Georgetown tipped off the third season of head coach Ed Cooley’s tenure on Monday night, and if past performance is any indication of future prospects, there’s cause for confidence with the Hoyas.
Providence made the NCAA Tournament in Cooley’s third year with the Friars, while Fairfield posted their first winning season in six years during his third year with the Stags.
Georgetown went from nine to 18 wins last season, and the coach is bullish.
“I’m excited about this group for a lot of different reasons. No. 1, the retention of some of our players. Even the players they’ve red-shirted, I think they’ve really grown, developed, have a Georgetown identity,” Cooley said. “And that’s missing in today’s sport, in today’s college landscape, is just carryover and consistency from one year to another.”
The Hoyas had three players average double figures in points per game last season, and while Thomas Sorber and Micah Peavy have moved to the pros, Jayden Epps transferred to Mississippi State. That leaves guard Malik Mack, who’s back for his second season of Big East play: “Your point guard, who is the ballhandler, decision-maker, they have to be as verbal as anybody. And that’s something he has to continue to improve on.”
Cooley has also added guard KJ Lewis from the transfer portal.
“We’ve always had on our better teams an anchor at “two” (shooting guard) on the defensive end, and I think he is in that realm,” Cooley said. “He played a lot of heavy minutes at Arizona but wasn’t ‘the guy’ — and again we’re trying to help him become that and settle into that.”
The Hoyas have upped their nonconference schedule, visiting Maryland while also playing Clemson and preseason No. 25 North Carolina.
“You definitely want to see where you stand against elite teams early on in the season, I feel like coach Cooley did a great job by putting together a great schedule that’s going to challenge us,” Mack said. “Getting to play against those elite teams early on in the season and get to figure out where we are as a team before we go into conference play is something we all look forward to.”
St. John’s was picked to win the Big East in the conference’s preseason poll, while the Red Storm and UConn begin the year ranked in the top five of The Associated Press poll and in the top 10 of the coaches’ rankings.
The Hoyas were picked to finish sixth in the conference, but preseason projections are no match for a team on the rise.
“I expect to be damn good this year,” Cooley said. “I expect us to be tough. I expect us to win. I expect us to make mistakes and grow from it. I expect to be good.”
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