GW Hatchet Blogs - blogs.gwhatchet.com

The Department of Athletics held a private reception for donors to the Smith Center’s renovation. Although The Hatchet was not allowed in, senior staff writer Dan Greene spoke with an attendee, who asked to remain anonymous because it was a private event:

I spoke with an attendee of tonight’s event at Smith Center for donors toward the renovation project and he had some interesting things to say. He said he was surprised to hear the figures presented by GW, which included a total cost of  the renovations at around $45 million.  Only $1.5 million has been raised thus far, with $10 million needed before the matching $10 million from the Smith and Kogod families kicks in.  He said the school plans to raise a certain amount of money through a series of fundraisers with “big donors” before turning to what he described as an Obama-like Internet campaign of small donations.  The school will pay $20 million itself and told those at tonight’s event that they expect the project to be completed in 2011, he said.

The attendees were given a tour of the current facilities, which the attendee described as “ratty,” even saying they were inferior to that of his daughter’s high school in Arlington.

His reaction was not entirely negative, however, as he said the people in charge of generating funding seem excited and on top of things. He said that overall the presentation was a “good sell” to the donors.

The following email detailing the event was sent by Asst. Director of Athletics Dom Perno to invitees and posted on the GW online fan message board GWHoops.com:

Dear Guest,

As you may already have heard, due to a generous pledge of $10 million from the Robert H. Smith and Charles E. Smith Family Foundations and Robert P. and Arlene R. Kogod, the Charles E. Smith Center will undergo a transformational renovation over the next several years.

We’re very excited about this plan and we’d like to share our enthusiasm with you by inviting you to attend a special presentation about the renovation on Thursday, September 18, 2008 at 6 p.m. in the Charles E. Smith Center. Hors d’oeuvres will be served.

The evening will begin with a walk through the present facilities, followed by a slide presentation that will fill you in on the renovation’s conceptual design. Athletic Director Jack Kvancz, Senior Vice President Bob Chernak and representatives from the GW Office of Advancement will provide an in depth review of the effect that the renovation will have on the Athletic Department and the University as a whole, and will ask for your help in brainstorming how we can raise the additional funds needed to match the Smith/Kogod families’ commitment.

We sincerely appreciate your loyal and generous support over the years and hope that you will be able to join us on the 18^th to learn about this exciting new challenge. Please RSVP to Cara Esposito by September 12 at csavino@gwu.edu or (202) 994-6650, and if you have any questions please give me a call at (202) 994-9005.

GO COLONIALS!

Warmest regards,

Dom Perno

Associate Athletic Director

Athletic Development

www.GWsports.com

Look for a full article on the Smth Center fundraising process later this month.

I spoke to Ray Cella, Associate Commissioner of the Atlantic 10, yesterday about GW’s men’s basketball schedule, and whether it broke any rules as far as the quality of opponents allowed. Although GW is in the second tier of the league and is not supposed to play any out of conference teams ranked below 250 on the RPI, GW will play two: Harvard and Sacramento State.

Cella said he would not comment on any team’s individual schedule, but added the league looks at each team’s schedule after the season ends. Exceptions to the rule can be made, Cella said, in cases such as teams with bad RPIs from last year, but are expected to improve. As far as other criteria for exceptions, Cella said the academic quality of the opponent’s school–a factor Kvancz pointed to in defending the game against Harvard–has no effect on whether the team is worth playing.

Cella said some schools have been punnished for breaking the rule since its inception two years ago, but he would not specify which schools nor what particular punnishment they received.

Terry Shaffer, a 1979 GW graduate, has been named the head coach of the golf team, the University announced. Shaffer replaces longtime coach Scott Allen, who left Foggy Bottom for the University of Pennsylvania this summer. The Colonials begin their season Sept. 12 in the Navy Fall Invitation.

Last week, the Hatchet wrote a story about the golf team’s preparations for the season without a coach.

GW head golf coach Scott Allen is leaving Foggy Bottom to become director of golf at the University of Pennsylvania, where he will coach the men’s team and oversee the women’s team, the University announced today. Since transfering to GW from Delaware in 1990, Allen has been a part of GW’s golf program ever since. He is the winngest coach in the team’s 80-year history (his 1,270 career wins are four times the amount of any other GW coach) and led the team to the NCAA tournament for the time since 1946.

“It is with a heavy heart that I leave GW,” Allen said in a press release. “I’ve spent almost half of my life here as a student-athlete and coach. I’m very proud of what the golf program has achieved over the past decade and a half. I have had the pleasure of coaching a terrific group of golfers at GW, many of whom I now consider my personal friends. I am, and will always be, proud to say that I was a student-athlete at GW and it’s an honor to be associated with my fellow GW student-athletes and this Athletic Department.”

A search for a replacement is underway.

Ronnie Nunn, who played basketball at GW and was inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame in 1997, was demoted from the NBA’s director of officials to Director of Referee Development, according to an NBA press release. Nunn was an NBA referee for 19 seasons, offciating 1,134 regular season games and 73 playoff games, including four Finals games. Bernie Fryar will replace him.

According to the press release:

Nunn, who served as the NBA’s Director of Officials for the past five seasons, will be responsible for the teaching and development of the NBA’s less-experienced referees and the transition of referees from the D-League to the NBA.

New women’s basketball coach Mike Bozeman has hired Kristeena Alexander (from St. Francis), Katie Rokus (from UMBC) and Richard Moore (former head post-graduate men’s basketball coach at Massanutten Military Academy), a press release said.

The Hatchet had previous reported the hirings of Alexander, a former GW player, and Rokus.

The University has raised $1 millon for the renovation of the Smith Center in the last six weeks, Director of Athletics Jack Kvancz said.

Kvancz said he was pleased with the figure so far, but admitted that the rate of donation may drop after the first donors.

The University must raise $10 million in order to receive the promised matching donation of $10 million from the Smith and Kogod families. The remaining $23 million needed for the project will come from the University.

GW women’s basketball coach Mike Bozeman told me Kristeena Alexander, a former GW player who graduated in 2000, will join his staff. Alexander played one season in the WNBA, spent three seasons at George Mason as an assistant coach and last season at St. Francis in the same position (thanks Bob).

At St. Francis, Alexander worked mostly with the team’s guards, her bio on the school’s website says.

Alexander joins Katie Rokus, formerly of UMBC, on Bozeman’s staff, which he said he will fill out in the coming weeks.

I sat down with new women’s basketball coach Mike Bozeman today in his office. I’ll have a full article sometime soon, but one hard news bit that he told me is that Katie Rokus, a former assistant coach at UMBC, will move south to work with Bozeman.

Since officially leaving GW Monday, there has been a lot of speculation as to why Joe McKeown decided to make the move to Northwestern, ranging from looking for a new challenge to a better situation for his son Joey, who is autistic. McKeown told the Hatchet Tuesday night that all the reasons speculated about were accurate.

“I just felt like I had been at GW 19 years and I was very fortunate to have a great run there, but Northwestern came after me and really emphasized the potential for women’s basketball there, being in the Big 10. There were also some excellent schools for my son in the area,” said McKeown, who added that he will encourage the seven incoming players he recruited to GW to honor their commitment.

The 52-year old also said the move had “nothing to do with GW” and that he is grateful to all the people who helped him when things were not going well, mentioning senior vice president for Student and Academic Support Services Robert Chernak and Director of Athletics Jack Kvancz by name. McKeown said that the challenge of rebuilding a program appealed to him and he saw a lot of potential in Northwestern, who is looking to devote more resources to women’s basketball.

“Coaches are a unique breed,” McKeown said. “You look at the challenge there and the things we did at GW and think ‘Let’s see if I can do that somewhere else.’”

When asked what his expectations were for his first season in Evanston, McKeown replied with the humor he has come to be known for. “I didn’t go there to lose,” he said.

Read the full article (updated today), the timeline of McKeown’s 19 years in Foggy Bottom, and Alex Byers’column.