Georgetown Readies Its Pitch to Hunter Dickinson

With a flurry of commitments in the last 48 hours, Georgetown is loading up its roster in the hopes it can convince Hunter Dickinson to be the piece that puts Ed Cooley's team over the top in Year One

It’s been a successful start so far to the Ed Cooley Era at Georgetown. After getting commitments from Jayden Epps, Dontrez Styles, and Rowan Brumbaugh in the last 48 hours, Cooley’s roster at Georgetown is starting to take shape.

With the Hoyas set at the guard position, the center and wing positions now become the focus for Ed Cooley and his staff to address via the transfer portal.

Currently, Georgetown only has one true center on its roster in rising junior Ryan Mutombo, who played sparingly under Patrick Ewing in the last two seasons. That leaves Georgetown needing at least one, if not two, dependable centers for this season’s roster.

Of course, you can’t mention “center” and “Georgetown” right now without mentioning Hunter Dickinson, the All-American center from Michigan who recently announced his entry into the transfer portal. Georgetown is in the running for the former DeMatha star from Alexandria, Va., and a commitment to Georgetown would put the Hoyas immediately in the conversation to make the NCAA Tournament next year.

Georgetown has been very deliberate about how it has lined up its visits and commitments so far, in an effort to woo Dickinson to the Hilltop. With schools like Kentucky, Kansas, Arkansas, Maryland, and even Michigan— where a potential return should not be ruled out yet— also pursuing the 7-foot-1 big man, Georgetown’s new coaching staff knows it needs to put its best foot forward when pitching Dickinson on coming back home to finish out his college career.

The recent flurry of commitments for Georgetown is significant not just because of the influx of high-end talent that is on its way to the Hilltop, but because it puts Georgetown in a better position to market itself to Dickinson and show him that they have the requisite talent to surround him with to augment his game.

It could be argued that Georgetown still needs to add a couple of perimeter shooters to the roster to really maximize Dickinson’s talents if he were to come to Georgetown.

Dickinson’s recruitment this time around is as close to free agency in college basketball as you are going to get. It’s going to take in the ballpark of a seven-figure NIL offer to land him, and all signs point to Georgetown being willing to meet his asking price.

Kansas also appears to be ready to back up the Brinks truck to try and land Dickinson, as reported by Andrew Slater yesterday.

https://twitter.com/Andrew__Slater/status/1645561803701911553?s=20

Based on where Georgetown is as a program relative to its competition— i.e. rebuilding— not only will the Hoyas have to put together a steep financial package to offer Dickinson, but the program will also need to do more to show that it can win big with Dickinson at Georgetown, compared to what Dickinson could do if he joined a Kansas, Kentucky, etc. instead

That’s no easy task.

Dickinson is expected to visit Georgetown’s campus soon, and that is going to be a big turning point in this recruitment, one way or another. A source close to Dickinson indicates that Dickinson is not sold yet on joining Georgetown, and remains open in his recruitment at this stage. Georgetown is going to have to wow him when he visits campus.

Georgetown will not only have to show Dickinson the money, but also prove to him that the roster around Dickinson will be competitive enough to make a run in the NCAA Tournament. That’s why the additions of Epps, Styles, Brumbaugh, and Drew Fielder so far are significant.

It’s anyone’s guess what Dickinson is going to decide right now. It is likely that the highest bidder will be the winner here, but the allure of coming home could win out, or Dickinson could be convinced to return to Michigan, where he could team up with Caleb Love. We will see.