Good move for Mojo to Butler, and congrats to Lamont Franklin on his promotion! 

Not exactly the right thread but Justin Mazzulla has joined the GW-to-URI diaspora as an assistant coach.

When Devlin left we didn't lose much.

Not sure how to post a picture here  - tried copying and paring but it didn’t work. Check out Max’s Instagram. (  @_maxgotgame )  Posted a picture of himself at the free throw line at Barclay’s with the caption “Staying’ real to the vision even if I’m the only one seeing it!!”  Maybe something to read between the lines here?  As in, his vision and CC’s don’t align?  I personally think he’s gone based on his body language amd the veiled comments CC made after the Bonaventure or Duquesne game. I definitely think he’s portaling.

On the other hand, maybe he’s referencing the unique vision he displayed chucking up all those ridiculous ill-advised pull up threes in one on four situations?  Or maybe it’s was the vision of the invisible person he was passing to on many many occasions??

Last edited by Alum1 (3/14/2024 10:46 am)

Should also add that Max graciously thanked (on X) all of the GW fans who stuck by the team this season.  Classy gesture on his part.

Alum '04 wrote:

Joel Joseph wrote:

I'm not sure why the GW fanbase has been so quiet about our AD all these years based on her performance.

I just think we're all beaten down at this point. The provosts hate sports and they won't spend the money required to succeed over the long term in college basketball. Super wealthy GW alums aren't paying for early coaching buyouts or throwing money in NIL.

Not that there would be anything wrong with that, but it's a simple fact of life that many elite academic institutions like GW, Stanford with football, etc, hate athletics. And GW has lots of rich alums who have interests outside of spending big bucks on men's basketball. Just the way it is.

The provosts care whether the men's bball players qualify academically and represent the school well (as far as we know). Other than that, the provosts do not care.

I think overall they keep TV around so the fans don't get a taste of success and start demanding more.

At most big schools, an AD does not get the chance to fire and hire more than 2 coaches for their flagship sport. Mostly because that’s an indicator they don’t know how to hire the right person.

If CC fails, I could see TV stepping down or the school moving in another direction so a new AD can make the next hire.

Last edited by GW0509 (3/14/2024 8:27 pm)

An interesting conversation I recently had with a fellow alum who has done well financially.  He lives outside the DC area but still follows the team and watches when he can.  (He subscribes to ESPN+ for this reason only so that in my book makes him an interested party.)  I brought up NIL to him and "the why" behind why he wasn't interested in participating was fascinating to me.  His logic was that there simply wasn't enough support of this program to think that his contribution could make a difference.  As he said, he could write a check for a few thousand dollars but how would he know that this would mean we could keep the players we want to retain or attract the new players we'd like to attract?  I said that he wouldn't, but if everyone had this same outlook, we'd have no choice but to drop out of the Atlantic 10.  He then countered with, "so, what's the school doing to prioritize athletics, and specifically basketball?  Are they putting more money into the program?  What percentage has their budget increased over the past year, the past 5 years, etc?  And, how do these increases compare with other A10 schools?"

The fact is that GW is a private institution and as such, we do not have many of these answers.  Nevertheless, this is an interesting point.  If the school wants the followers of the program to invest more heavily, shouldn't the school show that it too is a partner by conveying what they are doing to help GW be more competitive among our conference peers?

Chicken or egg?  This program is not well-supported based on ticket sales (and I'd have to guess, tv/streaming ratings).  There's only so much a small base can do to fill the NIL coffer (unless many of these supporters have very deep pockets).  The school has an impressive endowment and is also among the most expensive schools in the country.  Is it paying its fair share to finance basketball, which it can do if it chooses to?  Or, is it not due to the overall lack of support?

No matter the case, I think the school needs to demonstrate how it's investing in this program, and analyzing budgets today vs. the recent past, and how this compares to other A10 schools, would be a healthy start.  I understand that the school can not donate directly to NIL.  On the other hand, if fans knew that they were aggressively investing in athletics/basketball, then perhaps more people like my buddy would take note and then feel that their NIL donation would in fact be very meaningful.
 

jf wrote:

Imagine Max would or should know he would be crazy to leave. This is a great place for him.
K-State didn't work out. GW, combined with his talents, made him Rookie Of The Year,
as Max acknowledges.
      Max is a terrific rebounder and made a lot of key shots recently. Next year, with James gone,
he can come into his own even more. This is the right place for him--and we appreciate all his talent
and scrapping for the ball. In fact, more players need to hit the boards like Max.
      Thank you, Max for all of your efforts in an up and down year. The best is yet to come for you
at GW.
    

 
JF……LOL

Last edited by Alum1 (3/18/2024 5:47 pm)