Blue-Gray Scrimmage Provides Another Sneak Peek at Coming Attractions
With Ed Cooley running the show, both literally and figuratively, Friday night provided some more clues about what Georgetown fans can expect from this year's team
Ed Cooley was the busiest man in DC on Friday night at Georgetown’s Blue vs. Gray Scrimmage event, held at McDonough Arena. He was greeting students and fans, playing MC throughout the evening, spending time with recruits, and coaching up his players.
In a way, it was a little snapshot of just how much work Cooley has had to do in the eight months since his hire to turn around what was previously a downtrodden and dysfunctional Georgetown men’s basketball program. Just like Cooley has been involved with every facet of the operation since his hire, he was just as involved with every part of the scrimmage on Friday night.
Friday night’s scrimmage was the first test of Cooley and the program’s steady and coordinated outreach to the student community since the spring. Cooley and his staff have put a heavy emphasis on student attendance at home games, and with no official Georgetown men’s basketball event on-campus for students to attend prior to Friday, the scrimmage provided the first data point to see how successful the program’s overtures to the students have been so far.
By the time the actual scrimmage began on Friday, there was one section of the McDonough Arena stands mostly full of students (the middle section on the east side of the arena), with the section on the left pretty empty, and the section on the right about 25% full (with a mix of students and non-students). Other students interspersed with alumni and other non-student fans in the stands on the west side of the arena. In total, McDonough was likely around half full.
Best (very rough) guess here for student attendance? I’d estimate about 300 students were there on Friday, with the majority of the crowd consisting of alums (like myself) and normal fans from the community.
For a program that has had the last two seasons that Georgetown has had, they should probably be OK with those attendance numbers! At the end of the day, student support will only markedly increase if this program starts winning again. Until then, they are going to have to work hard to turn out the students and be OK with mediocre attendance numbers to show for their efforts at first.
That’s OK. Rome wasn’t built in a day.
To kick things off, the women’s team was introduced to the crowd, and a moment of silence was observed for the passing of head coach Tasha Butts.
Afterwards, Ed Cooley grabbed the mic and addressed the crowd.
Between his performance earlier in the week on the set of Big East Media Day with John Fanta, and then on Friday as he worked the crowd and played MC, it’s not hard to see why Cooley’s name has been floated for so long as someone who eventually could pursue a career in TV.
His charisma and loquaciousness were on display throughout the night, despite the awful sound quality from the speaker system used in McDonough on Friday.
After a disjointed three-point “contest” (?) that featured members of the men’s and women’s teams facing off against their own teammates one-on-one (The men’s side featured Brumbaugh vs. Epps, and then Fielder vs. Heath), the lights were dimmed and the Blue and Gray teams were introduced to the crowd.
(Side note: Dear Georgetown Athletics, can you please stop trying to make the Hoya Lights app a thing during pregame introductions? Unless you have a sold-out arena, it makes for an awkward spectacle that just highlights empty seats.)
The rosters for the two teams were:
Blue: Brumbaugh, Bristol, Cook, Montgomery, Fielder, Asadallah
Gray: Epps, Heath (injured), Mutombo, Styles, Bacote, Grant, Kazor, Muresan
Here’s what we noticed from the scrimmage.
(Note: I did not take stats of any kind)
Jayden Epps separating himself as the star on this team
After a summer in which Jayden Epps was kept from the public eye during Kenner League due to injury, the hype has been steadily growing for the Illinois transfer and Norfolk, Va. native this fall, highlighted by his 46-point eruption in the Wake Forest scrimmage.
Friday’s scrimmage was Georgetown fans’ first opportunity to see Epps in a public setting, and he did not disappoint. He was head-and-shoulders above the other players on the floor, showcasing not only his ability to get into the paint and score, but also a potentially-improved three-point shot.
Epps hit several deep threes in the scrimmage that had the crowd buzzing. If he can improve on his 30% three-point rate from his freshman season, Epps could be poised for a breakout year. As is, he looks ready to be this team’s starting point guard, and will be expected to shoulder a significant scoring load for this team immediately.
Lack of size was glaring
We knew about Georgetown’s roster depth issues in the frontcourt coming into Friday, but seeing everyone on the floor really highlighted just how small this team is.
Supreme Cook is a tall 6-foot-9, and Ryan Mutombo is a legitimate 7-foot-2 with an impressive wingspan, but outside of those two, this looks like a team that is going to have significant issues on the boards and in the paint against bigger opponents.
Ish Massoud’s absence doesn’t help things either. He provides several things (size, shooting, and veteran leadership) that few other players on this team possess. It really can’t be overstated how impactful his absence will be while he recovers from a broken right hand.
Shooting an issue
Outside of Epps and a few made threes for Rowan Brumbaugh, there was a lot of iron being struck on Friday night inside McDonough Arena, especially in the first half. With how thin they are in the frontcourt, this team could use as many shooters on the perimeter as possible to help score some points. But based on what I saw on Friday, three-point shooting may not be strength of this year’s team.
How Dontrez Styles and Wayne Bristol Jr. fare from behind the arc will factor in heavily to just how successful this team is with its perimeter shooting. The return of Ish Massoud will also help things, too.
Hustle, hustle, hustle
I was struck by how hard everyone was competing, considering it was just a scrimmage. We have heard from Cooley and his assistants about how much they preach work ethic and hustle with their players, and it seems like those lessons have already begun to take hold with this team.
Things like Supreme Cook fighting for every rebound like it was his last and Donovan Grant taking charges in the paint stood out especially to me, for what was supposed to be a friendly intrasquad scrimmage.
Let Supreme Cook
Cook was the other Hoya, besides Epps, that turned my head during the scrimmage. His relentless motor is impressive to see in action, and his athleticism and mobility are something that this roster desperately needs in the frontcourt.
He’s also jacked…so there’s that. Will he be able to hold up against the bigger centers in the Big East? That remains to be seen, but he definitely won’t be any sort of pushover with the motor and drive he possesses.
One thing he showed on Friday that we didn’t necessarily see a lot of in Kenner League is a little 15-foot jumper. He’s shown the ability to score with his back to the basket at Fairfield, but adding any kind of face-up game to his scoring arsenal would be helpful for this Georgetown team.
Mutombo showing something?
While concerns still remain about Ryan Mutombo’s ability on the defensive end, I came away from Friday at least a little optimistic about what Mutombo can provide this team in his junior season, as long as matchups are favorable for him.
While Mutombo has little vertical lift, his touch around the basket is feathery, and his ability to find the ball around the basket, which he’s shown an aptitude for since being a freshman, is still at a high level. His length was a factor defensively at times, and he even blocked Cook once or twice, despite Cook being the more athletic and high-flying of the two.
Mutombo is always going to struggle against faster, more agile centers because of his foot speed issues. But his size and length (he does look to have added ~5 pounds of muscle since last year) is something that no one else on this roster possesses.
Especially with Massoud out, Mutombo is going to see his number called a lot, especially in matchups against centers who are longer and bigger than Cook might be able to handle for a whole game. Friday showed that Mutombo still has things to improve on, but he appears to be moving in the right direction with his development and could be a helpful contributor if put in the right situations by the coaching staff.
Intrigue with Austin Montgomery
Montgomery, the LSU transfer who joins Georgetown as a walk-on this season, didn’t play in Kenner this summer, so Friday was his first time playing in front of a Georgetown crowd. While he didn’t stuff the statsheet or anything, his physique was impressive, and he made a couple of plays that made you take notice of him.
At one point, he made a stepback three-pointer with ease that, if you didn’t know who he was, would have you thinking you were watching a starting-caliber player for this team.
Not sure what role, if any, he will play for this undermanned team this year, but his blend of height, length, and athleticism is not typical of your average walk-on player, in my estimation.
Several priority recruits in attendance
Georgetown had several recruits in attendance on Friday, including 2024 Hoya commit Caleb Williams, who took an official visit to the Hilltop this weekend, as first reported by Hilltop Hoops.
Sitting next to Williams on the sideline were Jordan Smith Jr. (Paul VI/Team Takeover/2026), Jordan Scott (South Lakes HS/VA Elite/2025), and Acaden Lewis (Sidwell Friends/Team Takeover/2025).
When Cooley wasn’t on the microphone cajoling the crowd, he spent most of the scrimmage taking turns sitting next to each player and chatting with them.
Cooley’s interactions with Scott, whose sister, Brianna, plays on the Georgetown women’s basketball team, were especially notable. The two spent a lot of time talking with one another, and seemed very comfortable together.
Williams and Lewis, who play at Sidwell together, spent a lot of time sitting next to each other once Lewis arrived to the scrimmage. Right now, Lewis is the player to watch for Georgetown in the Class of 2025, at least locally.