George Washington Colonials Basketball Season Preview
The college hoops season is right around the corner, and Busting Brackets is here to whet your basketball-starved appetite. Over the next five weeks, we are publishing season previews team by team, conference by conference, to offer a glimpse into the upcoming season. Busting Brackets is giving you the lowdown on the biggest storylines, offseason changes and x-factors for each team and each league as we roll into the 2012-13 season. Our complete season preview archive can be accessed here. Buckle up, peeps.
George Washington Colonials
| Last Season | 10-21 (5-11 A-10) Lost to Dayton in first round of A-10 tournament |
| Key Returning Players: | Lasan Kromah, G/F David Pellom, F Nemanja Mikic, F Dwayne Smith, F Bryan Bynes, G |
| Key Additions: | Kethan Savage, F (Episcopal HS) Joe McDonanld, G (Landon School) Patricio Garino, F (Montverde Academy) Kevin Larsen, C (Montrose Christian School) Kyprianos Maragkos, F (Blue Ridge School) |
| Key Losses: | Tony Taylor, G Aaron Ware, G/F Dan Guest, G (Transfer) |
| Top Non-Conference Games: | Nov. 17 @ Boston University Nov. 21 @ Notre Dame Dec. 8 vs. Kansas State Dec. 11 @ Rutgers Jan. 4 @ Georgia |
| Top Conference Games: | Jan. 16 vs. Temple Feb. 9 vs. Butler Feb. 16 @ VCU Mar. 2 vs. Saint Louis Mar. 9 vs. Dayton |
| Breakout Player: | David Pellom. There’s only one catch: Pellom, who was tabbed over the summer as the team’s future breakout star, may miss the start of the season thanks to a wrist injury. When healthy, Pellon is an efficient offensive machine with a knack for putting the ball in the basket and carving out the lane. He posted some of his finer efforts of last season against top competition (Syracuse, Saint Louis and Dayton), so we know he’s not shy of the big moment. The Goldsboro, NC product is one of the unsung glue guys in the A-10. Health permitting, he could burst onto the scene and garner some deserved national attention in this, his senior season. |
| X-Factor: | Experience. GW is loaded with experience, five meaningful seniors in all. The Colonials do offset their upper class with a freshman recruiting class five-deep, so head coach Mike Lonergan will have a delicate balance of youth and experience to manage. Ultimately, George Washington’s season will come down to the production it gets out of its senior class. For the Colonials to max out their assets, guys like Pellom and Lasan Kromah will have to tap their potential. The Colonials can overcome the loss of Tony Taylor, the team’s leading scorer last season. But it won’t happen easily. Not unless Bryan Bynes is ready to up his offensive game. |
| Best Case: | A healthy Pellom has a breakout senior season while Kromah shores up the perimeter. Kethan Savage and Joe McDonald, the most heralded of GW’s five-man freshman class, offer meaningful minutes immediately. The Colonials see marked improvement on the defensive end, where they ranked 12th in the A-10 in adjusted defensive efficiency a season ago. GW builds on early upset wins over Kansas State and Rutgers to gain momentum heading into the A-10, where they teeter at .500 in-conference before falling over by season’s end. |
| Worst Case: | Pellom isn’t fully healthy. Taylor’s absence is immediately felt, and the thin Colonials backcourt catches up to the team. The freshmen aren’t ready to contribute and the school doesn’t see any improvement on the defensive end. GW, which generally likes to play a slow and methodical game, unsuccessfully experiments with an up-tempo offense to boost scoring totals, only to see the defense undermined as a result. The Colonials finish just out of the cellar in a deep A-10. No signature non-conference wins makes the season a tough one to swallow for fans and the five GW seniors. |
| Projected Finish: | 14-15 (5-11 Atlantic-10) Lose in first round of A-10 tournament |