting.