For GW, the Future Looks Bright

GREENSBORO, N.

Pops Mensah-Bonsu wished he was healthier, that his surgically repaired left knee didn't play with his mind every time he rose against all-American Shelden Williams, his counterpart at center. Pops wished he could have played more than 13 minutes. But he ultimately looked back on his four years with pride.

Karl Hobbs was heartsick over how his team failed to run its offense and play in a way befitting the most important game in school history. Yet the coach also knew: 27-3 is 27-3. No one would seize any of those surreal comeback victories from his memory, nor would anyone take away the most magical season in George Washington's annals. Lest that person was in for a fight.

The last game of the season had been dissected, leaving a moment or two for thought and introspection.

Still, something about the way Duke methodically dispatched GW on Saturday didn't feel right. It wasn't the ending the Colonials imagined for their improbable season.

"I felt fine, but I wasn't able to impose my will like I normally do," Mensah-Bonsu said after Duke's 74-61 rarely suspenseful win. "I just wish I could have made more of an impact."

Season's done? Season's done.

The Colonials didn't get blown out. There was no reason for shame or remorse in becoming Mike Krzyzewski's 68th tournament victim. But they had to have a few regrets about how it all went down, how GW's players never truly showed the polished, run-and-shoot, we-don't-care-if-we're-down-20, cocksure style they had exhibited all season.

Maybe that was Williams and J.J. Redick. But it was also the Colonials, who have to live with knowing they didn't bring their best game to the second round.

GW also found out there is a D in Duke. The 6-foot-9 Williams and 6-10 freshman Josh McRoberts, whose wingspan and talent may not enable him to stay at Duke for two years much less four, challenged nearly every shot in the key. The way the Blue Devils overplay the wings, forcing their opponents farther out while conceding a few rebounds, led to some awful shot selection for GW, which missed 47 of its 68 attempts.

The Colonials did not look completely rattled, but they seemed a little taken aback by the fact they could not break Duke's defenders down off the dribble. Omar Williams was one of the few players to have any real success getting to the goal and drawing fouls. The Blue Devils were as big as they were poised and aggressive. Just staying in the game was a chore.

On Friday, Krzyzewski poked fun at the notion that Duke-GW was essentially the prohibitive favorite vs. the mid-major underdog. But let's be clear: Duke's endowment last year was listed at nearly $2.9 billion next to GW's $927 million. The Blue Devils' men's basketball program brought in $12.4 million in revenue next to the Colonials' $2.6 million. Krzyzewski's recruiting budget was more than $754,000. Hobbs used $115,000. However the numbers are viewed, Duke's program made about six times as much as GW's and spent more than six times as much on bringing kids in. Financially -- one of the only measuring sticks that matters in college hoops -- that's a mismatch.

The most biased of Colonial legions will blame the officiating crew, which let the game become a scrum early on. Letting physical play go always hurts up-tempo teams, and GW was no exception. There were a couple of calls that were just ridiculous, but the Colonials admitted afterward the officials did not job them out of a Sweet 16 dream as much as they jobbed themselves out of that dream.

That was the most frustrating part of Saturday for GW; the Colonials had a genuine shot.

With 15 minutes left, Redick picked up his third foul and Krzyzewski left him in. In 34 games this season, Redick had never been whistled for a fourth foul. Thirty-four games! The obvious strategy was to post Danilo Pinnock, whom Redick was guarding, but instead the Colonials settled for some off-kilter jumpers that made no sense within the structure of the offense and the game situation. GW never got closer than 11 points the rest of the way. Redick indeed picked up his fourth foul, but less than three minutes remained and the game was in hand.

Season's done? Season's done.

"If we had played our B game, it would've been a little more interesting," GW assistant coach Roland Houston said. Asked what game the Colonials played, Houston shrugged his shoulders and said, "Maybe a C-minus. Just our B would have made it interesting."

Where does GW go from here? That's all up to Hobbs, who is contractually obligated to the school for another four years but will undeniably be viewed as one of the game's hot, young coaches. He loses so much in Mensah-Bonsu, Mike Hall and Omar Williams. But he also has a lot left in Carl Elliott, Maureece Rice, Regis Koundjia, Rob Diggs and Pinnock. That starting five could win the Atlantic 10 Conference next season.

The Cincinnati job -- now a Big East gig -- is out there. Who knows whether the controversy surrounding GW's reliance on musical-chair, prep-school kids -- whose transcripts, for better or worse, got past a derelict NCAA Clearinghouse not to mention university admissions -- will hurt Hobbs, especially when some of the nation's premier programs are just as guilty of finding loopholes for their "student-athletes." The Bearcats also are trying to entirely cleanse the school of the dysfunctional end to the Bob Huggins era.

The guess here is Hobbs will stick around one more season. There is always a better job worth waiting for, and something happened in Foggy Bottom this season that might make it emotionally hard to leave.

Season's done? Yeah. For now.

"The program is intact," Hobbs said outside the team bus that would take the Colonials home for the season. "I don't know if you know something I don't, but I'd like to get on the bus and cry a little first before thinking about anything else."

On the day Duke derailed his team's majestic 27-3 season, senior Omar Williams declared, "This is definitely not a one-year run. GW is going to be around for a long time."