GWRising wrote:

Wrighton said the quiet part out loud. Wrighton is very careful and does not shoot from the hip. He said what he said because he knows what the thought process is that is coming to a head. If you think he is close to the only one who thinks this (Board and Administration) you would be fooling yourself. I've told you for a long time that this day is coming. Absent a resurrection of men's basketball program to a level where we are competing for and playing in NCAA tournaments on a fairly regular basis in the next 3-5 years, I would be stunned if GW didn't pull the plug on the current situation and either drop down conferences (think Patriot) or drop down divisions (like Hartford). The economics don't make sense and GW is realizing virtually no one attends GW because they want a school with D1 athletics (save the athletes themselves). You can be angry, depressed or disbelieving about it but the writing has been on the wall for at least 5+ years now. 

Exactly!! If anyone thinks he doesn’t reflect the prevailing attitudes of the Board and Administrative Leaders they are nuts. No way he would say this casually off the cuff..

I’d like the Post to do a deep look at what the pandemic did to the finances and endowment at GW. I don’t trust the administration unequivocally; however, I’d be an idiot not to think a drop could be somewhat justifiable. It certainly looks like it has a lot more support than competing with even George Mason. Never mind VCU, Dayton, Davidson, St. Louis.

To recap, in the past 5 years since the NIT, our head coach was fired under false pretenses because of a vindictive sex predator in the administration, we've had three head coaches under an AD who is completely inexperienced, are renaming the team, and now are thinking about effectively ending the program, against an academic backdrop of being completely unranked nationally. Quite the trajectory. Proud alum here.
 

Gwmayhem wrote:

This was not at issue under Jarvis, Penders, Hobbs or Lonergan.  

Huh? Richie Parker (Jarvis), The Penders Crap (Penders), the phony high schools (KH) and the Title IX office cowtowing to the coach/AD in detriment to the affected students (ML), have ALL contributed to questions being raised about the value of maintaining DI athletics at the University.
I like GW being a DI school, but this has been a slow drip that has been going on for a long time.

I don't read too much into his comments about D3.  He is an interim President, and he appears to view GW as striving to be a Wash U, Emory or NYU etc, and they don't have big time sports programs.  

I have always thought that GW should either invest the $ into athletics and take it seriously, or throw in the towel on it.  There is no sense in having a program that diehard fans know will finish in the bottom half of the conference every year, before the season starts.  

Maybe the next President will put a priority on GW athletics, but frankly I am at the point where I no longer count on that happening.  It's just been a slide for too many years, and Covid hit and changed a lot, and I don't see what will give the program some lift at this point.

I agree with Wrighton on the transfer situation too.  Yes, we have benefitied from transfers coming in, but it now it is feeling like any GW freshman sensation is in the transfer portal following the season.  The BCS schools are now looking at schools like GW as a farm system.  So I feel like he could be right that it will be harder for GW to make a big run because we are not likely to have a team full of seniors like Pops, Hall, Omar etc because in this day and age, those guys leave. 
 

Last edited by Deleo (9/06/2022 2:11 pm)

I’m shocked at how many people want to literally give up and end the program because we had 6 bad years (I realize it’s only 2 or 3 posters, but why would you even visit this site in the off-season if you’ve given up?)

New coach, upgrading facilities, new hires, etc...doesnt sould to me like a program that is throwing in the towel.

Free Quebec wrote:

I’m shocked at how many people want to literally give up and end the program because we had 6 bad years (I realize it’s only 2 or 3 posters, but why would you even visit this site in the off-season if you’ve given up?)

Sounds like the president wants to give up

Before anyone invests money in the men's basketball program by purchasing tickets for the coming season, it would be nice to hear from the administration that there is a commitment to the success program. When we last heard from the president of the university we were told that GW really didn't belong in Division I athletics, which essentially sounded like, don't bother with GW men's basketball.  So we are supposed to spend our money on men's basketball when the university doesn't care about being in Division I or says we can't compete at that level.  It has to be a sad time for a new coach and the players. Is Wrighton trying to kill recruiting. Is Caputo outraged by what he said. Time for Wrighton or someone in the administration to speak up for men's basketball. If no one does, we can asume the program is headed to dumpster. Maybe that's what Wrighton and others want -- saying we can't compete, drive down the program and drop to Division III or just end the men's basketball program. 
  

Who cares what the president says about the basketball program? I mean, how involved is he in the program anyway? I imagine (hope) he has more important things to think about. All I care about is what the coaches and players think about if GW can compete, and to a lesser extent the AD.

Last edited by DC Native (9/07/2022 7:12 pm)

Virtually every college president hates the external influence of major sports, but loves the $$$ and alumni engagement it delivers.  How many such presidents have lost their jobs or spent more hours than they ever cared handling sports-related issues and problems.

Unfortunately, past MBB success and the passion of a just a handful of people on this board, it has never sustained the long-term interest and financial support of the vast majority of our students that can overcome such indifference or ambivalence toward basketball.

I'm not  sure if Wrighton knew he was on the record or not, but I respect the candor.  In addition, maybe there is more nuance to his remarks than conveyed.  For example, he is stating the obvious that a mid-major like GW without a deep bench of alumni or other financial support is going to get killed in the new, already-upon-is world of NIL/transfer portal and TV contracts in terms of being a meaningful sustained threat in the upper echelons of D-1 basketball.  Perhaps he was suggesting that given the GW experience in this realm, knowing what he knows now and looking into the future, D-3 would have been the best pathway in maximizing what GW can offer students and the broader community. 

My sarcastic side says GW students with forgiven student loans should start a collective with some of their savings.  However, putting sarcasm aside, successful managers take their employees where they are and try to maximize their strengths. While we may experience short-term spurts of high performance in an area that is not a strength, if we continue to treat that individual's level of performance as the operative baseline for the future, we are bound to be disappointed when our expectations are not met and we detract from maximizing the value of that employee where they can be successful.  A John Kopriva can score 17 points in a game once in a while, but that's not their role and we shouldn't build an offense around that expectation.

Look, I'm as disappointed as everyone with the reality staring us in the face (arguably telling the emperor she has no clothes), but agree with Poog that I'll continue to support our folks--simply because I believe it's an appropriate thing to do until other priorities take over.   I love GW basketball, but not ahead of my family and so many other priorities of the world.  Heck, just think of how much greatness all of us could contribute to the greater good if we spent as much time on other pursuits as we do focused on GW basketball.