Beltway Basketball Beat: Georgetown coach confronts past, Hoyas deal with present problems

Dave Preston is an AP Top 25 voter. Read his latest ballot here.

Some homecomings are easier to handle than others. Saturday, when Georgetown (8-11, 1-7 Big East) visits Providence, Coach Ed Cooley takes his new team into the building he coached in for a dozen years (242-153 record with seven trips to the NCAA Tournament). One can only imagine the emotions of a fan base that might still feel jilted after a rare in-conference coaching move.

“Let’s call it what it is, it’ll be an emotional time for all of us, my family,” Cooley said. “I’ll appreciate the opportunity I had there for 12 years. Incredible school, incredible leadership there, they have a great team. But time passes and you move on. It’ll be a little emotional until the ball goes up and then once the ball goes up it’s another Big East game.”

Cooley’s dealing with his present team’s most recent Big East game that saw his Hoyas allow 62% shooting in the first half en route to a 90-66 loss to ninth-place Butler.

“I thought we took 97 steps backward. I thought we’ve had three good weeks of preparation with energy, toughness,” Cooley said after the loss. “For whatever reason, we just didn’t have it today. We couldn’t guard, missed shots, we couldn’t screen.”

The Hoyas allow the second most points per game in the Big East, while ranking ninth in rebounding margin.

“We gotta get better, clearly our defense is absolutely atrocious right now,” Cooley said. “And that’s on me, and I gotta fix it.”

Defense is often the difference in a conference that boasts the defending national champ and No. 1 team in the country (UConn), plus five other schools that are projected to make the NCAA Tournament, according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi.

And in a world where patience is not always a virtue — see DePaul firing Coach Tony Stubblefield after two-and-a-half seasons — there are no shortcuts to building a Big East program.

“I lived it last year. You come in, you take a program over, rebuilding in college basketball these days is hard. And I got no doubt that when we roll in here next year it’ll be different,” Butler Coach Thad Matta, in his second season with the Bulldogs, said after Tuesday’s win. “The thing about him that I admire is that he just keeps coaching.”

He’ll keep coaching Saturday at a place Cooley knows all too well.

Starting Five

Up Top: UConn reigns as the No. 1 team in the nation as well as in my ballot, followed by Purdue and North Carolina. The biggest variance this week has me voting No. 19 Memphis 15th and No. 5 Tennessee 9th (I have NOTHING against the Volunteer state).

Difficult omissions: Iowa State, Colorado State and New Mexico.

Small school shout-outs: Princeton and San Francisco.

Going Inside: Maryland (12-8, 4-5 Big Ten) rallied on the road Wednesday night to beat Iowa 69-67. Jahmir Young (22 points) scored the game-winning layup with 1.5 seconds left to snap the losing streak at two while the Terps’ best-in-conference defense held the Hawkeyes without a field goal for the final 5:44 of regulation. After starting the season with five straight losses in one-possession games, it was nice to see the snake-bitten Terrapins land on the other side of the very slim margin. And while a loss would have dropped Maryland into 12th place in the Big Ten, a victory puts them one win out of fourth/fifth place in the conference with plenty of basketball to play.

Perimeter Play: Richmond (14-5, 6-0 Atlantic 10) may have made the NCAA Tournament just two years ago thanks to winning the A-10 Tournament, but this is Coach Chris Mooney’s best team since the Spiders went 24-7 during the pandemic year (and were a likely at-large candidate). And just like a spider’s web is difficult to escape, these Spiders rank second in the Atlantic 10 in scoring defense as well as stopping the three. Wednesday, they held the conference’s highest scoring offense (George Washington) to 38% shooting and 9-29 from three-point range. And in today’s transfer portal world, it doesn’t hurt to hit on an incoming offensive agent by the name of Jordan King (32 points against GW and 18.3 per game). The former Siena and East Tennessee State (he was all-Southern Conference second team last season) guard plays much bigger than his listed six feet would imply. Saturday, the Spiders duel with fellow unbeaten in the A-10 Dayton (ranked No. 16 in this week’s AP Poll) for first place in the conference.

Who’s Open: Towson (11-8, 4-2 CAA) has a chance to make some heads turn Thursday evening as the Tigers take on conference-leading Drexel (14-6 with a win over then-No. 18 Villanova and 7-0 in league play). It’s a matchup of the top two defensive teams in the league (Dragons lead the CAA in scoring defense and rebounding margin while the Tigers are second in both categories and tops at defending the three). Coach Pat Skerry’s team is 8-0 so far this season at SECU Arena.

Last Shot: Saturday delivers a doubleheader to the beltway, with Maryland meeting Nebraska (15-5, 5-4 Big Ten) at noon. It’s been a slow build for fifth-year coach Fred Hoiberg (seven wins each of his first two seasons in Lincoln) as the Cornhuskers are in position to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2014 (they’re currently projected to be a No. 9 seed). But they’ve yet to win in the conference on the road this year.

After the Terps and Huskers tangle, it’s a short drive from College Park to Foggy Bottom as George Washington (14-5, 3-3 Atlantic 10) has a 6 p.m. tipoff with La Salle (10-9, 1-5). The Explorers have made the NCAA tournament just once since 1992 but are in good hands with Philly fixture Fran Dunphy (nine NCAA’s in 17 years at Penn, eight in 13 with Temple), who is in his second season with the school.