No one expected to see results overnight. The NCAA Tournament wasn’t what was expected and they didn’t finish in the top six in the Big East.
But it’s safe to say more was expected of Ed Cooley in his first season at Georgetown. In fact, it’s hard to distinguish these defenseless Hoyas from their recent predecessors led by Patrick Ewing.
Only a historically bad DePaul team can save Georgetown from the depths of the Big East. The DePaul team has already waived Tony Stubblefield 18 games into his third season. DePaul was Georgetown’s only win in the league, giving them three points at home.
On Saturday, Georgetown suffered an embarrassing 34-point loss to No. 9 Marquette. This was similar to their recent home loss to Butler by 24 points. They began to show signs of being competitive, losing at home to Seton Hall by four points and losing to Xavier by one point. But these performances have been followed by abysmal efforts.
In fact, Georgetown’s defense is worse than last year. In efficiency, they finished 240th a season ago, but are 301st nationally. The offense is significantly better, ranking in the top 100 in terms of efficiency. Last winter, they ranked 189th under Ewing. They are a terrible defensive rebounding team, ranking 309th in the country in defensive rebounding percentage at 69.4 percent. It is ranked 181st on KenPom. The only schools that are worse are Vanderbilt and, of course, DePaul.
Cooley was supposed to bring honor first. Make Georgetown a team that can continue to deliver signature efforts. Plays tough and physical. That’s not happening.
After taking over, he opted for a traditional rebuild rather than a quick fix, bringing in primarily young players, whether transfers or high school recruits. Next year’s class is ranked 17th in the country, and the team’s best players currently are sophomore Jayden Epps, the Big East’s third-leading scorer, and junior Dontrez Stiles. So while there are legitimate hopes for the future, this was a surprising tactic in an era of name, image, name recognition, and the transfer portal, where first-year coaches were finding immediate success. Rick Pitino (St. John’s), Kim English (Providence) and Chris Beard (Ole Miss) all have teams firmly in the NCAA Tournament lineup.
The bar was incredibly low at Georgetown. The Big East has won two games in the past two years. They have no winning record since the 2018-19 season. Georgetown’s last win in conference play was in 2014-15. Cooley hasn’t changed anything yet in this regard.
I now expect him to turn this once-mighty program around and make Georgetown relevant again, sooner rather than later. When Cooley took over as Providence’s coach in 2011, the Friars had suffered five losing seasons in seven years. He has proven to be able to navigate the transfer portal well and make the most of his talents.
Georgetown fans want to see it for themselves. Because at this point, there isn’t much of a difference between the Cooley Hoyas and the Ewing Hoyas.
rewriting mystery
It’s time for history class. While St. John’s has fallen on hard times, losing five of its past six games and falling back to the NCAA Tournament bubble, there are many ways to look at last year’s team, many of which revolve around Pitino keeping the group together. suggests that it should have been done.
That team, coached by Mike Anderson, went 18-15 and finished eighth in the Big East with a 7-13 record. In the first and second games, they had 2 wins and 14 losses. It’s easy to just blame Anderson and say he did a bad job, but that’s true to some extent. However, the combination of players was also poor, as evidenced by their on-court performance. He was 111th in offensive efficiency for that team, and he was 98th in NET.
Several players have transferred. Some players have had success at the upper major level, most notably AJ Stoll, ranked No. 6 at the University of Wisconsin. But just because the current Johnnys haven’t performed well lately, don’t forget what this team was like last year.
At this time last year, St. John’s University was nowhere near the NCAA Tournament and faced a tough schedule the rest of the year. The opposite is true for this year’s version.
this week’s game
Wednesday, 7 p.m., No. 24 Alabama vs. No. 16 Auburn.
Nate Oats took on Alabama in one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the nation. The move paid off, despite losing five games outside of the league. The Crimson Tide takes part in a tough test of SEC action, with him winning 10 of the past 11 contests and single-handedly leading the league. One of those wins was at Auburn, and although he has a big win at Ole Miss, he still lacks a high-profile win on his resume.
seed:
1: Purdue, Connecticut, Houston, Tennessee
2: Arizona, North Carolina, Marquette, Kansas
3: Wisconsin, Alabama, Baylor, Iowa State
4: Creighton, Illinois, Auburn, Dayton.
stock watch
Up
Tom Pecora
As the saying goes, you never forget how to ride a bike. In Pecola’s case, that means becoming a head coach. It’s been about 10 years since he had his own program, dating back to his coaching days at Fordham. When Baker Dunleavy left Quinnipiac to become Villanova’s general manager, Pecora replaced him. No one could have predicted what would happen next. The Bobcats lead the MAAC at 10-1 with an 18-4 record and are aiming for his first NCAA Tournament appearance in program history. They are within five wins of the school’s most wins since joining the Division I ranks in 1998-99.
Thad Matta
Shaheen Holloway is in contention for the Big East Coach of the Year award. An argument could be made that no one in the league has done a better job than the 56-year-old Butler. Holloway returns at least three top players to Seton Hall. Matta built the team through his transfer portal after his first season with the Bulldogs ended in disappointment. Butler, scheduled to finish 10th in the league, tied for fifth with Xavier, looks like an NCAA Tournament team with elite road wins over No. 9 Marquette and No. 13 Creighton. Transfers Posh Alexander (St. John’s), Pierre Brooks (Michigan State), DJ Davis (University of California, Irvine) and Jahmil Telfort (Northeastern University) have all made an impact.
under
duke
The Blue Devils are a top-10 team in name only. That was on display in Saturday’s loss to No. 3 North Carolina. Duke has lost three games in Quad 3, but its only high-level win came against No. 18 Baylor at The Garden in December. The ACC’s 7-3 record isn’t all that impressive in a conference that is clearly underdogs, especially since they have yet to beat a team in the league’s top seven. This team is still a very talented team, but based on their body of work so far, Duke has a better chance of not making it past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament than reaching the Final Four .
michigan
In November I saw a tournament team. A big, physical group led by a dynamic point guard in Doug McDaniel. Hey, was I wrong? Michigan is having its worst season in decades and is on the verge of winning by single digits for the first time since the 1981-82 season. After building a 15-point lead in the second half, they couldn’t even beat a disappointing Rutgers at home, dropping to an incomprehensible 7-15. It was the latest example of the Wolverines blowing a sizable lead after halftime, a troubling pattern in league play. Embattled coach Juwan Howard said after this latest loss that he might just play walk-ons “because they care.” At least spring football is just around the corner.
