By DAVID DRIVER
Courtesy of George Washington athletics
After two years at Florida’s IMG Academy (IMG), a preparatory school known for sports training, Jacoi Hutchinson has returned to the DMV to begin his college basketball career.
The guard, who grew up in Laurel, didn’t end up at the signature hoop program in his home state – but Hutchinson, now in his sophomore year at George Washington University (GW), is close by.
After being courted by the University of Maryland’s Terps, along with Virginia Tech and James Madison University, Hutchinson opted to play for the Revolutionaries on the GW campus in the District. He joined the program in time for the second season under head coach Chris Caputo, who joined GW in 2022, after a long tenure as a top assistant coach at University of Miami, in Florida.
“The main thing for me was coach Caputo and the position he had for me in the program,” Hutchinson, who grew up in Montpelier and has family in Laurel, said. “Of course, I wanted to play in front of my family, but another main thing was being part of starting something and leaving my legacy here with other DMV guys, and other guys from the area, and put them back on the map. That stood out for me. I wanted to be part of that.”
Hutchinson was the highest-ranked player on a national scale for GW’s program since J.R. Pinnock committed to GW in 2003. Hutchinson was a Capital Classic All-Star and McDonald’s All-American nominee in 2023.
Now he is back home again.
When GW played at home Feb. 19 against Saint Joseph University, Hutchinson knew many of the spectators.
“My parents, my three sisters, my uncle and teammates from the area,” Hutchinson said, listing off those who attended the game, along with a crowd of 1,810 other fans. At halftime, local players from the same travel club Hutchinson played for as a youth participated in a scrimmage.
In high school, Hutchinson played for the DC Warriors and for DeMatha Catholic, where he learned about Caputo. Caputo was assistant coach when George Mason University (GMU) made its historic Final Four run in 2006. GM is now in the Atlantic 10 and is a GW rival.
“I knew of [Caputo] from Miami, because one of my closest friends, Earl Timberlake, was there at Miami,” Hutchinson said.
Hutchinson helped DeMatha win the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference title in 2019. But after two seasons with DeMatha’s Stags, the guard headed to Florida for his last two years of high school.
“I wouldn’t say it was a hard decision,” Hutchinson said, of leaving DeMatha for IMG. “The hardest part for me was being away from family, since I am very family-oriented. I am all about that. It was like an opportunity … as a kid growing up, you always see those schools playing at the national level.”
While at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Hutchinson was teammates with future NBA players and others now in the Division I level in college, including Noah Batchelor, of Frederick, at the University of Buffalo, and Khani Rooths, who is at the University of Louisville.
As a GW freshman, Hutchinson played in 32 games, with 10 starts. He averaged 27.7 minutes, 7.3 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.3 assists per contest.
In his first 26 games this season with the Revolutionaries, Hutchinson started 13 contests and averaged 24.3 minutes and 6.4 points per contest — good enough to place sixth on the team.
His 62 assists and 36 steals ranked second in each category for GW, which was 17-10 overall and 6-8 in the tough Atlantic 10 Conference following the 79-68 loss at home to Saint Joseph’s on Feb. 19.
Hutchinson played 19 minutes in that game and was held scoreless. “We picked a bad day to have a bad defensive day,” Caputo told Byron Kerr, of Monumental Sports Network, after the game. “You have to do better.”
In a December loss to American University, Hutchinson had his best game of his college career,scoring 20 points. “[Hutchinson] battled, he really battled with his back against the wall; he’s got good spirit and good fight to him,” Caputo told reporters after the game. “He’s a tough dude.”
GW will play in the Atlantic 10 tournament, which begins March 12 at Capital One Arena. The top two teams in the conference in late February were George Mason University and Virginia Commonwealth University, of Richmond.
“We are still playing for a lot,” third-year coach Caputo said.
“That is going to be amazing. Every day I get text [(from family or friends] to remind me to get tickets,” Hutchinson said, of the Atlantic 10 tourney.
HOOP NOTES: Another player from Laurel playing close to home is Josh Odunowo, who is a graduate student at University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) after transferring from Columbia University in New York. He was averaging 11.2 points per contest this season when he missed his first game of the year on Feb. 22 as UMBC won at home 95-91 over New Jersey Institute of Technology. “Josh got hurt in the last game (on Feb. 20 at University of Massachusetts-Lowell) and he could not play today,” UMBC coach Jim Ferry said Feb. 22. “He is just an unbelievable kid.” Ferry was not sure when Odunowo would return to action. The 6-foot-6 forward had made 16 of his last 20 shots from the field, including 10 of the last 11, when he got hurt.
