GW men’s basketball coach Karl Hobbs likens the first day of practice to a new automobile.
“It’s a day where you are taking the car out for the first time,” he said. “All you’re doing is testing the speed.”
When the Colonials begin practicing Saturday, the fourth-year coach said his highly touted team will start simply: with heavy doses of running and drills aimed at “getting the guys back into basketball shape.”
The start of the 2004-05 campaign comes with high expectations. In July, ESPN.com ranked the Colonials as the No. 37 team in Division 1 basketball. Also, ESPN The Magazine featured a small brief on the team in a September issue featuring a snapshot of junior forward Pops Mensah-Bonsu.
A season-opening match-up in the preseason National Invitation Tournament at Wake Forest on Nov. 15 is another sign the team is gaining national respect. It is the first college basketball game of the season to be nationally televised.
However, Hobbs is not yet buying into the hype – at least not yet. Nothing is decided in the middle of October, he said.
St. Joseph’s and Xavier, as usual, have been predicted to lead the Atlantic 10 conference along with GW. The Hawks and Musketeers made deep runs in the NCAA Tournament last year before falling in the Elite Eight to Oklahoma State University and Duke University, respectively.
Both St. Joe’s and Xavier lost key seniors to graduation and the NBA draft, but Hobbs said that does not mean the rivals’ records will suffer.
“I think that we have our work cut out for us,” Hobbs said. “It’s not a given that we’re going to go to the NCAA Tournament and winning the league. I’m not at that point yet. It’s very, very hard to convince me that we’re a good team right now.”
The Colonials have a long season ahead of them, but they have come a long way since GW hired Hobbs in the summer of 2001. The team finished 12-16 in 2001-02 and 12-17 in 2002-03 before making the jump to an 18-12 mark last season. The Colonials also earned a trip to the National Invitation Tournament, where they fell to University of Virginia in the first round.
Even in the hectic preseason, GW’s progress is something Hobbs notes.
“As we prepare for our season, we look back and sort of reflect from where we are now,” he said. “When I think about three years ago and all the things we went through and the turmoil. we’ve gone from that to opening on nationzal TV. We are excited and that’s how I look at it. It’s a great opportunity for the program.”
Every member of last year’s squad is back with the exception of guard Greg Collucci, who graduated in May and now serves as an assistant coach, and forward Tamal Forchion, who recently transferred to West Georgia University.
The only new addition to this year’s team is freshman guard Maureece Rice, a player who could be a dangerous offensive weapon for the Colonials this season. At Strawberry Mansion High School, he broke Wilt Chamberlain’s Philadelphia high school scoring record.
Guard T.J. Thompson is the team’s lone senior, but there is an abundance of experienced players, including juniors Mike Hall and Mensah-Bonsu and sophomores Carl Elliott, J.R. Pinnock and Ricky Lucas – each of whom saw significant playing time last year.
With his team virtually intact from last season, Hobbs’ goal for the season is simple.
“Our goal is to make sure we improve from last year,” he said, a task that will begin Saturday at the Smith Center.
