Correction Appended
GW athletic director Jack Kvancz and Washington Post sports columnist John Feinstein almost didn’t need moderators sitting in on their discussion Thursday night. The two swapped insults and compliments, completing each other’s stories and sentences as they headlined WRGW’s “Mid-Major Madness” event.
The panel, made up of Kvancz, Feinstein, WRGW sports director Ben Toder and WRGW general manager Jamie Benson, covered everything from GW basketball to the state of the NCAA to GW alum and famed Boston Celtics head coach Arnold “Red” Auerbach. The night kicked off with an introduction from Senior Vice President and Vice Provost for Student and Academic Support Services Bob Chernak, who referred to Kvancz and Feinstein as two of today’s “most prolific sports figures.”
Much of the conversation centered around the term “mid-major,” a phrase Kvancz is credited with coining. He readily admitted, however, that he didn’t quite remember how or when he created it.
“I’m not sure what the term ‘mid-major’ means,” Kvancz, who is slated to retire June 30 after 17 years as GW’s athletic director, said. “We’re playing to win it all, not some special trophy for mid-majors.”
Feinstein chimed in in agreement, adding that he feels the term has evolved since its inception. He pointed out that of the five teams classified as “mid-majors” in the 2011 NCAA Tournament didn’t fit the original bill, especially Butler, a team billed as a “mid-major” that made it to the NCAA Championship two years in a row. His reasoning was backed by Kvancz, who added that schools like Butler who have players that leave after one year to play in the NBA can’t be considered mid-major.
Kvancz also discussed his pride in the overall graduation rate of GW athletes during his tenure and shared that one of his proudest moments of the 2005-06 men’s basketball season, when the Colonials went undefeated in the Atlantic 1o regular season, was realizing that the program was graduating all of its seniors.
In attendance Thursday night were a number of GW athletes, including several members of the men’s basketball team. Men’s basketball head coach Karl Hobbs joined his players in attendance and posed a question to Kvancz and Feinstein about the way in which the internet and the ability to write and comment anonymously has affected college basketball.
“You can’t see the bias,” Feinstein said in response to Hobbs’ question. “People are courageous when they’re anonymous and in a mob and the internet allows that. And that’s a huge issue.”
Feinstein, himself no stranger to the world of online journalism, didn’t seem to need the strength of an anonymous community to share his own criticisms Thursday. Another audience member stepped to the microphone to ask if DC, home to several college basketball teams, could ever form a rivalry similar to the one that La Salle, Villanova, Temple, Pennsylvania and Saint Joseph’s have. Kvancz simply said “No,” but Feinstein’s reaction was more vehement.
The BB&T Classic was originally imagined as a way to create a district rivalry, Feinstein explained. It would have been a tournament among local teams, he said, with the money going to charity. That plan never quite came to fruition, and Feinstein was quick to point to former Georgetown University basketball coach John Thompson, Jr. as the reason.
“John Thompson would not take our phone calls,” he said, adding that the answer that finally came back from the Georgetown basketball program was, “quote, ‘We have no interest in playing in your ‘rinky-dink’ tournament.'”
Once the subject of DC basketball was brought up, talk eventually segued to Auerbach, the GW alumnus and NBA legend. Kvancz, Feinstein and Auerbach were all close friends, and the two panelists spent much of the evening trading stories about that friendship.
Among the stories they shared about Auerbach was one that had a decided GW tinge. Auerbach, Kvancz said, loved hot dogs, and always wanted one when he went to GW basketball games. Because he rarely missed Colonials games, Auerbach complained regularly of the poor quality of hot dogs he bought in the Smith Center.
So, Kvancz said, they held a “hot dog eating taste-off” in the Marvin Center, and Auerbach was allowed to pick the winning hot dog. The hot-dog issue persisted, however, because of the lack of cooking facilities in the Smith Center. Special care had to be taken, Kvancz said, to ensure that Auerbach’s hot dog arrived to him as warm as possible.
“Red was a basketball guy. And he had a tremendous love for GW games,” Kvancz said. “He was a loyal GW guy.”
This post was updated April 15, 2011 to reflect the following changes:
The Hatchet incorrectly reported that Georgetown University men’s basketball head coach John Thompson III turned down a request to participate in the BB&T Classic. The quote used was in reference to former Georgetown head coach John Thompson, Jr.
