Ed Cooley kept coming back to the process as he talked on the upstairs practice court inside the John R. Thompson Jr. Intercollegiate Athletic Center this week. So much of the nonconference season for the first-year Georgetown men’s basketball coach is about learning what his players do well and getting them to mesh as a unit. All but two players in the rotation are newcomers, and there is no previously established continuity.
There are victories against Le Moyne, Mount St. Mary’s and American in overtime, plus Saturday’s 88-81 win over Jackson State at Capital One Arena. Those are balanced against a disappointing loss to Holy Cross and a tough road defeat to Rutgers. Kansas State transfer Ismael Massoud, a 6-foot-9 forward, still hasn’t played because of a broken hand, and guard Jay Heath played through turf toe Saturday.
Georgetown trailed deep into the second half against the Tigers in a game that featured 18 lead changes. Jayden Epps led the way with a career-high 34 points to go along with four rebounds and four assists. Dontrez Styles added 22 points, and Heath did a bit of everything with 13 points, nine assists and seven rebounds. Georgetown hit 13 three-pointers and shot 50 percent from beyond the arc.
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Even in victory, it is clear the growth required to achieve Cooley’s ultimate vision is going to take time. He is still evaluating every detail: Who can make plays late? Who can make free throws? What are the best defensive and offensive lineups late in games? Whom can the staff trust defensively? Even the basics, such as deciding who will take the ball out of bounds, merit careful consideration.
“I don’t know if you can [speed up the process], especially with guys in and out the lineup,” Cooley said. “Trying to build that chemistry and consistency. I don’t know if you can rush process. I just don’t think you can do it.”
Putting the pieces of the roster puzzle together has been the first challenge. The Hoyas went 7-25 last season and 2-18 in the Big East, and Cooley essentially started over. Heath, Wayne Bristol Jr. and Ryan Mutombo are the only returners who played in more than one game. So there are transfers and freshmen playing together for the first time, playing for an unfamiliar coach and shouldering the expectations of playing at a program such as Georgetown. Cooley acknowledged all of those challenges that come with restocking through the transfer portal.
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“You have so many teams that don’t have any synergy and continuity right now,” Cooley said. “So you have all these ‘Oh, my bad’ moments. ‘Oh, I forgot this.’ So you see the teams that don’t have those are probably some of the better teams in the country because they have carry-over chemistry and they have continuity among the players.
“We’ve made so many mistakes … that we’ve got to get rid of those moments. A block out here, a missed switch here, transition defense here, a missed screen here. That’s just going to take some time for us.”
At least, at this early stage, Cooley said he believes the Hoyas have an identity. He didn’t know what that would be before the season began, outside certain unimpeachable defensive principles. Cooley likes his team in transition and its shot-making — the Hoyas went into Saturday’s game shooting 46.3 percent from the field, then went out and knocked down 53.7 percent against Jackson State. It’s a small sample size, but no Georgetown team has shot better than 45 percent since the 2017-18 season, and the Hoyas have failed to surpass 42.3 percent the past three seasons. The defense has been average, Cooley said, and the 81 points allowed Saturday did not help after the Hoyas entered the day ranked ninth among 11 Big East teams in scoring defense at 70.2.
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“We still have a lot of guys thinking, and you can see when they’re thinking out there,” Cooley said. “So sometimes when you think, you’re good, and sometimes when you think, you stink. So we’ve got to get rid of the thinking and stinking in order for us to continue to develop.”
Styles explained there has already been positive fruit born from the early adversity. He sees a mental toughness developing, which isn’t a surprise from a Cooley-coached team. Still, the bottom line will be wins and losses.
“The journey is going to be the journey,” Styles said. “There’s going to be ups and downs, so you just got to embrace it. The team is new — new staff, new players. So we’re all trying to jell, but we know at the end of the day we’re trying to win. So we’ve got to do whatever it takes to speed it up as much as possible.”
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