Good luck to Coach McCombs

Some takes from the release and hire. She is far more experienced a collegiate coach than Coach Rizz was when hired, and has seen how to make a small-budget program a national player. That Coach McKeown turned her on to GW is a testament to how lucky GW was to have ever been associated with him. That said, her career path is interesting, going from Associate Head Coach at a team with two straight NCAA´s to an assistant at Pitt and Auburn, big budget school with modest NCAA histories, and then landing at Northwestern (which until then had little pedigree but a certain fantastic coach at the helm turning things around). Getting SUNY-SB to the NCAA´s is no small feat. Then there is the stint heading the christianist "Athletes in Action" mission to Poland, which might clash with the more secular ambiance at GW (see Matt Allbitron).
I am optimistic this is an upgrade and that some of the very good young talent Rizz had on this year´s team thinks twice about transferring. Ali just needs to ask her dad about the excitement Joe brought to campus, if Coach McCombs can tap in to any of that mojo then this is going to be worth sticking around for (ask the players brought in by his predecessors who stuck around for Joe´s first seasons and wound up having great success).

Just some clarifications- it was said that incoming Coach McCombs was far more experienced than Coach Rizzotti when hired. That is inaccurate. When GW hired Rizzotti, she had been Head Coach at Hartford for 17 years. By contrast, McCombs has been a Head Coach for 7 years. At Hartford, Rizzotti went to the NCAAs 6 times, and the WNIT 3 times. Ironically, both coaches cut their teeth in the American East Conference.

That being said, I don't think it has a lot of relevance as to how the new Coach will do. Time will tell, and hopefully, the program can find its way back to A10 prominence.

xAC wrote:

Just some clarifications- it was said that incoming Coach McCombs was far more experienced than Coach Rizzotti when hired. That is inaccurate. When GW hired Rizzotti, she had been Head Coach at Hartford for 17 years. By contrast, McCombs has been a Head Coach for 7 years. At Hartford, Rizzotti went to the NCAAs 6 times, and the WNIT 3 times. Ironically, both coaches cut their teeth in the American East Conference.

That being said, I don't think it has a lot of relevance as to how the new Coach will do. Time will tell, and hopefully, the program can find its way back to A10 prominence.

Thanks xAC, that was a total brain fart on my part (I blame my advancing age, but just plain stupidity on my part is probably more to blame). Hopefully the expectations at GW are not too big a task for Coach McCombs and she hangs so many banners that the structural integrity of the Smith Center ceiling is compromised!

Any idea of the timing of a staff announcement?

official site article: https://gwsports.com/news/2021/4/28/womens-basketball-mccombs-announces-coaching-staff.aspx