Gotta think Caputo will be down in New Orleans for the Final Four searching for some ACs so we probably won’t get a press conference until late next week.

Would be cool if they were in place so they could all be introduced at the same time.

Good afternoon,As we head into Final Four weekend, I want to share how incredibly thrilled I am to announce the hiring of Chris Caputo as our next men’s basketball coach. Over the course of the past two weeks, we received hundreds of calls from individuals all over the country who wanted to take on the leadership role for GW Men's Basketball.

GW Men’s Basketball is one of our premier programs and the program is not where it needs to be in order to showcase the talents of our student-athletes on and off the court.

We recognize that we have a lot to prove to our alumni, fans, ticket holders and donors. Coach Caputo and I talked at length about the work that we have to do to restore trust and belief in the program. I am highly confident in Chris’ abilities to build relationships, recruit incredible talent and coach disciplined basketball.

As you may know, Chris was instrumental in helping George Mason University reach the Final Four. Chris has also been the co-pilot at Miami for their multiple Sweet Sixteens and most current run to the Elite Eight.

This responsibility does not only fall on the shoulders of Chris. The University has committed more resources to help Coach Caputo, his staff and our department as we work together to bring high-level basketball back to the Charles E. Smith Center. 

Thank you for your continued support of the men in this program. We look forward to introducing Coach Caputo in-person later this month.

Raise High!

Tanya Vogel
Director of Athletics

Last edited by BM (4/01/2022 12:08 pm)

BM wrote:

Good afternoon,As we head into Final Four weekend, I want to share how incredibly thrilled I am to announce the hiring of Chris Caputo as our next men’s basketball coach. Over the course of the past two weeks, we received hundreds of calls from individuals all over the country who wanted to take on the leadership role for GW Men's Basketball.

GW Men’s Basketball is one of our premier programs and the program is not where it needs to be in order to showcase the talents of our student-athletes on and off the court.

We recognize that we have a lot to prove to our alumni, fans, ticket holders and donors. Coach Caputo and I talked at length about the work that we have to do to restore trust and belief in the program. I am highly confident in Chris’ abilities to build relationships, recruit incredible talent and coach disciplined basketball.

As you may know, Chris was instrumental in helping George Mason University reach the Final Four. Chris has also been the co-pilot at Miami for their multiple Sweet Sixteens and most current run to the Elite Eight.

This responsibility does not only fall on the shoulders of Chris. The University has committed more resources to help Coach Caputo, his staff and our department as we work together to bring high-level basketball back to the Charles E. Smith Center. 

Thank you for your continued support of the men in this program. We look forward to introducing Coach Caputo in-person later this month.

Raise High!

Tanya Vogel
Director of Athletics

Actions speak louder than words. Waiting to see who can CC can retain and recruit, what assistants get hired and what I hear and see about these resources. Not as though GW has to kiss my ring, just reminding myself not to chase sticks.

 

Last edited by FredD (4/01/2022 12:28 pm)

Not even a blip on the national radar. Butler's news and asst coach hirings mentioned but no GW. Pathetic. Our incompetent Brian Sereno strikes again. Why is he on the payroll? I guess that is expected when our 1st choices won't even talk with us and we have to up the anty to get our Plan B candidates.
Not feeling the joy with a life long asst who was never a head coach and now is leading an A-10 team against Miller, Martin, Schmidt and company. Billy Hahn from MD comes to mind - excellent asst but bad HC.

Like I was after Mojo and JC, not real excited but not surprised at the selection - but beggars can't be choosey. I hope we aren't in for another 4-5 years of this curse!

xAC wrote:

It has been on the ESPN site for several hours, but you have to go to the NCAAM link.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/33642776/george-washington-finalizing-deal-make-miami-assistant-chris-caputo-next-men-basketball-head-coach-sources-say

I saw it on the ESPN main MBB page as well.
As much as I like the message in that letter, the messenger remains imperfect. I mean I guess it's nice you want to restore the department to what it was before you and your boss sabotaged it.

History shows my knee-jerk reactions to coaching hires tend to be more "jerk" than anything else. For the record: I was good with the Jarvis hire and should have been more enthusiastic. I was very happy with the Penders hire and boy was that misplaced. I was unhappy with KH getting the job and proven to be wrong about that. I was fairly positive about the Lonnergan hire and should not have been. I was meh about MoJo and his tenure does not really count as anything more than an extended caretaker period (which was "meh", so I was right I guess?). I was somewhat enthused by bringing on Jamion, and feel a bit let down by his stint.
I say all that as a disclaimer ahead of saying the Caputo seems like he might be a good "get" for GW. Like all here, I certainly hope he does no less that win eight straight National Championships with every player he signs graduating summa cum laude, but I do live in reality so I will not set the bar too high -- a couple of players can graduate with just 3.5 GPA´s if the team is a winner
Honestly, I don´t see him matching the KH turnaround (and coming nowhere near the Jarvis-era nirvana) but I may very well be wrong, and really hope I am. The last guy from Miami (Fla) hired to run something at GW did not work out well and he is now gone, replaced by a temp no less. So maybe that is why I am not feeling too fuzzy all over.
 

Last edited by GW Alum Abroad (4/01/2022 1:24 pm)

I am happy with the hire.  I griped that it took a bit long, but I am glad they got it right.  I think GW is better going with a coach who knows the recruiting circuit in the way Caputo does.  It was kind of the same way with Hobbs, and look at the quality of players he recruited not far into his tenure as coach.  So here is hoping that Caputo follows that same path, and he keeps at least one of the guys who went into the transfer pool.

I like the hire and am excited to see what he can do. It seems to me that schools like GW have two choices on hiring a coach. The first is to hire a young coach with limited head coaching experience/success that you hope is an up and comer. This was what we did in our last two hires, and they didn't work out.

The second option is to hire an older coach who has a ton of experience and success but as an assistant. That's what we're trying now. We are getting a guy that went to a Final Four, an Elite Eight, and two Sweet 16s, and competed at a high level in a power conference for a decade. If he was the head coach for those teams, he never would have considered GW. But he helped build and coach those teams, so he knows what it takes to win. The only question is whether or not he can execute it himself, and whether he can do it at GW.

I don't think the third option, of hiring an older retread who had success in the past (e.g., Penders), is an option for us anymore (although JT3 would have fit this mold), or at least not a good option (probably never was). Lonergan was kind of a mixture of the two options above, which I think is a bit unique/hard to find (although Hobbs would have fit that mold fairly well).

Welcome Coach.  Loved how Miami played team basketball.  Their athletes had a ton of experience but bought into the sharing the ball with a set offense would result in all of them being successful.  Also loved the strong defense displayed.

Will be excited to head back to the Smith Center.  This pst year it was a struggle for me to make the trip - the results were almost known based on the competition. And it never seemed like we had a Plan B when they took away Plan A.  From what it sounds, he is an X and O coach.  Also hope the young men who are I. The transfer portal can see the tremendous success he had and the style they played - think all of our guards will be very successful.

I strongly support this hire. I like his time spent with Larranaga, his ties to the DMV and his hair challenged scalp. The last time GW had a coach with a shiny scalp ,we did well with Mike Jarvis. Perhaps the team will learn how to inbound the ball, control pace and tempo, double up on “Bigs” who are stronger than our players and be able to make sound half time adjustments as they are called for.So much was missing from team play these past three years. I look for significant changes.