Javy has got to be like 50 years old.  As for transfers in, my guess (hope is that one or more of the targets are still playing and cannot enter the portal yet.   If the target is on a team who's season has ended, then I would hope that  announcement  will come at any time, with the longer the delay the more cause for concern.  If its a done deal and the seasons are over, why wait?

Again, not many wanted to listen when I tried to tell you this was a college basketball issue and not a JC or GW issue. The number of transfers is now well over 600. Verbal commits is not completely synced with the NCAA portal. And we have 84 teams still playing lol - 68 NCAA 16 NIT. Just wait. Rather than criticizing JC, you may one day soon begin to wonder how JC managed to hold about 2/3 of his roster.

GWRising wrote:

Again, not many wanted to listen when I tried to tell you this was a college basketball issue and not a JC or GW issue. The number of transfers is now well over 600. Verbal commits is not completely synced with the NCAA portal. And we have 84 teams still playing lol - 68 NCAA 16 NIT. Just wait. Rather than criticizing JC, you may one day soon begin to wonder how JC managed to hold about 2/3 of his roster.

With all due respect GWRising, I don't believe anyone was arguing that there haven't been more college basketball transfers today than ever before.  You seem to be clinging to this argument.  Rather, the pushback has had far more to do with WHY so many players are leaving the program.  In the case of the UMASS situation, this appears to be a power struggle between the head coach and the assistant coach which the assistant has won.  With Penn State, these players are all Chambers recruits who played for Ferry this season.  PSU hired Micah Shrewsberry to be their new head coach; it would stand to reason that the departing players may have preferred that the school remove the interim tag from Ferry instead.

Both of these situations do not compare with the situation at GW.  (They might have two years ago but not today.)    I believe many of the GW player situations were quite different from one another.  JNJ was recruited over with James arriving during his sophomore season..  Maceo was replaced in the starting lineup after being a three year captain and two+ year starter.  On the one hand, JC is trying to win games and play the best players the greatest numbers of minutes possible to do so.  On the other hand, with the team's prospects not being very strong for this season, maybe JC could have shown a bit more loyalty to Maceo who was essentially the only MoJo holdover not to bail on JC?  (There isn't a definitive right or wrong to this.  Everyone is entitled to their opinion.)  Jamison wants to improve his pro prospects by playing at a higher level.  (And, I don't believe was happy over how things went down with JNJ.  And yes, I have heard something to this effect.)  Many of the transfers simply weren't talented enough to play for JC given his goals for the program.

So again, my belief is that it's not the number of guys who are transferring out but rather the WHY's behind many of these guys who are leaving.  JC wants to get better and everyone should be able to appreciate this.  At the same time, players don't want to feel like they are being unceremoniously dumped which I fear has happened here in more than just a handful of instances.  Moving forward, they are all JC's guys now so hopefully, everyone presumably knows what they've signed up for. 

Last edited by Gwmayhem (3/16/2021 1:31 pm)

Gwmayhem wrote:

GWRising wrote:

Again, not many wanted to listen when I tried to tell you this was a college basketball issue and not a JC or GW issue. The number of transfers is now well over 600. Verbal commits is not completely synced with the NCAA portal. And we have 84 teams still playing lol - 68 NCAA 16 NIT. Just wait. Rather than criticizing JC, you may one day soon begin to wonder how JC managed to hold about 2/3 of his roster.

With all due respect GWRising, I don't believe anyone was arguing that there haven't been more college basketball transfers today than ever before.  You seem to be clinging to this argument.  Rather, the pushback has had far more to do with WHY so many players are leaving the program.  In the case of the UMASS situation, this appears to be a power struggle between the head coach and the assistant coach which the assistant has won.  With Penn State, these players are all Chambers recruits who played for Ferry this season.  PSU hired Micah Shrewsberry to be their new head coach; it would stand to reason that the departing players may have preferred that the school remove the interim tag from Ferry instead.

Both of these situations do not compare with the situation at GW.  (They might have two years ago but not today.)    I believe many of the GW player situations were quite different from one another.  JNJ was recruited over with James arriving during his sophomore season..  Maceo was replaced in the starting lineup after being a three year captain and two+ year starter.  On the one hand, JC is trying to win games and play the best players the greatest numbers of minutes possible to do so.  On the other hand, with the team's prospects not being very strong for this season, maybe JC could have shown a bit more loyalty to Maceo who was essentially the only MoJo holdover not to bail on JC?  (There isn't a definitive right or wrong to this.  Everyone is entitled to their opinion.)  Jamison wants to improve his pro prospects by playing at a higher level.  (And, I don't believe was happy over how things went down with JNJ.  And yes, I have heard something to this effect.)  Many of the transfers simply weren't talented enough to play for JC given his goals for the program.

So again, my belief is that it's not the number of guys who are transferring out but rather the WHY's behind many of these guys who are leaving.  JC wants to get better and everyone should be able to appreciate this.  At the same time, players don't want to feel like they are being unceremoniously dumped which I fear has happened here in more than just a handful of instances.  Moving forward, they are all JC's guys now so hopefully, everyone presumably knows what they've signed up for. 

I was not talking about the Penn State and UMass situations as being the same. Take those two schools out of it, there are still over 600 with many schools having 3, 4, 5 or more. They can't all or even mostly be the same.

I think you again conflate the notion of being unceremoniously dumped with losing a competition for playing time, not being happy with it, and seeing your only redress as the exit door. I don't know that there are many guys left at D1 who are willing to bide their time and play by the time they are a junior or senior (Antoine Hart anyone?). What happened here at GW like so many schools is a natural outgrowth of the times rather than an indictment of the coach.

 

Last edited by GWRising (3/16/2021 2:03 pm)

Well, we have a clear conscience, having done our best this year to help Paulsen keep his job. 
 

danjsport wrote:

GWrising- players leave.  Players leave for all sorts of reasons and, for better or worse, the ability to transfer and stigma associated with transferring is changing, so players are more willing to leave.  I don't think anybody would deny that.  The goal then becomes to 1) keep the players you want to keep; 2) bring in young players that can play right away; and 3) recruit transfers and then retain them.  So far, of the young players JC brought in, JNJ and Chase are gone (I may be wrong in believing Chase was his, he may have been a MoJo recruit, but I'm pretty sure JNJ was JCs).  I don't know what Shawn Walker is doing.  He brought in Sloan Seymour who has been perfectly meh.  Amir is here, but always hurt.

This year, he added as freshman Brelsford, Noel, and Ball.  None have been particularly impressive.  For transfers, Lindo and Bishop were good adds.  Moyer was a good grad student, but not a recruit for the future.

So, where' s that leave us--two years and no impactful freshmen but two impactful transfers.  Heading into year three, we're looking at Freeman and Nixon (and maybe Gapare).  On paper, that looks like a good class.  Let's hope it is.  And let's hope he can supplement with a good transfer market.  You've insinuated that something good will happen soon--and I have no reason to doubt your insight--but you followed up with something to the effect of "the longer it takes, the worse it is."  

We all obviously hope this works out.  But JC needs to do his best to get quality players and retain them.  

Again, the only players that JC brought to GW who have left are Walker, Seymour and JNJ. Mezie, Terry, Jamison, Maceo, Chase, Justin, Javier were all Mojo recruited guys. 

As for my comment that "the longer it takes ..." refers to one particular guy who we were and still are actively recruiting who would be a great addition. We are head to head with BCS schools but we haven't got a commitment yet. It could happen today or never. But we in the hunt and very close. There was some thought it could happen this past weekend but it did not. Stay tuned.


 

GWRising.. Is there a Garino and Katuka connection to the guy we're waiting on?

Gwrising-my point remains the same—of all the guys JC has brought in, only two are players that will help long term.  They are bishop and Lindo.  Of this year’s freshmen class, nobody was particularly impressive.  So if he is not going to be able to recruit out of HS well (and the jury is still out—one set of freshmen (plus JNj) is not a sufficient sample), I’d hope he can keep recruiting transfers

GWRising, two things are happening here.  Yes, more players are transferring than ever before due in part to the more lax rules regarding transfers (not sitting out a year).  And, what has happened at GW over these first two years of the JC era, namely turning over practically an entire roster within two years, is not happening at most other schools.  It just isn't to this extent.

While you can blame the players all you like for not sticking it out and competing for more playing time, the fact is that the trait of looking for a better situation even when a player hasn't given his current situation a fair chance (in your estimation) is a sign of the times.  Today, companies rarely show loyalty to employees and employees don't show much back to their employers.  Early in my career, I received an offer for a dream job three weeks after I had started working for a different company.  I decided to stay where I was because my conscience just would not allow me to leave someplace three weeks after I had started.  If I was 23 years old today and the same scenario had occurred,  there would seemingly be a greater chance of making a different decision.

Back to basketball.  I would hope we can agree that having 11 players leave a program prematurely over a two year period is excessive and not at all a recipe for building a sustainable program.  It seems to me that if today's player is simply going to leave if he's not playing enough, then it needs to be up to the coaches, athletic departments, and even the top school officials to find a way around this.  Emphasize the education they'd be giving up.  Discuss why leaving DC may not be in a player's best interest.  Remind the player that while they may not be playing as much as they'd like now, there is a path towards playing more once the guy in front of them leaves.  Cite real GW examples, like how Kethan Savage began his career coming off the bench before joining the other Core 4 players in the starting lineup.  Mention how guys like Maureece Rice and Jordan Roland played sparingly as freshmen but increased their roles throughout their college careers.   

Of course, you will never be able to stop everyone from transferring out.  And, the guys who transfer "down" because it turned out that their abilities were not at an A10 level do make sense for the most part.  However, there is a great deal of middle ground between losing 11 players prematurely and not losing any.  Coaches and athletic directors are well compensated based on their abilities to succeed and problem solve.  Losing this many guys is a problem.  For argument's sake, let's assume that this generation has changed and is far more prone to pick up and leave.  We need JC and his staff, and TV and her staff, to figure out how to best keep players here, not against their will, but by helping them see that the grass isn't always greener someplace else.

Danjsport, I would respectfully disagree with you about this year's freshmen.  Brown is admittedly a project who has not played much basketball but who definitely has the size and hopefully, the agility and instincts to be a successful center.  Brelsford shows no fear on the court and has the chance to be a very prolific scorer for this team.  Ball is the biggest question mark right now in my mind.  He strikes me as being a bit too tentative on the court.  If he can learn to relax and not overthink things, he could also be a solid contributor.   

GW18, the post was far more about what this program can do to help retain players than it was to rehash the past.  Do you really want to support a program where 5-6 players transfer out annually?  I sure don't.  My point was to say that rather than place this at the feet of the kids, let's understand that kids are far more prone to leave when things aren't going their way (with changing transfer rules making this easier) and figure out why it might be in their own best interests to stay at GW.

I also disagree that Jamison was the only loss of consequence to the program.  In the case of JNJ, I think you have to imagine what things may have been like for him if James hadn't joined the team.  JNJ averaged in double figures as a freshman.  Understand that the majority of college basketball players will never average 10+ points a game over any season let alone their freshman season.  JNJ's rebounding was exceptional for someone his size, and his steals and defensive instincts were off the charts.  He may never have been a 20 point per game scorer or a 7+ assist guy, but he most definitely could have been a top 2-3 player on a winning team given the same opportunities that he was provided as a freshman.

I'd also add that Chase Paar could have been a more than serviceable option at center for a strong GW team.  His defense was flawed but his offense was actually very good when he was healthy.  Again, he was never going to be an All A10 performer but certainly could have been an important piece to the puzzle.

I fully understand that these guys aren't coming back.  But don't hand me "time to move on" after you explain why nobody other than Jamison would have contributed to a winning team at GW.  That's just not true IMO.