It would be easy to call the 2016–2017 basketball season a rebuilding year in Foggy Bottom.
This offseason, both basketball programs lost winning head coaches and tested cores of veteran stars. Together, over the past four years, those players and coaches helped put GW basketball back on the map.
In its final season last spring, the same group supplied Colonials fans with a mixed bag of emotions.
With an NIT Championship win on the last day of March, the men – led by the “big three” – won their first-ever postseason title in school history.
Powerhouse forward Jonquel Jones guided women’s basketball to back-to-back Atlantic 10 crowns, but GW’s second consecutive trip to the Big Dance ended in another first-round exit.
Neither team nor their fans could complain about the end results, but there was a sense that they both fell short of their potentials.
With regular-season tipoff just days away, both teams face an even more uncertain road ahead this fall. Two new coaches and a batch of first-year Colonials will bring a different look to the Smith Center.
Either program has the talent to rise to great heights or fall to new lows, to thrive or rebuild. But neither is letting its offseason moves or preseason expectations define them, players and coaches said.
“[The team] seems pretty determined to prove themselves, to continue to hold a really high standard for our basketball program and to be even better than they have in the past,” women’s basketball head coach Jennifer Rizzotti said. “That’s probably what’s impressed me the most. There’s no complacency whatsoever.”
The women’s team returns the majority of its roster, but will be without Jones and three other recent graduates, and will function under a completely new system. GW was picked to finish fourth in the Atlantic 10 Preseason Poll.
Men’s basketball returns just five players, two of whom were regular starters, from last year’s NIT Championship squad. The team – which adds six freshmen and two veteran transfers to its active roster – was projected to finish eighth in the A-10 Preseason Poll.
“We are going to attack this thing from a collective standpoint,” Maurice Joseph, men’s basketball interim head coach, said. “I think the wins and losses will kind of figure themselves out, and the production will also kind of sort itself out if we just continue to focus on getting better together.”
Changing of the guard
The most impactful story to shape the men’s basketball team happened off the court this summer. An independent investigation into verbal and emotional abuse allegations against former head coach Mike Lonergan found his conduct to be “inconsistent with the University’s values.” Lonergan, who led the Colonials to a school record 28 wins last year and owned a 97–70 overall record in his five years at GW, was officially dismissed from the program on Sept. 17.
Less than two weeks later, Joseph – a five-year assistant on Lonergan’s staff – was named interim head coach for the 2016–2017 season.
“The change is a little difficult, but at the same time we have kept a lot of things the same,” redshirt junior guard Jaren Sina said. “Coach Joseph has added a lot of wrinkles and put his own unique style into it, as well. He has made it a very easy transition for myself and all the other guys.”
On the women’s side, the new hire was necessary after former head coach Jonathan Tsipis – who posted 92 wins with a .708 win percentage in his four years at the helm – took the top coaching position at Wisconsin.
Former Hartford head coach Jennifer Rizzotti took over the program in the spring. Along with Rizzotti came an almost entirely new staff: Bill Sullivan, Rizzotti’s husband of 17 years, joined the Colonials as the associate head coach, along with assistants Jackie Smith and Laura Harper.
After key offseason losses, men’s basketball moves forward
Even before Lonergan’s ousting, it was clear men’s basketball had a steep hill to climb after three of its top four scorers in Joe McDonald, Patricio Garino and Kevin Larsen graduated in May, along with Ivy-league transfer Alex Mitola.
Last year’s team was red-hot out of the gate. The Colonials stunned No. 6 Virginia at home en route to a stellar 10–1 record and marched to their first national ranking since 2005–2006 at No. 21/22.
However, the team went on to drop a 21-point decision at DePaul and lose seven games in A-10 play. They entered the A-10 Championship as a No. 5 seed and bowed out against Saint Joseph’s in a quarterfinal heartbreaker.
A 23–10 overall record put GW in the 2016 National Invitation Tournament. The fourth-seeded Colonials marched to the final with wins over Hofstra, Monmouth, Florida and San Diego State and earned the historic title with a 76–60 victory over Valparaiso.
“Obviously [the NIT win] is there, and we are happy about it, but it’s a new season,” redshirt senior guard Matt Hart said. “Especially after last year, we know what it takes to win in the A-10 so our expectation is to be very competitive. I don’t know if it is NCAA or bust, but the tournament is always the goal. We are just trying to win as many games as possible and have the best year possible.”
The team returns perhaps its biggest asset in graduate student forward Tyler Cavanaugh – last year’s leading scorer and a 2016 All-Conference First Team pick – as well as junior guard Yuta Watanabe, Hart and sophomores Jordan Roland and Collin Goss.
After three more rising juniors transferred out of the program this summer, the Colonials welcomed three freshmen guards in Jair Bolden, Justin Williams and walk-on Adam Mitola. Three first-year big men also join the team in Arnaldo Toro, Kevin Marfo and Collin Smith – who led all freshmen with 16 points and 8 rebounds in an impressive exhibition debut on Saturday.
Sina, a redshirt junior guard who sat out last season due to NCAA transfer rules, and graduate student transfer Patrick Steeves add much-needed experience and depth to the backcourt and frontcourt, respectively.
With a new group of players on the court, Cavanaugh said he and other returning players have taken on leadership roles.
“Obviously with seven new guys, it is a lot getting to know each other,” Cavanaugh said. “It’s going to be difficult with a lot of young guys learning the importance of every possession, every game that each little detail matters – just stressing that each day in practice and then continuing that into the games. We have been improving each week, and that is just what we have to continue to do moving forward.”
Without a superstar, women’s squad hopes to excel by committee
After defeating two ranked teams during non-conference play and grabbing the A-10 championship last year, the Colonials were upset in their second consecutive NCAA tournament, dropping their first round matchup to a lower seed.
With a lineup of 10 women who have made the tournament, eight who have been there twice, the team said they are hoping that the Rizzotti’s experience will translate to an even longer postseason.
“The end goal for us this season is to make it past the first round of course, to get in further, during the NCAAs,” Washington said. “It’s one thing to get there, but when you’re there you really have to bring your best every game. So we’re working mentally and physically to be able to do that.”
Although the Colonials’ scoring production could dip down without the interior dominance of Jones, the departure of Lauren Chase, then-graduate student guard, could prove to be even more costly on both sides of the floor.
Without her, Rizzotti’s team now lacks substantial college experience in the point guard position.
She says she is expecting sophomore Mei-Lyn Bautista and junior Camila Tapias to tag-team the role of floor general and pick up where Chase left off last year.
“I think that Mei and Cami as point guards will have to play a big role, and whichever one of them comes off the bench is going to be a tremendous spark for us,” Rizzotti said. “We’re going to have two players capable of being starting point guards.”
The women welcome three newcomers to the team, including graduate student forward Lexi Martins and freshmen guards Harper Birdsong and Kendall Bresee.
Martins will provide depth off the bench, bringing a rebounding presence that was lost with the graduation of Jones, and allow Washington and junior forward Kelli Prange to rest throughout the season.
“If anything there’s a hunger to be even better,” Rizzotti said. “We’re just going to continue to prepare day-to-day and make sure the end product in March is a lot better than the beginning product, and we’re going to work really hard to make sure that happens.”
