Happy Holloways: Collin Holloway's Emergence A Big Boost For Georgetown
The sophomore wing from Louisiana stole the spotlight on Tuesday night, carrying his team to a much-needed 91-83 win.
The holiday season might be underway, but it might need to be renamed after the performance put in by sophomore forward Collin Holloway on Tuesday night against Longwood, scoring 23 points on 7-of-9 shooting, along with four rebounds and two assists.
After Holloway willed the Hoyas to a too-close-for-comfort victory, it might be more appropriate for Hoyas fans to wish each other a “Happy Holloways” moving forward.
Jokes aside though, Holloway’s stellar outing was a bright spot in an otherwise rocky night for a Georgetown squad that is still giving up open three’s at an alarming rate and playing with an concerning lack of discipline. Both in the short-term and the long-term, Holloway’s performance is a promising development for a team that could use a scorer off the bench and someone who has a well-rounded game who can pitch in on both ends of the floor.
Holloway might not make many highlight reel plays, but between his outing against Longwood, and the spot minutes he got towards the end of last season, he’s shown himself to be a steady presence on the court who rebounds well and can put the ball through the hoop when given the opportunity.
“Last year he thought he should have played more,” said Georgetown head coach Patrick Ewing after his team’s 91-83 win. “I thought he helped us a lot at the end [of last season], especially in the Big East Tournament. He learned, he slimmed down a little bit. We had a lot more senior leadership last year, but he’s a sophomore now, he’s going to have his opportunity.”
As a freshman, Holloway didn’t get many minutes, only appearing in 10 games and averaging 4.4 minutes per game.
He did however get some run in the Big East Tournament, playing seven minutes against Villanova and eight against Creighton. His stat lines weren’t flashy in those games, but Holloway showed some rebounding ability and good hustle, which has seemingly carried over into this season, so far.
Now, having recovered from offseason foot surgery which sidelined him for the summer and early parts of the fall, Holloway is ready to take a leap and become the player he thought he could have been for this team last season.
“He said, ‘Last year you should have played my ass, we could have won’,” said Ewing, to which Holloway responded with a wry smile and said, “He’s lying.”
Holloway has only played in three games so far this season, but the early returns on his impact on this Georgetown team are extremely promising. Holloway is shooting 69.2% from the field, and his effective field goal percentage of 80.8% leads the team.
He leads the team in scoring per 40 minutes (28.0) and is also averaging five rebounds and two assists per 40 minutes. To go along with that, Holloway leads the team in Player Efficiency Rating (PER) after three games, at 30.6. The next closest player to him is Aminu Mohammed, at 18.8.
“I’ve been injured for about 5 months,” said Holloway after his career performance. “But I’ve just been waiting my turn, working out in the gym every day and just took my opportunity to play and I took advantage of it today.”
Listed at 6’6”, 220 pounds, Holloway’s size, combined with his scoring and rebounding ability, makes him an especially intriguing player for Georgetown when they go small, which they did exclusively in the second half after Tim Ighoefe exited with a hand injury. It’s no coincidence that 18 of Holloway’s 23 points came in the second half, when he mostly played the 4, with Kaiden Rice playing center.
With Ighoefe possibly missing an extended period of time with his hand injury, pending X-Rays which he was set to get on Wednesday, according to Ewing, Georgetown will likely need to rely on its smaller lineups more going forward, as Malcolm Wilson and Ryan Mutombo still work to gain Ewing’s trust.
That puts Holloway, along with freshman forward Jalin Billingsley and Rice, in the spotlight, as those players will need to step up in the frontcourt in Ighoefe’s absence.
As Georgetown works to right the ship both offensively and defensively, Holloway’s emergence gives Patrick Ewing another scorer who also unlocks newfound lineup flexibility that should help Georgetown adjust in the wake of Ighoefe’s injury.
Of course, no one player is going to fix everything that is ailing Georgetown right now, but in a season that has gotten off to a shaky start, Collin Holloway provides hope for Hoya fans both now and in the future.