This story is part of The Hatchet’s series profiling the officials reshaping GW Athletics. Our profiles of University President Ellen Granberg, Athletics Director Michael Lipitz and Men’s Basketball Head Coach Chris Caputo can be found here.

Women’s basketball Head Coach Ganiyat Adeduntan isn’t interested in letting a turnaround season paper over her deeper expectations for her program.

After finishing 18-18 overall and 7-11 in the Atlantic 10, the Revolutionaries surged late, stringing together a seven-game win streak in December and pushing all the way to the Great 8 of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament. But even as the wins piled up, Adeduntan said her focus never shifted to results alone.

“I don’t care if we win, I’m finding the ways that we can continue to get better,” Adeduntan said. “Because that win can easily turn into a loss if we become complacent.”

For Adeduntan, that growth starts with the team’s identity, something she’s tried to build long before this season’s late push.

Before taking over as head coach in March 2025, Adeduntan spent four seasons in Foggy Bottom as an assistant from 2017 to 2021, helping guide the Revs to an A-10 Championship title before heading to New York to take a head coaching position.

But stepping into the lead role required more than leaning on past success. It meant redefining expectations for a roster she said had to learn how to meet a new standard.

Adeduntan said one of the biggest challenges in taking over the program was getting players to fully “buy into” a new culture and identity. Breaking old habits — while consistently enforcing stricter standards — initially came across as “nitpicking,” she said, but she remained firm in her approach. She emphasized reminding players at every practice of the responsibility to represent the program at a high level and said she “didn’t budge” when it came to holding them to those expectations.

“I show up in practice every single day with a certain level of focus and intensity,” Adeduntan said. “But to get them to play at a high level, to get them to play consistently, I would say we’re still not there, but we took huge, huge strides as the season was going.” 

That patience is rooted in experience. During her time leading Colgate University’s women’s basketball, Adeduntan took over a program that had struggled for decades, with just two winning conference seasons since 2000. Within a few years under Adeduntan’s coaching, the Raiders recorded back-to-back 20-win seasons and made consecutive appearances in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament, establishing a foundation that mirrored the kind of rebuild she envisioned at GW.

She said returning to the program was about more than taking a head coaching job but rather about restoring something she helped build. Calling GW “a very unique institution” Adeduntan pointed to the University’s location in D.C. and believes the program can compete at a high level precisely because it is a place players won’t want to leave.

“Lastly, this is a pretty cool place, GW, D.C., and make that for, people don’t really want to leave that, so at least I would say for young women, the academics, what it offers and just the area and the way that you can just grow as a person here,” Adeduntan said.

Carrying out that vision depends heavily on her staff, she said. Assistant Coaches John Hampton and Lauren Coleman play a central role in reinforcing the culture, Adeduntan said, helping translate expectations into daily habits through practices, film sessions and individual development.

Adeduntan said building that culture required more than demanding effort — it meant teaching it. Practices, she said, were structured not just around drills and game prep but around breaking down what the program’s identity should look like in real time, possession by possession.

That work began to show in February, when the Revs earned a 66-54 road win over the Dayton Flyers, a game Adeduntan identified as a turning point. Playing in a notoriously tough environment, she challenged her players to stay composed late and execute under pressure, something they had been inconsistent with earlier in the season. And they proved to her they were listening.

“To be able to sustain for a game and then really close it out in the last five minutes, I thought was really, really special and cool for me to see and watch,” Adeduntan said. 

From that point on, Adeduntan said, she would point to the Dayton game to show the players what the team is capable of when they were facing a tough situation. She said it was that energy and focus that allowed the team to tear through the postseason and increase their points per game, field-goal percentage, 3-point percentage and assists from last season — improvements that helped to earn their WNIT spot for the first time since 2017.

Individual development mirrored that progress too, particularly with sophomore guard Gabby Reynolds, who led the team in scoring with 12.9 points per game on average. Adeduntan said Reynolds entered the program as a “one-sided” player who was best on offense and that she pushed to expand her defensive presence and overall consistency.

“She received coaching in such a way that allowed me to really enjoy coaching her and wanting to just pour more into her,” Adeduntan said. “She loves the game of basketball, and she wants to play professionally, so every single day, I’m challenging her to be like a professional.”

Reynolds is among a core group set to return, alongside sophomore guards Jaeda Wilson and Tanah Becker and junior forward Kamari Sims. Adeduntan said their decision to come back reflects the environment the staff has built — one centered on accountability, development and a shared “hunger” for more wins.

At the same time, she said she’s “submerged” in the transfer portal, targeting players who can complement that core and help elevate the program’s style of play. Increasing tempo, improving transition offense and strengthening defensive pressure are among the priorities as she evaluates potential additions.

“We’re open to build upon our current roster,” Adeduntan said. “Add some pieces that I think will elevate us both on an offensive and defensive end, wanting to play a little bit faster, wanting to push the ball a little bit better in transition, wanting to defend.”

Blending those new pieces with returning experience, she said, will be critical to climbing the A-10 conference standings after a .500 overall finish this season.

“I’m hoping that we have a good core returning that’s going to help us kind of just keep moving forward,” Adeduntan said. “I don’t want to start from scratch. I want to just elevate from where we are.”