All I will say is everyone is a coach until they have to do it in real time without the benefit of hindsight. Gets a lot of harder and bad outcomes are not always the result of bad adjustments or bad strategy. Sometimes the other team is just more talented. Sometimes the other team just executes better on that day. Sometimes you play the percentages but they don't work out. No coach is perfect but it is an imperfect game. I tend to give the guy in that seat a lot of deference because I've coached more than 1,000 games (mostly high school and high level AAU) and I've seen it all. 

That said, CC himself would tell you he has things that he could do better. We all do. But sometimes the right call doesn't work out as planned. I think we have to understand that and understand that coaching is more an art than a science.

Gwmayhem wrote:

GWRising wrote:

All I will say is everyone is a coach until they have to do it in real time without the benefit of hindsight. Gets a lot of harder and bad outcomes are not always the result of bad adjustments or bad strategy. Sometimes the other team is just more talented. Sometimes the other team just executes better on that day. Sometimes you play the percentages but they don't work out. No coach is perfect but it is an imperfect game. I tend to give the guy in that seat a lot of deference because I've coached more than 1,000 games (mostly high school and high level AAU) and I've seen it all. 

That said, CC himself would tell you he has things that he could do better. We all do. But sometimes the right call doesn't work out as planned. I think we have to understand that and understand that coaching is more an art than a science.

Every word you wrote is true Rising.  Yet it all must be counteracted against accountability and results.  Don't mistake my feelings; I began this thread by pointing out that this should be considered an atypical Year 4 for CC.  This is due to both the progress he has made as well as the contract extension he has already received.  I'd actually believe that GW could go winless this season and CC would be the head coach in Year 5, that's how cold his seat is right now.  

At the same time, CC hasn't exactly earned the job for as long as he wants it.  I believe he would fully acknowledge this.  A disaster-filled year 4 like I described above (and certainly do not foresee) would put him squarely on the hot seat in Year 5.  If your assessments are correct and he is ascertaining greater depth than ever before, then it's imperative that the program continues on an upward trajectory.  As you know, "he coached well but the team let him down" does not work out too well in sports, fair or unfair.  I will say that the upper echelon of the A10 does seem ripe for the picking this season giving GW a legitimate chance at a top 4 finish.  Not suggesting that this be an expectation but rather a lofty but attainable goal.

One thing is for certain, and I credit DMVPiranha (I believe) for saying this:  we should all prefer that dead money for firing coaches be a thing of the past, particularly in this age of NIL. 

Notice I didn't say anything about an evaluation of CC ... only that we should show some latitude because the job is harder (for any coach) than it looks in the stands. What might seem like no adjustments or bad adjustments may not be what it appears.

I also didn't say CC has earned any kind of long-term contract nor did I say he hasn't earned one. I happen to think this year is pivotal but only on the downside. Win another 20+ games and you probably get a longer extension. Fall short and it becomes nervous time because you have an AD and President that didn't hire him. Ironically, if CC wins to the degree we all want and hope, he likely will not be here very long. So there is that consideration too.

Last edited by GWRising (7/23/2025 1:19 pm)

Joel Joseph wrote:

I'm not really hopeful anything will change with our program after the last 10 years based on our administration's prior bad decisions, lack of money and lack of student interest but never say never.

Not trying to nitpick too much, but "our administration" has turned over something like 3 times in the last 10 years so the one we have now had nothing to do with the prior bad decisions.

And I definitely don't think we have a "lack of money" anymore given our roster was paid something like $3 million (one of the highest in the A10) and we are chartering to away games now.  

I'll give you a continued lack of student interest.

AMEN

Joel Joseph wrote:

I still believe we need to change our scheduling philosophy and get away from the cupcake pre-conference schedule. Get the mentality of "we will go anywhere and play anyone" to get us ready for the A-10 schedule. And stop playing D-1 and D-2 schools.

SLU, Mason, St. Joe's, and Duquesne all had weaker pre-conference slates and fared better than GW in the A10. Not sure that has anything to do with GW's result in the A10. USF, Florida, McNeese, and Murray are all comparable in quality to teams in the league. Going anywhere and play anyone is fine, but the other team has to agree and that's been a struggle in the A10. Let's start by not losing to bad teams like Delaware first.

Gwmayhem wrote:

I honestly don't know what to make of the Caputo critics who seem to incorporate this subtle (or not so subtle) feeling of entitlement into their criticisms, as if GW's wondrous fan base deserves so much better than this.  Ours is a program that has seemingly aways needed to go two steps backwards in order to move one step forward.  Our attendance is miserable.  Our saga in building a new practice facility became an industry joke and led to the resignation of our last athletic director.  (I'll stay away from the AD prior to that one.)

This is a long-winded way of saying that being the head coach at GW is not a great job.  There are great things about this...working in Washington, DC, coaching within a Top 10 conference, being one of 365 head coaches who can make the claim of being a current D1 head coach.. But it also begs the question that if CC were to be released from his duties, what on earth makes you think that the next coach will be any better?  Like (allegedly) Woj at SBU, will we be seeking a cheap hire from the D2 ranks? 

Too many people here are way too quick to ignore the positive traits that CC brings to the table.  He's energetic.  He's a fundraiser.  He's a recruiter.  He understands and appreciates the school's basketball history.  Unlike some of our past coaches, it seems that he genuinely wants to be at GW.  He's an ambassador for this program, and a good one at that.

I have disagreed with many of his coaching decisions and tendencies and have said so here.  Like many of you, I wish he was less rigid in sticking with his game plan regardless of opponent or game circumstances.  He absolutely needs to improve with more game experience.  And yes, GW is the type of job that should allow for this.  This isn't a perennial Top 20 program where the head coach should have already demonstrated a high level of proficiency at a former stop.  GW is that type of "former stop", like it or not.

When someone acknowledges here that CC brought the program out of the abyss and helped it gain respectability, that's not something you quickly sweep under the rug.  That's a huge achievement and one that should buy more patience from the fan base.  The problem is that sports is a world of immediate gratification, where a La Salle can reach a Sweet 16 this century so why can't GW?  Well, you're going to make that much more difficult to come by if you keep switching coaches every 4 years.  It took Dr. John 9 seasons at La Salle before that Sweet 16 season.  He only had 3 winning seasons at La Salle out of the preceding 8 years.  He coached 5 more seasons after the Sweet 16 season, and never again was above .500 in conference play.  He went from 24-10 to 15-16 the following season and did not get fired.  He won 9 games in 2015-16 and did not get fired.

I am not suggesting that there aren't ample reasons to feel disappointment about this season to date.  Or that we shouldn't hope that CC does an honest assessment of his coaching this season (and yes, those untimely missed layups and free throws were not the result of his coaching) and makes some course corrections moving forward.  But to suggest that he deserves to be fired strikes a "be careful what you wish for" nerve in me.   

I think what constitutes a great job is debatable from year to year in this new era. Like any other job, GW has its pros and cons. As long as the current administration continues to commit to rev share, I think it's fair to say GW is at the very least an above average job in the league (maybe not top 5 like Goodman posted earlier but like top 7). 

I am certainly not in the fire CC camp, but do think there needs to be a change with some of the staff personally. Comparing a potential coaching change to what St. Bonaventure is going through is like apples to oranges though. Outside of both jobs being in the A10, they could not be more different. Bona does not have the rev share GW has, and the location definitely impacts their candidate pool. Schmidt deserves so much credit for the way the job is perceived. When you look outside of basketball, they are often the worst team in most sports in the A10.

I definitely agree with your thoughts about CC overall. As you mentioned above, he deserves a lot of credit for fundraising and raising the overall floor of the program. His postgame comments are also often thoughtful. With more money comes more expectations though, and given the commitment this year has definitely been a disappointment (Slim getting hurt came at the worst time too). The improved metrics are nice, but you are judged by the wins and losses at the end of the day. It also doesn't help that the current AD didn't hire CC.

The immediate gratification is an unfortunate result of the transfer portal, and what makes this year that much more of a failure is that GW had more roster continuity than the average A10 team. I understand where you're coming from about not switching coaches so often (I agree) but the La Salle Sweet 16 was in a different era (and so were expectations of coaches). It bought Dr. John some goodwill, and rightly so. It is also La Salle, which is generally considered the worst job in the league. Dunphy literally took the job previously because no one else wanted it. Making the NCAA tournament from the A10 is a crapshoot nowadays, but the goal was for GW to be a double bye team and they didn't get there.

There are good individual pieces on this year's team. We've seen guys like Luke and Jean improve individually over the course of the year. Growth as a team though just hasn't been there for one reason or another. The on court chemistry is lacking. I generally think CC has a good eye for talent, but that go-to option late in the backcourt who wants to take the big shots hasn't been recruited and has been missing since JB left. This team is tentative and to me doesn't look to be playing loose. I also thought this team could have used a third center instead of extra guards. I don't doubt that CC will address this in the offseason. Expectations won't be the same next year, and maybe that's a good thing for him.