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Thursday, June 18, 2009 11:07 a.m.

Former Colonial Alexander now at Southern Nazarene

by Dan Greene
Oklahoma-based NewsOK has an interesting feature on former GW men’s basketball player Xavier Alexander, who voluntarily withdrew from the school in January. He is now playing for his former AAU coach at Southern Nazarene, a private Oklahoma university that competes in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.
Alexander remained positive regarding his time in Foggy Bottom, calling it “a great experience” that taught him “to work hard.” The article also goes into his friendship with former AAU teammate Blake Griffin, who starred for Oklahoma this past season and is expected to be one of the first names called at next week’s NBA Draft.
The 6-foot-6 swingman told The Hatchet in January that he could choose from a quartet of NCAA Division I schools, but the NewsOK story explains that he was not given his release from GW until May and thus there were no scholarships left at some of the bigger programs.
Interesting to note that he said in January that he had been talking to Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, North Texas and UNC-Wilmington while he had yet to be released from the Colonials. NewsOK says that the delay in his release prevented him from speaking with schools.
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Tuesday, June 16, 2009 5:09 p.m.

Rivera to Radford

by Dan Greene

Junior Erica Rivera, who had played for GW’s women’s basketball team the past two seasons, has transferred to Radford University, her new school announced today.

The 5-foot-8 point guard started six games this past season and took the floor in an additional 25, averaging 4.1 points, two assists and 1.8 rebounds per contest. Perhaps the most prominent moment of her two-year Colonial career came in December, when her late foul shots carried GW to victory over Troy.

Rivera will now play for Radford head coach Tajama Ngongba, who took over the program last summer after four years in Foggy Bottom under former GW coach Joe McKeown. She was an assistant in the program during Rivera’s freshman year.

Ngongba had an extensive on-court career with the Colonials, holding the GW career scoring record with 2,134 points.

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Thursday, May 7, 2009 5:11 p.m.

Men’s basketball falls short of NCAA academic standard

by Dan Greene

Update, 6:24 p.m.

The GW men’s basketball program failed to meet NCAA benchmarks for eligibility and retention and had one scholarship withheld as a penalty, according to yesterday’s NCAA Academic Progress Rate report.

The penalty was applied to this past season, according to Director of Athletics Jack Kvancz. A University news release said the team’s low score was “due largely to attrition,” referring to the number of players who have left the men’s basketball team. In the four years included in the APR, seven scholarship members left the program.

“We’re fine academically,” Kvancz said. “We have a problem with retention.”

The APR is intended to assess a team’s academic performance in “near real-time” by awarding a point for each student-athlete that remains academically eligible and another point for each that stays enrolled in the school, according to the NCAA Web site. It is evaluated on a per-semester basis and based on the four most recently completed academic years (2004-2005, 2005-2006, 2006-2007, 2007-2008).

Teams receive scores up to 1000, with 925 being the minimum to guarantee avoiding sanctions. GW’s men’s basketball team was one of 43 in the country to score less than 925, receiving a score of 917. The team’s score ranked in the 20th-30th percentile of men’s basketball teams nationwide.

Kvancz said he decided to withhold one scholarship from the program last year because his “best guess was that we were gonna be close” to the 925 mark and that because of that decision, the penalty won’t be assessed for the 2009-2010 season.

Since the spring of 2004, 11 scholarship players have left the men’s team. In a 2008 article regarding the departures of former Colonials Cheyenne Moore and Miles Beatty, Director of Sports Information Brad Bower said the number of players leaving the team in recent years was not uncommon compared to other schools. Bower declined to comment Thursday evening.

Chandra Bierwirth, assistant director of athletics for compliance, declined to comment on this story. Senior Vice President for Student and Academic Support Services Robert Chernak and representatives of the NCAA could not be reached for comment.

Four GW squads received honors last month for earning APR scores in the top 10 percent of their respective sports.

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Thursday, March 26, 2009 5:21 p.m.

Freshman Allbritton to transfer

by Andrew Alberg

Freshman Matt Allbritton, a 6-foot-4 shooting guard from Texas, has announced his intentions to transfer, Director of Sports Information Brad Bower said in a press release Thursday.

“Matt wanted to attend a school that was closer to home,” head coach Karl Hobbs said in the press release. “We wish him the very best in his future.”

Allbritton appeared in nine games last season, averaging 0.8 points, 0.1 rebounds, 0.2 assists and 3.6 minutes per game. He is the fifth player in the last year to leave the team before the end of his senior year (sophomore Xavier Alexander transferred out this season, while Miles Beatty, Maureece Rice and Cheyenne Moore were all dismissed last season.)

Allbritton’s departure opens up a another scholarship for next season and lends more credence to the rumors that Hobbs is actively recruiting a sixth freshman.

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