Senior Patrick Steeves will continue his collegiate basketball career as a graduate student at George Washington University, the senior told The Crimson. Steeves, who did not play a single game his first three years on campus due to a variety of injuries, will step in at a position of need for the Colonials. Men’s basketball beat writer David Freed takes a look at how Steeves will fit in for the 2015-2016 NIT champions, who finished fourth in the Atlantic 10 a year ago.

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From the beginning of the season, Steeves should be an impact contributor for the Colonials. To get a sense for the impact he will make on the team, we can look at three main areas: how he fits into the lineup, how he fits into their style of play, and what the team’s outlook is for next year.

Lineup

Steeves will be a valuable older presence on a young team. The Colonials should have anywhere between seven and nine underclassmen next year, depending how transfers work out. In 2015-2016, George Washington was anchored by its seniors. Four of its top six rotation players will be graduating, including Dartmouth transfer Alex Mitola, who averaged 5.3 points and 1.8 assists for the Colonials.

As a stretch four, Steeves will be a much needed rebounder and distributor for the Colonials. George Washington had only one player average more than three assists a year ago, the departing Joe McDonald. With sophomore Paul Jorgensen transferring, the team’s best returning guard is likely junior Matt Hart, who averaged less than nine minutes a year ago. Steeves showed an ability to handle the ball at times for the Crimson, dishing our four or more assists on five separate outings, and can relieve Hart on the perimeter when the season begins.

On the inside, the Colonials will likely play 6’9” junior Tyler Cavanaugh at one of the two forward positions, with Steeves or junior Yuna Watanabe (8.8 ppg, 5.4 rpg) likely flanking him. Cavanaugh did it all for the Colonials a year ago, leading the team in scoring and rebounding while shooting 50 percent from the field and 42 percent from three, and pairing him with Steeves (46 percent from deep) and Hart (42 percent) would create a potent floor spacing lineup.

Style of Play

Under Mike Lonergan, the Colonials have been a very efficient, if slow-tempo, offensive team. The Colonials ranked just 265th in the nation in Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted tempo metric a season ago, just nine spots better than Harvard. The big difference was in what the teams did with the limited possessions, with the Colonials posting the country’s 23rd best attack, while Harvard ranked just 277th.

The Colonials do their damage by generating quality looks from distance. They don’t shoot that many—only about 20 a game, ranking 220th in the country—but they convert them at a 37 percent clip, a top-60 mark nationally. In 2015-2016, they burned opponents from deep with Cavanaugh and seniors Patricio Garino and Kevin Larson, all of whom shot 42 percent or better from distance on nearly 300 combined attempts.

Steeves fits well into this model. He was able to space the floor consistently for coach Tommy Amaker, greasing the wheels for an offense that struggled to create spacing when playing captain Evan Cummins alongside junior forward Zena Edosomwan. Steeves is an adept cutter who can step back behind the three-point line—his favorite spot is the left corner—with ease, and should be able to replace some of Garino’s contributions to the team.

Projected Outlook

It is difficult to get a sense for how a team will do in May, especially one as dependent on freshmen as the Colonials. The departing senior class (Garino, Larsen, etc.) was one of the most successful in George Washington history, winning 74 games during their last three years on campus and making three postseason tournaments.

The team will have to integrate a lot of new moving parts, which coach Lonergan has not really had to do—Garino, Larsen, and McDonald all played significant minutes since their sophomore years—yet. The A-10 projects to be slightly weaker a year from now, however; while both VCU and Dayton appear ready to take a step forward, St. Bonaventure could easily slide back into the league’s bottom half. Given that turmoil, Steeves could be an integral part of the team’s future outlook, which is as murky as the conference surrounding it.

—Staff writer David Freed can be reached at david.freed@thecrimson.com.