With player movement at an all-time high due to the ability to transfer an unlimited number of times, player retention has never been harder at the mid-major level. You’ll hear lots of coaches talk about the benefit of “getting old and staying old” when building out a team, but there’s extra benefit to being able to have a young core grow together. And that’s exactly what George Washington will be able to do next season.
This season, GW went 21-13 overall and 9-9 in the Atlantic 10, which was good for seventh place. The Revolutionaries were picked to finish 13th in the A10’s preseason poll, so making it to the quarterfinals of the conference tournament exceeded expectations. They did that without Garrett Johnson, a player with all-league potential who is, arguably, their best floor-spacer.
GW lost a lot of close games, something you could attribute to youth and a lack of overall experience. Heavy minutes were going to three sophomores, a freshman starting point guard, and a junior who hadn’t played much to that point in his college career. Fortunately for head coach Chris Caputo, he is retaining the core of his team, and they expect to have a fully healthy Garrett Johnson back as well.
Prior to competing in The Crown postseason event, Caputo spoke with Mid-Major Madness’ Matt Modderno about GW’s season and building for the future on the Bleav in DMV Hoops podcast, which profiles coaches and players from the Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia area (DMV).
Below is their conversation.
Matt Modderno: I thought you guys were genuinely really close to taking an even bigger jump, but still progress from last year. So how are you feeling about things overall?
Chris Caputo: We’ve had a good year. You know, we lost Garrett Johnson, who I think is one of the best players in the Atlantic 10 probably coming into the season. I was concerned when you lose a great player to injury. But to go 21-12, win a game in the conference tournament, get into the postseason for the first time, all those things for the first time in nine years, we’re proud of that. This has been a build year.
I thought we were well on our way last year before the injuries, we were 14-3, with wins at VCU and beat [George] Mason by 15 points at home, and felt like we were ascending with a young group. Then the injury bug hit us, and then I thought it hit us again this summer. I was concerned, but our group really came together.
We competed. To have a good enough strong non-conference, and then strong conference play, we were so competitive in almost every game. I think four of our nine losses, or five, might have been in the last possession. So great progress here, great commitment from GW to help us move this thing forward. And playing in The Crown, on national television, one of those big brands out there I think is a good step for us.
MM: You’re a pretty young team overall here too. And the teams you’re competing against in the A10, the teams that were at the top of the league standings were a lot older. They were just veteran-led teams.
CC: I think like for us with the type of school we are institutionally and academically, it’s going to be hard for us to just do one-year guys all the time. We’re going to have to have some level of continuity. But again, I think I’m proud of what our roster looks like and what it’s going to look like going forward.
MM: When you have success and you can show progress and we’re going in the right direction here, does that make recruiting and the portal and things like that easier to get more guys to buy in that you’re headed where they want to go?
CC: I don’t think anything gets easier in recruiting. I kind of joke about that, it always seems like it’s a game of whack-a-mole to some degree. But I would say, what it does for our program, because GW just has not had the type of success it had for 25 years, from the early 90s to 2016’s NIT championship became an afterthought, not as relevant to be honest.
And now I think when we get on the phone with people in the portal or our own players have a belief, I have guys on my roster believe. We have enough to win our league next year if we do the right work in the portal. I think with who we have returning, I think that could be real. So, with that, I would say, even going to the Crown again, it gives you some visibility that you probably just didn’t have for a number of years.
So I think we’re in a good place there. I feel pretty confident that we’ll be able to attract and retain really good players here. And I think retention is obviously such an important part of that.
MM: Two seasons ago, you had more of an offensive minded team. This year, it seemed to be a little more defensive-minded. Was there something you learned between last year and this year that changed how you built out the roster? And is there anything you learned this season that’ll change how you build out next year’s roster?
CC: I think the youth and the amount of guys we had to get last year. I would say I inherited more of an offensive group. And then the second year, you’re trying to do a good job of building out a better, more athletic, more positional-sized, defensive group. But we were so young, and that’s the function of the portal. That’s a function of NIL and all that. But now, you were able to put a team that went from, I think, in the raw points for possession, 250th in the country to top-30 in the country, at one point. So again, I feel like that’ll be the identity of our program going forward.
And yet we’re also going to, I hope we can be good offensively. I hope we can do the things that we’ve done. I was really proud that we were third in the league in defense. We were third in the league in assists by field goals made. And I think that’s really important. We want to defend. We want to share the ball. Everyone talks about that. But I think we put it to work in action this year.
MM: There was a different level of toughness it seemed this season. So, is that something you guys talk about is just like, ‘hey, we’re going to draw a line here for what we’re willing to tolerate from some of these other teams?’
CC: Sometimes in the heat of the moment those things occur, and we want to operate with class most importantly, but we’re not going to back down. We’re not going to play second fiddle. I hope that it’s been clear in at least all three of my years really, that we had those injuries in the spring semester last year, made it really difficult for us. But if you look at my first year, 10-8 in the league, you look at this year 9-9 in the league, it’s not where we want to be. I think it’s hopefully it’s been clear that, hey, look, we’re you’re going to have to beat us. We’re not going to just [to say], this is just not a win on the schedule like it may have been for five or six, seven years prior.
And I say that, that’s no indictment of the coaches that were here prior. It really is the institutional commitment. Now we’re beginning to get from our president, Ellen Granberg, from our CFO, Bruno Fernandes, from our athletic director, Michael Lipitz, from our board, an alignment about how important the basketball plays at the university and, and what it’s done in the past, what it’s meant to win the NIT, to go to a sweet 16, to be a top-10 team in the country, to fill the Smith Center and the impact that has on the institution and in the community.
And so for all those reasons, I think we’re headed in the right direction. We’re already the best academic school in the Atlantic 10, but I think we’re striving to be a perennial top-50 basketball program.
MM: Why do you think we haven’t been able to crack through and get more local coverage on the DMV teams?
CC: I mentioned Jeff Bezos and kind of jokingly, although I’ve given him enough of my money in my life that I feel like I maybe could be somewhat critical of Mr. Bezos. My understanding is “The Washington Post” is a national paper. They don’t believe that they’re going to get enough clicks writing about college basketball in this area anymore. I don’t know if that’s true or not. I’m sure they have some data that says at some point in time that was the case. But I think the basketball culture is such a big part of our community here. We have great high school basketball. We have great college basketball. Teams that are in the postseason: NCAA Tournament teams, NIT, The Crown. We have an NBA team, we have a G League team.
I think collectively people in this area love basketball. And, when I was here the last time, we had beat writers write about our games. We had, some columnists writing about it, and so, for me, I would just say, I know the world of media has changed. Thank God for the work that you’re doing, and your group. I will say, we’ve had TV out today, from two different stations, come out today. Dave Preston came out today for radio.
So I think that that’s been great, but I think we can do more. We’ve got to give them good reasons. We’ve got to make sure we’re reminding everybody that we’re here, and we’re doing great work, and we’re on national television often. I think that’s only going to elevate. I think Georgetown’s going to get better and better. So, I feel like the time is right to capitalize on this and to make sure that we’re putting out great content, even if it’s us ourselves.
MM: How does it feel to be working through the portal right now as games were still being played on your schedule?
CC: We’re all doing it. I like that we get to be around our guys in practice, and I like that we’re going on this trip and get an opportunity to represent the university. I’m never going to complain about that. Certainly we’ve spent a lot of time in the portal as well. But we got enough manpower, and there’s enough time in the day to do both. Although it can be exhausting.
