Big East Roster Analysis: Georgetown Hoyas
This is not a team-by-team preview series for the Providence Friars’ 10 Big East rivals, though it’s not far off. What it is intended to be is a look at how each of the 10 rosters is put together for the coming season. There are a lot of new faces and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what each piece brings and how it fits together. I’m sure I’ll be wrong often, but I walk away feeling more informed, and I’m hoping you will, too.
Georgetown Hoyas (see below)
Fans of the Hoyas may be channeling Peggy Lee in asking “Is That All There Is?” after a second straight underwhelming Transfer Portal haul for Ed Cooley. The Hoyas’ roster was in dire need of both talent and experience, but Georgetown brought in only one upperclass transfer – fifth-year Micah Peavy from TCU – along with three rising sophomores, highlighted by Harvard transfer Malik Mack. The Hoyas scrambled this summer to enroll three additional freshmen to fill out the roster, though only one of those appears likely to make an impact this winter.
Cooley is trying to build back the program over multiple cycles since he’s been unable to close on splashy Portal targets, but the problem with that approach is that, in a world of no-sit transfers, it’s hard to retain the productive players you have or are able to develop. Dontrez Styles, for instance, would clearly start this coming season, but he left for NC State soon after Peavy’s arrival. Rowan Brumbaugh and Supreme Cook had uneven seasons last year, but both (particularly Brumbaugh) would be in line for significant minutes on this roster, and yet Brumbaugh has moved on to Tulane and Cook to Oregon. Will the young Hoyas who emerge this in 2024-25 be back after being tapped up by other schools?
Georgetown’s Portal shortcomings weren’t from a lack of being connected to targets. The Hoyas were attached to seemingly every Portal big from Cliff Omoyuri (Rutgers to Alabama) on down but wasn’t been able to land a veteran to complement promising youngsters Drew Fielder and Thomas Sorber. At this point, it seems at least possible that both of them could start. If not, Curtis Williams has a shot at a spot on the wing, which would push Peavy to the four. The 6-foot-5 Williams was a top-150 player in the class of 2023 but didn’t make a mark on a dysfunctional Louisville squad last season, despite playing significant minutes. His offensive game was broken – he was just one of six major-conference freshmen to make no more than 40% of twos and 30% of threes (while playing at least 40% of minutes) and, not surprisingly, several of those players sought fresh starts elsewhere.
Kaiser went from Maryland to Butler; Griffiths from Rutgers to Nebraska; Dual from Providence to Seton Hall. The good news for those, like Cooley, seeking a Williams breakout, is that some of the previous players to hit those lows have had good careers, including Brandon Paul (Illinois), Caleb Love (UNC/Arizona), Jon Deibler (Ohio State), Quentin Goodin (Xavier), Casey Morsell (Virginia/NC State) and Diante Garrett (Iowa State).
With or without a Williams bounceback at forward, the Hoyas will be leaning heavily on Fielder, Sorber and recent addition Julius Halaifonua. Fielder had a promising freshman season as a finesse big capable of stretching the floor, showing flashes of defense at the rim, rebounding and passing while making 41% of 52 3-point attempts. It’s unlikely that he has the requisite quickness to guard Big East fours, which means either a lot of zone defense or that he shares the five with Sorber and Halaifonua.
Sorber is the yin to Fielder’s yang, with a better back-to-the-basket game and a more robust build. Like Fielder, he could be an effective rim protector, but also like Fielder, his movement away from the rim is in question. He’ll need to play in drop coverage in a man-to-man, but his defensive rebounding should be several levels above what Cook provided.
And then there is Julius Halaifonua. For a breakdown on him, allow me to quote Friar Basketball’s Kevin Farrahar, who had a positive review in Part 2 of our recent conversation:
“They got a good one in Julius Halaifonua this week,” wrote Farrhar. “There’s only so much you can learn from highlights, so I try to watch both the good and the bad of incoming players. After seeing about one hundred possessions between playing in Australia last season and in Adidas games this summer, he looked like a 6-foot-11 Georges Niang. He has terrific touch around the rim, using both hands, possesses advanced post footwork, has a soft fadeaway, and can hit from beyond the arc. There’s a reason why Halaifonua was a top-40 player in the class of 2025 before reclassifying this week. He has a world of talent.”
The problem with Fielder, Sorber and Halaifonua is that they are (1) all inexperienced; and (2) at least when playing man-to-man defense, Cooley will have a hard time playing more than one of them at a time. The trio of young bigs is emblematic of Georgetown’s roster imbalance. The Hoyas are short an experienced, ready-to-play wing, and so Cooley will have to juggle his rotation to find the right mix of scoring, defense and athleticism.
We’re deep into this analysis and I haven’t yet mentioned Jayden Epps, who handled a super-high offensive workload well last season (second-highest usage in the Big East) to finish third in the league in scoring average (19.7) but also first in turnovers (3.4). The results were mixed with Georgetown’s offense in league play only 10th of 11 (thanks, DePaul). Epps took 16 shots per game in his 19 Big East games but saw his efficiency sink as his 3-point shot deserted him. He was at 25.5% from deep in league play and is now 30% on 333 college attempts. He does have a jittery drive game full of deceleration that helps him get to the foul line (and he gets fouled on plenty of threes, too), where he made 82%. That conversion rate at the stripe means there may be upside in his 3-point shooting, particularly if the offense can generate some easier looks for him.
Below are players with very high usage as sophomores and more than 50 made threes while shooting worse than 33%. There are some good names there, including NBA players. But, besides Epps, every other player on that list except for Greivis Vaszquez, Dar Tucker and Mike Rosario, shot at least 35% on 3-pointers as a freshman – Epps has been 30% both seasons. If he keeps shooting this much, he’ll need to make those threes for Georgetown’s offense to be competent.
As a coda, I’ll point out that Epps’ sophomore season was a lot like Pop Isaacs (also featured above), whom folks seem very excited about (see my Creighton analysis), whereas there is more skepticism about Epps as a leading man in the Big East.
A big reason for that concern is at the other end of the floor due to how bad the Georgetown defense was last year (321st nationally; last among all major-conference teams behind, yes, even DePaul). Part of that was simply a lack of talent and little rim protection, but some of it was due to the matador defense from the Hoyas guards, including — perhaps especially — Epps, who was able to leverage his feel for the game to nab steals but who didn’t go chest-to-chest with Big East guards to keep them out of the lane.
Mack, who is destined to start next to Epps, began his freshman season at Harvard shooting 24-of-48 (50%) on 3-pointers but, like Epps, shot only 25% in league player. He’s a slight guard (6-foot-1, 170 pounds) and he took on a massive load as a freshman at Harvard – Mack was third in the Ivies in usage and first in assist rate. How well that physique translates to the leap in talent and athleticism will determine whether a Georgetown backcourt of Epps and Mack can survive defensively. Mack has good defensive instincts (eighth-best steal rate in the Ivy), but he’ll be smaller and skinnier than most players he’s guarding. The two of them together should be adept at creating shots for themselves and their teammates, but playing two small guards without true rim protection will come with severe defensive downsides.
Peavy is being hyped up as a Justin Minaya comp, though Peavy’s game and that of the one-time Friar Minaya (now with the Trailblazers) are only vaguely similar. On offense, Peavy is a far superior passer and generates enough offense to be a third or fourth option, whereas Minaya was purely a fifth option. Peavy is great crashing the offensive glass and in transition, which is reminiscent of Minaya. On defense, Peavy is a solid defensive wing with length and activity, but he is not like Minaya, who could guard at a high level from point guard through center while providing backside rim protection. Even if he’s not so much like Minaya, Peavy hast the experience and athleticism on the wing play for which the Hoyas are desperate.
Kentucky transfer Jordan Burks is a lottery ticket wing who could see time due to Georgetown’s lack of depth at forward. He was OK in his spare minutes for the Wildcats last year, showing a knack for finishing inside the arc and rebounding at 6-foot-8, though small-sample warnings apply. Despite being a Kentucky recruit out of high school, the Phoenix native was outside the national top 150 in the class of 2023.
Drew McKenna, Kayvaun Mulready and Caleb Williams are three freshmen who will compete for minutes at guard and wing. McKenna was an early-enrollee “greenshirt” last year who was a top-150 player in the class of 2023 known for his ability to handle the ball at 6-foot-7. Mulready was originally a Cooley commit at Providence and has ported that commitment to Georgetown. A big, physical guard at 6-foot-4, Mulready played at Worcester Academy in a high-level prep league and is a top-75 recruit in the class of 2024. He may be the first guard off the bench. Williams is a borderline top-200 forward out of Sidwell Friends in D.C. It’s a lot of youth and potential, but how ready is it to help with winning this winter?
Georgetown fans (and parents of players) are touting this recruiting class as one of the best in Hoyas history and particularly notable coming off two straight two-win conference seasons.
On its face, it is an accomplishment of sorts, but the accomplishment loses its meaning when one caveats it like that. And part of why Georgetown has closed on freshmen is because upperclassmen transfers don’t want to spend their final seasons playing for the Hoyas. Peavy committed as the vanguard of a Portal class that would inject Georgetown back into relevance after a false start last season; instead, he is just one of two upperclassmen on a roster with seven freshmen and four sophomores. In the final season of the “COVID year,” being this young will make it hard for the Hoyas to get out of the bottom tier of Big East teams.
I can understand why a Georgetown fan would be excited about the upcoming season. There is much more talent than last season, and with new faces come new reasons for hope. But this roster is just too young and the composition doesn’t make sense. I give credit to Cooley for lowering the expectations so much that even an eighth-place finish and a top-100 KenPom rating would be viewed as meaningful progress, but why should such a low standard be permissible for this brand paying this much money to this coach? And maybe more to the point, is such a modest accomplishment even likely?