Men’s basketball star senior guard James Bishop will return for his final year of eligibility in collegiate basketball as a graduate student.

The team announced Bishop’s decision to stay in Foggy Bottom on Twitter Monday, delivering the biggest news of the basketball offseason yet that will be a sure incentive for fresh talent searching for transfer destinations. Bishop, who led the Atlantic 10 with 691 points and 21.6 points per game this past season, has already solidified his place among the top scorers in GW history – he ranks third all time for points scored in a single season and sits in 12th on the career list.

“He really embodies everything we want a GW student-athlete to be,” Head Coach Chris Caputo said in a University release Monday. “Having somebody like James Bishop in the building every day is instrumental in developing the culture we want here. His work ethic, his demeanor and his unselfishness are what we want to reward here.”

With their leading scorer back, GW will look to build on its best regular season finish since 2017 with a deeper roster and a tighter defense that finished last in points allowed in the A-10 last season. Caputo now has the opportunity to construct the team around a guard-heavy attack in his first full offseason with the team with Bishop set to be a central figure once again. 

The senior guard will find himself on a heavily modified roster, with the welcome of new players like incoming freshman guard Jacoi Hutchinson as well as freshman Princeton forward and transfer Garrett Johnson. GW senior forward Hunter Dean, sophomore forward Daniel Nixon, junior center Noel Brown and senior forward Qwanzi Samuels are all headed for the exits after entering the transfer portal last month. Graduate student guard Brendan Adams, a formidable backcourt duo partner with Bishop, also leaves the team after his fifth and final collegiate season when he averaged a career-high 17.1 points.

This past season, Bishop’s drive-and-kick playmaking ability was instrumental to the team, contributing a career and team high of 5.2 assists per game, the best on the team and third in the A-10. His performance this season made him the first player in the conference since 2003 to average at least 21 points and five assists per game.

With reigning A-10 Player of the Year and former VCU guard Ace Baldwin, Jr. transferring to Penn State as a junior, Bishop looks to be a favorite next season for the award, which a GW men’s basketball player has not received since 5’4” guard Shawnta Roberts snagged it in 1999.

Bishop transferred to GW after playing his freshman year at LSU during the 2019-20 season, where he averaged just under nine minutes and contributed 3.1 points per game.

His 691 points this season marked the third most in GW’s history, and he reached double figures in all but one of the team’s games.