For Georgetown, Any Improvement Has to Start on the Defensive End of the Floor

The defensive numbers for Georgetown are ugly so far this season. How much can be fixed between now and March?

As Georgetown develops a new culture and identity under Ed Cooley, one aspect of the program-building that is underway on the Hilltop this season that has been slower to develop has been the defensive identity of this new-look Georgetown program.

Heading into Friday night’s matchup against #6 Marquette, the following is a brief snapshot of Georgetown’s defensive ranks among all Division 1 schools at the moment:

• Opponent PPG: 71.6 (198th)

• Adjusted Defensive Efficiency: 108.7 (281st)

• Field Goal Trips Allowed per 100 possessions: 87.63 (305th)

• Near-Proximity FG Attempts Allowed per 100 poss.: 35.20 (319th)

For comparison’s sake, Georgetown’s AdjD rating on KenPom in the previous two years under Patrick Ewing were 107.8 (240th) in 2022-23, and 105.4 (228th) in 2021-22.

Both marks are better than the current AdjD number of 108.7 for this year’s Georgetown team.

Right now, statistically, the numbers say that this year’s Georgetown defense is worse than that of the last two teams under Patrick Ewing. So how has this team gotten to this point, and how correctable are their mistakes this season?

There’s a lot to fix with this team’s defense right now, but it all starts with one thing: their ability to keep their man in front of them and out of the paint.

Georgetown is allowing 35.20 near-proximity field goals (layup, dunk, or tip-in) per 100 trips upcourt, per Haslametrics. That is 319th in the country. On those shots, their opponents are shooting 60.6%, which is 270th in the country.

The core issue here is Georgetown lacks the defenders to form a strong team defense right now. The backcourt can’t stop opposing guards from driving past them into the paint, and the team lacks the depth and rim protection in the frontcourt to be able to deter those penetrating guards once they get into the paint.

The stats also back this up too. Georgetown’s opponents are averaging 35 points in the paint per game, which is 295th in the country. The percentage of Georgetown opponents’ points that are scored in the paint is 48.9%, good for 313th in the country.

Credit: CBB Analytics

We saw these flaws on display too often during the Hoyas’ 74-64 loss against Butler on Tuesday night.

You’re not going to find me criticizing Jay Heath’s effort this season on account of the turf toe he is battling through, but the fact of the matter is he is clearly playing at less than 100%, and it is affecting him on both ends of the court.

Here, Heath gets screened and isn’t able to recover, and Supreme Cook sticks with Jalen Thomas on the roll, allowing D.J. Davis a free lane to the hoop for a routine layup.

That this Georgetown team needs to rely so much on a hobbled Heath is a reflection of the team’s lack of depth more than anything.

On this play, Jayden Epps is guarding Posh Alexander late in the first half, in the midst of Butler’s 13-0 run that ultimately put the game out of reach for Georgetown.

Alexander catches Epps flat-footed with a hesitation dribble and blows by him with ease. This time, Cook decides to come over and help. However, Thomas slides up to provide an outlet for Alexander, and Wayne Bristol Jr. is a second late coming over from the weakside to help cover for Cook’s rotation, resulting in an easy floater for Thomas.

The lack of rim protection for Georgetown is glaring. Georgetown’s opponents are getting open lanes to the basket far too frequently.

Here, Ish Massoud bites on the pumpfake of Butler freshman guard Finley Bizjack, who is shooting just 25.9% from three this season.

As Bizjack easily gets by Massoud, Drew Fielder, who is guarding Andre Screen, decides to move to the right and go around Screen, rather than under Screen to the left to cut off Bizjack’s drive to the basket.

It’s a freshman mistake, undoubtedly, by Fielder, but a critical one at that point in the game, with Georgetown only down 10 and pushing to cut the Butler lead to single digits.

Ed Cooley has been lamenting his team’s lack of defensive execution for much of the season, specifically their ability to guard one-on-one. He harped on this issue again after the Butler game.

“We were not the team I expected to show up,” Cooley said. “We have to be a lot better guarding the ball one-on-one. We have to be a lot better physically on the ball, and that’s what they [Butler] did well. They drove the ball. They did what they do.”

In an acknowledgment of his team’s issues keeping the ball in front of them on defense, Cooley has increasingly leaned on a zone defense to try and hide Georgetown’s shortcomings playing man-to-man.

The issue with playing zone is it leaves teams susceptible to offensive rebounds by their opponent. For a team like Georgetown that has enough trouble giving up second chance opportunities to its opponent, that makes using a zone defense much more complicated, because it exacerbates another one of this team’s weaknesses.

Georgetown is currently last in the country in in potential points allowed off of second chances to an average opponent, according to Haslametrics. Average opponents are converting 9.5% of all second-chance opportunities, according to Haslametrics, which is ranked 359th in the country.

The Hoyas’ opponents are averaging 11.8 offensive rebounds per game against Georgetown, which is 294th in the country.

We see the problems this team has with playing in a zone here.

Alexander (shooting 21.4% from three this season) launches a three, which is a result that Georgetown should be happy with, but Pierre Brooks is left wide open in the heart of the paint to get the offensive putback.

When watching clips like the one above, it’s clear that some of these defensive miscues are effort-related, and should be relatively fixable in a shorter period of time.

This team must commit to a more physical style of basketball on both ends of the floor, and based on Ed Cooley’s track record, that identity will come, with time.

The greater concern for this season’s team that could limit just how much defensive improvement we see between now and March is the personnel.

Heath is playing hurt, Epps is undersized for his position, and Rowan Brumbaugh, while showing promise defensively, needs to add a few more pounds of muscle this offseason to be able to hold up against bigger opponents.

The frontcourt lacks a true rim protector who can help cover up for some of the backcourt’s deficiencies, thus compounding the aforementioned issues about stopping ball penetration.

Hearing Cooley’s comments this season about his own team and seeing how easy it is to score against this Georgetown squad makes you think the top priority for the Hoyas this offseason could be a veteran guard who can defend at a high level and space the floor on the other end for players like Epps, Styles, and Brumbaugh.

With Jay Heath graduating after this year, Georgetown will have a spot in the rotation tailor-made for such a player, and you can expect Cooley and his staff to be aggressive in pursuing a high-end talent that fits the profile of a, say, Devin Carter-type in the transfer portal this offseason.

(No, I am not saying Devin Carter is going to be a Hoya next season… Although keep an eye on one of his teammates that has also played for Cooley…)