Mike K wrote:

GWRising wrote:

Free Quebec wrote:

So I understand right, you don’t have any reason to believe Caputo isn’t the perfect coach, you just don’t like that someone with influence knows him, is pushing for him, and may have pushed JC to bring him

Well it's more than than just someone pushing his guy for the job. That happens all the time. Let me put it to you this way - what if one created conditions or restraints that one knew would likely or maybe even assuredly yield a result to one's liking (e.g. setting someone up to fail)?

Reference to these conditions or restraints, are they permanent and could they hamper a future coach, or are they temporary and only pertain to JC? 
 

These restraints and conditions have been endemic to GW but promises were made and not kept to remove or ameliorate many of them in recognition that these were holding things back. Without removal or improvement, I don't care who they hire - we will get the same result. Some of these things coaches as far back as Hobbs were pleading for. It will be interesting to see if GW decides to improve or eliminate any or all of them moving forward. If so, it would beg the question as to why promises were made but not kept but then kept for someone else. 

It just occurred to me what is most likely the issue being hinted at. If you all remember , in early 2020, it was announced that we would build a practice facility by filling in the pool and this was obviously put on hold due to the pandemic and the ensuing budget constraints
https://www.gwhatchet.com/2020/01/29/smith-center-upgrades-will-align-with-atlantic-10-standards-officials-say/
Given that GWRising has pointed towards the CFO, this makes sense that he might be involved in a capital project like this.

Again no actual evidence as to this but it just makes sense to me.. And yes I'm joining the over analyzing crew that I just mentioning lol.

Hopefully this is something they can get on back for the new coaching staff

Last edited by Florida Colonial (3/21/2022 12:35 pm)

GWRising - so these barriers to succeed (which many of have talked about for years here) have been in place for a long time. I have a few legitimate questions because I want to understand what is going on:
(1) Were these barriers increased while JC was the head coach?
(2) When JC was hired, were the barriers not increased but also promised to be reduced? If if they weren't reduced, who made the promise to JC they would be reduced?
I was ambivalent about whether JC deserved another year based on what I've seen on the court and in the recruiting world. Now if he was operating under even more restrictions then were put in place when KH was here and have since been implemented, I'd like to know. If further barriers were created in the past three years, I'd like to know who at the school is creating the barriers. But if he was promised a reduction in barriers that have been around since KH's time, but weren't removed - that's still frustrating as hell, but would be useful context. I think the few fans around here can agree the school puts our team at a disadvantage compared with the teams in our conference we aspire to compete against annually. We all want that to change. Is what happened to JC above and beyond how the deck was stacked against say continued success for KH? Or was it stacked further post-ML (Which we all know had a separate set of disaster around it)?

GWRising wrote:

danjsport wrote:

GWRising wrote:

And I would add to the above, you have to understand that I still haven't got "over" what they did to ML. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.

I don't like what they did to ML. But what they did to JC, even if it's because a new coach is a "done deal," can't possibly be the same. Nobody threw a coach under the bus with public accusations. What happened was a coach didn't perform well. Even if the reasons for firing him are motivated by hiring another, it's hard to argue that JC did much to keep the job based on results. Sure, another year may have been warranted and nice. Maybe even financially the right decision. But just because Caputo (if hired) had an in, doesn't mean that he doesn't deserve a job and wouldn't do well.

Didn't say Caputo didn't deserve a job or wouldn't do well ... just not this one. But I believe if you were to know certain things, you would see things in a completely different light with what went down not just recently but as far back as a year or more before. These things impacted program funding, admissions and recruitment. I would say this generally there is a big difference between the normal course of events and doing things that GW knew or should have known would prevent or sabotage success. That is what has me fired up and should have everyone fired up. 

But let me ask you this putting all that aside. It doesn't bother you that we allegedly have a "search process" underway for which the school is likely paying a good sum of money and somebody is claiming the job is wired for a candidate before it even started in earnest? 
 

Forgive me, Rising. But I suspect that you had at least some influence in bringing in JC, giving how you've defended him. It therefore is not really shocking that you would  believe he was done wrong by a bunch of things.  You also believed it was the players--and not the coaching--that resulted in consistently poor play. This doesn't mean that the university didn't undermine him (they did with Hobbs and Lonergan as well). It just means that regardless, he did not succeed. You can call it sabotage--but until you actually paint the picture beyond innuendo that it happened, I'm going to believe that the players JC recruited to come here played poorly, chose to leave or decommit, and left no real path forward. If Caputo is the guy, I'll root for him. If JTIII is the guy, I'll root for him. If Lonergan is the guy, I'll root for him (I know this is not a possibility). I want my school to play well. I don't care how the guy gets here. I want them to play well.

As to your other question, while irrelevant, of course I care if the school is paying useless money. I don't care if they bring in Caputo-I'm mad that they are spending money if the job is wired. 
 

When I read barriers, I think money.  Which begs the question of whether this is a realistically solvable problem at GW.

On the one hand, the school appears to have money.  Money to pay ex-coaches.  Money to pay a disgusting perverted AD on his way out the door.  A healthy if not spectacular endowment.  If the school wanted to prioritize athletics and specifically basketball, it appears that it would be able to do so.

On the other hand, the program has become an afterthought in the eyes of many.  Dwindling attendance.  Less sponsorship money (I am guessing).  No more radio deal.  Disheartening conference revenue (2 teams in NCAA's, 1 win, revenue split 14 ways).  

But here's what arguably is of the greatest importance: About a dozen years ago, GW spent over $40 million on renovating the Smith Center.  While there were three very generous donor families who led this effort, there was a great deal of fundraising to the outside GW community which helped make this happen.  Today, I am not at all convinced that such an effort could successfully take place.  The negative feelings range from mistrust to lacking faith in the abilities of those responsible for implementing such plans. 

Sadly, this all stems back to the Lonergan days.  When ML was fired, GW thought it was backing the right horse in Nero.  It did not need to come clean or make any public statements about what had happened because I swear it thought that alums were going to back their schools no matter what.  if it lost a few donors because they were Lonergan backers, the school could live with this.  What the school hadn't planned on was the Deadspin article, followed by Nero abruptly "resigning" shortly thereafter.  Now, the seeds of doubt were planted in everyone's minds.  WTF was going on at GW?  Should Lonergan really have been fired, or did both deserve to be? 

From there, it's been one questionable decision after the next.  Should interim coach MoJo have been extended?  Was Jamion Christian the best candidate for the permanent job?  Should he have been terminated after less than three full seasons with two years remaining on his contract?  Now, we can add whether TV has the autonomy to professionally perform her duties as AD?

No matter how you answer these questions, it all adds up to a great big "does this department know what it's doing?"  Uncertainty, instability, lacking confidence....it would be understandable for fans of this program for thinking and feeling these things today.  You can readily see how this could negatively impact the fundraising that this program desperately needs.  Especially after continuing to pay ex-coaches and administrators.

 

2twooed wrote:

There seems to be frenzy going on in the Athletic Department today. The hiring may not be Caputo.

Outside of anything in this thread, can you report anything about this frenzy?

2twooed does appear to be pointing to something. Good to hear any updates.

I want more from 2twooed!

Florida Colonial wrote:

2twooed wrote:

There seems to be frenzy going on in the Athletic Department today. The hiring may not be Caputo.

Maybe someone stole the Tricorn hats ?

RIP Colonials?
 

I'd take Frank Martin (umASS rumors) or Ben Howland in a second. Two coaches with Final Four experience. I'm pretty shocked Mizzou didn't go with Kim English but glad, since that would have created even more competition for us. On paper, Mason probably a better job than GW at this point.