1/28/2022 10:50:00 AM | Men's Basketball, My GW: Celebrating our Stories
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Bamisile brings incredible dunks and much more to men's basketball
By: Eric Detweiler, GW Athletics Communications
In a blink, Joe Bamisile eyed the basket and the George Mason defender standing in front of him and formed a plan.
That instant bit of calculus provided all the assurance the high-flying sophomore needed to pull off the most astounding highlight of the GW men's basketball season thus far.
With an explosive leap and a full-extension reach, Bamisile threw down a dunk in an eventual victory over the Patriots on Jan. 17 that would land No. 2 on SportsCenter's rundown of the day's top highlights, his third appearance on the esteemed ESPN program in his first three months representing the Buff and Blue.
"One time someone asked me, 'What if you miss?'" Bamisile said. "It never crosses my mind that I might miss. I feel like I have a fearlessness when I'm playing basketball that allows me to try anything."
In his debut season after transferring from Virginia Tech, Bamisile has grabbed attention with his uncanny penchant for authoring can't-miss highlights, buoyed by a deep playlist of windmills, 360s and other awe-inspiring throwdowns.
Those audacious slams, punctuated by an ever-present smile, are a key part of the 6-foot-4 guard's game, but it's his continued progress in other areas that has most excited Head Coach Jamion Christian.
Heading into Sunday's contest vs. Fordham at the Smith Center, Bamisile is averaging 18.3 points across six A-10 games with improved offensive efficiency stats across the board, a testament to his increased comfortability within Christian's system.
With a cerebral approach mirroring his off-the-court personality, the Chesterfield, Va., native has shown an ability to learn on the fly and fix his mistakes while still bringing energy to the group and finding his spots to bring down the house with his aerial artistry.
"I think he's learning how to be a successful college basketball player because he's got a relentlessness to keep learning," Christian said. "Any time you're a person that has a tremendous talent like he does and you have a fearlessness to hold yourself accountable, you've got a chance to be a pretty special player. With us, he's really been doing that from day one."
Find Bamisile away from the court, and he's usually not thinking about hoops.
Bamisile brings abstract cartoons to life.
He reads. (He just finished the novel The Secret Life of Bees as he ramps up his aim to read 40 books in 2022.) He paints. (He specializes in colorful abstract cartoons.) He meditates. (He's been seeking mindfulness through meditation and yoga since his grandfather turned him onto it at age 7.) He makes music. (He's been writing, singing and producing his own songs since high school.)
Bamisile believes those solo pursuits help explain why his joy flows out on the hardwood surrounded by his teammates and coaches.
"When I'm actually playing basketball, I'm just enjoying it so much," said Bamisile, a Communications major with a minor in Psychology. "Because outside of basketball, I'd say I'm a pretty boring person. Basketball's my chance to fully express that part of myself."
And it's also a reason why Christian was drawn to the former top-75 prospect in the recruiting process when he decided to move on from Virginia Tech last spring after playing sparingly as a rookie.
"I think our environment here is really good for him," Christian said. "Because our environment is one that is about learning, it is about trying to find the answers, it's allowing you to ask questions. I think that really suits him, being able to have a conversation about the game and not just be told where to go."
Eighteen games into his career in Buff and Blue, Bamisile continues to figure things out.
In the beginning, there were some difficult lessons amid the highlight-reel moments, including a six-turnover effort at Cal State Fullerton and a performance at Charlotte in which his +/- was -15 across 28 minutes in a seven-point defeat.
Against Boston University, he was 4-for-15 from the field, with his last miss a potential go-ahead 3-pointer in the closing seconds.
After every game, Bamisile has eagerly crunched the film with Assistant Coach Graham Bousley. Those one-on-one sessions have allowed him to dig into what's working, what isn't and why.
"I think now I'm in a place where going into a game I know what shots I'm going to get," Bamisile said. "I know exactly what the other team is going to do, I know where my teammates are going to be, what reads to make and I have a better feeling of what's a good possession and what's not a good possession. All of that makes it so much easier to play basketball."
It's no secret to those within the program why he's been able to make those strides.
"He's one of those guys who's just a learner," teammate Brendan Adams said. "He's watching film every day. He's talking to the coaches, trying to find different ways he can help, trying to find things he's doing wrong. He's attacking it every day."
For the season, Bamisile ranks second on the squad at 14.8 points per game.
On the stat sheet, the results have been evident in recent weeks with Bamisile's shooting percentage up and turnovers down.
The guard points to his career-best 25-point effort on 11-of-14 shooting in a win over Coppin State on Dec. 8 as a turning point.
"That was the first game where I was like, 'Alright, this makes sense,'" Bamisile said.
Bamisile matched that output in his A-10 debut vs. Dayton on Jan. 8 and then eclipsed it in the win over George Mason with 26 points while playing a career-high 39 minutes.
Heading into one of the final timeouts vs. the Patriots, Bamisile sidled up to Christian and asked him to sing along with the arena music.
On his game-winner, the memory of his misfire in a similar spot vs. BU helped, he said.
"This time, I was way more calm," Bamisile said. "Because I'd had the experience before, and I knew that Coach believed in me."
After that one in the joyous locker room, Bamisile danced and wrapped new GW President Dr. Mark S. Wrighton in a hug.
Six days later after a road win at Rhode Island, he and his teammates savored another postgame dance party followed by milkshakes before making the trip home.
"It feels good," said Bamisile, who overcame early foul trouble to score all eight of his points in the second half vs. the Rams. "The hardest part about a team sport is when you're not winning you have to share the bad vibes together. It's really easy when things are bad to point the finger, but I think when you win it gives everyone a chance to appreciate who they're playing with a little bit more."
Bamisile has been credited with 18 dunks in as many games this season.
Of course, Bamisile has continued to wow along the way with his dunking feats.
That's been a featured part of his game since middle school. He was throwing down lobs at 12, and a year later, he completed his first dunk in game action.
That story will sound familiar: Playing for Game Elite Florida at an AAU Tournament in Georgia, Bamisile, not yet 6-foot, streaked down court on a breakout with only one defender to beat. In true-to-form fashion, he decided to go for it and powered through his taller opponent to throw down a two-handed slam. Not bad for an eighth-grader.
"Since then, every fast break I'm trying to dunk," Bamisile recounted with a grin.
Scrolling through @GW_MBB on social media offers a tribute to Bamisile's greatest hits.
After patenting the windmill to the point that it had somehow started to seem routine, he broke out the 360 dunk on a breakaway in the home win over Radford on Dec. 13.
The posterization vs. George Mason set a new bar for degree of difficulty and stands out among his 18 credited dunks so far.
"It's ridiculous," Adams said. "But then you see him practice and he just tries stuff. We'll be in the middle of a drill, and he'll try a crazy dunk. What you see in a game is crazy, but it's not surprising for us."
"I just love that he plays the game with such an expression of love," adds Christian. "He's such a creative guy. The dunks are who he is."
When the clips inevitably go viral, Bamisile appreciates the fanfare but can avoid getting caught up in it. He doesn't have Twitter and rarely logs onto Instagram.
When the deep-thinking, gravity-defying guard decides it's time for lift off, SportsCenter is the last thing on his mind.
"Ultimately, the reason I'm doing it is because I am having so much fun playing basketball," Bamisile said. "I want to be able to give fans and anybody watching a fun experience. I'm just kind of sharing the energy I'm feeling."
