Georgetown Basketball

"All I'm asking this community to do is give us an opportunity to grow, develop and trust. We're going to lose some games. It's OK, losing is part of growth. But over time, it's going to pay off." Ed Cooley, March 22, 2023

Today, 16 teams advance in the NCAA Tournament and Georgetown is not among them. No one expected otherwise.

No one under the age of 40 remembers getting that e-mail announcing how to apply for tickets or where the headquarters hotel was to be in places like Anaheim, Atlanta, or East Rutherford. One thousand or more Hoya fans at tournament sites was common, a point of civic and institutional pride. Eleven times from 1980 through 2007, Georgetown was in that national conversation, none since. Years of institutional neglect created the conditions that brought Ed Cooley to Georgetown a year ago this week, with unanimous support for men's basketball to turn the page from the conditions that led to its fall.

With just one returning starter and the loss of 10 lettermen in the transfer portal, few expected a rapid turnaround, even a year ago. By 2024, we assumed, would there be no doubt Ed Cooley would improve on a record that sent Patrick Ewing into the coaches' version of the witness protection program? If someone had told you in October that Georgetown would do no better, and perhaps even worse, than the previous season, could anyone have imagined it?

In golfing terms, Ed Cooley had to play a mulligan on the first hole.



Twenty-three.

The number 23 was once the Rubicon of men's basketball at Georgetown, where a 23 loss season in 1972 led to the hiring of John Thompson, a number never to return. It's now been matched or exceeded in three consecutive seasons. In the entire decade of the 1980s, Georgetown lost a total of 69 games. In the past three seasons, it has lost 73.

This past season was one where Georgetown had just one win over a team with a winning record, a Merrimack College team that missed three layups in the final four seconds and lost to the Hoyas by two. The Hoyas lost at home to a Holy Cross team ranked 350th of 362 teams, needed a major comeback just to defeat American in overtime, and whose only win of consequence in the non-conference was in overtime to a 20-loss team at Notre Dame.

Georgetown lost 11 of 18 Big East conference games (and the opening round tournament game) by double digits, and narrowly missed going winless in Big East play for a second time in three years, hanging on twice against an DePaul team that had opportunities to tie or win on the final play of each game. For only the second time in 22 years, not a single Georgetown player was named to a post-season Big East team. The other time was, well, last season.

As much as anything, this is what hurts the most about the poor finish of Ed Cooley's debut: this was a carbon copy of last season.

As bizarre as it sounds, the 2022-23 Hoyas actually out shot the 2023-24 Hoyas (42.3% to 41.5%), outrebounded them (36.0 to 31.4) and were a net four points different at season's end in Big East play: 1,368 points vs. 1,364. Patrick Ewing's 2022-23 team lost 18 conference games by an average of 12 points per game. Ed Cooley's team lost 18 conference games by an average of 13. The Kenpom adjusted defensive efficiency ranking for Georgetown slid from 240th in 2022-23 to an awful 330th in 2023-24, and the Hoyas were a combined 1-22 versus teams in the first three quadrants of the NCAA NET ranking. A year earlier? 1-23.

But Patrick Ewing was nowhere to be found in 2023-24. There was no Kevin Nickelberry or Pat Baldwin to blame for player development, and Ronny Thompson wasn't sitting in the basketball office. Ed Cooley and his staff brought in eight scholarship players and 12 new players total, recruited by his staff, coached by his staff, and led by his staff, capable veterans all.

"Nobody was expecting overnight results," wrote the New York Post. "But it's fair to say, much more was hoped for out of Ed Cooley in his first season at Georgetown. Really, it's hard to differentiate these defenseless Hoyas from their recent predecessors under Patrick Ewing."

When all was said and done, Jayden Epps was Primo Spears, Dontrez Styles was Brandon Murray, Ismael Massoud was Bryson Mozone, Supreme Cook was Qudus Wahab, and Jay Heath was... Jay Heath. A bench with five walk-ons, four with no prior Division I experience, offered no relief when Cooley could not land targets in the transfer portal. For a head coach who, after a 81-51 point loss at #6 Marquette, called the effort "an F-minus performance" and offered "I should give my [pay]check back to Georgetown" could not turn this ship around. In the return match with Marquette, Georgetown lost 91-57, its worst home loss since 1971. At one point, the Hoyas were down as many as 42.

"I have to do a much, much better job as a head coach to get our guys connected, to buy into where we're trying to go," Cooley said at the time. "We take five steps forward and 32 steps backwards."

At season's end, there was little else to say. "This has been a very challenging year, an emotional year. I wish I could have done a much better job with them over the course of the 32 games we played," he said. "It didn't turn out the way we wanted, but it's an opportunity for us to grow and get better."

In its last three seasons, and including the Big East Tournament, Georgetown is a completely and utterly unbelievable 1-58 against Big East teams not named DePaul University, 0-19 this past season. Ed Cooley can't fix the past, but he must address the future.

One columnist at 247 Sports has already made an early call on next season, and it's not good. "There's a cavernous gap between Georgetown and the top of the league," wrote Isaac Trotter. "Multiple high-level reinforcements are needed to try to avoid the Big East basement in 2024-25."

All that said, a larger question. How much goodwill did Georgetown use up with the 2023-24 season? And what becomes of that goodwill if significant improvement does not follow?



Seasons come and go. There were 68 teams cheered a week ago at the announcement of the tournament pairings, and 52 of them went home this weekend defeated; soon, 67 of 68 will fall short. For the nearly 300 Division I schools not invited, talk turns to "the conversation" - is your school an NCAA tournament-caliber program? Some certainly are. Some most certainly are not. And for Georgetown, which has one post-season win of any kind in the past nine years, it unfortunately reinforces the program in the past tense. To high school coaches who see where the program has fallen, who recruits who do not know a world where Georgetown wasn't always an also-ran, and to donors who don't see a value proposition anymore, the 2023-24 season was a season that did not move forward. This, as much as anything, is the legacy of the Georgetown coaching staff in 2023-24--never mind the record, they did not change the narrative.

Name, image, and likeness (NIL), which is less about brand imaging and more about what Colorado football coach Deion Sanders casually calls "the bag", was seen as an equalizer, but early returns continue to favor the incumbents: 77 percent of 2024 tournament at-large bids went to schools that have been in the tournament within the last three years, in fact, 50 of the 68 were in the tournament just a year ago. Various recruiting experts posited that Georgetown was not a player in the NIL waters last season but will be this season, but the 2023-24 outcome now makes it less about "We're turning it around, see?" and more about "We're going to turn it around, trust us."

It cannot be overlooked, even if unknown to many Georgetown alumni,, that there is now a transactional element to all this and a lot of players move as the dark money dictates. Impact transfers still want to win, however, and playing on a team that is going place in March still wins out. Cam Spencer is still playing for a national championship at Connecticut; had he gone to Georgetown, he's already out of the discussion.

This season set this effort back across the board, we know that. However, it is more important to communicate in times of trial than in moments of triumph; in either case, it's foreign to many Georgetown basketball supporters who received neither in better days gone by. True to its past, Georgetown has made no comment on the season and what lies ahead, and its last news release of any kind under "Men's Basketball" was after the Providence loss.

Supporters still want to hear from the coach, win or lose. Perhaps a letter like this would have been well received:

Dear Fans:

Thank you for making us feel so welcome over the last 11 months... I want to share some thoughts and feelings about the men's basketball program and where it is headed. I believe that regular communication is essential to success and I am committed to keeping you updated on the growth and development of our program.

Upon arriving... one of my first tasks was to address any negative impressions that had arisen over the last few years regarding our great [University] and the men's basketball program. We have worked diligently to spread the word that men's basketball functions from a foundation of character, dignity, integrity and accountability. These core values must be present for the program's long-term success. Over the last 11 months, we have implemented many changes. The main focus has been teaching our student-athletes what it means to be part of [the University]. This educational process takes time, but we are starting to see positive results and we are optimistic about how the young men are responding.

On the court, the season started with rebuilding expectations...Some early strides in the development of the team gave us momentary hope that our process of rebuilding the program might happen more quickly than expected. While I am proud of the effort and improvements our players have made, my expectation that this season would be a developmental year with its associated ups and downs has remained constant. Our current record keeps me up at night, as I'm sure it does for all fans, but we feel we have instilled the moral values in our student-athletes which will ultimately lead to success on the court.

The key to building upon our core values is to identify student-athletes who are positioned academically and athletically to help us meet our goals. Our program is seeing good results in this area and receiving positive national recognition...

During this rebuilding process, we have received tremendous support from the administration, faculty, staff and fans. Your patience and understanding has been inspirational. I have seen how far we have come and I thank you for your support and dedication.

Sincerely,
Ed Cooley

I didn't write this letter. Ed Cooley did.

This letter was written 12 years ago after his first season at Providence College. [References to "Providence College" and "Friars" have been redacted for the purposes of this article.] It followed a season where, after Keno Davis was fired for a 15-17 record (4-14 Big East), Cooley's first season was 15-17 (4-14 Big East), so perhaps this is familiar territory.

The new coach made his case: "the key to building upon our core values is to identify student-athletes who are positioned academically and athletically to help us meet our goals." He delivered.

One year later, PC advanced to the 2013 NIT quarterfinals. The next season, he led the Friars to the 2014 Big East tournament championship, the first of seven NCAA appearances. This is the promise and hope of what Ed Cooley can bring to Georgetown University.

Cooley was a master at bringing the PC community together, whether they lived in Federal Hill or the Florida panhandle. He is eminently capable of doing the same at Georgetown, if given the opportunity to do so. In the Venn diagram of students, alumni, donors, friends of the University, and the ticket buying public, the message must be clear and continuous: this program will improve, and everyone is needed on board. Georgetown cannot pass up the opportunity to build hope, not simply ignore the discouragement and disinterest that permeates much of its alumni community.



All the support in the world doesn't help, in the aggregate, if the Georgetown Hoyas do not significantly improve in 2024-25. No one should see 9-23 as an improvement over 7-25. If we are back here next year sitting at 11-21 or 12-20, if this team truly ends up in the basement, what then?

At that point, Ed Cooley is out of mulligans.

Unlike his predecessor, college basketball is Ed Cooley's job. He is not content to sit out his contract and be rich as you-know-what while his future earning opportunities deteriorate. No university hired Patrick Ewing after last season because, in part, bad coaching records become tough to shake. No one has hired John Thompson III, either.

In fact, nine consecutive head coaches since 1949 have ended their college coaching careers at Georgetown; that is, they never coached at any school thereafter. Without the progress this program needs in 2024-25 and beyond, Ed Cooley will not stay around long enough to become the tenth. If he cannot win at Georgetown, he will win somewhere else.

After a decade of poor institutional decisions, rebuilding is no easy task, regardless of the coach. But there is precedent. While it becomes all but impossible to replicate the arc that defined John Thompson III's first three seasons at Georgetown from 2004 to 2007 (an NIT bid in season one, then the Sweet 16, then a Big East title and the Final Four), improvement can follow. For all his faults as a coach and administrator, even Ewing elevated the program from 15 to 19 wins in his second season before the revolving door of transfers took hold. But this is not the past. A poor first season, as this surely was, only accelerates the need for Cooley to show progress sooner, not later.

"I promise you we're going to win games," Cooley said at his introductory press conference. "We're not going to win a little. We're going to win a lot."

That's what coaches say at these events, and that becomes the expectation that is set. Georgetown didn't pay the man his salary to say that "We'll do no better than the last season in year one", but now the expectation game is set. Georgetown must improve in 2024-25, not only to send a message, but to steer clear of what awaits them if they do not: more players will leave, more empty seats at games, the annual and NIL support could grind to a halt. This is the unfortunate byproduct of taking over a broken program and failing to show progress at the start: suddenly, the timeline is not your own.

"A lot of teams would throw in the towel," Cooley said at year's end. "It's a credit to the culture that we're building, the DNA of the men, the care of the men, the pride of the men. It wasn't a year to write about, but it's definitely a year to learn from."

Ed Cooley stands at the second hole of the course. It's time for a par.

--JR