George Washington University Athletics
Inside Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball Media Day
10/29/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Oct. 29, 2010
David Earl, New Media Planner for Colonials Sports Marketing, joined Voice of the Colonials Byron Kerr at Atlantic 10 Media Day on Friday, October 21. Held at the CBS College Sports Studios in New York City's Chelsea Piers, Kerr and Earl interviewed many of the Atlantic 10's men's basketball coaches.
"This league is about respect," Saint Joseph's Men's Basketball Head Coach Phil Martelli told Atlantic 10 conference administrators, head coaches, alumni and members of the media at Chelsea Piers in New York City on Thursday. "We are the best basketball-only conference in the nation, and it's because of respect."
Last year's conference boasted three NCAA tournament teams (Temple, Richmond, and Xavier), the NIT Champion (Dayton), an NIT semi-finalist (Rhode Island), a CBI finalist (Saint Louis), and two other CBI participants (GW and Duquesne).
A-10 coaches talk about the 2010-11 Colonials
When word came out of CBS College Sports studios, the site of the 2011 Atlantic 10 Media Day, that George Washington men's basketball was slated by the media to replicate last season's tenth-place finish during the conference season, Colonials fans may have felt slighted. The conference's coaches, however, don't seem to be so willing to write off the Buff and Blue this season.
Few teams in the conference see major roster changes for 2010-11. For GW to leapfrog many of the teams above them in the standings a year ago, the Buff and Blue's returning players and new blood will need to take its play to another level.
To GW Head Coach Karl Hobbs, that starts with reclaiming the Smith Center as a likely win. "Last year, we won 16 games, but only went 8-7 at home," he said. "We need to take care of home court."
Home court will be critical for the Colonials this season. Five of the top eight teams in the pre-season poll, including first-place vote getters Temple, Richmond and Dayton come to the Smith Center this year, allowing GW to get a chance to surprise the conference's elite teams in the newly-renovated Charles E. Smith Center.
While the media may not be giving GW the respect that it may deserve, those coaches headed to Foggy Bottom this season know not to look past the Colonials.
"We haven't beaten them at the Smith Center, since, I don't know, the Civil War," joked St. Bonaventure Head Coach Mark Schmidt.
A-10 coaches talk about playing in the Smith Center
"I'm not looking forward to that game," Temple Head Coach Fran Dunphy said, "They're going to come after us, and there's no fear in anything that they do."
"It's never fun," Dayton Head Coach Brian Gregory said of playing at the Smith Center. "As soon as you go up the stairs from the locker room they're into you, trying to make you play faster than you want to play, trying to turn you over. You could see last year the reestablishment of how they do things. Their fans are always into it, and it's always a tough venue to play."
If Phil Martelli is the "Dean of the Atlantic 10" as CBS College Sports's Dave Ryan introduced him on Thursday, then Karl Hobbs is the head of the tenured faculty. Hobbs is second only to Martelli among active coaches in time spent with a single A-10 team. Entering his tenth year, Hobbs' impact on coaches and their game plans is obvious.
As coaches describe their feelings on GW, it becomes that despite the Colonials' earlier struggles in the standings, they will never look past a Hobbs-coached team.
"We were guys who competed each other back in high school," Duquesne Head Coach Ron Everhart said. "I respect and admire him. He coaches like he played. They're tough, his teams don't back down, and they recruit at a really high level."
Brian Gregory said that Hobbs told him that Dayton's early-2000s teams served as a model for the 2005-06 team led by Pops Mensah-Bonsu, Mike Hall and Omar Williams. Now, Gregory says, Dayton's teams look to those Colonials teams for inspiration on fast, physical play.
Schmidt acknowledged that this year, the Colonials may make major moves in the standings. "They had a young team last year, and some growing pains, but they're going to be a team to challenge this year."
A-10 coaches talk about GW Head Coach Karl Hobbs
The player conference media expect to lead the Colonials' challenge is sophomore guard Lasan Kromah, a Greenbelt, MD native and Atlantic 10 all-rookie team member last season. Kromah was named to the pre-season All-Atlantic 10 Third Team.
"He's really a good player and had an outstanding freshman season," Richmond Head Coach Chris Mooney said. "When you have a freshman season like that, you're really going to get noticed. He seemed to have a lot of poise for a young player. He can score in a variety of ways. We were really impressed with him going into the game, and that much more impressed with him coming out of the game having seen him live."
"You look at that kid and you say, `You can build a program around that kid for the next four years,'" Everhart said. "A great kid and obviously a great player."
As Atlantic 10 Media Day wound down in New York City, Hobbs talked about how eager he was to get back down to Foggy Bottom and get back on the court with his team.
In a conference all about respect, the Colonials are going to have to battle all season to earn what they feel they deserve. While those off the court may not expect much from the Buff and Blue, the A-10's coaches know that the Colonials are poised to defy expectations and give opponents a true battle every night.
