It’s been a long and dark era for the Georgetown Hoyas. In the past 11 seasons, the team reached the NCAA Tournament just one time. The last win in March Madness for the Hoyas was back in 2015. But there could be some light at the end of the tunnel. In Head Coach Ed Cooley‘s second season in D.C., Georgetown went 18-16, which could have been even better had center Thomas Sorber not gotten injured. It’s basically a new team this season as Sorber and Micah Peavy are gone. Malik Mack is the top returner to go along with six incoming transfers (and no true freshmen). Cooley came in with a promise to restore Georgetown to the national level, but it’s been a slow build. The Big East coaches voted Georgetown to finish sixth, flashing some signs that others see the talent Cooley brought in. The Hoyas are unlikely to win the tournament, but are among the middle-tier teams fighting for third/fourth place. Now it’s time to deliver and bring Georgetown to March Madness.
How Georgetown Can Return to the NCAA Tournament?
Cooley Works His Magic
It took three seasons before Cooley made it to the tournament with Providence in 2014. Back then, few guys entered the transfer portal, putting more pressure on coaches to develop players year-to-year. While Mack and KJ Lewis seemed poised to be the premier duo, evidenced by their selection to the Preseason All-Big East Teams, the rest of the roster, outside of Langston Love, is not so proven.
Outside of Mack, sophomore Caleb Williams is the second returning player that was in the rotation. He started 14 games and averaged just over four points as a freshman. Isaiah Abraham went from top-100 recruit to appearing in just nine games for Connecticut. St. John’s transfer Vincent Iwuchukwu presents a lot of size, standing at 7-1, but failed to make an impact with the Red Storm. DeShawn Harris-Smith went from starting 30 games at Maryland as a freshman to four this past year.
All these guys have either been top recruits at one point and are either still young or just haven’t panned out, yet. Cooley doesn’t need to hit on all six transfers he brought in, but the supporting cast needs to be there for Mack and Lewis.
Stringent Defense
If the new guys don’t figure out how to score, the Hoyas need to pray they can play defense. Even with Sorber and Micah Peavy last season, Georgetown was still 139th in KenPom’s offensive rating (though that was much better than 2024). Hoyas did rank 58th in defensive rating though which propelled them to their winning record. Defense has always been Cooley’s calling card, getting him through some brutal stretches at Providence.
This goes along with Cooley coaching up a few guys in specific roles. Iwuchukwu doesn’t need to score more than six points a game but protecting the paint and grabbing rebounds would go a long way to replace some of Sorber’s production. Abraham and Williams are both 6-7 wings that should have the athleticism to play lockdown defense.
They key here is Cooley getting guys to buy in right away and having them give max effort even when the shots are not falling. Something that might be a challenge with their early games.
Playing the Schedule
Of course nothing on the court matters unless it turns into wins. And there’s no way around it, Georgetown has a tough schedule. Last year, out of 11 non-conference games, only three were against Power-5 schools. The Hoyas went 1-2 in those games against Syracuse, West Virginia, and Notre Dame. Not exactly the current powerhouses. The easy schedule was understandable as Cooley was still trying to build the program up.
This season the task is much tougher. This season, Georgetown has six games they should pencil in as wins. The rest of the non-conference includes Maryland, Clemson, North Carolina, and either Miami or BYU. Out of that group, the Hurricanes were the only ones to miss the tournament. That doesn’t even include Dayton, typically a tough Atlantic-1o opponent. At Providence, Cooley set the bar to making the tournament at 20-22 wins. Even if Georgetown wins 12 games in the Big East (no easy task), and the six gimmies, it would need to pull off a couple big wins at the beginning of the year.
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