George Washington Basketball: Jamion Christian is right guy to lead Colonials

George Washington Basketball is looking to climb back up the A-10 rankings. New head coach Jamion Christian appears to be the guy capable of doing so.

When Jamion Christian took over George Washington Basketball, there was an overriding feeling that the Colonials had “their guy”. It’s been a few years since that feeling was present in Foggy Bottom.

Mike Lonergan took over the George Washington program in 2011 and in three seasons, had the Colonials back in the NCAA tournament. The following two seasons, George Washington played in the NIT, winning it all in 2015-2016.

With three straight 20-win seasons under his belt, it looked like the Colonials had their guy. But a Washington Post article shook the program to its core. Lonergan had been accused of verbal and emotional abuse that led to players fleeing the program. The controversy flowed all the way up to then Athletic Director, Patrick Nero.

Lonergan and George Washington would part ways. The Colonials would tab Maurice Joseph as their next head coach. In his first season, Joseph would continue the 20-win season streak with future NBA-ers Tyler Cavanaugh and Yuta Watanabe. But in the next two seasons, the win total would dramatically dip from 20 to 13 to 9.

With ample time to do a coaching search, it was important to bring in the right person to help rebuild the program. Christian appears to be that person. Prior to arriving, he coached six seasons at Mount St. Mary’s and one at Siena.

He guided Mount St. Mary’s to a regular-season championship, two conference tournament championships and two NCAA tournament appearances. The Mount had a 67-39 conference record under Christian’s leadership.

In his one season at Siena, the Saints had a nine-win improvement. They also improved in several key areas. They went from 251st to 43rd nationally in scoring defense, 322nd to eighth in fewest turnovers, and 250th to 74th in 3-point field goals per game.

George Washington is seeing similar improvements in the keys areas. Last season, the Colonials were 196th in Defensive eFG%, 248th in Defensive 3P%, 321st in Adjusted Offensive Efficiency, and 337th in eFG%. This season, they have improved in those categories:  93rd in Defensive eFG%, 12th in Defensive 3P%, 252nd in Adjusted Offensive Efficiency, and 199th in eFG%.

You won’t find a more “glass is half full” coach in the country even though his playing style doesn’t resemble his predecessor’s at all. Despite that, the Colonials are starting to resemble what they’ll be under Christian’s reign. That means not everyone will fit into his system. Last week, it was announced that Justin Mazzulla was leaving the program. Under the previous regime, Mazzulla was a starter. Under Christian’s system, he was struggling to get impactful minutes.

The Colonials (3-5) already have an impressive win over Evansville despite not having their leading scorer and rebounder, Arnaldo Toro (ankle). The Purple Aces had knocked off then top-rank Kentucky. George Washington wasn’t done there. They followed up the upset with a win over Milwaukee and a competitive loss at South Carolina.

With Christian’s track record for taking mid-major schools and making major improvements, George Washington is confident that they have “their guy”.