Many nopes.  Moving on forward.

Definitely needed to make the move.  The A-10 tourney game was beyond the last straw.  

The move had to be made! Bamisile would have left whether we had a new coach or not. I thought that Lindo was a senior. The current roster is short on players and talent, but I believe (and hope) that Caputo will ably fill those gaps. I agree, however, that a bit of good recruiting or transfer news would be nice.

Here are my two cents:

1. I'm not buying the conspiracy theories without proof.
2. I would have given JC one more year, based on the improvement I saw in conference play. Having said that, I do think Caputo is probably an upgrade, so I am fine with the coaching change.
3. Even if JC were still coach, I do not think Joe B or Lindo would have stayed on the team. I'm not sure about Freeman.

I was totally fine with the change and think it was the right move. Around the mid-point of conference play, I thought I was seeing signs of better execution from the players and I was hopeful that would continue to the end of the season. I think the final two weeks with some very ugly losses (and quite frankly ugly wins) were what made me think a coaching change was inevitable this year or next. On the whole, I didn't see enough consistency or growth over the season. And then looking back after the season was over it was pretty clear this was not a good GW team despite where we finished in the A10 in the regular season (which at best you could call mediocre). Whether Caputo is the right guy obviously remains to be seen. I'll echo what LSF said in opening the thread - I didn't see a good in-game strategy at all. So unless guys were hitting all their shots, we had no chance. I'm excited to see the game plan Caputo tries to implement. And excited to hopefully hear news soon about some new players!

       Lindo was gone before CC. Supposedly to go pro. This was widely acknowledged, even on Senior Day. If anything, he would be happier now that hopefully he no longer had to often be the lone player scrapping under the boards in our ineffective "system."
   We didn't win with the great and vaunted talent upgrade of Bamisile, Freeman, Dean, Adams, Harris and Lindo, etc. Nor did we win when JC had (but didn't retain) Jamison Battle, who has now proved himself for 3 years, including in the Big Ten.
   Except for Freeman and Jameer, Jr., who wound up being disappeared in playing time, and maybe Noel who wasn't developed and thus wasn't a factor, JC's freshmen recruits didn't pan out.
         OOC was humiliatingly bad against a humiliatingly weak schedule. Like the previous year (and it happened before Covid). We were functionally out of postseason play in November.
   JC turned over the roster after his first year with his own players. So he had them for 2 years.
While he apparently didn't get what he felt was promised, JC also didn't do what he promised. There wasn't even a whisper of Mayhem, outside of modest pressing for a minute or two as games became out of hand.   
             Analytics was a big focus, with four staffers dutifully charting each shot. Everyone was supposed to shoot within their wheelhouse, so statistically we would be taking excellent shots. Players still took almost comically bad or inappropriate shots in crunch time and at other times.
   In-game strategy was questionable. Often our tactics seemed predetermined no matter what the circumstances on the court. The games with the man or zone disasters, for example.
       Playing time and player rotation was off. Late to start Freeman. We barely used one player who actually had been successful in D1, along with others (JC's recruits) who could have at least given some energy when we were down by 20 or worse.
   Offensive rebounding was often conceded. Defensive rebounding was abysmal, leading to 2,3 and 4th chance opportunities.
    And we held up motivational signs, but cardboard Turkeys and Godzillas didn't cause our defense to gobble the ball or destroy the opponent's offense.
    A team whose coach was fired beat the pants off us in the A-10 tournament. Players seemed without energy. The coaching staff could not motivate the team, even with a chance for renewal.
  Pathetic as our overall record was, it didn't even include a near-certain loss against one of the top teams in the league because of a lucky cancellation. We tanked against the good teams in the league. Against mixed teams, our league record was something like, off the top of my head, losing 4 of the last 5 games.
   All of this with a coach sold as The Turnaround Artist.
    While the plan was to crash the roster, the performance that resulted was still bad. Even inexperienced Mojo could win one year with better players.
 So, yes, however it came about, the change had to be made.
   And while the jury is definitely out, CC at least has the tools and high-level experience to do better.
    

Last edited by jf (4/25/2022 1:08 pm)

I was in the give JC one more year camp prior to his firing and still stand by that because:

1) This program NEEDS stability in the worst way. As GWMayhem and others have mentioned, it's not a good look that we've given our last two coaches just three years. For once, I didn't foresee a mass exodus of guys leaving like we saw in previous years, although a few transfers every year is a guarantee now for the majority of teams around the country.

2) GW was hurt horribly by COVID which made up half of the JC era if not more.

3) The team showed just enough to warrant giving JC the extra year. It's a what could have been at this point, but if JC was brought back there definitely needed to be a change in staff. Loyalty means a lot in CBB, but the current setup was not working. I think Atkins has a bright future in the industry but it certainly felt like his hire was a step down from Nima from a recruiting/marketing perspective. Nothing against Atkins at all, but someone needs to really market this program. I realize Mason/UMass are different programs from GW but we need that kind of an enthusiasm lift that English/Martin are giving those squads coming off several down years. I think Nima was starting to do that here before he departed. Even that 360 mentoring thing was great for GW's visibility and that died after just 1 year. It did appear that we had some late momentum recruiting international but I am left wondering why it took so long to do that. The fact that we're bringing in Jorge Díaz for a visit early on in the Caputo era is a good start that I hope continues.

Having said that, I did not have confidence that JC was the answer long-term despite all the points above and I'm not sure that I can even make the case that things were trending in the right direction despite the team obviously playing significantly better than the abysmal showing OOC. I will point to the way we lost to Mason and Fordham within a week of each other as a prime example late in the season (although clearly the lack of energy in the UMass finale was troubling as well). We were in both games late, partly because we did have decently good talent on the floor. However, the lack of discipline did us in, and JC showed no inclination to reign Bamisile and Bishop in late in the game when you have to be wiser about shot selection. I'm not saying it's a bad thing to empower the players to play with freedom and be cool along the sidelines, but as others mentioned around here in the past it seemed like JC had somewhat given up or wasn't sure what to do at times. He would isolate himself in timeouts and just gaze into space. Yeah we finished 7th in the league, but honestly the teams below us were really bad and we went 5-3 in close games. We weren't competitive against the majority of teams that finished above us. Three home games against teams that finished below us - Duquesne, La Salle, and Mason could have easily been losses (especially the Mason one had Oduro played). We also lost outright to St. Joe's.

The staff clearly worked hard recruiting - the number of names we were connected to is unlike something I've ever seen from previous staffs at GW. While I do think those relationships helped land some good transfers late, the HS recruiting was pretty bad outside of a couple guys. JC was not bringing in A10-level guys, especially early on. We pretty much struck out in the incoming 2022 class (obviously COVID was a factor in that, but still), although I do think Jabari West is a good under-the-radar prospect who was quietly pretty productive on the AAU circuit.

The bigger concern was obviously getting the team to play together (it should never take half the season for that to happen), but more importantly recruiting to a specific style of play. I've said it several times in the past, but the fact we kept changing our offensive/defensive philosophies made it tough to gauge whether we would ever be moving in the right direction (also is it just me, or did the turkey board miraculously disappear in the past year?). We were into analytics, but consistently taking bad shots. The college game is not the NBA (at least yet) and you cannot just neglect the post when it comes to both scoring and rebounding. It is that point that made me sour on JC in the past year, whether Ira played or not. The best teams in the A10 have a productive big that they play through, and that's not a coincidence. You can even go back to year 1 when Toro and Chase were on the team. I realize AT was hurt for part of the season, but I did not see any difference in how we used the post even then. We weren't markedly better in transition defense despite not going for offensive boards and we drew maybe three charges in the JC era (that's not hyperbole) despite having a few good "individual" defenders based on talent in year 3. I think JC also realized "Mayhem" could not be replicated at a higher level. We did try briefly, but that just skyrocketed our fouls on a team with hardly any depth which made the risk greater than the reward and the team never communicated on defensive rotations. Offensively, we would maybe make three passes on a good possession, and can maybe only remember like two plays ever where we actually moved the ball around the horn and gave every player on the court a touch. Also, playing fast is not an identity if it's without intention. 

NIL changes some things (although I think that should push us to lean even more into recruiting internationally because I believe those players cannot get the same deals with their visa status), but as long as you have some semblance a philosophy on both ends of the court it shouldn't be that hard to do well at GW. I still believe that and I'm hopeful Caputo gets us back on track.

(Unrelated but just wanted to point out that there is an actual poll button that you can click on when you create a new thread - that might provide a slightly better read from those who don't necessarily like commenting on posts around here)
 

All I’m suggesting Mayhem is at the very least there had to be collusion with the Board and the AD to
hire the new coach.In other words they are as responsible as the CFO.It Was NOT his sole decision.
I still don’t get what’s hard to understand here.I understand you don’t like it.That is very clear.

GW69, am not suggesting that the CFO could have unilaterally made the decision without board approval.  What I am saying is that the CFO could have undermined the AD by making his case to and ultimately influencing the board.  

Should the CFO have been awarded this much influence?  How about a political science professor, what if he or she had a good candidate in mind?  OK to bypass the athletic department and make your case to the Board?

You should understand that this was not a situation where the CFO makes a suggestion to the AD who says "great idea, let's hire him."  You should understand that this decision was likely made over the AD's head and without her blessing.  Therefore, it should be understood that what I don't like is when a person responsible for making a hire instead has the rug taken out from under them. 

Gwmayhem wrote:

GW69, am not suggesting that the CFO could have unilaterally made the decision without board approval.  What I am saying is that the CFO could have undermined the AD by making his case to and ultimately influencing the board.  

Should the CFO have been awarded this much influence?  How about a political science professor, what if he or she had a good candidate in mind?  OK to bypass the athletic department and make your case to the Board?

You should understand that this was not a situation where the CFO makes a suggestion to the AD who says "great idea, let's hire him."  You should understand that this decision was likely made over the AD's head and without her blessing.  Therefore, it should be understood that what I don't like is when a person responsible for making a hire instead has the rug taken out from under them. 

GWRising said (take this fwiw) that the bargain given to TV by Mark Diaz was such:

1. Keep JC but your budget is basically capped and no chance at any facilities improvements
2. Involve me in this next coaching search and/or hire my guy and I will approve a higher budget

This is due to the fact that our athletic department utilizes general revenue funds.  We aren't like other schools where the athletic department is more or less autonomous.  The CFO will have to be placated in one way or another.  

For those of us who care about the long-term viability of the basketball program and want it supported at an A-10 caliber level I guess option 2 was the correct choice.  However, I agree with GWMayhem that it's a really crappy spot to put the AD in and it demonstrates some level of dysfunction.

When it comes to the search firm, I think it was done as a CYA move, a very expensive one at that, but a CYA move nonetheless.  I work in government contracting and when you want to sole source a requirement you still have to do a sources sought just in case.  I think, as all the anonymous Twitter accounts predicted, CC was the guy from the start.  I think TV thought it was necessary to make reaaaaaallly sure that there wasn't some diamond in the rough out there that could be had for our price, especially given how quickly the JC hire came together last time.  Clearly Mike Pegues, Jason Williford, and allegedly John Becker, were not able to overcome the advantage that CC had.