Ringing In a Hoya New Year
Looking ahead to 2021 and shaking off the frustration of Saturday night's loss to Marquette.
After the Hoyas dropped another frustrating game at home, this time to Marquette, 64-60, they’ll have a couple of days to regroup before flying out to the Midwest, where they will take on the Butler Bulldogs (2-5, 1-3 Big East) on Wednesday night.
Wednesday’s performance will be telling. At 1-4 in Big East play, the Hoyas need some kind of spark to re-energize the team and help them snap what is now a three-game losing streak.
To read our game recap from Saturday night’s loss against Marquette, you can go here.
The Week Ahead
As mentioned previously, Georgetown’s next game will be Wednesday night at 7:00 PM against the Butler Bulldogs. The Bulldogs are coming off a 68-60 loss on the road against Seton Hall, and are led by senior guard Aaron Thompson, who leads the team in scoring (17.5 PPG) despite only playing in two games so far this season due to injury.
The Bulldogs lack scoring, just like the Hoyas do, so this could be a grind-it-out type game. Freshman point guard Chuck Harris, from Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C., has been a revelation for the Bulldogs though, and should be a good test for Georgetown freshman point guard Dante Harris.
After that, it’s rivalry time, as Georgetown will travel to upstate New York to take on the Syracuse Orange (6-1, 1-0 ACC), who have dealt with multiple COVID-19 pauses in their season so far. Get a win against the Orange, and that would make this slog of a season much more palatable.
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New Year’s Resolutions
This season has not been anywhere close to fun so far, and while things can still turn around for the Hoyas, it’s hard not to think ahead to 2021 and beyond, with a stellar recruiting class coming in, and hope on the horizon, potentially. So here are our resolutions for the new year, for Georgetown men’s basketball.
Better defending in 2021. For Georgetown to get where it wants to go, the defense simply needs to be (much) better. Coming into Saturday night, Georgetown was giving up 113 points per 100 possessions in conference play, good for 10th in the Big East, ahead of only Marquette, who they lost to, so that mark will be even worse now. Patrick Ewing continues to struggle to get his teams to play defense, and no matter how good the recruiting classes may be, Ewing will not succeed if he cannot fix the defense.
Making the NCAA Tournament next year! OK, we might be getting ahead of ourselves here, but Georgetown will have the talent to compete next year, including a five-star recruit who can really elevate this program’s ceiling in 2021, in Aminu Mohammed. Georgetown will have expectations next season, and a tournament berth should be one of them.
Building another top-30 recruiting class in the Class of 2022, which is technically a 2022 goal, but the majority of the work will be happening in 2021, so work with us here. Georgetown is aiming high in the 2022 class, and is in good standing with several talented prospects, like Tyrell Ward from DeMatha. There’s no reason this team should not bring in 2-3 kids that give it a top-30 ranking next year in the Class of 2022. If Patrick Ewing is going to keep his recruiting momentum going, he needs to bring in another strong class, and the chances of that happening are pretty decent right now.
Bringing in a transfer point guard next season is quickly becoming a priority for next year’s team in 2021. Dante Harris has shown reason to have faith in him for the future, but 5 turnovers against Marquette is concerning, and Georgetown needs to bring in help at the point guard position to protect themselves, in case Harris needs more time to develop.
Playing Jamari Sibley at least 12 minutes per game. Sibley got off to a slow start to his freshman campaign, but has shown promise the last couple of weeks. With his length and defensive ability, Sibley absolutely deserves minutes on this team this year, and in terms of developing him for the future, the more minutes he receives now, the better off he will be for 2021 and beyond.
What are your New Year’s resolutions for the Hoyas in 2021? Drop them in the comments below!
Around the League
Seton Hall (8-4, 5-1) got the road win against Xavier (8-2, 1-2) on New Year’s Eve, 85-68. The Pirates have now won two straight, three of their last four, and six of their last seven.
UConn (4-1, 1-1) beat DePaul (1-2, 0-2), 82-61, in a game that was never really close. UConn star guard James Bouknight had 20 points, while Tyrese Martin chipped in 22 points and 10 rebounds.
Creighton (8-2, 4-1) eeked out a last-second win on the road at Providence (7-4, 3-2) on a Christian Bishop dunk with :00.5 left on the clock. The Friars finished on a 17-6 run, and tied the game late on a Noah Horchler layup, but it wasn’t enough.
Big East standings update:
Villanova (8-1, 3-0)
Seton Hall (8-4, 5-1)
Creighton (8-2, 4-1)
Providence (7-4, 3-2)
Connecticut (4-1, 1-1)
Marquette (6-5, 2-3)
Xavier (8-2, 1-2)
St. John’s (6-4, 1-3)
Butler (2-5, 1-3)
Georgetown (3-6, 1-4)
DePaul (1-2, 0-2)