It’s almost a given in college basketball’s current landscape that a new coach will result in a dramatically different roster.
George Washington is an exception to that general rule in Chris Caputo’s first season in Foggy Bottom.
Sure, the Colonials saw two starting guards transfer out. But they bring back six of the top eight scorers from a midpack team, and have only a handful of newcomers to welcome into the fold along with Caputo and his staff.
“I’m fortunate and benefit from having this returning group that does have some experience and did have a little bit of success in the Atlantic 10 regular season,” Caputo said. “Even though the Internet thinks every time you sign a player that’s a good thing, we all know that when you have to get eight guys, there’s a lot of room for error there.”
Even though it’s Caputo’s first year on the job, he brings more than a passing familiarity with the Washington area. He spent the formative years of his career as a staffer at George Mason, rising to assistant coach and helping the Patriots reach a Final Four before following coach Jim Larrañaga to Miami.
After 11 seasons with the Hurricanes, he takes over a team led by Second Team Preseason All-Conference guard James Bishop IV, as well as veterans Brendan Adams, Ricky Lindo Jr. and Hunter Dean. It’s a core that gives George Washington some hope at maintaining a spot similar to last year, when it finished seventh in the conference.
“Your teams are going to be different every year, so how quickly can you get a group together?” Caputo said. “It’s visible to you when a team is connected. It’s visible to you when they’re playing really hard. It’s visible to you when they’re freely sharing the ball. It’s visible when they’re dealing with adversity in the right way.”
A look at the Colonials:
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Coach: Chris Caputo, first season at George Washington and first as a head coach
Last year: After a rough showing in nonconference play and a pair of blowout losses coming out of a COVID pause to open the A-10 schedule, George Washington won seven of its next 11. However, a late fade left the Colonials at 12-18 overall and 7-9 in the league, and they dropped a 99-88 decision to 10
th-seeded Massachusetts in their A-10 Championship opener.
They’ll miss: Joe Bamisile was a price-of-admission sort of guy in his only season at George Washington, averaging 16.3 points and seemingly uncorking a wildly athletic dunk at least once every game. He moved on to Oklahoma after the coaching change.
The player GW might miss more is Brayon Freeman, who averaged 10.3 points as a freshman and recorded a team-high 110 assists. Not only did Freeman depart, but he transferred to league rival Rhode Island, so the Colonials will have to see him the next few seasons (including Feb. 22 in Kingston).
Impact returners: James Bishop IV has had the greenest of green lights in his two seasons with the Colonials, averaging 17.6 points on 15 field goal attempts per game in that span but also managing just a 32.3 percent showing from 3-point range.
Bishop --- who should join GW’s 1,000-point club in December or early January if he remains healthy --- is undoubtedly the center of the team’s offense, but Caputo is hopeful the hard-working senior can do more with maybe a little less.
“We hope he can become a little bit more of an efficient player, particularly from 3,” Caputo said. “If you came to practice and watched him do shooting drills, his shooting ability in those drills is as good as anybody I’ve coached. But if you look at the percentages, he has not shot a great percentage from 3. We try to assess why is that. A lot of times that can be shot selection and the difficulty of the shots you’re shooting that drives that down.”
Two players likely to play significant roles are guard Brendan Adams (8.2 ppg) and forward Ricky Lindo Jr. (7.7 ppg, 7.8 rpg). Both players have high-major experience (Adams at Connecticut, Lindo at Maryland) and should be reliable figures for the Colonials.
Newbies of note: There are only a handful of newcomers on the roster, and a few were already in place when Caputo arrived. Forward Jabari West Jr. signed with the previous staff. Forward Keegan Harvey transferred from College of Charleston during last season.
While summer signee E.J. Clark (an Alabama State graduate transfer) will help shore up the backcourt, the big addition was a guy who didn’t play last season. Maximus Edwards was injured in the preseason in his lone year at Kansas State and landed at George Washington after the Wildcats had a coaching change.
“He’s been great,” Caputo said. “If I viewed him as just a true freshman, if I looked at him from that lens, I’d think we have a great young player. There’s going to be a lot of ups and downs, like they are for most freshmen.”
Reasons to be optimistic: Caputo spent the last two decades working for Jim Larrañaga, who has won nearly 700 games and has been a Division I head coach every season since 1986-87. In other words, not a bad person to borrow from.
“I’m going to try to do what I’ve done for 20 years and learned from coach Larrañaga and been a part of, and hope that they’re receptive to that,” Caputo said. “I could not ask for a better group in terms of that. They have been so receptive and they’ve allowed us to coach them.”
X factor: Depth is a fair thing to question this season, but a healthy Amir Harris would solve a lot of problems. Harris missed all of 2020-21 with a knee injury, and wasn’t really himself while averaging 0.8 points in 10.1 minutes last season.
However, the former Nebraska guard has been healthy during the preseason and has a chance to write a satisfying chapter to conclude his career.
“Knock on wood, it’s a great thing for him,” Caputo said. “He’s a wonderful kid and a guy that really deserves to have the chance to have a healthy season. He’s a guy who signed in the Big Ten and is a talented guy and has just dealt with a bad rash of injuries. He reminds me of Deng Gak and Sam Waardenburg, two guys I had at Miami who dealt with these injuries throughout their careers and last year were able to stay healthy and have great years.”
Circle the date: The gem in George Washington’s nonconference home slate is a visit from South Carolina on Nov. 30. Forward GG Jackson, the consensus top player in the class of 2023 before reclassifying over the summer, will lead the Gamecocks into D.C. in what could be the Colonials’ sternest test prior to league play.
Bottom line: The Colonials are neither young nor inexperienced, and their starting five should be solid relative to the rest of the Atlantic 10. But they can afford injuries to their top-shelf players less than most. Caputo has spent his career working with smart teams that generally didn't give away games at George Mason and Miami. If GW can absorb those traits, it could make a run at the top half of the league.
Patrick Stevens is a veteran freelance college basketball writer. A contributor the Washington Post, he has been a writer for Atlantic10.com for the past nine years. Follow him on Twitter at @D1scourse.