Assistant Coach Graham Bousley gets interviewed about his career



 

Little unfair to use 8 as the number of departures when one was a walk on, but doesn’t really matter.  There are even some programs (like DePaul and Minnesota) that have had 9.

There are 57 outgoing transfers from the Atlantic Ten from this season, or roughly an average of 4 per team.   GW has lost 8, or twice that average.    We are replacing high school recruits with under performing Power 6 players.    There is virtually no identification between what remains of the decimated fan base with the returning players.  Next season, the entire roster will have played only 59 games combined as a Colonial,.  
Bishop 17
Lindo 7
Dean 11
Brown  13
Harris:  11

Nobody on the team for more than one season (with the exception of Harris, who has been on the team for 2 seasons but sat 1 season).  Yes, without mentioned any names, some of the outgoing transfers were addition by subtraction, but right now I am feeling that we are simply trying to patch together a roster rather than progressing towards relevancy.    So now, invariably, next season we will have the "they need time to learn to play together" excuse, but even if they eventually do so, a bunch of them will not stick around.   I understand about the high transfer rate, but unable to keep whom I believe was the best all around player on the team (Battle), two Christian recruited freshmen (Brelsford and Bell) and whom I believed to be a sophomore with great potential (Nelson) along with one of our better scorers (Jack), with both Nelson and Jack so anxious to leave that they could not even wait until the season ended before leaving, as well as a promising sophomore who experienced major regression his second year (Paar) does not speak well of the current administration.     One of the jobs of a coach is to convince those on the team that although things are going poorly now, the future is bright and things will get better,   After 2 years and double digit transfers away, Christian has not succeeded in doing so, and I am not sure how many of the faithful truly believe that things are getting better.

Gwmayhem wrote:

One thing is for sure LSF:  Nobody should begin to tolerate the "they need time to learn to play together" theory.  You can't have this both ways.  Either you turn half the team over and expect results due to an influx of talent, or you keep a core group together and be patient with them.  One or the other.

Big presumption here ... that JC desired that these changes be made. That said, it will take time for any team to jell. The more new parts the longer it should take. This is true in virtually every sport. That's not saying we should expect a season like the last one either.

 

GWRising wrote:

Gwmayhem wrote:

One thing is for sure LSF:  Nobody should begin to tolerate the "they need time to learn to play together" theory.  You can't have this both ways.  Either you turn half the team over and expect results due to an influx of talent, or you keep a core group together and be patient with them.  One or the other.

Big presumption here ... that JC desired that these changes be made. That said, it will take time for any team to jell. The more new parts the longer it should take. This is true in virtually every sport. That's not saying we should expect a season like the last one either.

 

I hope this isn't where you are setting the bar.  14-18 next year would be better than this year.  Would that result really be a reason for optimism?

It's challenging having these types of discussions with you because your views are so completely subjective, to the point where I'm afraid any sense of reality becomes obscured.  It's clear that you know and like the coaching staff and want to see them achieve great things.  There's nothing wrong with any of that.  Everyone here wants to see them succeed in a big way.  Nevertheless, after two seasons where JC should rightfully be afforded a pass at least to some extent, you appear to be well on your way to offering a freebie for Year 3.  It appears to me that you are trying to deflate expectations so as to increase the chances of the staff "succeeding."  And to do this, you are now saying that with this much turnover resulting in this many newcomers, a circumstance that it appears JC is perfectly OK with since the net result is an increased talent level for his team, this team will take time to gel, implying expectations should be tempered.

This is what I mean by having it both ways.  If there is greater roster shakeout than ever before in the sport for the reasons we have discussed, then it stands to reason that practically all teams will need time to gel.  This strikes me as an excuse you will be quick to use if you need it.  I think it's important to understand that after the past five seasons, the last thing any GW fan wants to hear is another excuse.  It would be one thing if JC did not ask for any of this...if he did not recruit "over" existing players and was willing to grow with the team he had in place at the start of last season.  Instead, he chose to try to upgrade his talent largely via the transfer portal.  That's his call and that's fine.  But then, you need to go out and win with the upgraded talent.   And not use a lack of experience playing together as an excuse.

I don't believe we have a delusional fan base who now looks at this team and is expecting a top 4 finish or a conference championship next season.  However, the goal of not being as bad as last season just isn't going to fly.  IMO, the realistic goal for next year's team ought to be a Top 7 finish and hopefully, a team that is very much in the running for a double bye.  And, if it's going to play an OOC schedule along the lines of the past two seasons, then it will be disappointing if the team does not win most of these games.  The losses to Morgan State, AU, William & Mary, etc. have to come to an end.  Even if you're tinkering with lineups and figuring out what works and what doesn't, you have to find a way to win those games. 

   

Last edited by Gwmayhem (4/22/2021 8:53 am)

I would agree GWRising that obtaining these goals would certainly represent progress, certainly relative to the past four seasons.

GW0509, so we did it three times in five years under Lonergan, and I think we all know that we have bottomed out ever since.  I'd say that if you're willing to extend history back to 1990 and the start of the Jarvis era, I think you'd find that GW was in the top half of the conference plenty of times.

Let's also add that Kellan Grady and  Fatts Walker are out of the conference, who knows how many other players like Goodwin, French, Crutcher, Richmond's starting 5, etc. will be departing, UMASS is a mess, etc.  Our ascension is based in part on whether more recently successful programs will simultaneously be descending.

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NEW EP OUT NOW W/ Joe Bamisile🚨

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Last edited by GW0509 (8/13/2021 10:25 am)

I also thought it was interesting that Joe said that Mike Young helped figure out where Joe should look to transfer.  The Emory and Henry connection with JC seemed to pay off for GW.

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