I am going to remain largely silent for now. I've shared (or will share) my displeasure with the various powers that be privately. But to sum up ... Very disappointed in GW right now. As disappointed as I was in September 2016. 

@thomas coaches on the way down are very risky.  Anthony Grant and Travis Ford both get pretty big budgets and major facilities at Dayton and SLU.  You’d have to be very careful hiring someone used to BCS budgets wouldn’t kind of use the fact that GW doesn’t have all those advantages as an excuse. 

Remember the way Hobbs kind of always acted like GW was second tier and impossible to win at, constantly complaining about the lack of facilities and down-talking GW?  You need someone with the attitude or a ML or JC, who understood GE’s strengths, instead of focusing on our weaknesses. 

Not saying a Cuanzo Martin type couldn’t work here, but you’d really have to find a special kind of optimist who would embrace our culture and strengthens, rather than look down their nose at being stuck here. I really don’t want to repeat the negative PR of Karl Hobbs (so I guess that goes for a BCS assistance coming here).


@danjsport I have to disagree with you about Dooley.  He doesn’t have it.  He’s been a head coach for 12 years and never finished in the top 100 per KenPom.  In the four years before getting fired by ECU for the second time, he finished 264, 217, 155, 184.  In the American, he finished 11th out of 12 his first two years, dead last out of 11 last year, and 9th out of 11 this year. Plus, I doubt anyone but a small number of old timers even associates him with GW (he’s even before my time, and I’ve been on this board since Mario started one before Herve in like 1994).


Final point, I just looked up Bob Richey’s record and wow!  Though he’s never made the tourney, his Furman teams have been on the top 100 all 5 years there. He’s also beaten teams like Villanova and Louisville.   To coach teams that efficient for five straight years at the SoCon level is fairly impressive.

Gwmayhem wrote:

The name I am most intrigued by is Chris Caputo.  He has been with Jim Larranaga for 20 years at George Mason (during their Final 4 run) and at Miami.  He has repeatedly won polls and been otherwise regarded as a top assistant coach in the country.  He is Miami's Associate Head Coach and has been for some time now.  He was definitely considered three years ago and believe this is the type of up and comer GW could really use.

 

Caputo is holding out for the miami job once larranaga retires. Doubt he will leave. Guessing the school is too cheap to pay a true rising star so I fully expect a retread or a low major coach moving up

I think the school is very interested in getting back to the tournament, or at least to where we are a bubble team, as fast as possible so I frankly don’t think they’re worried about the coach leaving after some success. I don’t think they made this move to hire someone to do a long rebuild because that’s what they already had in JC.

Tanya talked about needing a turnaround artist last time and that’s how JC apparently marketed himself.  I don’t know which of the proposed candidates fits that bill but I think that’s the #1 quality we’re looking for.

GW0509 wrote:

Skittles wrote:

Shocked by the timing, not the result.
TV is a cancer and has spent 6 years neutering this program

Not sure how you can say that given she’s fired the last two coaches early and paid buyouts to do so.

You can criticize the choice of JC, sure, but I don’t see how the program has been neutered unless she is withholding money from the team which I highly doubt. If anything, it seems like she is desperate to get back to postseason play.

If she wanted to neuter the program Mojo would still be our coach today.

Hindsight is always 20/20.   Christian did not work out, but I thought hiring a young and personable coach with (kinda) local ties and demonstrated D-1 success, even at the lower levels, was a smart move, and I would not at all be upset if the next coach had those same attributes, although maybe we needed to be looking at a higher level D-1 coach, such as the one we hired from Boston University or Vermont.
 

jf wrote:

Just figured that Amaker, even working his way back up, was out of our league.
Didn't Jones' name come up last time?
On a less serious note, they might not be used to working with academic standards as high as GW.

Espeically Amaker.

Long Suffering Fan wrote:

[
Hindsight is always 20/20.   Christian did not work out, but I thought hiring a young and personable coach with (kinda) local ties and demonstrated D-1 success, even at the lower levels, was a smart move, and I would not at all be upset if the next coach had those same attributes, although maybe we needed to be looking at a higher level D-1 coach, such as the one we hired from Boston University or Vermont.
 

I did too! I was a JC fan back in 2017 when I thought he should get the job over extending Mojo. Unfair or not, I think Tanya feels like she was sold a bill of goods that wasn’t delivered as promised. I think she was expecting a Kim English type season in Year 1 where you could clearly tell the energy at Mason had changed from the lukewarm Paulsen years.

As much crap as she gets on here I truly think she wants to win badly and knows what winning does for the school (and the school’s bottom line fwiw). Where I think we can all be critical is on the stuff that supports that winning: namely fundraising and sponsorships. I don’t see where we’ve made any progress on that and something she specifically called out in her letter to season ticket holders.

Mentzinger wrote:

GW0509 wrote:

I truly think she wants to win badly and knows what winning does for the school (and the school’s bottom line fwiw).

That and a buck don't even get you a cup of coffee these days. I mean, we all want to win badly and know what winning does for the school. So what? The point is she's been in a position (for 5 years) to actually do something, move the key levers, and hasn't. Hasn't raised money, hasn't promoted games, hasn't made a single successful hire, has watched GW's actual signature program (women's b-ball) continue to crater. Was deputy Athletic Director as it was run into the ground by EEOC actions, improper compensation of athletes and continuous sex abuse. She's an alumna, but other than that I cannot fathom -- at all -- why TV is seen as part of the solution.  

Don't disagree except I think it's too soon to assess McCombs.  My point was limited to the rap that she and others are content with just having a nice coach with happy players.  I think the fact we cut bait and didn't prolong things shows we do actually care about winning games.

AT Hiker wrote:

My view is different from most of the rest of GW fans apparently: I think Jamion Christian deserved a 4th year, given we did improve this season and last year was pretty much lost to Covid. He had Brayman, Bamisile and Bishop to work with and others on the hook. Now we go back to start over, especially if any of the big 3 transfer. Not a bright future.

A reasonable position to take given our improvements during conference play; however I disagree that there was sufficient improvement over three years to warrant keeping him.  Fact is we did improve enought to also disagree that we need to start over   The on the Court talent remains much improved over Mojo's last year.   If we can keep the 3 Bs and get some help up front and on defense, I see us as much improved next season.
 

GW18 wrote:

Gwmayhem wrote:

The name I am most intrigued by is Chris Caputo.  He has been with Jim Larranaga for 20 years at George Mason (during their Final 4 run) and at Miami.  He has repeatedly won polls and been otherwise regarded as a top assistant coach in the country.  He is Miami's Associate Head Coach and has been for some time now.  He was definitely considered three years ago and believe this is the type of up and comer GW could really use.

 

Caputo is holding out for the miami job once larranaga retires. Doubt he will leave. Guessing the school is too cheap to pay a true rising star so I fully expect a retread or a low major coach moving up

Caputo is gaining steam