"I always wanted to go to Georgetown in the first place": Rowan Brumbaugh discusses his commitment to Georgetown

Brumbaugh discussed his commitment to Georgetown in a phone interview on Tuesday night with Hilltop Hoops

If Rowan Brumbaugh had had his way, he never would have left Georgetown. The DC native, who grew up just outside the front gates of Georgetown, was recruited by Patrick Ewing and his staff in 2022, when Brumbaugh was a senior in high school.

Georgetown was Brumbaugh’s top choice. But Patrick Ewing was looking for one high school guard in the Class of 2022, and made his choice when Denver Anglin committed to Georgetown, effectively ruling out Brumbaugh’s chances of landing at Georgetown.

With Ewing out, and Ed Cooley in now, Brumbaugh was given another shot at playing for the school he wanted to end up at all along. After taking a redshirt as a freshman at Texas, Brumbaugh was looking for a better opportunity elsewhere, which led to him transferring from Texas.

Georgetown called shortly after.

I talked on the phone with Rowan on Tuesday night to discuss his commitment to Georgetown and what he is excited for as he gets ready to come back home.

Note: The following conversation has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

How did this process start? When did you decide you wanted to transfer from Texas and when did Georgetown reach out?

In the postseason. I always wanted to go to Georgetown in the first place, but they took Denver [Anglin] before I had the chance to commit.

I had a great year at Texas playing against all those guards [Marcus Carr, Tyrese Hunter, Sir’Jabari Rice] and getting a lot better. After the season it just made all too much sense, after Ewing left, to go play for Cooley. He recruited me out of high school at Providence, and them [Georgetown] being my hometown and needing a point guard, it just made perfect sense.

What did the coaching staff tell you about the role they expect you to take on? Did they discuss your fit alongside Jayden Epps in the backcourt?

When I talk to coaches, I never want them to promise me anything, because then it’s just fraud. Like what if I go in and don’t play well? So I mean, obviously they recruited me to play the point guard position, so I’m just ready to compete and see what happens.

What have your conversations been like with Coach Cooley, dating back to when he recruited you out of high school?

He’s been great. He’s just a real man of integrity and I really respect that out of a head coach. My AAU coach was really high on him too, so it just all made perfect sense.

There’s been a lot made of you growing up in the Georgetown neighborhood. Can you describe the feeling of what it’s like to finally become a Hoya and put on the Blue & Gray?

Yeah, I’m super excited. Obviously the program’s been down for a minute, so I just can’t wait to help rebuild the team and get Georgetown hoops back to what it was.

Are you trying to recruit any players yourself to Georgetown now? What do you think this roster needs now?

I’m helping recruit Hunter [Dickinson], obviously. I know he’s coming on a visit. We’re pretty deep in the backcourt. We definitely need some more shooting, like a knockdown guy. Every team needs one. But the roster looks really good already.

At Texas you had a couple of NIL deals [e.g. Steve Madden, official logo merchandise]. Did NIL play a factor this time around once you were in the portal?

I think my agency will hook me up, but that’s really the least of my worries. NIL is cool and whatever, but I’m more just about being a player, so that doesn’t really matter to me that much.

When you look back on Patrick Ewing’s recruitment of you, and how he essentially chose Denver Anglin over you, does that motivate you at all heading to Georgetown, despite there being an entirely new coaching staff in place now?

I mean yeah, that’s always there, but I play with a chip on my shoulder always. I don’t always play off my emotions, because I feel like it messes my game up. Ewing didn’t necessarily take Denver over me, he just committed before me. Ewing was just going to take whoever committed first, he told me. That’s kind of how that worked.

But man, I’m just really excited. We need a point guard. Obviously this year, playing at Texas, that gave me a lot of motivation just playing with those dudes and killing them in practice every day. I’m ready to go and I’m really excited for the world to see.

During your redshirt year at Texas, what did you work on and how has your game improved?

At the beginning of the year I had a meeting with [Chris] Beard and he told me that I’d play 5-10 minutes per game. Obviously I was limited behind four really high-level, older guards who are 23-24 years old, and I didn’t really want to do that. I wanted to get better and work on my body, so I asked him if I could redshirt. And then just going up against them in practice, watching them and studying them, there’s so many little things that I picked up on. Composure pieces, all types of certain reads, when to shoot, there’s just so many things, little tricks on defense, little tricks on offense. But just mainly playing with so much more composure.

When everything happened with Coach Beard, how did the team handle that situation?

The reason we went so far this year is because we had incredible kids. The guys on the team were old and mature. So obviously it was a ‘What the hell’ type moment, and obviously there were some loose ends to tie up after that, and we were off the cue for a couple of days, especially that Rice game, but we figured it out. We were old, experienced. It didn’t affect us as much as people think.

What are your plans now between the end of your semester at Texas and heading into the summer at Georgetown?

We got like 10 more days here, and then I’m going to drive back to DC. Going to be a long drive. I’ll be in DC, we’ll do summer workouts soon.