WRGW Interview With Caputo: https://t.co/SZ3BPiVryi

Some good stuff on scheduling/recruiting philosophy.

Brendan Adams will be on the ball more often.  Caputo referred to his stats:  Decent 13 assist rate and a good 11 TO rate last year so it does make some sense.

Great Interview!

I really liked his scheduling philosophy. I was okay with the schedule already given what we had on the team currently. More than anything, we need to improve our confidence that we can win games before we start scheduling harder opponents. The 70% OOC win benchmark makes a lot of sense and I think this schedule hits that more or less. No guarantees of course, but we improved our chances of hitting that mark. Interesting that he specifically pointed out that he inherited the Radford game. Makes sense, because no one in their right mind would schedule a home-and-home against Radford unless it's a regional rival. That feels like a trap game, because the Highlanders have Bryan Antoine who transferred from Villanova and an incoming Japanese player who has some buzz as well.

It was unfortunate that we brought in a number of transfers on visits this offseason and missed on a number of them, but I think with time recruiting will be fine from the 2023 class onwards. The blueprint for GW makes sense.

Also thought it was interesting to hear his thoughts on the current team. I think Brendan did a good job bringing the ball up late in the season. He averaged around 2.5 apg in the final 13 games of the season, with at least 2 assists in each of the final 7 games. He brought the ball up late in games. I think regardless of what position he plays the guy defending him will probably hang in the paint and dare him to shoot a 3, but he provides a steady option at the point.

I think JB still has upside as a PG despite what he showed in his first year here. Our trouble with ball movement was more of a product of an issue with offensive philosophy than JB himself. Not saying he didn't make bad decisions (the William & Mary game was an obvious example a couple years ago, but the ball movement was just bad in the JC era and that wasn't all on Bishop). We would only make a pass or two before hoisting a shot. Bishop is also a different player now than he was a couple years ago. Arguably the most refreshing part of the Caputo interview was the fact that he mentioned that ball movement is essential and we want to be taking good shots by spreading the ball around to find the open man, even if the best shot makers aren't necessarily always the ones taking the final shot. Bishop is the best at creating his own shot, no doubt about that but I hope to see us give other players confidence that they can take a shot when it's a good one (specifically talking about a guy like Hunter who would be given all the space in the world during conference play because literally every team knew he was waiting for another guard to come collect the ball from him). Time and score of the game will change that, but as CC mentioned only like 3-4 guys were taking all the shots, leading to an unbalanced roster. We need to empower others on the team and instill a culture of sharing the ball. Also appreciated Caputo's candidness that James needs to improve defensively. I think JC at times held back from talking about places the team needs to grow in the past. This team honestly will need to hang their hat on defense to win games, because the offensive talent isn't fully there currently.

The depth at the point apart from Brendan/Bishop is thin. EJ provides good leadership, ball handling, and shooting but height/defense is a slight concern. I'm not sure he can play 15+ minutes in conference play but I guess we'll see. The SWAC to the A10 is a big jump.

CC mentioned that Amir is finally getting healthy. Really rooting for Amir to succeed in his final year, but "finally getting healthy" feels like something we've been hearing for a couple of years now.

His thoughts on the frontcourt were interesting as well. I thought Keegan had a chance to top the depth chart up front, but the fact that CC mentioned that he needs to get stronger coupled with his belief that Hunter fits the offensive system well makes me think we probably see Hunter continue to start with Noel backing him up.

Qwanzi showed flashes last year, but needs to improve finishing down low this coming season and hopefully he helps Ricky out on the boards more. Hoping at least 1-2 players between Max, Qwanzi, and Daniel emerge because any upside on this team probably comes from the wings as they are somewhat unproven/haven't had the opportunity to shine previously.
 

Haven't listened to the interview yet, but the reports are encouraging that CC has a good basketball
eye, seeing that we were abysmal at sharing the ball. Hope that translates into practice.
     Keegan did seem thin, though he's had nearly a year to build strength, to rebound down low. Maybe he can shoot and contribute somewhat there. Don't know what JC saw him as primarily contributing (shooting?), but it's a fresh start. And as pointed out hope he and the other forwards can take advantage of it--and see the utility in as noted above, helping Ricky get rebounds. 
   Brendan was steadier at point guard when he stopped taking less opportune 3s. He can make enough to keep people honest, but needs to be what we haven't had in at least a few years: someone who makes the team run better by strategic passing. This year is a great opportunity for Brendan to put together his talents.
   James certainly matured as a player last year, but the offense was still built too much around him. Don't want the ball always in his hands for several reasons, but one is that he will be even more effective in creating his own shot and use his great talent for drawing fouls if the defense isn't always keyed on him from the start of the shot clock.
   Hopefully, EJ can prove he belongs at this level and at least provide a steady backup, something else that has been rare. A healthy Amir can penetrate. But while don't know Amir's stats, he is already cautious with  the ball and can be serviceable, while scrapping down low more than bigger players.
     Hunter has the chance to consistently use the tools we see (and get fed more inside) now that he has plenty of experience and we hope to pass the ball. We'll see what Jabari can bring.
    Be great to see the Noel we saw and heard about at Kenner. He has the size and has shown flashes of some skills to be a factor inside.

Yes. The fact that West's name never came up seems to indicate CC isn't counting on him to be much of a factor. Players he mentioned who it seemed also won't be much of a factor -- Nixon, Harvey and Samuels. Sounded like Samuels has had injury problems. And how many times have we heard that Harris is ready to put his injury problems behind him. Hope springs eternal -- or you can't be addicted to GW men's basketball. 
The bar seems pretty low for the non-conference schedule. But then we lost to Morgan State, American, Towson, Hampton, UMBC, Bill & Mary and Delaware in JC first two seasons so the bar can't get any lower. It sure would be nice to be 9-4, but it right now 7-6 seems more realistic. It's too depressing to think we might not be above .500 in non-conference play with the schedule we have. 

West may still be dealing with some health issues. Sit tight.

Well that was positive! Appreciate CC calm tone.

A-10 Live will return to ESPN+ with Mike Corey as host. All 15 coaches will appear on the live show, as will Atlantic 10 Commissioner Bernadette V. McGlade. Head Coach Chris Caputo is slated to join the program at 10:30 a.m. along with Dayton's Anthony Grant and Massachusetts' Frank Martin.

The league has also partnered with the Field of 68 for a new podcast, A-10 Insider. Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google through Anchor, the free podcast will cover the entire season, beginning with a live show Thursday. Hosts Jeff Goodman and Rob Dauster will interview all 15 coaches, including Caputo, who is set to join the show at 11:30 a.m. 

A-10 Men's Basketball Media Day Set for Thursday - George Washington University Athletics (gwsports.com)

Last edited by GW0509 (10/12/2022 11:57 am)

If the new name is a student vote, it is a) wrong, since they are only a small, ungraduated part of the GW community and b)we're screwed.
  Can only imagine.