Some good articles on our latest recruit to commit out of Florida. 

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/high-schools/story/1027795.html

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/highschool/recruitingcentral/sfl-bynescommit09,0,874315.story

GW should be the Generals. That mistake makes more sense than the Colonels. I'm guessing some sports editors have phonics problems, and/or logic problems.

Better, though, than the Hoyas.

The following is from hoopscoop, although I've been told by a few people in the florida area while asking around that this was in fact a big get by Coach Collucci, not Coach Houston.  Not that it is a huge sticking point, as it seems to be a good signing by us no matter who got the commitment in the end.

Seems like we have a good class coming in this year. 

"6'2 Bryan Bynes from Ft. Lauderdale (Boyd Anderson) FL has signed with George Washington.  Bynes is an ecellent 3-point shooter and the guy who deserves most of the credit for getting this one done is Colonials assistant coach Rowland Houston, who is one of the best recruiters in the business, as is evident by the fact that GW beat schools like Marshall, George Mason, Old Dominion, and Ball State for his services."

David Pellom	Small Forward	6-8	190	Charis Prep (NC)	POST	86	Verbal
Dwayne Smith	Shooting Guard	6-6	185	Bridgton Academy (ME)	POST	86	Verbal
Daymon Warren	Power Forward	6-9	230	Worcester Academy (MA)	POST	85	Verbal
Tim Johnson	Shooting Guard	6-4	183	Lee Academy (ME)	POST	84	Verbal

That's 5 players between 6-3 and 6-8 - all long and lean and athletic.  Sounds like a Hobbsian recruiting class to me.

I guess that leaves Travis King to back up Taylor at the point.  It was the position he was brought to GW to play.  Hopefully a full off-season of conditioning and work on his game will restore most of his quickness. 

All the wing players (the 5 above and Ware) will require either Warren or Edwards (I'm not counting on Opoku) to back up Hollis and Katuka in the front court.  Foul trouble and defensive rebounding will be problems all year for GW.

FQ,

Find me 80 minutes of Center Power Forward play without Damian Hollis. 

It can't be done.

If you try, you will only find darkness, despair and horror.

From the look of things - recruiting a ton of guards - I would guess that the playing time of TT and King are both in jeopardy.  It was clear last year that TT was not psychologically prepared to handle either Hobbs or A-10 PG play.  King was severely slowed by his injury.  If both those things were not true we would not have had Johnny Lee playing so many minutes.

After last year, Hobbs recruited FOUR guards and TWO who apparently may be options to play the point - Johnson and Bynes AND all the players recruited are significantly bigger than TT by 4-6 inches.  So I'm not entirely sure that if some freshman step up and TT and/or King don't then we wouldn't see an entirely new backcourt on the floor a lot of the time. 

I am not at all trying to stifle free speech.  But I am very amused that some of you would take the time to project the number of minutes that our incoming freshmen might/will be playing despite the small detail that you've never actually seen these guys play. 

Assuming that they can play, I'd like to see most if not all of our freshmen see big minutes for a few reasons.  First, this would likely indicate that their collective talent is an upgrade over what's in place.  Second, no matter how hard a team tries to change its culture from year-to-year, it becomes harder to achieve this when you're relying on players who've eperienced the bad times.   This is not true of all such players, but sometimes, a player can't "buy in" to a coach's philosophy because they've been a part of too much negativity.  Sometimes, a player can adapt a mature attitude and keep these feelings to themselves.  Otherwise, these types of players become cancers, trying to negatively influence anyone who cares to listen.  It stands to reason that an incoming freshman would be far less likely to show up with a "less than perfect" attitude.  Last but not least, young players who get the eperience of learning how to play together as freshmen often ehibit significant improvement throughout their careers.  We saw this first-hand with Mike/Pops/Omar and it has been the case with many other programs who graduate many key players and are left with few returning contributors.  It becomes time to start all over and let 18 and 19 year olds make mistakes that they will hopefully not make when they are 21 and 22 years old.  Personally, this is what I'd like to see (along with Damian becoming a leader), again, assuming these incoming players are at least half as talented as what's presented about them on this site.

Agreed, MV.

The fact is that there isn't a ton of talent left from last year's team.  Hollis has to be the leader and Ware clearly showed he "gets it" though he doesn't yet have as much touch on his shot as we'd all like (that's what summers are for).  TT has shown glimpses of "skills" but hasn't been able to put them to particularly effective use during games.  King, who knows if his quickness will return - if it doesn't I doubt he will be able to contribute too much.  Opoku, Edwards - a few minutes here and there.  Katuka - hopefully gets stronger and continues to improve.

I don't even need to see a huge increase in wins this year to be encouraged.  If Hobbs decides to play mostly the freshmen Hollis, Ware, and the others that merit it - and we see competetiveness and periods of eposiveness and ability to make runs even though we might not be able to finish out games well being young - I can accept that.

You must be right Notta.  Let's have more cheerful discussions along these lines:

I can't believe we landed Matt Albritton.  Did you know he scored over 700 points during his senior season alone?

Miles Beatty played for Bob Hurley, Sr.  If nothing else, you know he's going to be a fundamentally sound player.

I have no idea if Pops Mensah-Bonsu can even run up and down the floor let alone be a productive player.  He's clearly a project at best.

Omar Williams is going to be a 6'9" point guard for us.

Thank God we FINALLY have a shooting guard with an all-around game in Ricky Lucas.

No question Maureece Rice can score but will he EVER pass the ball to his teammates?

All I'm suggesting is that we watch these kids play before artificially assigning playing time.

FQ,

30 minutes a game for Katuka???

I think 23 has been his single game career high (averaging about 14) and most of the time he was in there for etensive minutes, Katuka was either winded or in foul trouble (or both).  I'd settle for 23-25.  Warren hasn't played a single college game yet and is a decent but not superior recruit.  We should be happy with around 20-22 a game from him. 

So let's say that's about 45 a game from those 2.  Foul trouble will be an ongoing issue.  Assuming that Hollis is going to get his 30 minutes somewhere, it's a question of who you'd rather have on the court:  Edwards and Opoku or Smith/Ware/Pellom.  I'd go with the latter for more time right now on the wing forward position.

It's hard to start as a freshman at the point.  It's also hard to play PG as an out of position SG.  I would not be optimistic to have Bynes or Johnson playing significant time at he point net season.  I'd rather go with Taylor and King.  Steady play from that position from 2 players brought in as PGs would be best.  If King can't restore some of his quickness, then maybe look for alternatives.  King did look good as a freshman, has the size and strength to be effective on D (he was his 1st season) and will be two years removed from the injury.   King looked like his was carrying more weight last season so a full and productive off-season getting in better shape is important for Travis.