Dec. 6, 2005

GW Basketball Set for New Season

Men’s Team Picked to Win A-10, Women’s Team Gets Bigger

BY FRANK BROOMELL

Men’s Basketball Coach Carl Hobbs recently summed up the feelings of most GW basketball fans, “We have an opportunity to have a special season.”

Expectations for the men’s team are very high this year, but Hobbs believes his players can handle the pressure, noting that his team was picked to win the A-10 Championship last year as well. The GW men’s team returns five seniors from last season’s Atlantic 10 Championship team, bringing with them the experience of an NCAA Tournament appearance. The added experience allowed GW to enter the season ranked 24 in the ESPN/USA Today poll and 21 in the AP poll, while CBSSportsline.com had GW at 11. The conference media and coaches also picked GW to repeat as the Atlantic 10 Champions.

The big news this off-season was the decision made by both Mike Hall and Pops Mensah-Bonsu to forgo the NBA draft and return for their senior year. With the loss of T.J. Thompson following his graduation, the Colonials need its two remaining stars on the team. Additions include three freshmen and Regis Koundjia, a transfer student from LSU who becomes eligible in late December. All three freshmen look promising and are spoken highly of by the team, especially Noel Wilmore who senior Dokun Akingbade said will “definitely compete to break any records that T.J. [made] shooting the ball.” With a strong group of players, GW looks to not only win the A-10 championship, but also advance deeper into the NCAA Tournament.

The task of winning the A-10 will be more difficult, however, with the addition of two new schools, Charlotte and St. Louis. According to Coach Hobbs the new additions “will give our conference a strong boost when it comes to NCAA [Tournament] time.” That boost could help GW when tournament seedings are chosen. While the Colonials play several tough teams, including Xavier, Temple, NC State, and Charlotte they only face one team with a preseason national ranking; no. 21 (ESPN/USA Today)/ 24 (AP) Maryland. GW faces the Terps on Dec. 5 in the BB&T Classic at the MCI Center in Washington, DC.

Big Challenges, Bigger Recruits

The GW Women’s Basketball team faces big challenges this season. The team faces four different ranked teams and no. 20 Temple, last year’s A-10 champion, twice. Included in those ranked teams are no. 23 Purdue, no. 24 NC State, and no. 1 ranked Tennessee. The Colonials fell to no. 12 Texas (59–54) after defeating the Purdue Boilermakers (49–47) in a defensive battle at the Junkanoo Jam in the Bahamas. In just the second game back from the Bahamas, on Dec 7, GW faces celebrated Coach Pat Summitt and the Tennessee Lady Volunteers.

“We have to be really good early in the year,” as opposed to most other teams that try to peak later in the season, Coach Joe McKeown noted. McKeown added that the Colonials must make sure “if bad things happen, not to let it deflate this team.”

The team has size again, with three freshmen over 6'2". McKeown believes this will help against higher level opponents. There will be growing pains however, as he blends the small and quick style of last season with a big inside game. The team must find a combination that will work. McKeown stressed the importance of improving three-point shooting to allow the inside game to be productive, and points to Lisa Steele as “potentially a great three-point shooter.” A-10 All Conference Players Kimberly Beck and Jessica Simmonds will be key contributors to the success of the team.

In his preseason press conference McKeown expressed hope that the women’s NCAA tournament would move away from the current home court system, a move that could provide a boost to programs like GW. “If you told Mike Krzyzewski [Duke University’s men’s coach] his first two tournament games were on the road he might not even go,” said McKeown illustrating his objections to the current system. He said the current system contributes to the struggles GW has faced in the NCAA Tournament.

Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu