GW takes the court in a little over a week in an exhibition against Western Connecticut State (which I suppose is not to be confused with Central Connecticut State) and perhaps you are asking yourself, "why Western Connecticut State?"  Turns out there is an outstanding reason for this.

In 1996, the Final 4 was at the Meadowlands and the "coaches hotel" was at a Hilton in Manhattan.  Chris Caputo was a sophomore at Archbishop Molloy High School at the time and someone he looked up to was an older friend who lived on his block named Guy Rancourt.  Rancourt had finished his college playing career and was interested in getting into coaching.  He planned to show up at the Hilton with the hope of making some contacts.  He asked 15 year old basketball obsessed CC to join him.  They shook some hands and CC was hit with "the bug" on that day.  Realizing his playing abilities would only take him so far and in all likelihood, not to a professional playing career, CC decided he would do whatever it took to get into coaching.  That included working under Jim Larranaga for three years as an unpaid intern/video coordinator before earning his way to an Assistant Coaching position at George Mason.

And whatever happened to CC's older friend Guy Rancourt?  He had a taste of Division 1 life working for several seasons as a DOBO at Florida State and serving as an assistant to Steve Pikiell at Stony Brook but by and large, he has been a very successful head coach at the Division 3 level.  In fact, he will be on the opposing bench next Sunday as he begins his fifth season as the head coach of his alma mater, Western Connecticut State.