Bolstered basketball teams get ready to start season play.
By Brad Bower and Jesse Hooker
Armed with more experienced rosters and a renovated home court, the Colonials men’s and women’s basketball teams are gearing up for their season.
The men’s squad, under 10-year head coach Karl Hobbs, is set to return four starters—junior point guard Tony Taylor, sophomore shooting guard Lasan Kromah, 6-foot-11 senior center Joseph Katuka, and junior guard/forward Aaron Ware.
The Colonials (16-15 last season) will be working to fill the void left by graduated forward Damian Hollis, an Atlantic 10 All-Conference honorable mention who last season led the team in scoring (13.9 points per game), rebounding (4.9), free-throw percentage (.839), and blocks (26).
It will be up to Mr. Taylor, who has appeared in all 59 games since his arrival in 2008, to spearhead the Colonials’ offense this season. He averaged 9.4 points and 4.2 assists per game last season, and he’ll have help from Mr. Kromah, who was selected for last year’s Atlantic 10 All-Rookie team.
Mr. Kromah emerged last season as one of GW’s most consistent scoring threats, averaging 11.8 points per game and converting a team-high 48 three-pointers.
The team has added just three newcomers this year—sharpshooting forwards Chris Fitzgerald, of Swansea, Mass., and Nemanja Mikic, from Serbia; and point guard Dan Guest, of West Hartford, Conn.—as well as new Assistant Coach Donyell Marshall, a 15-year NBA veteran and former star player at University of Connecticut, who replaces Brian Ellerbe.
Their season opens Nov. 16 in Philadelphia in the 2010 Dick’s Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off against Boston University. Their home opener is Nov. 29 against University of North Carolina Wilmington.
On Nov, 6, the men’s team breezed by Bowie State, 82-64, in a preseason exhibition game in GW’s freshly renovated Charles E. Smith Center. The center is in the final phase of a $43 million upgrade. Among the improvements, fans will find a new glass façade outside, updated concessions areas, a refurbished box office, and a state-of-the-art Daktronics scoreboard, featuring screens that are among the largest in college basketball.
The women’s team is hoping to make lemonade out of last year’s lemon of a season (6-22), in which they fought uphill against having the nation’s second least-experienced roster and losing three starters to injuries.
Third-year head coach Mike Bozeman returns eight players to the court and expects to have his injured trio—senior forward Ivy Abiona, junior forward Tara Booker, and sophomore guard Danni Jackson—back at full strength. Together with junior guard Tiana Myers (12.6 points per game) and junior center Sara Mostafa (10.1 points per game), the fivesome could provide Mr. Bozeman one of the top starting lineups in the conference.
Last season’s limited roster did help spread the wealth of experience around the team, with GW leading the nation in minutes played by freshmen. That includes sophomore forward Brooke Wilson, who earned Atlantic 10 All-Rookie team accolades after leading the league’s newcomers in rebounding and steals.
The team should be further bolstered by its second straight ESPN Top-50 recruiting class, picking up Chelisa Painter, of Chesapeake, Va.—ESPN’s No. 12 ranked power forward—as well as center Erica Chandler, of Charlotte, N.C., and guard Kristin Aldridge, of Mansfield, Texas.
Their season starts Nov. 13 at the Best Buy Classic, in Minneapolis, against University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. They’ll start at home on Nov. 18 against Coppin State University.
Season tickets for both basketball teams are still available, as are memberships to the Colonials Club and the Athletic Director’s Club. For more information, call 202- 994-6050 or visit www.GWsports.com.
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