Hoyas By the Numbers

What do the numbers tell us about Georgetown so far this season?

With Georgetown almost halfway through their shortened 2020-21 season, we have a large enough sample size of 11 games where we can use numbers to paint a picture of who this team is.

Using data collected from several college basketball statistics websites, here is what we know about Georgetown so far, with 14 games to play (plus Big East Tournament games).

Not a good shooting team.

Georgetown is shooting 41.9% from the field, which is 268th in the country. It gets uglier when you consider that on two-point field goals alone, the team is shooting 46.3%, a terrible percentage considering those include layups. That’s good for 290th in the country.

The Hoyas are a decent three-point shooting team, knocking down 35.4% of their three-pointers this season. It’s scary to think how ugly this season would be if the Hoyas didn’t have the three-ball to help them stay (somewhat) competitive.

The Hoyas do not get to the free throw line much.

Georgetown is 317th in the nation in free throw attempts per game (14.5), a reflection of a team that lacks players who can create their own offense and get to the rim and draw contact.

On a positive note, after a poor shooting start from the charity stripe to start the season, Georgetown has picked things back up, and is hitting 72.5% of their free throws, which is 97th in the nation.

Rebounding is one of their main (only?) strengths

The Hoyas got beat on the boards against Syracuse, 38-32, which was surprising considering they are one of the top teams in the country in rebounds per game, at 42.5 per game, which is 11th in the country.

Jamorko Pickett leads the team in rebounding with 8.7 per game, and Qudus Wahab is not far behind, with 8.1. Malcolm Wilson leads the team in rebounding rate (28.2%), with Timothy Ighoefe (20.4%) and Kobe Clark (20.3%) behind him. Wahab is fourth at 14.9%.

The defense is really bad…but maybe there is hope?

First, the bad: Georgetown is allowing opponents to attempt an average of 64.2 field goals per game, which is 324th in the the nation. Opponents are hitting those attempts at a 41.1% clip, which is 95th. The amount of three-point looks they are giving up isn’t much better, as they are 297th in the country, allowing 25.2 three’s per game.

But there may be hope! Georgetown is actually sixth in the Big East in Defensive Bayesian Performance Rating, per EvanMiya.com, which reflects a team’s true defensive efficiency.

Qudus Wahab is the MVP of this year’s team

Wahab is an incredibly efficient player for this team. He has the top offensive rating among rotation players on the team at 113.8, is third on the team in defensive rating (96.2), has the best BPR on the team (10.6), is second in PER (22.3), and is first on the team in win shares per 40 minutes at .168.

While Wahab still needs to work on reducing his tendency to foul, he is still a huge piece for this team, now and moving forward.

Dante Harris not doing well as starting point guard

After a strong start to his freshman season, Dante Harris has struggled mightily since being inserted into the starting lineup since Jalen Harris took a leave of absence. Harris has the worst offensive rating on the team, and is 11th on the team in true shooting percentage, at 40.5%.

Harris has a BPR of -10.1, which is worst on the team by a mile, and is 11th on the team in PER.

Turnovers have been an issue for Harris since becoming the starter. His 23.2% turnover rate is sixth on the team, but tops among rotation players, as Jalen Harris, Collin Holloway, Malcolm Wilson, Jamari Sibley, and T.J. Berger are the players with worse turnover rates than Harris.

Harris is a good player, and will be fine in the long term, but he has been thrown to the wolves this season with the elder Harris gone, and he looks in over his head right now.

T.J. Berger is a damn good shooter, in a small sample size.

Berger has lived up to his reputation as a three-point marksman coming out of high school.

It’s a small sample size of just nine field goal attempts in 39 minutes, but Berger is leading the team in three-point shooting percentage (50%), true shooting percentage (75.4%), and effective field goal percentage (77.8%).

The kid lets it rip from long distance: his three-point attempt rate of 88.9% is highest on the team by a large margin (again: small sample size).

While the defensive numbers are rough (Berger is the worst defender on the team according to BPR), Georgetown desperately needs a shooter like Berger, and he also continues to display a high basketball IQ, which this team also could use. They have literally nothing to lose by playing him more.

Malcolm Wilson’s numbers show a player who deserves more opportunity

Malcolm Wilson was one of the bright spots in Georgetown’s loss to Syracuse on Saturday night, grabbing three rebounds in seven minutes of action, as well as one block. Despite a lack of strength, the sophomore center plays with poise and high energy, and has a better feel for the game than Timothy Ighoefe at this stage.

His advanced metrics show a player who deserves more opportunity moving forward: his 28.2% rebounding percentage leads the team, and he has a 121.1 offensive rating. He also has 29.5% offensive rebounding rate.

These numbers are really high because he hasn’t played barely any minutes. But it confirms what you see when he is on the court, a player who competes on the boards tirelessly and uses his impressive length to his advantage.

Jahvon Blair is the team’s top offensive threat

While his fellow senior, Jamorko Pickett, may be struggling on offense, Jahvon Blair is more than pulling his own weight this season, leading the team in scoring at 18 points per game, along with 4.5 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game.

Blair leads the team in Points Produced (an estimate of the offensive points produced by a player), and is third in Player Efficiency Rating. His offensive rating of 110.4 is fourth on the team.

Blair has managed to cut down on his turnovers this season, despite playing more point guard when Harris is off the floor. His turnover rate of 13.8% is second-lowest on the team.

Blair has managed to keep scoring at a high level while improving his efficiency in how he gets those points. His 54.7% TS% is fifth on the team, and his 50.6% eFG% is sixth. In addition to the scoring load he carries for this team, he’s also improved as a distributor of the ball, as his assist rate of 21.3% is tops on the team.