A10 Vault Preview from Media Day: My Key Takeaways from Atlantic 10 Media Day (substack.com)
It’s been a bit of a rough offseason for George Washington’s program. Two of the program’s best players over the past few seasons- Brendan Adams (17.4 PPG on 47% shooting in 2022-23) and Ricky Lindo (10.6 PPG, 7.6 RPG last season) have graduated, and the transfer portal departures of Hunter Dean (LSU) plus the aforementioned Noel Brown (St. Bonaventure) have left the team somewhat thin in the frontcourt.
The good news? James Bishop- unarguably one of the best players in the conference- is back for a grad year after a 2022-23 campaign in which he posted per game averages of 21.6 points (on 42.9% shooting), 2.3 rebounds, and 5.2 assists. Also returning is Max Edwards, the reigning A10 Rookie of the Year after averaging 10.5 points and 6.5 rebounds a night during his stellar freshman campaign.
Plenty more can be said about the additions which the team has made in order to rebuild the roster. Incoming freshmen such as Jacoi Hutchinson, Christian Jones, and Trey Autry all have the ability to crack the rotation early on. Transfers such as Darren Buchanan Jr. (Virginia Tech), Benny Schroder (Oklahoma), Garrett Johnson (Princeton), and Antoine Smith Jr. (Evansville) should also be staples for head coach Chris Caputo as he enters his second year with the program.
The biggest thing to note with the Revolutionaries new roster is the immense amount of versatility. George Washington was 282nd in the nation in terms of three-point distribution last season, with only 27.8% of their total points coming from three point field goal makes (to put it into perspective, the NCAA average was 30.8%). With more flexibility on the roster, look for the team to improve in terms of shot selection and overall efficiency.