The last few years have been volatile for college sports. 

The introduction of student-athlete compensation through name, image and likeness and revenue sharing models and clearance for unlimited transfers has transformed the environment. With GW nearing a decade without men’s or women’s basketball making the NCAA tournament, Director of Athletics Michael Lipitz said he is attempting to navigate the choppy waters by building an “elite” department that elevates its basketball programs — a move he said will boost the entire department and, in turn, the University.

In an interview on Thursday, 14 months into his tenure leading GW Athletics, Lipitz said that he’s focused on using Athletics to “help lead the University forward.” In Foggy Bottom, he says, this starts with sending money into men’s and women’s basketball.

“I’ve been very consistent since I got here last year, that we’re going to lead with basketball,” Lipitz said. “So, with our investments in our men’s and women’s basketball program, we want to keep pace with the best in the A-10, because that’s what’s required to give those programs the opportunity to compete at that level.”

Those investments involve Athletics tapping into their donor pool to raise revenue for the programs and for NIL, with this past year being the department’s most successful fundraising year since 2018. Lipitz said the department has had “a very supportive group” of donors and other boosters who contribute to the department’s operating budgets, scholarships and other funds to the players.

The department also relies on partnerships and ticket sales as ways to bring in money. Lipitz touted Athletics’ recent sponsorship deal with Vanda Pharmaceuticals, which features the Foggy Bottom-based company’s logo displayed on the Smith Center court as men’s basketball’s “presenting sponsor.”

But as officials direct money and attention toward basketball, how much time is needed before the community sees this translate into wins?

Lipitz’s courtside view 

Lipitz said he remains realistic about what a winning men’s basketball program will look like at GW. In an era in which the Atlantic 10 is struggling to send more than one team to the NCAA Tournament each year, he said he understands being a perennial championship squad is not a fair expectation to put on the team.

Still, what he said he’s looking for is competitiveness. While he’s already impressed with the progress men’s basketball Head Coach Chris Caputo has made with the team and cited his work transforming them from “not being competitive” at the start of Caputo’s tenure in 2022 to overall 20 wins last season, he now wants to see GW near the top of the conference every year. 

“To position the program to be in the mix year-in and year-out is where you want to be,” Lipitz said. “Then some years, you’re going to break through, and you’re going to cut down the nets. And other years, other things happen, and you don’t, but the goal is to be in the mix every year.”

While championship prospects like this might seem foreign to GW now, it wasn’t always the case.

From 1993 through 1999, GW made the NCAA Tournament five times, riding names like future NBA 14th-overall pick Yinka Dare as far as the Sweet Sixteen. Across the DMV, Lipitz was a tennis student-athlete at the University of Maryland, taking note of what basketball dominance could look like in Foggy Bottom.

When GW hosted Georgetown University in an exhibition game last Saturday — the Smith Center’s first sellout in a decade — Lipitz was reminded of the glimpses he saw of the heyday of GW’s 1990s basketball, further shaping his vision for the Revolutionaries.

“That’s what we’re working back towards,” Lipitz said. “The idea that this can become a rallying point for the entire campus community, the student body, certainly, but alumni and having that, particularly with men’s and women’s basketball. They’ve for years and years been the flagship here.”

But a question arises: What steps would GW need to take to replicate such a program?

Lipitz and the department remain focused on attracting students to come to games, emphasizing their direct outreach to Greek Life, residence halls and different “pockets of students around campus.” He also talked about the importance of scheduling premier opponents but relented that focusing on NET ratings can lead to top teams prioritizing home games or other games against power conference schools.

“So that’s why we’re seeing it’s so much harder for any of us that are outside of those leagues to get those home games,” Lipitz said. “Our best opportunity, generally, is going to be on a neutral floor and a [multi-team-event].”

Lipitz nudges Athletics toward institutional alignment

Lipitz looks to play to GW’s strengths as an elite academic institution in a premier city to build a brand, recruit and support their student-athletes. 

“The combination of what our athletes have an opportunity to do in terms of really high-level academics, really high-level athletics, and especially when you put that combination with a city like D.C., that’s a really potent combination and gives them the opportunity to really go pursue their dreams,” Lipitz said.

He said GW’s combination of being in a “high mid-major” conference like the A-10 and high academic rankings allows student-athletes to have both elite play and elite academics. 

Alignment between the University and athletics is a vital aspect for Lipitz and a big reason why he made the leap from the University of Illinois Chicago to GW. He said he felt confident his vision would be supported by institutional powers, including University President Ellen Granberg, who has used her position as GW’s chief executive to emphasize the role athletics play in recruiting stronger students, wooing donors and sharpening the school’s national profile.

“President Granberg, her leadership, her belief in what athletics can do, not just for its own purposes but for the campus and the University community, is as much the reason that I was interested in coming to GW as anything,” Lipitz said.

Prior to the team’s last week’s game against Georgetown, hosts of the pregame show on Monumental Sports Network interviewed Granberg on air, giving her and the school the opportunity to present themselves to a significant local audience. More success for basketball means more nationally televised and primetime games, giving the school a direct channel to audiences throughout the country, Lipitz said. 

Lipitz continues adapting to a changing game

Just a few months prior to the start of his tenure, officials halted plans to raze the Smith Center’s pool to build practice facilities for men’s and women’s basketball. Drawing controversy from GW’s championship swimming and diving programs due to poor communication, unexpected construction costs led to the project’s abandonment in April 2024. At the time, the department said officials would continue searching for practice facilities for the basketball teams, who currently make use of the Smith Center floor.

Lipitz said this week that building a basketball practice facility is a “priority,” not just to improve the team’s practices but to open the Smith Center to be able to host non-sports-related events without having to hamper or work around the teams’ practice schedules. He said conversations around facilities and support upgrades for all teams are continuous, including looking at how to improve the fields on the Mount Vernon campus for the teams that play there. 

While he said the NIL environment has become stable in the short term after years of constant litigation, he’s closely monitoring the eligibility rules changes that NIL has brought. Lipitz said he met on Wednesday with the school’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee where they discussed changes with eligibility, in addition to being a frequent topic with the department’s coaches.

He said it’s a “concern” that eligibility rules changes allowing longer college careers will lead to fewer opportunities for freshmen recruits and reshape what the recruiting trail has looked like.

“For most college coaches in any sport, if you can recruit a 23, 24, 25 year old who’s got that kind of experience and that maturity, you’re going to do that rather than maybe recruit a 17 year old,” Lipitz said. “And so I think there’s some real challenges ahead of us, depending on where that starts to settle in.”

As lawsuits continue to move through the courts, and Congress works on potential legislation surrounding college athletics like the SCORE Act, he said GW’s Government and Community Relations Office is “plugged into” those conversations, helping to guide the department. He added that the A-10, in conjunction with other conferences, has lobbyists and advisors working on monitoring federal and local laws.

With men’s basketball looking to return to the NCAA tournament this year for the first time since 2014, Lipitz and the A-10 are in support of an expansion to the field he said could make that easier. As NCAA officials debate adjusting the now-68-team tournament to 76, Lipitz said a larger field will give A-10 teams who are “right at the top” of the league a better shot at at-large bids. 

“Hopefully we get those opportunities, and we’re trying to position ourselves to be one of those teams to grab a bid,” Lipitz said.