LSF, didn't mean for it to sound too harsh but I will stand by these thoughts.  Christian is a talented player but the one thing that CC, a former point guard himself, likely craves out of the position is consistency.  Christian just did not play at a consistently high level.  I think the staff saw and knew enough about Garrett to conclude that the odds are he is not going to return to his freshman-year form.  If he does, then this was a miscalculation.  This one also may have been Garrett's doing given how sparingly he played down the stretch.   As for Luke, we know what kind of money big men are commanding and, in this case, I can easily see that the staff felt it best for someone else to spend more on him than GW was willing.  He played remarkably well at times, but he is not at all a rim protector or much of a defender and given the faster pace the team would like to play, was not going to be a strong fit towards this end.

The 25-26 team was very likable, but on the court too many players not only disappeared for parts of the season, but even within periods of games. Autry and Jones would have stretches where they knock down several threes and then go quiet for the rest of the game. Consistency needs to be better.

I'm not sure there was much more for Tricky to achieve at GW. Would it have been nice to bring back a known commodity? Sure, but he was basically the same player last season as he was in his sophomore year. Having watched him in HS, I'll always feel like he was more capable of being a secondary playmaker than he showed in Foggy Bottom. He'll probably not have to play too much of a different role at Wisconsin and will likely make the tournament so I think he made the right decision.

A lot was on CJ to take a big jump his sophomore year, and that didn't really happen. He felt less disruptive defensively and the FT shooting just wasn't good enough. GW has been bottom 100 nationally in offensive turnover percentage the last two years, and CJ is to blame at least a little bit for that. Some of those miscues came by playing fast, but there's really no reason that the team should be any worse than average nationally in that category. Jones also saw his FT rate drop by over 8% in year 2. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but the two CC teams that finished .500 or better in the A10 were both top 100 in FT rate. You take out Slim's attempts, and suddenly the FT rate was pretty dismal last year. The guards have not put enough pressure on the rim since JB left. Hope CJ does well at Murray. They clearly have some NIL over there - MVC feels like the right level for him.

As for the others, Garrett clearly needed a fresh start and I hope things click again at South Florida. Having said that, I have my doubts Chris Mack will get the most out of him. His tenure at Charleston was pretty underwhelming.

I would have been happy bringing Luke back, but even before he put his name into the portal I did not feel great about him being the #1 guy from a defensive perspective. Not sure how that gets better moving up to the ACC. Bubu may be best served as a bigger fish in a smaller pond. He struggled to finish against bigger defenders at the rim in the A10 and clanked too many open shots off the rim from 3. I'm interested to see how he coexists with Zam at ODU.

Bevins and Moss both opted to head to schools that aren't in the best financial shape. I felt like Ty especially could have ended up at a better place. The only reason to play at Rider in 2026 is if you get the chance to be the undisputed alpha, which I hope is the case for him. It was clear that he wasn't going to be more than like a ninth/tenth option at GW. I defended Moss more than most because he at least tried to get to the rim sometimes (the bar is very low compared to other guards under CC, but still). Trey definitely has the chance to carve out at least some time at La Salle, although I feel like a higher-end CAA squad may have been better.

Now the question becomes whether the incoming talent is better than what departed. An improvement should come at least defensively based on what was brought in. Although I did put some blame on CJ for the turnovers, Aranguren doesn't exactly get a pass. As we saw in the South Florida game, he does not do well under pressure but maybe finally staying at a school a second year will help. Also, Jean's FT splits last year were bizarre. He shot 81% from the line at home, but just 57% away. That has to be one of the larger differentials of any player in the country that had 70+ FTA. I would have to think that improves by default.

I linked a video of Omari Witherspoon and Jalen Rougier-Roane playing summer league ball in the Kenner thread. Without trying to overreact to what I saw, it definitely looks like there's a lot to like about Omari's game. He plays with a lot of effort on both sides of the ball and I think he has really good vision - to the point where the PG concerns are maybe a bit overblown. I also think he will help up the FT rate among the guards on the team.

The two question marks I have with him though are with the turnovers and his shooting efficiency. Witherspoon has a tendency at times to dribble through traffic instead of giving the ball up and is a bit streaky with his jumper. The turnovers have to be cleaned up some, as the rest of the backcourt consists of Jean (who had the highest turnover rate on last year's team) and a true freshman in N'Landu. Looking at the shooting, both Omari and Terrance Arceneaux live more in the midrange, so I'm interested to see whether CC continues to be adamant about the rim and 3 offense or gives the players a bit more freedom. I felt like we lost a bit of what made JB so great his second year with CC because of this.

Jalen may be slipping under the radar a bit if he's fully healthy. It's possible that he pulled a Keegan Harvey from the summer league game I saw, but I think he can be a factor in the rotation. Rougier-Roane has parking lot range on his jumper and was solid defensively. He sometimes struggled to pull down the rebound in the game, but he won't be asked to do that on the team anyways.

Interior play will be important as well. Dylan James seems to have a bit of a Luke Hunger problem on offense. Both were pretty efficient inside the arc but their numbers tanked due to taking too many threes. James could be dangerous near the rim at the A10 level if we can limit his threes a bit. I don't doubt he'll be great on defense. Andrija Vukovic is also somewhat of a question mark. It felt like there were some conditioning/mobility issues during his time at Oklahoma State but he seems to be a good rebounder and has nice touch near the rim. Playing for Steve Lutz in a super uptempo system should make his transition easier, but I question just how fast GW can/should play when he's on the floor.