If you click on the link that GW0509 has provided, you'll notice an NIL column and it indicates $10,000 for GW. Am curious as to whether anyone has any details about this? $10,000 among the three players? $10,000 for each player? What does the NIL deal consist of? Lots of schools show this column unpopulated which means that they (technically, their booster or boosters) are either not issuing NIL funds or are not publicly reporting this. No matter the case, I felt encouraged to see any amount under this column for GW.
Speaking of feeling encouraged, what's particularly uplifting about the past few weeks is that this represents the first year since ML's final freshman class (who did not play for him) where I feel we are truly building a credible freshman class. A quick look back since then (restricting this to freshmen only):
MoJo's First Class Mazzulla/Jack/Langarica
MoJo's Second Class Offerum/Littles/Shandon Brown
MoJo's Third Class
combined w/ JC's First Paar/Battle/JNJ/Walker
JC's Second Class Noel Brown/Ball/Brelsford
JC's Third Class Freeman/Nixon/Warner
JC's Fourth Class West
The quick analysis is that MoJo was extremely hamstrung early on, partly due to the lingering stench of ML/Nero and partly due to his initially being appointed as an interim head coach. This clearly impacted his second class as well. Jameson Battle was his first and really only recruit that was an outstanding pickup, and frankly, I think Jameson's play raised many eyebrows relative to what was initially expected of him. JC supplemented that class with JNJ, who became fortuitously available when St. Joe's fired Phil Martelli. JNJ was an athlete first and a basketball player second, capable of making spectacular drives, passes and steals while needing lots of work with his ball handling and outside shooting. This class was followed up with Ball/Brelsford/Brown of which two departed after a season and the third has not developed as quickly as most would have liked. Brayon was a true coup but really represents JC's one solid recruit (though the jury is obviously still out on Jabari West), similar to what Battle was for MoJo.
In the cases of both MoJo and JC, transfers had to be heavily relied upon and will likely continue to be relied upon to some extent given the nature of the sport today. But make no mistake about the fact that Hutchinson/Autry/Jones is a recruiting CLASS. The class has obvious connections to Max who despite being two years older, will only be a year ahead of them eligibilitywise. Even with more to come, this represents the first time since Marfo/Toro/Bolden/Smith/J. Williams that we have a real class coming in. And, it's likely going to be the first class since Joe/Kethan/Pato/Kevin//Paris that lands a highly favorable impact on this program.
There are numerous conclusions one can draw:
1) The dark cloud over this program is finally being lifted. Right now, the only thing that anyone cares about is building this program back to where we know it can be.
2) Chris Caputo and his staff really know what they're doing where it comes to recruiting. To attract this level of talent, before you've even coached your first game as a head coach and staff for GW, speaks volumes about the confidence players (and their families) must have in this staff.
3) As fans, this is IMO the very best we've had a right to feel about this program since the night we cut down the nets at MSG.
Free Quebec wrote: