According to Pete Thamel on Twitter, Maryland is actually starting the search this week and no candidates have been reached out to or even identified. Why it's taken this long to begin a process that should have began a month ago or what they have been doing for the last few weeks is beyond me but indicates a hire isn't imminent

https://x.com/PeteThamel/status/1912274025461526987

Joel Joseph wrote:

hiring an AD who hasn't accomplished anything at GW because he's been here less than a year.

I strongly disagree with that statement. No AD in GW´s 200+ year history has overseen taking the men´s basketball team to The Crown.

Agree this is probably hot air, but if anyone in Lipitz´s orbit is behind the rumour it would be very bad form.

The times change and I suppose we have to change along with them.  I have no idea whether Michael Lipitz will be offered the Maryland job or not.  What I do know is that if he is offered the position and the terms are to his liking, he should accept the position without any hesitation.  As recently as ten years ago, I would have given a different answer.

My starting point is that I consider myself to be an incredibly loyal person.  Three weeks after starting my first real job out of college, I was offered what then would be considered my dream job.  It involved taking a pay cut but that didn't matter to me.  What mattered was the perception of unprofessionalism I would have faced, even if only self-imposed, by leaving a job just three weeks after I had started.  My firm had turned away other candidates to hire me.  They had begun to invest time in training me while simultaneously handing me real responsibility right out of the gate.  I would have had a tough time living with myself had I accepted my dream job under these circumstances.

Fast forward to today and loyalty still matters to some.  Dusty May was having a successful season coaching Michigan basketball when his dream job became available at Indiana.  May had grown up around the Hoosier program and anyone who knew him felt that Indiana was the only job which May would leave Michigan for after just a single season.  Nevertheless, May cited that he was just getting started at Ann Arbor and took himself out of the running to replace Mike Woodson.  (I understand that cynics will point out that May used his leverage to earn a nice raise for himself but the fact is that after Michigan's swift turnaround under May, he was going to receive that raise whether Indiana had an opening or not.)

Sadly, and I do think this is sad, May's 2025 loyalty has become the exception and not the rule.  Rick Pitino was going to leave Iona the moment he got another shot with a major.  The level of competition and money involved makes St. John's over Iona a no brainer.  Did Pitino owe Iona more than three seasons?    He actually spent less time at Providence so maybe he's not the best example.  

If Lipitz is offered the Maryland job, he will have every right to point out that his alma mater is offering considerably more money, a chance to run a Big 10 athletic department, a chance to help oversee a football team, and probably a dozen more competitive advantages.  (He may also be smarting from a certain basketball player failing to qualify academically to play at GW but that's pure speculation on my part.).  

It wouldn't be that long ago where the understandable reaction to this would be along the lines of "how can he leave GW after only one season?"  Today, not so much.  Should this happen, there would be little choice but to congratulate him and move on.

Gwmayhem wrote:

The times change and I suppose we have to change along with them.  I have no idea whether Michael Lipitz will be offered the Maryland job or not.  What I do know is that if he is offered the position and the terms are to his liking, he should accept the position without any hesitation.  As recently as ten years ago, I would have given a different answer.

My starting point is that I consider myself to be an incredibly loyal person.  Three weeks after starting my first real job out of college, I was offered what then would be considered my dream job.  It involved taking a pay cut but that didn't matter to me.  What mattered was the perception of unprofessionalism I would have faced, even if only self-imposed, by leaving a job just three weeks after I had started.  My firm had turned away other candidates to hire me.  They had begun to invest time in training me while simultaneously handing me real responsibility right out of the gate.  I would have had a tough time living with myself had I accepted my dream job under these circumstances.

Fast forward to today and loyalty still matters to some.  Dusty May was having a successful season coaching Michigan basketball when his dream job became available at Indiana.  May had grown up around the Hoosier program and anyone who knew him felt that Indiana was the only job which May would leave Michigan for after just a single season.  Nevertheless, May cited that he was just getting started at Ann Arbor and took himself out of the running to replace Mike Woodson.  (I understand that cynics will point out that May used his leverage to earn a nice raise for himself but the fact is that after Michigan's swift turnaround under May, he was going to receive that raise whether Indiana had an opening or not.)

Sadly, and I do think this is sad, May's 2025 loyalty has become the exception and not the rule.  Rick Pitino was going to leave Iona the moment he got another shot with a major.  The level of competition and money involved makes St. John's over Iona a no brainer.  Did Pitino owe Iona more than three seasons?    He actually spent less time at Providence so maybe he's not the best example.  

If Lipitz is offered the Maryland job, he will have every right to point out that his alma mater is offering considerably more money, a chance to run a Big 10 athletic department, a chance to help oversee a football team, and probably a dozen more competitive advantages.  (He may also be smarting from a certain basketball player failing to qualify academically to play at GW but that's pure speculation on my part.).  

It wouldn't be that long ago where the understandable reaction to this would be along the lines of "how can he leave GW after only one season?"  Today, not so much.  Should this happen, there would be little choice but to congratulate him and move on.

Amen  

UMD gets their man - James Smith (last with the Atlanta Braves organization.
Lipitz was (probably) a close second!