GW0509 wrote:

moneybox wrote:

Coaching is way overrated! With the overall quality of recruits GW has always had--I've been following the team for 59 years--it needs a terrific coach first and foremost to coach players up. Overall the GW head coaches over the years have for the most part been lacking. I hope Caputo is the guy, but the jury is surely still out.

Ok but now coaches who “coach players up” lose them to another school offering $250,000.

Let’s see what kind of team he can assemble now that we can offer some cash for some experienced players.

Yes. You have to be living in the past to not understand that the rules of the game have changed and are continuing to change. Again, you need NIL money and a lot of it. But as a MM you also recognize that if you are good people are coming for your players with more NIL money than you can pay. I call it the age of Mercenary Basketball - the kids don't really care what it says on the front of the jersey as long as they are getting paid what they feel they can command. The trick for CC is finding that ever moving sweet spot and not counting on a lot of loyalty and roster continuity..A D1 coach at another MM told me recently he expects 50% roster turnover year to year now. I think we should expect that at GW most years if the current rules are in place. It will be the rare kid that stays at GW for 4 years.

Last edited by GWRising (3/22/2024 9:36 am)

Cornell (D1) transfer Sean Hansen is considering the following schools in his recruitment, he told @ThePortalReport:

Clemson
UC San Diego
George Washington
Chattanooga
Richmond
High Point
UNCW
Davidson
Furman

LaSalle transfer Daeshon Shepherd (@Dshepherd022) has received interest from the following programs:
Richmond
GW
St. Bonaventure
Illinois State
FGCU
UMass
Northern Kentucky

NCAA rule allowing multiple transfers comes out in December and Max Edward's game suddenly plummets, his effort drops to 50%,  we the go on major losing streak. Coincidence? I think not. This will be a new challenge for mid majors in the NIL/tranfer era. Essentially every player is on a one year contract. Some players will quit on the team once they have decided to transfer 

Opposite not true. These guys are playing for NIL and do not want to risk injuries.  A local GMU player also essentially quit playing hard. CC knew this and made Max the "sixth man".

moneybox wrote:

Rising: Again do you really think that Duqesne had tons of NIL money to throw at its players after not being in the Big Dance for 55 years! You seem to suggest that money is 95% of the equation and coaching is 5%. Maybe we should put the money we pay our coaches into our NIL program. 

Duquesne was actually one of the first A10 schools to dive into the NIL space once it became legal: https://theathletic.com/2932982/2021/11/15/how-will-nil-help-the-little-guy-mid-major-duquesne-is-trying-to-win-by-being-first/?source=user_shared_article

Also, most of Duquesne’s roster were already upperclassmen. Rising’s point is that if you want to sign proven veterans in the portal, you need to compensate them (or you get players like Stretch or Antoine Smith). We can easily get freshman for “free” but then you get seasons like the one we just had and pray they stick around once they hit free agency in the spring.

The experienced transfers Duquesne did get were an injured Mahorcic who only became available halfway through the season, Savrasov from GA Southern who I think we had interest in, and the Drames who supposedly got $30-40k per the La Salle message board.

So yes, if you want players who can average 7ppg in the A10 you need at least $30-40k per year every year (with annual cost of living increases naturally) and then hope you don’t get outbid the next year now that there are unlimited transfers.

Fans either need to open their wallets or lower their expectations.

Coaches matter but I think you’re the one asking a lot out of a coach coaching a team almost entirely full of players who’ve never or barely played college basketball.

Hobbs with his first full freshman class: 12-17 (5-11)
Lonergan with his first full freshman class: 13-16 (7-9)
CC with his first full freshman class: 15-17 (4-14)

If we didn’t have the injuries we did, CC probably has a shot at winning 20 games.

With the COVID year, teams are getting older and older. We were the least experienced team in the A10 per KenPom with an average of 1.64 years of D1 experience. It’s no surprise the best teams in the A10 are some of the oldest:

Richmond 3.06 years (13th oldest in the country)
Loyola 2.65 (39th oldest)
Dayton 2.41 (72nd oldest)

Bonaventure was actually THE most experienced team in the country.

There were two teams “younger” than us who made the tournament: Yale- an Ivy autobid and Washington State. Washington State still started 2 seniors and a Junior. If you are mad that CC didn’t win the A10 tournament or is not a better coach than Kyle Smith then I concede that to you.

To your point about the losing streak, I don’t think it was one issue. Injuries to DBJ and GJ mattered. Max going on autopilot mattered. Freshman clearly trying to do too much at the end of games vs playing fundamentally mattered. Playing the 3rd toughest conference schedule mattered. Our best bench players were Smith, Zam, and Benny. We all saw what they did/did not do when given the chance. And there were so many games when Zam and Benny weren’t even available due to illness or injury.

So again, you call it excuses but I don’t know how CC’s in game coaching could be in the top 3 reasons for the losing streak.

Last edited by GW0509 (3/23/2024 1:54 pm)

As of 23 March these are the players I found on X who claim we’ve shown interest:
- Josh Cohen (UMass)
- AJ Smith (Citadel)
- Sean Hansen (Cornell)
- Isaiah Gray (Cornell)
- Jalen Leach (Fairfield)
- Dre Bullock (Niagara)
- Sean Moore (Farleigh Dickinson)
- Jake Davis (Mercer)
- Ahmir Langlais (USC Upstate)
- Sadaidriene Hall (SFA)
- Tre Dinkins (Canisius)
- A’lahn Sumler (Charleston Southern)
- Arturo Dean (FIU)
- Ryan Forrest (Northwestern State)
- Justin Wright (LMU)
- Makaih Williams (UTA)
- Antonio Chol (Rutgers)
- Jailen Bedford (ORU)
- Roger McFarlane (SE Louisiana)
- Josh Corbin (Robert Morris)
- Bernard Pelote (Western Carolina)
- DJ Campbell (WCU)
- Tyler Perkins (UPenn)
- Seth Hubbard (Western Michigan)
- Dejour Reaves (Northern Colorado)
- Maleek Arington (Idaho State)
- Troy D’Amico (SIU)
- De’Shayne Montgomery (MSM)
- Jlynn Counter (IUPUI)
- Jerry Deng (Hampton)
- Eric Sondberg (Lafayette)
- Zavian McLean (Columbia)

Anyone else I’m missing?

Portal numbers now at 812.   My quick perusal saw some NIT losers but not yet any NCAA losers.  The list also includes players that are not currently playing at a D-1 basketball school.

According to The Portal Report we have been one of the most active teams so far

https://twitter.com/theportalreport/status/1771918184276246653