Georgetown’s third win in nine days a sign of upward mobility for young Hoyas

By Sam Federman (@Sam_Federman)

NEWARK, N.J. — It has been an excellent nine days to be a Georgetown Hoya fan. You haven’t been able to say that for a very long time.

On a freezing cold night in Newark, both outside on the street and inside the Prudential Center, Georgetown followed up wins at Syracuse and at home against Creighton with a 61-60 win over Seton Hall. It marks the Hoyas’ first time winning three games in a row against high-major teams since the 2021 Big East Tournament. It’s the first time since 2015-16 that Georgetown is 2-0 in Big East play.

While this Hoya team still has a ton of questions to be answered, there is some badly-needed proof of concept in year two for Ed Cooley since jumping over to Washington, D.C. from Providence 20 months ago.

Last week, Cooley called the win at the JMA Wireless Dome over Syracuse the biggest win of his tenure at Georgetown. Now, it might rank third.

“It’s very important,” Cooley said of the last nine days. “At that point in time, given the rivalry with Syracuse and going on the road, given the season we came off of, it was a big win, but when you get into Big East play, you don’t even think about non-conference. When you play in this league, it’s a monster.”

Georgetown’s only Big East road win last year was at DePaul, where it would’ve been a bigger story to not win than to win. This version of Seton Hall may not be great, but the Pirates fight tooth and nail to the end, and it’s meaningful to come out on top.

“You go on the road, and it’s 15 below zero outside, 17 below zero inside,” Cooley said, poking fun at the temperature in the arena that had hosted a PWHL game earlier Sunday. “The ball didn’t bounce well because it was so numb. The ball was numb, it was so damn cold in here, but any win is a good win, especially in league play, in particular on the road.”

Without starting guard Malik Mack due to injury, freshman Caleb Williams has slid into Georgetown’s starting lineup for each of the last two games. He’s one of the first dominoes in the new culture that Cooley is building on the Hilltop. Williams scored just eight points, but they all came in big spots. He ended two Seton Hall runs with threes, coming through with rebounding and defense when the Hoyas needed it as well.

In the second half, starting point guard Jayden Epps went down with a leg injury, but fought to come back into the game not once, but twice. He didn’t quite look the same down the stretch, as he’d scored 15 points in a grinder before picking up the injury, but he was available when his team needed him.

While all of those pieces, like Epps, Williams, and TCU transfer Micah Peavy, a two-way wing who stepped in as the makeshift point guard when Epps went down, are important, this team isn’t anywhere close to where it is without Thomas Sorber.

Sorber has changed the trajectory of Georgetown’s program as a true freshman, and in his return to his home state of New Jersey, he delivered a team-high 19 points. He also grabbed eight rebounds and swatted four shots, making his presence felt on both ends. He doesn’t turn 19 until Christmas Day, but Cooley called Sorber “one of the best Christmas gifts (he’s) ever received.”

Sorber has helped Cooley build the program on the face of toughness and interior defense. His length and instincts have made life difficult for opposing offenses, and freed up the rest of the defenders to be more aggressive. After ranking outside the top 300 in defense last year, Georgetown is in the top 50 defensively right now. Sorber’s incredible presence has led the 16th-best 2-point defense in the country.

“My coaches are always telling me to not mind the physicality,” Sorber said. “They tell me before the game that they’re gonna be physical to me because they know who I am, so I just try to keep my head in the game.”

He’s done more than just that, building a case to be an NBA prospect, and helping to build Georgetown back.

“Our brand of basketball is physicality,” Cooley said. “If you’re not physical or tough, you’re not coming to Georgetown. If you’re soft, you’re not going to last long in this culture.”

But while these are important steps that show how far the program has come, Georgetown is still far from where it believes it belongs in college basketball. The Hoyas nearly blew a double-digit lead and survived on the final possession against a 5-8 Seton Hall team.

“We had a lot of young pups out there,” Cooley said. “They peed down their leg a few times. You get one turnover, it turns into two into three turnovers, that turns into offensive rebounds. Those are all energy things.”

But at the end of the day, a win is a win, and Georgetown hasn’t had many of those in the Big East in recent years.

Are the Hoyas a truly great team, or even a good one? That remains to be seen. But in terms of progress and culture, and within the landscape of the Big East this year, Georgetown is good enough.