Atlantic 10 coaches and experts don’t expect much from GW men’s basketball this season.
The league released its pre-season poll Tuesday, picking GW to finish 10th out of 13 teams. League juggernauts VCU and Saint Louis are the favorites to finish Nos. 1 and 2 in the conference.
GW finished conference play last season with a 7-9 record, grabbing the No. 11 seed in the A-10 Championship and falling in the first round of the tournament to UMass. The team returns all five of its starters from last year, though, and four of its top-five scorers.
A couple of Colonials earned solid pre-season honors, though. The conference named senior forward Isaiah Armwood to both the Second-Team Preseason All-Conference team and the Preseason All-Defensive team. Sophomore Patricio Garino was also named to the Preseason All-Defensive team.
The last Colonial to be placed on a Preseason All-Conference team was former guard Tony Taylor in 2011, when he was named to the First-Team Preseason All-Conference team.
Armwood burst onto the court last year in his debut season with the Colonials, proving true the talks of his heightened production after leaving the Big East and transferring from Villanova. He ranked second in the conference in both rebounding (8.8 rebounds per game) and shot blocking (2.3 blocks per game), while finishing second in defensive rebounds (6.2 rebounds per game) and ninth in offensive rebounds (2.5).
His forceful presence continued over to the offensive side of the ball, where he averaged 11.9 points per game on 50.6 percent shooting. This upcoming season will be Armwood’s last season of eligibility.
Garino became one of the key linchpins in the “Freshman Four” last season, setting a GW freshman record with 68 steals (2.3 steals per game), good enough for fourth in the A-10. On offense, he ranked second on the team in assists (62) and third in scoring (8.8 points per game), often leading the Colonials’ fast break scoring attempts. Despite recovering from a knee injury over the summer, Garino appears ready to lead the team from the wing this season.
ESPN Insider Jordan Brenner picked GW to finish seventh in the conference as they “boast one of the conference’s best inside-outside combos.” Expect transfer guard Maurice Creek, he said, to help improve upon the Colonials’ shooting woes and create more space for Armwood on the inside. As a freshman at Indiana, Creek averaged 16.4 points per game on 44 percent shooting form beyond the arc.
The Colonials will play at least 14 games this season against 2012-13 postseason teams, while hosting 16 games on the redesigned Smith Center court. They will kick off the 2013-14 season with the annual Colonials Invasion on Oct. 18.
