There’s a version of this season where the narrative around Georgetown flips fast, where we start talking about the Hoyas like other programs that figure out who they are and start winning real games because of it. Ed Cooley is in Year 3 on the Hilltop, and if his track record at Providence is any guide, this is when things typically click: Year 3 there produced his first NCAA Tournament bid and a top-three finish in the Big East, punctuated by a Big East Tournament title. That team wasn’t perfect but it was tough, connected, and sure of itself—traits that tend to travel in February and March.
This season at Georgetown feels familiar for a reason.
Cooley didn’t inherit a turnkey roster at Georgetown. We all watched the rebuild slog through a painful Year 1 to a very competent Year 2 that was derailed by injury. The arc is unmistakable. Efficiency metrics laid out a stark improvement last season: Georgetown’s defense climbed from the 300’s in November into national top-60 by January at one point, and the overall efficiency gap improved dramatically. That defense also ended up as a top-50 unit in 11 games against top-50 opponents, per Torvik.
You could see that improvement on the floor, too, and the group started to look like it knew what wins in this league actually require. Injuries (particularly to Thomas Sorber) and offensive limitations ultimately cut short any hope of breakout, but that improvement matters because it signals the foundation is real. You don’t backdoor your way into those kinds of defensive gains in this conference.
Now the Hoyas are betting that the guard play, the experience imported from winning places, and just enough competence in the middle can push them to the next level – which may result in Georgetown finishing in the top three or four in the Big East.
It starts with Malik Mack, because almost everything they want to be on offense runs through him. His jump from Harvard to Georgetown last season wasn’t subtle—he played a lot of minutes (209th nationally), averaged nearly 13 points per game, created for others, and did it while adjusting to the speed and length of the Big East. The raw line (12.9 ppg, 4.3 apg, 3.6 rpg) doesn’t capture the full context of being the organizer on a roster that, at times, was figuring it out on the fly. But it does tell you he belongs at this level.
There is a natural growth window for lead guards when they enter a second season in a system: reads tend to be quicker, turnovers tend to drop, and more self-assurance shows up as better shot selection and tempo control. That’s where Mack can take another step because, let’s face it, shooting 38.1 percent from the field again won’t get it done.
Cooley’s best teams have typically been led by ascending point guards. His whole build is designed to amplify them—early offense without panic, multiple handlers to avoid dead possessions, enough shooting threats to keep the floor honest. Mack checks those boxes. And now he has help that should help him scale his game.
KJ Lewis arrives from Arizona as a rugged, multipurpose backcourt partner whose defense and activity translate anywhere, while Langston Love shows up from Baylor with a scorer’s confidence and a shooter’s memory. Georgetown upgraded its talent level in the portal last season even though the pieces didn’t quite fit together perfectly. This season, the Hoyas targeted proven high-major contributors that do fit (on paper, anyways).
Lewis brings length, a frame that lives through contact, and a nose for the ball. Georgetown had a need for a gritty defensive stopper who can apply pressure on opposing ball-handlers and defend the opposing team’s best player. The 6-foot-4, 205-pounder will give you that at the very least in addition to being a reliable ball-handler and positional rebounder.
Lewis, of course, is far from a shooter – he has only made 24.5 percent of his attempts from deep in his career. Love can help make up for that.
The Baylor transfer is there to make sure defenses pay for overloading the ball as a career 38.8 percent three-point shooter, with movement threes and second-side buckets baked in. He’s also a year removed from shooting 48 percent from beyond the arc in 24 games for the Bears on a 2023-24 team that was much more balanced.
Together, they make Mack’s life simpler and should play off each other well.
The other aspect to their additions is that both come from programs that win. Arizona has lived at the top of both the Pac-12 and now Big 12 standings, while Baylor has had guards picked in the first round of the NBA Draft each of the last four years.
This idea of bringing in players from successful power conference programs extends beyond this expected starting duo, too. DeShawn Harris-Smith brings another sturdy guard body from Maryland, where he was one of few consistent bench contributors on a Sweet 16 team. Isaiah Abraham adds a versatile forward defender and immense upside from UConn, and Jeremiah Williams brings power conference experience from Rutgers.
If you’ve watched Cooley’s teams for any length of time, you know how he is not one that is bench reliant. He traditionally works in eight or nine guys but is in the bottom 100 in bench minutes more often than not. But this year’s team appears to give him a little bit more flexibility in that regard. That’s why stacking pieces from winning programs matters. You get guys who know how to make winning plays and warm to the game without hijacking it when they come in.
Given those newcomers plus the return of Mack and 6-foot-7 forward Caleb Williams, there’s a lot for the Hoyas to feel good about on the perimeter. It was as if this roster was built to center around Sorber’s sophomore season holding down the five-spot.
Of course, he was a top-15 pick in the NBA Draft this past June by the Oklahoma City Thunder.
If Sorber had returned, I believe Georgetown would’ve been penciled in as a consensus top-25 team. He didn’t, leaving a massive hole in the middle. Cooley has two ways to solve it: 7-foot sophomore Julius Halaifonua and/or 7-1 veteran Vincent Iwuchukwu, who transferred in from St. John’s after starting his career with USC.
If the Hoyas can find a reliable 40 minutes at center between those two—no fireworks required—everything else has room to blossom.
Halaifonua’s summer with New Zealand’s U19 team was exactly the kind of signpost you hope for from a sophomore big, especially one that was limited to six games as a freshman due to a broken ankle. He put up double-digit points and demonstrated real rim deterrence, showed soft hands on short rolls, and looked comfortable and decisive with the ball on the block.
That’s developmental progress in a FIBA setting that tends to translate—short clocks, physical lanes, and schemed coverages. Halaifonua isn’t projected to turn into a post hub here; you’re asking for a catch-and-finish five who can own the glass and keep shot charts honest. That’s on the table. If he’s “steady,” the guards and wings take care of the rest.
Iwuchukwu might be even more of an unknown in regards to expectations. A former 5-star prospect, Iwuchukwu went into cardiac arrest during a workout the summer before his freshman season with USC. He made his college debut in January 2023 during that freshman campaign but was not a real factor for the Trojans that season for obvious reasons. Since then, Iwuchukwu hasn’t been able to find real footing through 79 career games. The talent is there and Nigeria native has occasionally shown flashes of that despite consistency escaping him.
Cooley’s own history suggests whoever plays center for him doesn’t need to be a star to anchor a top-four finish. At Providence, he won big with lineups where the center’s box score ran modest while his on/off impact was loud—guys that were efficient and embraced the dirty work.
If Cooley is able to get that from these two at Georgetown, the opportunity for a true breakthrough is there in the Big East.
UConn is UConn and St. John’s brings back title equity—those two will be top-10 teams in the country when the preseason AP poll is released. After that? The Big East is a jumble. Marquette and Creighton are reloading pieces, Providence, Villanova and Xavier are recalibrating identities, and the middle is there to be stolen by the team that figures itself out first.
Several national previews have already framed the Big East as “UConn and St. John’s… then a race,” which is precisely where a coherent, veteran guard room can make you money from January on. If Georgetown gets to New Year’s with its defense in last year’s top-50 neighborhood and an improved offense, the odds start to tilt in favor of the Hoyas.
Here’s where the argument becomes less hypothetical. Georgetown’s defensive improvement wasn’t a one-week sugar high last season; it sustained long enough to push them into national relevance. During a 10-1 stretch from late November through early January, the Hoyas actually boasted a top-15 defense in the country, per Torvik – a stretch that included wins over Syracuse, Creighton, Seton Hall and Xavier. It was the level of defense Cooley teams typically play, and the Hoyas maintained it until injuries got in the way.
The offense is where the gains need to show next. That’s exactly why Mack’s incremental leap matters so much. He doesn’t need to win the league in scoring; he needs to massage the game better. More paint touches via pace and early entries. Cleaner targeting of shooters on second sides. Fewer live-ball turnovers. If Mack’s shot selection sharpens—fewer contested twos and a willingness to pass up good shots for great ones—his efficiency climbs even if his usage stays roughly the same.
That’s where Love’s gravity and Lewis’s slashing/defense come in as multipliers. Love’s reputation follows him so defenses will stay home more often. Lewis can toggle matchups, pressure the point of attack, and turn stops into cheap points. Put those together with something from the bench and better offensive rebounding, you get a version of Georgetown that lands in the top third of the Big East offensively without requiring Mack to carry the entire load. It’s balance, finally, with more ways to win when the first plan stalls.
The schedule will give the Hoyas both tests and opportunities. The Big East calendar guarantees a steady diet of Quad 1 games, and Georgetown’s nonconference has a couple of swing games that can accelerate belief inside the building. Cooley’s not afraid of those moments. This roster is designed to exploit them—veterans from places where winning is normal, a point guard on the rise, and a center rotation that doesn’t have to be special so long as it is steady. That’s what makes the top-four projection more than puff. It rests on traits you can bank on, not wishcasting.
Now, look–Georgetown has not won 20 games in a season in over a decade, and only two seasons in that stretch have ended with winning records. There’s always risk in talking yourself into a leap, and there are potential pitfalls. If Halaifonua or Iwuchukwu aren’t ready for 20-plus minutes of reliable basketball, the defense will spring leaks at the rim and the guards will be forced to play down a club. If Mack’s decision-making doesn’t sharpen, the turnover bug will turn winnable games into teaching moments. If the shooting doesn’t rise a couple of ticks, possessions will feel like trench warfare again. Those are real pitfalls.
But weigh it against the other side of the ledger. There’s the potential for a legitimately good defense with proof backing it up, a point guard who handled the jump and has room for more and a rotation fortified with players accustomed to producing on teams with pressure and expectations.
And a coach who has done this exact thing before in this exact league.
In a Big East that’s likely to stratify into two favorites and then everybody else fighting for oxygen, that profile feels like a good way to sneak into third or fourth while other rosters are still figuring it out.
