One year ago this week, the return of Ed Cooley to the Amica Mutual Pavilion (the AMP) was the biggest story in college basketball. Media from all over the country were covering it. The Field of 68 set up a live post-game broadcast in Providence. The bars in the downtown area were as busy as St. Patrick’s Day with thousands of fans pre-gaming. The game was nationally televised on Fox, which actually reduced the crowd mics to limit the number of profanities flowing across their airwaves. The game itself was closer than expected, with the Hoyas coming back from a 12-point deficit to briefly take the lead in the final minutes until Devin Carter took over, ensuring an eight-point victory for the Friars. In addition to his 29 points, Carter had three of the best dunks in history of the Civic Center-Dunk-AMP. Besides the game sealing windmill dunk, he had a reverse alley-oop from Jayden Pierre and my choice for dunk of the year, a 70-foot alley-oop from Corey Floyd.
Unfortunately, this year is a little different. Neither the Friars nor the Hoyas are in contention for an NCAA tournamentbid, and both teams have been struggling lately. This will not take away from the fact that it is still a conference game and most people in Friartown still haven’t forgiven Ed for the way he left Providence or the fact that he went to a conference rival.Once again, the game will be played at noon and televised on Fox, and it will be another raucous Friar crowd in attendance. It may not be the same as last year, but it will still be an event.
Georgetown started off 12-2, in no small measure to a non-conference schedule that was among the worst in the country, with their two losses coming to the only two opponents ranked in the top 150 in the country. They then excited the fan base by drubbing Creighton and getting narrow wins over Seton Hall and Xavier at the start of conference play, only to be given a dose of reality with four consecutive losses including a home loss to DePaul, the Blue Demons first Big East win in two calendar years.
One skill Ed has not lost is his ability to utilize the media for his benefit. I don’t mean that as an insult either. In this day where recruiting, managing portal transfers in and out, and NIL fundraising are all affected by the perception of the teams, Ed is a master at putting the spin he wants on situations. Despite only two solid wins on the season, the local and national basketball media have consistently praised the job he has done and created a narrative that Georgetown is back as a national program. A competitive season this year should get the big pocket Georgetown donors enticed to pony up more money, and Ed will keep the media believing in his progress. The interesting part of the season is just about to happen for Ed and the Hoyas. They have 13 games left in the regular season, with no automatic wins, except possibly at home to Seton Hall. The positive is that there’s no 2023-24 Connecticut in the Big East this year, but instead there’s a bunch of good but flawed teams, so most of their games are also winnable.
Ed will convince the students and younger Hoya fans that they are on the right path no matter what happens for the rest of the season, since this year has already produced more conference and season wins. To get the support of the donorswill likely require a winning overall record at a minimum, andpossibly close to a .500 conference record. This is possible but won’t be easy. My preseason guess was a 6-14 conference record, which should be doable, with 8 or 9 wins an optimistic goal. To achieve that would require at least one and probably two wins against the Friars. Jayden Epps has been in and out of the lineup the last few games, and Thomas Sorber missed the game against DePaul. Assuming Sorber returns against the Friars, it will be a matchup of two of the best freshmen big men in the country. Sorber has been a sensation from the first game of the season while Oswin Erhunmwunse has shown rapid improvement over the past two months to become one of the top rebounders, shot blockers, and defenders in the country.
The Friars have their own issues to overcome, regarding both health and execution. On Friday, the Friars played without Bryce Hopkins, Christ Essandoko, Wesley Cardet, and Ryan Mela. Hopkins and Essandoko were expected, but Mela apparently fell ill and was sent home while Cardet was a late scratch due to a knee issue per Kevin McNamara. Despite this, the Friars were competitive for the entire game, with a five-pointhalf-time lead. The second half went back and forth, with the Wildcats prevailing as the Friars missed two opportunities in the final seconds to tie or win the game.
The players and staff should be credited with an outstanding effort despite being short-handed, but it was the manner in which the team lost that became the focus of social media after the game. A number of coaching decisions were called into questions, including substitution patterns and the final plays. I was very upset in the moment in the final seconds as we had the ball out of bounds with five seconds left and Coach English pulled Corey Floyd from the lineup. Floyd and Bensley Joseph were our best players down the stretch, and the only two players capable of either shooting or driving to the basket to win or tie the game. It made no sense then and still doesn’t now. I also would have preferred a taller player like Eli DeLaurier taking the ball out of bounds instead of the 6’1” Jayden Pierre, but English knows his personnel. Unfortunately, these and other issues detracted from the outstanding play of Floyd, Joseph, and Justyn Fernandez, who responded in a big way in his first meaningful minutes of the season.
Going forward, it would be a positive development for the team to take the positives of Friday’s game and three of the four previous games and combine them with late game strategic and execution outcomes for the final 12 games of the conference season. With Cardet and Mela (at least) expected back for the Georgetown game, Saturday would be a great time to start.
Go Friars.
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