Through one lens, you could buy the hype for men’s basketball. This year, head coach Mike Lonergan will finally have a roster made up of his own recruits. It may be time for his system to blossom, for the offense to catch up with the defense and create a balanced attack.
The reality, though, is that this past summer was a tough one to swallow for Lonergan and company. With a slew of transfers, pulled-back recruit commitments and exits, there was a lot of mud to get through before Saturday’s home opener.
The snowball of departures really began last spring, with the decommittment of Lonergan’s biggest recruit, Nigel Johnson.
After verbally committing to GW during his junior season, Johnson broke out during his senior year and grabbed the attention of more high-profile teams that regularly compete in the NCAA Tournament.
By the end, GW couldn’t stand up to his new offers, and he rescinded his verbal commitment to sign with Kansas State – a team that almost won the Big 12 last season and made it to the NCAA Tournament as a No. 4 seed.
It was a big blow to Lonergan’s recruiting class, but what came next was more jarring.
After GW’s 13-17 season ended, fans, program officials and outside experts immediately wondered whether Lasan Kromah and David Pellom – two holdovers from former head coach Karl Hobbs’ last recruiting class – would stay for their fifth and final seasons with the team.
They decided to head for the door.
Though Kromah was second on the team offensively with 10.1 points per game, he did so from off the bench, losing his starting spot to then-freshman Kethan Savage. Hoping to find more playing time with a more marquee program, Kromah left for UConn.
Lonergan will now have to find an aggressive scorer, like Kromah, who feels comfortable with the ball in his hands during the game’s final moments.
Pellom, who sat out the entire 2012-13 season after surgeries to repair his hurt knee and wrist, was able to use those injuries to secure a fifth year of eligibility. With Isaiah Armwood and Kevin Larsen playing well in their first years at GW, Pellom may not have fit into GW’s new front-court mix. He, too, chose to leave, joining the Memphis Tigers for one last go at it.
Rounding out the rough offseason was the transfer of forward Jonathan Davis, who made a short trip to American University, and the quitting of guard Dominique Bull – who would’ve sat out this season due to transfer regulations, but instead dropped out of GW entirely.
Assistant coach Pete Strickland also announced his departure from the program two weeks ago for family reasons, becoming the second assistant of Lonergan’s to leave the bench this year. This summer, assistant coach Kevin Sutton left for the same position at Georgetown.
John Fitzpatrick, who has 24 years of NCAA coaching experience, is the new special advisor hired by Lonergan to fill Strickland’s void, but Lonergan said he’s still unsure whether or not they will make a more permanent hiring when the season is over.
“Pete is a great guy, a very good coach,” Lonergan said. “I lost two really good coaches this summer and you can replace coaches, but they’re my friends and they’re good people.”