With fans back in stands, Jamion Christian looks to lead George Washington basketball to success
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In his third season with George Washington University basketball, coach Jamion Christian has a roster filled with new faces.
Only two players on the roster have ever played a home game in front of fans, Amir Harris and Miles Galley.
The two have played a combined 12 games for GW over the last two seasons.
Every other player is in their first or second season with the Colonials, but coach Christian made it clear that Gally and Harris play a key role in having started the growth of the team’s culture during his time with the team.
“I think those two guys have been great for us culturally.” said Christian. “One of the things when we took the job here we knew we had a heavy build ahead of us. We were excited about that. We brought our staff in from Siena and guys that had been all around, and we were excited about the opportunity of being here at GW.”
In 2019, Christian inherited a 9-24 team that got bounced from the Atlantic 10 tournament in the second round by George Mason after a win over 11-21 UMass.
After two seasons with losing records and a debilitating midseason Covid-19 outbreak last year, the Christian and the Colonials are ready to compete in the A-10 again.
“The additions we’ve made over the last two years I think have put us in a place where we’re going to be a really dominant team and a really tough team to play against.” said Christian.
The one thing standing in their way could be a lack of experience. Despite having multiple second year players, only Amir Harris had played a home game at GW in front of fans due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We’ve really tried to account for that in a lot of ways.” said Christian. “Even today at practice we had crowd noise being pumped in, we’ve tried to bring in the band, we’ve tried to do a lot of different things through the years to account for that.”
In an interview following his first game in front of fans on Monday, big man Noel Brown talked about how different it was to play in front of live fans vs. virtual noise.
“That energy that people bring with them, you could definitely feel it in the building.” Brown told WRGW.
George Washington dominated Division III school Hood College 93-51 despite missing key players Ricky Lindo Jr. and Joe Bamisile.
Despite missing the exhibition, coach Christian said he expects to see him ready for their first regular season game against St. Francis this coming Tuesday.
“Everybody in life right now is day to day, but we’re feeling good.” said Christian.
Sophomore transfer Joe Bamisile is just one season removed from being ranked 74th in his class by Recruiting Services Consensus Index. His first appearance is widely anticipated by the Colonials fans and coach.
“I love Joe. I mean, what a special guy and a special person. He’s a guy that fits GW’s culture as a student and as a basketball player.” said Christian. “He’s an explosive scorer. You know, we talk about how you have to have 3-4 top 20 guys [to compete] within the league and I think he could be that.”
If healthy, Bamisile will get an opportunity to make his first appearance for the team in their season opener at home against St. Francis University on November 9th.
With or without Bamisile, George Washington will be ready. During their Covid-19 outbreak last season, they learned to cope with only having three to four players at practice at once.
“I think what was great for us is that we had to be innovative.” said Christian “How do you practice with three people playing basketball? I was really encouraged with the way we finished the year because we had so much adversity.”
Getting through that patch was not easy, but Christian appreciates what the adversity taught him and his team. “It was difficult, but what an amazing challenge.” said Christian. “I don’t know about you guys, but I love big, big challenges.”
In an A-10 that includes last year’s champion #24 ranked St. Bonaventure and a perennial tournament team in VCU, a new challenge remains ahead of Christian and his team.
It may not be as big as learning to work through the worst of a pandemic, but the new-look Colonials have their next challenge ahead of them this season in the A-10 conference.
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