Georgetown 64th In Learfield Cup Rankings Georgetown University finished 64th in the Learfield Directors Cup, a measure of post-season performance among Division I schools co-sponsored by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics and Learfield Sports.The finish, down from a 53rd place finish in 2024, is based on a school's participation and progress through 20 NCAA men's and women's championship events. Georgetown scored points with NCAA tournament appearances in soccer, lacrosse, and track and field, but received no points in men's or women's basketball.A total of 303 of 362 Division I teams qualified for some post-season competition in 2024-25. Big East schools include the following 1. Connecticut (63rd, up from 81st) 2. Georgetown (64th, down from 53rd) 3. Providence (87th, up from 95th) 4. Villanova (91st, down from 73rd) 5. Creighton (95th, up from 105th) 6. St. John's (115th, up from 152nd) 7. Marquette (140th, down from 129th) 8. Xavier (203rd, down from 178th) 9. Butler (220th, down from 210th) 10. DePaul (294th, down from 234th) Seton Hall did not qualify for any post-season competition in 2024-25. Georgetown's finishes since 1994 are below.
Peavy Selected In NBA Draft One night removed from Thomas Sorber's appearance on the main stage at the Barclays Center, graduate student Micah Peavy was selected in the second round of the NBA Draft.
ADDITIONAL COVERAGE
A 23 year old from Duncanville, TX who played at Texas Tech and Texas Christian before arriving at Georgetown, Peavy was selected by the Washington Wizards with the 40th pick, but the pick was immediately relayed to the New Orleans Pelicans, who finished 14th in the Western Conference and may give Peavy added opportunity to contribute next season.Hard work and versatility elevated Peavy to the second round. A first team All-Big East selection, Peavy led the Hoyas in scoring, assists and steals last season, and was second to Thomas Sorber in rebounding. His defensive skills were noted in the NBA Combine and scouts like what they saw out of his teamwork on the floor.
Sorber Selected In NBA Draft Thomas Sorber begins the next chapter of his life as a first round NBA draft selection.
ADDITIONAL COVERAGE
The 19 year old from Trenton, NJ was selected by the Oklahoma City Thunder as the 15th selection in the first round in Wednesday's NBA Draft. He averaged 14.5 points and 8.5 rebounds in 25 games before a foot injury sidelined him for the remainder of the 2024-25 season. Despite the injury, NBA teams were ready to draft him in the first round. Sorber is Georgetown's first selection in the draft since Otto Porter in 2013 and becomes the first Georgetown freshman ever selected in the draft.
Sorber's selection is a longer term play for the Thunder, just three days removed from an NBA championship, and with a lineup that is young and deep. With inevitable roster and salary turnover, Sorber would be a prime candidate to join a lineup currently led by the likes of 26 year old Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, 24 year old Jalen Williams, and 23 year old Chet Holmgren.
The only other Big East player selected in the first round was UConn's Liam McNeeley (29th pick by the Phoenix Suns, traded to the Charlotte Hornets). 2025-26 Non-Conference Schedule Finalized A first-ever exhibition at George Washington and five opponents at Capital One Arena round out the 2025-26 non-conference schedule, as posted from the basketball office earlier today.
Home Games At
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Sorber's Big Night
For the first time since 2013, Georgetown University will have a former players selected tonight in the NBA Draft. And for the first time since 2008, a second name in the same evening is likely as well.
Thomas Sorber figures to become the first Georgetown freshman ever selected in the draft, with graduate student Micah Peavy being strongly considered in second round discussion.An article in the Philadelphia Inquirer discusses the commitments Sorber and his family made to commute daily from Trenton, NJ to the Millbrook section of Philadelphia to attend Archbishop Ryan HS.
"Saturday mornings for the Sorber boys, Thomas and Peter, would begin at the park, where their father, also named Peter, taught them how to shoot a basketball. "Thomas would always be crying, because he was so little," [his mother] Tenneh said. "Gradually, Thomas started picking up."
"On the elder Peter's deathbed, he asked Tenneh to keep their sons in Catholic school and playing basketball. She worked two or three jobs at a time, with paychecks immediately going to groceries to feed her growing boys while she sometimes went to bed hungry. She candidly told them she could not also save for college tuition, and that a basketball scholarship would be their path to continuing education. "I tried to keep a good face, because the kids were looking right into my eyes," Tenneh said by telephone last week. "I've got to be strong for these kids, because I was going through a lot."
With the impending closure of Trenton Catholic HS, Sorber transferred to Archbishop Ryan, averaging 18.8 points, 11.2 rebounds, and 4.8 blocks per game. A visit with head coach Ed Cooley sold the family on Georgetown, where his freshman season earned him third team all Big East honors despite losing the last month of the season to a foot injury.
Georgetown's first basketball recruit from Trenton since 1946, Sorber is about to be its first center selected in the draft since Greg Monroe in 2010.
Hibbert: Broadcasting Over Coaching
Also from the Philadelphia Inquirer, former Georgetown center Roy Hibbert commented about the work ethic needed in the NBA, and why he's more comfortable as a broadcaster for CBS Sports network.
"I was a player development associate for the 76ers [in 2019-20]," Hibbert told the Inquirer, "That was the worst year. No accountability whatsoever with that team. So I said, you know what, I don't want to do coaching anymore after experiencing that."The article continues: "Hibbert, a two-time NBA All-Star who played nine NBA seasons including seven with the Pacers, said that star players like Simmons would miss practice without informing the coaching staff, and young players would choose not to participate in conditioning and low-minute games, even though they were required for players who played under 18 minutes the night before."
"If I'm going to invest my time in this, and they don't hold people accountable, it's not the best for me," he said. "So that's why I was done and started doing broadcasting. I currently work at CBS Sports and I [enjoy] talking the game than coaching."
Schedule Update: Clemson
A two year series with Clemson is being reported by basketball columnist Rocco Miller, beginning with a November 15 game at Capital One Arena.
Following only its second Elite Eight appearance in school history, the 2024-25 Tigers set a school record for wins with a 27-7 record, a #22 AP poll finish, and an appearance in the ACC Tournament semifinals before a first round upset in the 2025 NCAA tournament. While Clemson is the only original school never to have won the ACC Tournament championship, it was among the school's best seasons ever.The upcoming season is a complete rebuild in coach Brad Brownell's 16th season, with eight transfers, five graduations, and an NBA early entry candidate in center Viktor Lakhin. Senior guard Dillon Hunter (5.4 ppg) will be joined by six incoming transfers, four freshmen, and two redshirts, with four of the newcomers standing 6-10 or taller.
The teams have met only once prior, a 75-60 Georgetown win in the 2004 Rainbow Classic. A return game at Clemson follows in the 2026-27 season.
Washington Post Continues Its Retreat
Having lost a whopping 25 percent of its circulation over the past year, the Sports, Metro, and Style sections of the Washington Post will be combined into a single section beginning with today's issue.
According to a social media post that said "we are reordering our sections to improve our efficiency", Post Sports will share space with Metro on Sundays and Mondays while Sports, Metro, and Style will appear together the rest of the week. Issues on Tuesday and Friday will be just two sections, other weekdays will run just three."Aside from [a] note to subscribers, there was no announcement to staff, and the outlet has not published any press release or notification on its website," wrote the Washington City Paper, as it reports that the Post's circulation has dropped to just 97,000 in the first quarter of 2025 following owner Jeff Bezos' efforts to restrict editorial content to curry favor with the Trump Administration.
While Sports had shared section space over the years with business news and classified ads, it has been at the front of its own section since the early 1940s, or about the last time circulation numbers were as low. Such was an era where the Post was the third ranked newspaper in a four newspaper town dominated by the Evening Star and the Washington Times-Herald. The Post's acquisition of the Times-Herald in 1954 boosted its daily circulation to 380,000, beginning four decades of growth.
From a peak of 787,000 daily copies in 2001, the Post has been in steady decline during the Internet Age, and was sold by the Graham family in 2013 while daily circulation was just under 500,000. (A section at the Post's web site promoting its recent audience trends has not been updated in over two years.) Its digital subscriptions have not met expectations and has dropped by 60 percent since 2020 while the New York Times (which has all but ended its regular sports coverage) added 250,000 digital subscribers in the first quarter of 2025, and now numbers 11.7 million worldwide.
How low can it go? As of September 2024, year over year declines were averaging 12.7 percent-- the Boston Globe was just over 50,000, the Philadelphia Inquirer 38,200, and the Hartford Courant is under 20,000, inclusive of digital subscriptions.
With less space comes fewer need for staff and ultimately less coverage, particularly in high school and college sports. The Post ended regular staff coverage of Georgetown basketball in the 2022-23 season and to date has relied on freelance or Associated Press coverage. With a section of the DC fan base that does not rely solely on social media to follow the team, the cutbacks further restrict the ability for the University to get timely information to fans and local residents through traditional means.
Schedule Update: Binghamton
The first in a series of guarantee games are coming to the 2025-26 schedule, according to reports.
Columnist Jon Rothstein reported late last week that SUNY-Binghamton will be playing at Georgetown this season. The Bobcats return one of its top eight scorers from last season's 15-17 record (albeit with three wins over Division III teams among the totals). Binghamton finished #311 in the NCAA NET rankings last season.This is the first ever meeting between the schools.
A "guarantee game" is one where a home team will pay an out of town opponent for travel and expenses in exchange for a game without a return required. Georgetown does not disclose the amounts it pays for these games but a pair of guarantee games versus Georgia State and UMBC during the 2019-20 season was reported for fees of $60,000 and $80,000, respectively.
George H. Leftwich (1942-2025)
George Leftwich, a former assistant coach at Georgetown in the 1972-73 season, has died at the age of 83, according to a social media post from Archbishop Carroll High School.
A legendary figure in local basketball circles, Leftwich was the starting point guard on the undefeated Carroll teams from 1958-60 which included John Thompson, Tom Hoover, and Monk Molloy. Leftwich played three seasons at Villanova, averaging 10.5 points per game and leading the Wildcats to the 1965 NIT finals.In 1969, Leftwich accepted but later declined an offer to join the Georgetown program as an assistant coach under Jack Magee, taking an counter-offer to return to Carroll as head coach instead. Three years later, he joined Bill Stein as assistant coaches in John Thompson's first season at Georgetown. Additional stops included Gwynn Park HS, two seasons at UDC (1989-1991) during that university's ill-fated effort to upgrade to Division I, 13 seasons as head coach at Sidwell Friends, and athletic director at Carroll. Leftwich came out of retirement to conclude his coaching career in 2013 to serve as interim head coach at Carroll following the midseason resignation of Reggie Williams (C'87) at the school.
George Leftwich was named to the Washington Metropolitan Basketball Hall of Fame in 2023.
Home Games In 2025-26
With two road games and the two game ESPN Invitational having been announced, attention will turn to a non-conference schedule at home.
Last season's home schedule at Capital One Arena featured teams with a combined record of 102-128 (.443) in 2024-25. Non-conference games downtown drew an average of just 4,612 per game and 3,911 for opponents other than Notre Dame, whose attendance of 8,819 was the third largest crowd of the season.Attracting nationally ranked opponents to Capital One Arena remains elusive. Georgetown's last home game versus a ranked non-conference opponent was December 5, 2015 versus #14 Syracuse which drew 18,231--no opponent has reached this number since.
General ticket information for the 2025-26 season may be found at this link to GUHoyas.com.
Boathouse Project Moves Forward
The longest running on-again, off-again project in Georgetown history is back on again, following an announcement Tuesday to move forward on plans for a University boathouse.
The project, which dates to 1987, has for most of the past 30 years been caught in a bureaucratic web of the National Park Service, which controls the Potomac River shore. Various efforts for Georgetown to acquire space for a boathouse by trading land to the Park Service which it owned upriver have been offered since at least 1995 but was marooned in feasibility studies, environmental impact studies, and third party litigation before any such agreement could be settled. Tuesday's announcement is the most significant move of its kind over the past 38 years."Under the terms of the agreement, Georgetown will donate a parcel of land on the Potomac River to the National Park Service to be added to the boundary of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park," reads a press release. "This parcel includes an easement along the Capital Crescent Trail, which would be extinguished when the land is donated. This will allow for uninterrupted use of the trail by the public. In turn, the National Park Service will transfer administrative jurisdiction of two parcels at the base of the Key Bridge to the District for boathouse development. The District will transfer the site to the west of the bridge to Georgetown University for construction of a University boathouse."
The men's crew team was first founded in 1876, but lacking a boathouse, it eventually ceased operations after 1909, returning in 1958. A women's crew was founded in 1978.
The land in question is the present site of Key Bridge Boats, a canoe rental business located between the northwestern corner of the Key Bridge and the abutment of the former Aqueduct Bridge, built in 1843.
"Georgetown University will provide year-round public access to the docks of its boathouse, allowing community members access to the Potomac River for kayaking, paddle boarding and canoeing, as well as programming to expand access to the sport of rowing among the DC community. This boathouse will also serve as a hub for both the men's and women's Georgetown Rowing teams. The space that the teams currently occupy at Thompson's Boathouse will be freed up for use by other DC-area high school and collegiate teams."
Numerous steps still await a project that has stood on the precipice of progress before, including ANC approval, Commission of Fine Arts and Old Georgetown Board architectural review, DC City Council approval, and any other legal challenges, as was the case in the past. The support of the DC Mayor's office is a welcome sign.
"It will be a tremendous boost to the program and add meaning to the whole experience of rowing at Georgetown," said former crew coach Tony Johnson. "We are grateful and happy."
NCAA Settlement Approved: Now What?
U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken signed off on the settlement in the landmark House v. NCAA case late Friday evening, formalizing a revenue sharing model for major college athletics. Where it goes from here is anyone's guess.
A number of college athletic officials posted messages to its fan bases over the weekend:— Greg Byrne (@Greg_Byrne) June 7, 2025
It's a new day in college athletics.https://t.co/0MLEGkdVav pic.twitter.com/Rnb1xxzqnD
— The ACC (@theACC) June 7, 2025
One source you haven't heard from is Georgetown University. Its last correspondence on the matter was April 17, which announced the sunsetting of the Hoyas Rising collective in anticipation of the settlement. One Big East athletic department has commented publicly, however.
"This case marks a transformative moment in college athletics, with far-reaching implications for every NCAA Division I institution," wrote DePaul athletic director DeWayne Peevy following the settlement. "This is a milestone in reshaping our collegiate sports landscape, and at DePaul we are fully committed to navigating these changes in a way that positions us for long-term success."
The letter acknowledged spending cuts coming to the department, which is the smallest by participation in the Big East with just 232 student athletes. "It required difficult decisions, including operational reductions and identifying new revenue streams," he said.
In what the letter called a focus on "balancing operational efficiency with fan affordability," Peevy announced the introduction of per-seat contributions for DePaul season tickets. The Blue Demons averaged 4,225 per game last season.