gwstudent2024 wrote:

New episode of GW Basketball Insiders is here! We talked with Matt Colpoys about the transfer portal additions, the offseason as a whole, high school recruiting philosphy/what we can expect from the freshmen next year, his thoughts on the Fordham recruiting violations, the scheduling philosophy, and a bunch of other things.

Let us know what you think! I found the scheduling part interesting. It seems like the plan is to improve the schedule considerably next year. He also confirmed a few rumors about next year's schedule too.

Twitter: https://x.com/mattmodderno/status/1915423513172971627?s=46&t=7J2ylh2Hab-QsuU7T-yc9Q

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/Z2B-eZy_qCI?si=WNF1LBd-NWCPHgYB

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5ydjFwlxTKQ3QPGNxDgbXq?si=L8ekX5b2R4mkdLum-2IRxw

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/transfer-portal-recap-with-gw-mbb-assistant-matt-colpoys/id1802674606?i=1000704762327

Excellent job. Great inside info.
Really appreciate the effort you guys put into this

oops

That's quite a get for Cleveland State. Dayan probably has all-conference potential in the Horizon if he can avoid missing time due to injuries.

Since it's been a while since the last update, some notables:
- Max Edwards returned to Duquesne. No surprise, I doubt he had better options especially after entering the portal late.
- Tafara Gapare is on to his sixth committed school as he's following Willard from UMD to Villanova. Crazy to think he was committed to GW five years ago.
- Jeremiah Williams (Rutgers) ended up at Georgetown after visiting GW earlier in portal season. Reminds me of the Ish Massoud commitment except Williams is the polar opposite in terms of skillset. Will probably be a backup there.
- I don't think we were heavy on Josh Harris (UNF) but he ended up following his teammate Jasai Miles (who also visited GW) to Indiana. Not sure either is a Big Ten level player, but the Hoosiers had to replace everyone with DeVries coming to town so I guess it makes more sense in that context.

 

jf wrote:

GW commit Gapare (even if it was over admittance) and former player Freeman are emblematic of the transfer/NIL situation in college basketball.

Can't leave JoBam off of the emblematic group.

Portal Evaluation

GWU with 2 of the Top 10

Last edited by Basketball Jones (6/07/2025 9:06 pm)

Joel Joseph wrote:

Another year where we should be "top 5" in the A-10 "on-paper"!
NCAA tourney here we come!

only if there is enough cash to keep the core players out of the portal 
 

That's an interesting list that Basketball Jones posted. It seems like the overwhelming majority of the best transfers are guys moving up to the A-10 from lower conferences.I always assumed the best transfers to the A-10 are guys coming from BCS schools.Did the NIL and BCS schools becoming more greedy with how they pluck players from lower conferences change things?

Basketball Jones wrote:

imo - just observations - not analyzed facts

for the last 2 seasons GMU had a team composed of players that came out of high school as 3, 4-star players - but sat the bench at P4 programs. They transferred down to the A-10 became starters and got a regular season A-10 Co-championship.

No more. This year's team is composed of starters/key players from schools/conferences ranked less then GMU/A-10.

I suspect - but don't know for a fact - that many of the P4 transferred said they were seeking schools that could offer more playing time - but instead transferred to other P4 who could offer more financially/NIL money then GMU/A-10.

Realistically none of those players are NBA ready and will not sign $10M NBA contracts - so they took the cash - IMO.

Team integration is different in each of these cases and the fortune of the team will depend upon the coach's/staff acumen for player selection and the players ability to give up being a lower-level star to be a mid-level team player.
 

Great explanation! I was just shocked by the graphic you posted because for years when I looked at A-10 previews for the projected All-Newcomer team, it would be made up of guys transferring down from BCS schools.When you look at GW's best transfers over the past 10-15 years, the best ones (Zeek, Creek, Cavanaugh, Bishop, etc.) are guys who came from BCS schools.

The George Mason situation is interesting, it looks like Tony Skinn was able to use his connections as an elite recruiter at BCS schools, to get former 3 and 4 recruits to George Mason. We'll see what he can do in the future now that the flow of BCS guys transferring down has seen a dramatic drop.

On your point about BCS transfers now preferring to sit on the bench and collect NIL money at another BCS school over playing at a lower level, I suspect that will change at some point because actually playing will trump sitting on the bench for most guys.  

Gwmayhem wrote:

I think these rankings are extremely difficult to project.  You have several players who put up nice numbers at lower level schools, transferred to P4 schools only to see their numbers cut, and are now playing in between in the A10.  Two such players are Frank Mitchell (#19..he nearly averaged 12 and 12 as a freshman at Canisius) and Xavier Amos (#50 who had a solid start at Northern Illinois only to underwhelm a bit at Wisconsin.   Who really knows if these guys are worse than lower-level school players who've put up good numbers but have never experienced a higher level of competition.

The few times I saw Xavier Amos I thought he was great and made some plays that really popped off the screen.  He was sort of stuck behind Tonje/Blackwell and didn’t shoot as well as the year, but I think he’s got a ton of potential and is one of the transfers to watch.