The GW women’s basketball team will host Rutgers University Nov. 18 at Smith Center, head coach Joe McKeown said Friday afternoon. It will be the Scarlet Knights’ first game since the airing of former radio personality Don Imus’ controversial comments about them. The Colonials are 8-25 against Rutgers since 1981.
The Scarlet Knights last played GW in December 2002. They were members of the Atlantic 10 Conference until 1995 and made it to the final of the NCAA tournament before losing to Tennessee. It was during footage of that game that Imus called players “nappy-headed hos.”
The Lady Vols, a team that has been on the Colonials’ schedule the past four seasons, will not play GW this season but McKeown said Pat Summitt’s squad will return to Foggy Bottom for the 2008-2009 season.
The Colonials have been in contact with other schools such as Duke University, Louisiana State University and Ohio State University, McKeown said, but matchups against these teams have not yet been added to the schedule.
“We’re still working on getting the entire schedule together,” McKeown said. “Hopefully, by the end of May we’ll have everything solidified.”
McKeown said that his squad is slated to play at the University of Virginia, Villanova University, James Madison University and the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and against the University of Nevada-Las Vegas in a tournament in New Orleans.
Teams that will likely be traveling to Smith Center include Rutgers, Loyola Marymount University, Pepperdine University and Texas A&M University, whom the Colonials defeated in the second round of the NCAA tournament to qualify for the Sweet 16. McKeown also said that the Department of Athletics is trying to bring back a Colonials-hosted tournament, which last took place during the 1995-1996 season and that Boston College is one of the teams interested in participating.
“We’re still committed to playing the same kind of out-of-conference schedule,” McKeown said in reference to the level of teams his squad with face before A-10 conference play begins in January.
The University of Maryland, another team that highlighted the Colonials’ 2006-2007 schedule, will not be playing GW next season.
“They’re dodging us right now,” McKeown joked.
