Here's an off-season discussion that I haven't seen here in this form.  How would you rank GW men's basketball head coaches based on their media skills?  Media savvy?  Who looks like they'd rather be anywhere except in front of a microphone and camera and who looks like they need to be dragged away when the red light is on?

Here's my attempt to rank the last 10 head coaches from worst to first:

10) Gerry Gimelstob..I almost kept Gerry out of the last spot because he actually did have a sneaky-good sense of humor in private.  Nevertheless, it's hard to acknowledge GG as anything but a Bobby Knight clone without the occasional comedic jabs when he gave press conferences and interviews.  Throw players under the bus?  Check.  Rigidly stick to playing man-to-man defense even when a zone made more sense?  Of course.  Portray himself as a serious grouch?  Absolutely.  GG was very young when he got his first head coaching job.  There were good reasons why this was his first and last.    

9) Mike Lonergan..This list is intended to rank media savviness and not coaching effectiveness so this should be kept in mind.  Mike's media interests changed from trying to explain the intricacies of the flex offense to defending himself in the court of public opinion.  Mike likely regarded appearing before the media as akin to performing a household chore.  There's a good reason why the GW Coaches TV show went away once Mike became the head coach.

8) Maurice Joseph..To be fair, what could possibly have been expected of MoJo under the circumstances?  Any conversation about what led him to become Lonergan's replacement would only be construed as a loaded argument.  MoJo was too inexperienced for the job when he had it, and this trickled down to all facets of the position.  He could again become a head coach one day and might become outstanding in his media appearances.  But, that was never a possibility in 2016-2019.

7) Karl Hobbs..KH brought the GW Coach's show to television and that willingness to become a tv regular earns him some points on this list.  However, it's the words that came out of his mouth that are weighing him down on this list.  We're too young.  We're very inexperienced.  We can't schedule better opponents because teams don't want to play us.  Our facilities are below average.  Yada, yada, yada.  Hobbs-speak became a thing until he was essentially silenced by the after-effects of Omargate.

6) Bob Tallent..Here is where I'll confess that I don't remember all that much about Bob Tallent and the media.  His Eastern 8/Atlantic 10 squads were largely middle of the road so that's about where he lands on this list.  Bonus points for speaking up in later years in Lonergan's defense, claiming that he had seen much worse with respect to "player abuse" by other coaches during practices.

5) John Kuester.  Another one which still seems like a blur to me, but John actually had to say this after suffering through a 1-27 season:  "We're really proud of the players and I can hope that's the last I hear of last year."  Kind of like a Mr. Rogers/Bill Belichick combo.

4) Tom Penders.  Now we start to get into "disco dan media savviness range."  TP has the advantage of having worked games on tv as well so his personality is a bit known from that as well.  Prior to GW, he was known as: a) a highly successful coach, b) a coach who had left in disgrace at his lasty job, c) a perpetually tan coach despite spending many years at Fordham and URI, d) all of the above.  The answer is d) but when it comes to media, I can't help but think that choice happened for a reason and that reason was to look good on television.

3) Jamion Christian.  Our last two coaches are battling for second place on this list and it is very close.  What can I say about Jamion..that smile, those suits, his "innovative" coaching gimmicks (turkey anyone?) and more inspirational quotes than anyone could possibly know what to do with.  Jamion maybe would have landed in second if not for that segment during one of his coach's shows when he explained how he had more than 400 different plays in his playbook (despite fans only being able to identify the same 7 or 8 per game).

2) Chris Caputo:  Here are the things I really like about CC and the media:  1) He looks increasingly more comfortable giving interviews 2) He is usually very informative with just the right amount of snark (which I enjoy), and 3) He doesn't seem to turn away any media opportunities.  About #3, I have all the respect in the world.  He shows up on the local news, with the Junkies, and for anyone with a podcast that has something, anything, to do with basketball.  He's also more than generous with his time, and respectful of, GW's student reporters over the years.  Whatever the polar opposite of being a "bigtimer" is, that's CC.

1) Mike Jarvis.  He's the guy who turned around the program, and part of this had to do with his role with the media.  It seemed like most years during the 1990's, CBS cameras were in the Potomac home of Mike and Connie Jarvis, as the team anxiously awaited whether they'd be receiving an at large bid to the Dance.  Mike worked the media not just for at large bids but for his own career advancement as well, constantly vowing allegiance to GWU while simultaneously contemplating promotions elsewhere.  There was of course no such thing as podcasts during Mike's time at GW so the number of his overall media appearances paled in comparison to what's possible today.  Nevertheless, it was that ability, connection, or whatever he had with CBS that brought GW a great deal of national publicity (even without a Sweet 16 appearance).  That's why he's in my top spot.