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Travis King

Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009 5:45 p.m.

Basketball Media Day!

by Dan Greene

This afternoon the GW men’s and women’s basketball teams both held their media day events, which meant that each team had three or four players sit at tables as reporters walked around to each one before everyone sat down for the big press conference from the head coach. Not very much news typically comes out of these things, but they’re good for getting a pulse on things heading into the season (general update: everyone is excited, everyone is working hard, everyone is ready for the season to start) and getting to know some of the players.

But before we get into all of that, people had some questions they wanted asked. Here are your answers:

  • Redshirt junior Travis King was, unfortunately, not made available to the media. But! At the open practice event a few weeks ago, King said he is “100 percent, ready to go.”
  • Junior Joseph Katuka was the only of the three big men at the event, but he said his role hasn’t changed, it’s just that he will be playing more. He said that the things being asked of him, specifically rebounding, are the same as before and that having senior Hermann Opoku and redshirt sophomore Jabari Edwards helps because they are all sharing the burden of low-post production.
  • I asked sophomore Tony Taylor about what the players do to foster support and turnout. Besides organized events like the Colonials Run, Taylor said that he and his teammates are all very social and that they try to get friends and other students that they meet to turn out and support the team. As a personal aside, this year’s men’s team does seem to be more extroverted and outgoing than any I have seen before. They should be plenty visible on campus, the freshman class especially.
  • To be honest I forgot to ask about the towel thing, but I’m about 99-percent sure they do it to keep track of who is subbing in and out so that every person entering the court has a corresponding teammate leaving it. It’s not a unique practice and, well, it’s not always foolproof either.

For the men, Katuka, Taylor, senior Damian Hollis and sophomore Aaron Ware were made available, in addition to head coach Karl Hobbs; for the women, it was sophomores Tiana Myers and Tara Booker and freshman Danni Jackson, as well as head coach Mike Bozeman. Because the players weren’t there the whole time, I didn’t get a chance to speak with Ware, Hollis, or Booker.

I had a good conversation with Myers, however, who told me about what it was like growing up as a left-handed basketball player when everyone is first taught how to defend righties and being a self-described “military baby,” born in at a U.S. Air Force base in Japan and bouncing around the states until her family settled down in Maryland when she was six.

I met Jackson, who seems like the team’s most-hyped newcomer, for the first time and she seemed pretty comfortable in the media setting despite being new to college basketball. She said she looks to Chris Paul and Dwyane Wade as inspirations for her playing style, explaining that both have the ability to score and shoulder the offensive load but also excel at setting up teammates for buckets. She said she’s looking forward to doing the former for GW this season.

During the men’s time, Katuka told me about how he is heeding the coaching staff’s advice to slow his offensive game down in order to keep it under control and not rush things. He also said he worked on his strength and put on some weight this offseason, laughing when he pointed out that we could look at the media guide and see the increase in his listed weight.

Taylor’s excitement for this season was very apparent as soon as we started talking. He said he has taken on more of a leadership role in his second season and that all of the Colonials have been leaders, making sure the team’s half-dozen freshmen get acclimated to the school and team. He also said he is looking forward to playing in the team’s up-tempo offense this season and that they will have the roster depth to wear opposing teams down.

As far as news goes, that’s pretty much it. There were some other things of interest here or there, but most of that will be covered in Thursday’s Basketball Preview, a six-page section with seven stories and comprehensive coverage of both teams to prepare you for their upcoming seasons. I’m excited to run it, so I hope you’re excited to read it too.

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Saturday, Nov. 7, 2009 4:54 p.m.

Men’s basketball cruises in exhibition

by Dan Greene

With the GW men’s basketball team already leading its Division II visitors, West Georgia, by 33 points as the clock ticked away toward the end of Saturday’s preseason exhibition, redshirt junior Travis King lobbed a pass to leaping redshirt sophomore Jabari Edwards in the paint that Edwards failed to handle and dropped.

On the other end, Edwards rectified his miscue, stuffing a West Georgia layup attempt before breaking back down the court for another offensive possession. The ball again found King’s hands, who in turn again found a leaping Edwards, who this time caught the ball in midair and slammed it down with enough authority and flair to earn a whistle for a technical foul.

It was a visually remarkable play at an unremarkable point in a game that doesn’t count in the standings, but the sight had to be reassuring considering the two players’ physical baggage. Both missed the 2007-08 season due to injury and neither appeared to be operating at full capacity last season, but in Saturday’s 78-44 win, the two logged a half-hour of cumulative court time and contributed to a lopsided victory.

“I thought he raised his level of intensity,” head coach Karl Hobbs said of Edwards. “I thought he made a couple of terrific blocks and he altered several shots, particularly in penetration.”

Five of the Colonials’ six freshmen played 14 minutes or more – injured center Daymon Warren was the lone exception – and newcomer Bryan Bynes led all GW players with 26 minutes of action. The Florida native had eight points and six rebounds to go with two assists and only one turnover, all while often running the offense from the point guard position.

“I thought he was the most composed guy,” Hobbs said. “I thought he played with a little bit more maturity throughout the game.”

Fellow freshman Lasan Kromah led all players with 14 points in the game, hitting two of his five three-point attempts and also chipping in four rebounds.

“Obviously Lasan has a terrific and high basketball IQ,” Hobbs said. “He really has a great feel for the game; he understands the moments and he’s gonna be a terrific scorer for us. I really think he’s gonna be a guy that’s gonna be consistent at putting points on the board.”

With Saturday’s exhibition in the books, GW will now turn its attention to UNC-Wilmington, whom they visit Nov. 15 for their first regular season game. Opening tip is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.

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Wednesday, July 1, 2009 3:45 p.m.

An Afternoon at the Academy

by Dan Greene

This Monday, I stopped by the Karl Hobbs Basketball Academy, an annual camp run by the GW men’s basketball program for children generally between the ages of eight and 15. I talked to a few of the key GW figures involved and watched a lot of kids play a lot of basketball. Here’s my report.

On the third and fourth floors of the Lerner Health & Wellness Center, perched above a normally bustling campus enduring the relative lulls of summer, basketballs pound hardwood with the erratic consistency of corn kernels popping in the microwave as children run about, frantically calling out for one another’s attention. This can only mean one thing, of course: school is in session.

School is, in this case, the Karl Hobbs Basketball Academy, a day camp bearing the name of GW’s head men’s basketball coach and featuring a staff drawing from the school’s basketball program and other members of the local hoops scene. I spent Monday afternoon at the camp, which was in the first day of its second and final weeklong session.

My timing, however, was disappointingly poor: an 11 a.m. arrival meant I missed the namesake’s morning appearance, plus I chose the week when half as many GW basketball players were working the camp as did the first. (I also waited a bit too long to approach Hobbs’s daughter, Rashauna, a soon-to-be senior guard at George Mason and coach in the camp’s 11-to-13-year-old division. By the time I introduced myself, she was making her exit and on her way to class, a fact for which she politely apologized.)

While the camp bears the name of Hobbs, it’s Tyrone Lockhart, the GW men’s team’s director of basketball operations, that runs the show, doling out assignments and directions and overseeing the camp’s staff and attendees. This role requires Lockhart be both basketball coach (“If you bring the ball up, you should be pushing it up.”) and camp counselor (“There’s pizza sauce on the floor. That’s a no-no.”) .

There are several changes in place for the academy this time around: it’s moved a block west from Smith Center to HellWell due to construction and Lockhart has taken the reigns from recently departed former GW assistant coach Darrell Brooks. Much remains the same, however, like many of faces in attendance. Roughly a dozen of the first week’s participants enjoyed the experience so much they stayed on for a second – or, as Lockhart quipped, “their parents couldn’t find a babysitter.”

Though there may be no Coach Brooks, there is a Coach Brooke, as in GW women’s basketball player Brooke Wilson, who sat out her freshman year this past season and retains four years of eligibility. Wilson was one of four current GW basketball players in attendance on this day, along with Joseph Katuka, Travis King and Jabari Edwards from the men’s team.

Their duties alternated between officiating and coaching, at times doing a bit of both. Katuka seemed to comically relish as authority figure over players so small many of them could stand on another’s shoulders and still fall short of looking the 6-foot-10 junior in the eye.

“If someone talks back to me…” Katuka joked, forming a ‘T’ with his hands in the universal shorthand for a technical foul.

But his tough talk seemed to be just that: talk. As a five-on-four fast break unfolded in a game featuring the camp’s youngest division, Katuka was on one knee on the opposite end of the floor, helping the game’s 10th player re-tie his shoe.

Meanwhile, King was at the helm of a squad in the NBA, the camp’s highest level. (The other two are named the A-10 and Big East, respectively.) He said his time on the other side of the player-coach relationship has made him more sympathetic to Hobbs’s plight, as well as helped him “think the game,” which Lockhart says is a key component of the GW players’ experiences.

King didn’t monopolize the power over his team, however. The point guard gracefully ceded the floor during a timeout when one of his players, whose participation was limited by a disability, began pointing out his team’s lack of rebounds and unwillingness to contest shots. King turned to me and smiled.

“My assistant coach,” he said before emphasizing that his players heed their teammate’s advice.

The sheer volume of basketball being played was staggering: for the entire time I was there, the kids were going all-out, exerting endless bounds of energy from start to finish. “They eat a lot of candy,” Wilson explained. Of course.

Wilson, who worked in the 10-and-under league with Katuka, said she enjoys working with the kids and hopes to teach them more than how to make a jump shot or what constitutes a foul.

“We want you to make friends, learn to interact with other people and have fun,” Wilson said. “It’s not just basketball.”

There was a definite positive consensus among those working the camp (“It’s good. It’s fun.”), which may bode well for an upcoming season in which both of GW’s teams will be chock full of youth: a half-dozen freshmen litter the men’s roster, while the women’s team features just one junior and no seniors.

King, for one, doesn’t seem to think it will be much of a problem.

“It’s gonna be fun,” the team’s most experienced guard said, a smile breaking out behind his words. “It’s unusual, but it will be fun.”

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