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 Karl Hobbs begins his sixth season at GW tonight with a preseason game against Augusta State. |
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Men's Basketball Hosts Augusta State in Preseason Exhibition Tonight at 7:30 pm
Nov. 1, 2006
WASHINGTON, DC-- The GW men's basketball team hosts Division II Augusta State tonight at 7:30 pm in a preseason exhibition game at Charles E. Smith Athletic Center. A moment of silence for the late Red Auerbach ('40) will be observed prior to tip-off. Both the mens' and women's teams will be dedicating the 2006-07 season in his memory. Both teams also will display a red patch on the shoulder of their uniforms throughout the season.
The defending A-10 regular-season champion Colonials, under the direction of sixth-year head coach Karl Hobbs, will have a decidedly new look when GW takes to the court in 2006.
Gone are All-Conference performers Pops Mensah-Bonsu, Mike Hall, Omar Williams, Alex Kireev and Danilo Pinnock. Mensah-Bonsu, Hall, Williams and Kireev all graduated and Pinnock was selected in the second round of the 2006 NBA Draft.
Taking their place will be just one returning starter in point guard Carl Elliott, the 2006 Atlantic 10 Sixth Man of the Year Maureece Rice, redshirt senior Dokun Akingbade and second-year transfer Regis Koundjia.
These returnees promise to use the experience gained from last year's historic 27-3 season and make 2006-07 an exciting ride for Colonials fans. With an emphasis on player development and with transfer Cheyenne Moore joining the fray, GW has lofty goals for this season, including a repeat appearance in the 2007 NCAA Tournament. Last year was GW's second straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament since `99 and first NCAA Tournament victory in 12 years.
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The road to the postseason will likely be much more difficult this year, however, as the league figures to be much-improved from last season. Not only do most of the leading players return around the league, but the Colonials will be rebuilding without much of the experience the team had gained over the past four years.
"What's intriguing about us this year is we're going into the season with some uncertainty," Hobbs said. "You wonder how soon can our players respond and who will step up."
For the first time in four seasons, the Colonials will be without several familiar faces in 2006-07. Pops Mensah-Bonsu, Mike Hall, Omar Williams and Alex Kireev have graduated and Danilo Pinnock was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks then traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. That quintet takes with them a total of 1,364 points, 734 rebounds and 3,434 minutes played just from last season alone.
Hall led the Colonials in rebounding in each of the last four seasons while Mensah-Bonsu finished his career ranked second on the career blocked shots list with 141. Pinnock led the Colonials in scoring last season and his leadership, emotion and court savvy will be missed. Williams, the team MVP last year, did everything well.
The Colonials have three solid options in the backcourt this year with starting point guard Carl Elliott, combo guard Maureece Rice and three-point threat Noel Wilmore.
The inside game will be anchored by seniors Dokun Akingbade and Regis Koundjia as well as sophomore Rob Diggs. Akingbade is a fifth-year senior who sat out last season in order to give the Colonials some returning experience in the frontcourt this season. Koundjia, a transfer from LSU, played last year and appears to be on the cusp of great things in `06-07. Diggs appeared in 26 of GW's 30 games last season and gained valuable experience.
Also making a significant impact in his first three seasons at GW is A-10 All-Defensive Team selection Carl Elliott at point guard. Elliott has started 89 of 90 GW games over the past three years and runs the Colonials' offense like the seasoned veteran that he has become. He was among the national leaders in steals per game with 2.63 per game as a sophomore and dished a team-high 3.9 assists per game while scoring 11.5 points per outing. Elliott has twice etched his name in GW basketball lore during the past two seasons. As a sophomore, he stole a pass in the waning seconds at Dayton and hit a running buzzer-beating half-court shot that required video replay to verify. Last year in the home finale, he preserved GW's undefeated A-10 record and undefeated home record with a last-second put-back in overtime to defeat Charlotte at Smith Center.
Junior guard Maureece Rice of Philadelphia will move into the starting backcourt this season. Rice, a sturdy 6-foot-1 guard, is equally adept at the point or two-guard position and is a pleasure to watch. A prolific scorer, Rice broke the Philadelphia high school scoring record held by none other than the legendary Wilt Chamberlain. In his first two college seasons, he has exhibited the poise of an upperclassman on the court and rarely has made a poor decision.
Transfer Cheyenne Moore is eligible this season and should fill the void left by the drafted Pinnock. His contributions will be delayed as he is currently sidelined with a stress fracture of the left tibia. Moore is a 6-foot-5 forward who left Clemson after one season where he started 17 of 32 games as a freshman in 2004-05. He averaged 19.5 minutes per game for the Tigers, which finished with a 16-16 record, including three victories over Maryland, and earned a berth in the 2005 NIT. A native of Baltimore, MD, Moore averaged 6.6 points and 2.5 rebounds per game and added 51 assists. He converted 39 three-point FGs as a freshman, including a game-winner in Clemson's 63-62 overtime victory against South Carolina. He will have three seasons of eligibility at GW after sitting out last season.
In addition to Moore, Hobbs' staff has signed a pair of athletic players in Damian Hollis (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) and Hermann Opoku (Vienna, Austria), and point guard Travis King (New Haven, CT).
Hollis, a 6-foot-8, 192-pound swingman from J.P. Taravella High School in Coral Springs, FL, near Ft. Lauderdale, averaged 22.0 points, 11.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 4.0 blocks per game as a senior. He has the ability to make the three-point shot and, for GW fans, he has been compared to a combination of Mike Hall and Omar Williams. A versatile player, Hollis has played all five positions in high school. He already has played one game at GW's Charles E. Smith Athletic Center as a member of the U.S. All-Stars in the 2006 Capital Classic on April 13. In that game, he came off the bench to score four points on 2-of-5 shooting and grab six rebounds. He also had three blocks and a steal in 18 minutes against a team of Washington local high school all-stars.
Opoku, originally from Vienna, Austria, is a 6-foot-8, 225-pound forward who attended the South Kent School in South Kent, CT. He averaged 5.0 points and 4.2 rebounds while playing limited minutes off the bench in his only season at South Kent. He becomes the first Austrian to play for GW. Opoku will sit out the first 11 games of the regular season based on his past athletics participation in Austria. The coaching staff is very excited about the addition of both Hollis and Opoku, a pair of 6-8 players whose athleticism fits the mold of the prototypical GW player of the Hobbs era.
King could be the next in a long line of great GW point guards following in the footsteps of such former greats as Shawnta Rogers, Alvin Pearsall, T.J. Thompson and current Colonial, Carl Elliott. King averaged better than 18 points, and nearly seven assists, per game last season in leading Hyde Leadership to the conference championship and the Connecticut state semifinals.
The make-up of the Colonials' coaching staff has changed with the departure of former Assistant Coach Phil Rowe, who returned to his native New Hampshire to take an administrative position at Daniel Webster College. Rowe's successor is former GW standout, Greg Collucci, who was promoted from the Director of Basketball Operations position on Hobbs' staff.
The 2006-07 schedule will pit GW against some of the elite teams in the nation as well as the full complement of Atlantic 10 Conference schools. GW will open the season on Nov. 10 at Boston University. The BU game is especially significant for Hobbs as he spent his first year in coaching there as a young assistant under former GW coach Mike Jarvis in the early '90s.
GW and Maryland will again serve as co-hosts of the 12th annual BB&T Classic Dec. 3 at Verizon Center. This year's event will be a one-day tripleheader featuring three local teams and culminating with the match-up of former A-10 foes, GW and Virginia Tech. Over the past 11 years, this event has grown into one of the elite regular-season tournaments in the nation and has provided more than $6 million in grants to at-risk children for the Children's Charities Foundation of Washington.
GW will make not one, but two trips to the West Coast this December. The Colonials will face USC in the John R. Wooden Classic at Honda Center (formerly the Arrohead Pond) on Dec. 9 in Anaheim, CA, and return to California to take part in the Cable Car Classic, Dec. 28-29, hosted by Santa Clara University. Air Force, a 2006 NCAA Tournament entry, along with Colgate, join GW and the host Broncos in this year's Cable Car field. The Colonials will meet the Falcons in the opener before facing either Colgate or Santa Clara the following day. "The Air Force game may be one of our most difficult games of the year," Hobbs cautioned.
GW will play A-10 home-and-home series with Charlotte, Richmond and Saint Joseph's this year. The Colonials also host A-10 games against Duquesne, Fordham, St. Bonaventure, Temple and Xavier while visiting Dayton, La Salle, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and makes its first-ever trip to Saint Louis.
GW also renews a non-conference rivalry with Big East foe Providence this season taking on the Friars at the Dunkin' Donuts Center. GW also will entertain Marshall at Charles E. Smith Athletic Center, as well as home dates with Dartmouth, Longwood and UMBC.
With just six returnees from last season, Hobbs and his staff will focus on developing and improving the skills of the new players. The Colonials will take the floor this season expecting to defend their A-10 regular-season title in 2007. They will have to do it while rebuilding, however, with much less experience. "It all depends on how quickly we can come together," Hobbs says. "The good thing is, the foundation of work ethic is already in place. We're not rebuilding the winning part."
GW strengths coming into the season include its athleticism, speed, and experience in the backcourt. The team's perimeter shooting figures to be improved over last season with the addition of Moore and Hollis, combined with the return of Rice, Elliott and Wilmore. On the other hand, the Colonials will have to overcome a lack of depth and, physically speaking, a relatively undersized squad compared with last year's team. No Colonial tips the scales at more than 225 this season.
The fans are getting on board as well. Attendance at GW home games has increased in each of Hobbs' five seasons. An average of 2,615 fans showed up in Hobbs' first season and increased to 2,811 in 2002-03 before growing to more than 3,400 two years ago to 3,757 in `04-05 and up to 3,811 a game last year.
The Colonials now aim to build upon last year's postseason experience (vs. UNCW and Duke in the NCAA Tournament) to make a triumphant return to--and advance in--the 2007 NCAA Tournament.
