Chris Caputo - Men's Basketball Coach - George Washington University Athletics

Chris Caputo

Title:
Head Coach

Chris Caputo enters his fifth season in charge of the George Washington Men's Basketball program in 2026-27 having led the Revolutionaries to back-to-back postseason appearances and a 71-62 record during his tenure.

Through his first four years, GW has placed five student-athletes on the A-10 All-Conference team plus three All-Rookie contributors, a trio of All-Defensive selections and the 2023 A-10 Rookie of the Year.

GW advanced the second round of the NIT in 2025-26, securing the program’s first postseason win since 2017 with a first-round triumph at Utah Valley. The Revolutionaries finished 19-16, securing back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since 2015-16 and 2016-17. GW also finished in the top-100 of the NET for the first time in program history and finished 86th in Kenpom, a 136-spot improvement from the program's ranking when Caputo took over.

The Buff & Blue shattered the school record with 351 3-pointers on the season, 64 more than the previous mark set in Caputo’s first season. Three of the top five seasons in program history have come in Caputo’s four years. Additionally, GW tallied a program-record 548 assists and averaged 81.4 ppg, the fourth-highest mark in school history and best since 1969-70.

The 2025-26 season was highlighted by the addition of five transfers, with the class ranked among the nation’s top 10 by the Portal Report and by the advanced metric “Box Plus Minus (BPM)”.

Caputo helped author GW’s best season in nearly a decade in 2024-25, culminating in the program’s first postseason bid in eight seasons with a trip to the College Basketball Crown. GW posted 20 wins in the regular season for the first time since 2015-16, and 16^th time overall, and finished with 21 triumphs on the year, its most in nine years.

Thanks to a quick start in the 2023-24 campaign, Caputo become the fastest GW bench boss to 30 wins since Mike Jarvis in 1990-91, winning 30 of his first 49 games as head coach. GW posted a 14-3 start to the season, its best start since 2015-16 and just the 11th time in program history the Buff & Blue won at least 14 of its first 17 games. Included in the 2023-24 season was an 84-82 road victory at VCU, just the program's second-ever victory at the Siegel Center.

The 2023-24 season featured one of the youngest teams in the country with GW ranking third in the NCAA in points scored by first-years and fourth nationally in minutes played by freshmen. GW started at least two freshmen in every game and saw 49% of the offense come from rookies.

Caputo immediately made his mark on the GW basketball in his first year with the program in 2022-23. Under his leadership, the Buff & Blue posted their best regular season in six years, enjoying the most overall wins (16), most Atlantic 10 conference wins (10) and first A-10 winning record since the 2016-17 season.

Caputo recorded the second-most A-10 wins (10) for a first-year GW bench boss in program history and the fourth-most overall wins (16) in GW's A-10 era.

On April 1, 2022, GW Director of Athletics Tanya Vogel proudly named Chris Caputo as Head Coach of The George Washington University's men's basketball team. Caputo comes to the District as the next step in a coaching career that spans more than two decades, has taken him to a Final Four and, most recently, the Elite Eight of the 2022 NCAA Tournament.

As the world of college basketball continues to evolve, Caputo exhibited a masterful ability to adapt in an ever-changing landscape. Through player development skills honed after more than 20 years in the business, plus a thorough understanding of how to augment a program through the transfer portal, he placed Miami in a position of success as Associate Head Coach in that program's recent March run.

As co-pilot with Final Four coach Jim Larrañaga, Caputo prioritized a style of play that put five players on the court who can be interchangeable and versatile. Caputo recently noted that "putting five guys on the floor that can pass, dribble and shoot makes it very difficult to defend at times when we’re able to spread you out. The ability to share the ball, be selfless, (previous teams) taken to that."

Miami's Associate Head Coach since 2015, Caputo has had experience in every area that is required to build a winning program. A skilled scout, recruiter and Xs and Os tactician who served as the team’s defensive coordinator, he helped coach the Hurricanes to seven postseason berths, five NCAA appearances, three Sweet 16s and an Elite Eight. Miami was ranked as high as No. 2 in the national polls during his tenure, while numerous coaching peers and outlets have identified him as a premier assistant and soon-to-be head coaching star, highlighted by a CBS Sports poll of 100-plus college coaches who ranked Caputo as one of the three assistants in the nation most likely to someday become a coaching star.

Sports Illustrated also identified Caputo as one of the top assistants ready to make the jump to a head coaching position after his Miami teams joined Duke as the lone ACC programs to have a student-athlete drafted into the NBA every year from 2016-19.

Dating back to his time with Larrañaga at George Mason, Caputo's recruiting chops have yielded success in landing the area's top talent, along with McDonald’s All-Americans, Jordan Brand Classic players, and international talent from Australia and New Zealand, countries where emerging athletes have taken the basketball world by storm in recent years.

The architect of Top 25 defenses nationally, Caputo has shown his commitment to academics in his mentorship of a previous Skip Prosser Award recipient, presented annually to the top scholar-athlete in ACC men’s basketball, a conference that boasts some of the finer academic institutions of higher education in the country. Graduation success has been a priority throughout Caputo's decorated assistant coaching career.

A multi-time participant in the esteemed Villa 7 Consortium, an educational symposium and networking opportunity for some of the nation’s top assistants, Caputo has done everything from serving as a video coordinator, to managing databases and mailing systems, while serving in various administrative capacities.

Originally from Elmhurst, N.Y., Caputo is a 2002 graduate of Westfield (Mass.) State University with a degree in finance and economics. He was a four-year letter winner as a point guard for the Division III Owls, served as captain and earned the team’s Outstanding Contributor Award as a senior. He is a 1998 graduate of Archbishop Molloy High School.