END OF TERM: Final Report Cards for Georgetown

Grades and stats to reflect on the season

Well. It’s over! The last bad season in Georgetown Hoyas history has ended. We are officially good now. And will be forever.

It was a tough year. But our Hoyas (mostly) played hard and refused to quit. It’s time to take a final look at how everyone did. For each, I’ve identified a standout number (both positive and not so positive), what their eligibility looks like and areas for improvement moving forward, either here or elsewhere.

Supreme Cook

32 GP, 10.5 PPG, 57% FG, 6.8 FGA, 57% FT, 4.6 FTA, 8 RPG, .8 SPG, .5 BLK, 1.5 TPG, 27.1 MPG

Good Number: 1.006

Looking at the numbers, Supreme had a pretty good year offensively. His 1.006 points per possession was second-best on the team among active players. He managed to be fairly efficient despite his offensive production peaking a bit in early February before tailing off.

Bad Number: -210

Supreme finishes the year at a minus 210. That means opponents were 210 points better than the Hoyas when he was on the floor. While that is, of course, not a reflection solely on him, it is indicative of his defensive impact. The Hoyas’ team defensive efficiency with Supreme on the floor was 112. That means opponents scored 112 points per 100 possessions with him on the floor. That’s nearly three points worse than the next worst Hoya. His individual defensive rating per EvanMiya was negative, 1.47. That is the third worst among all Hoyas going back to 2010 (as far back as the stats go). The only two Hoyas to have a worse defensive impact than Supreme Cook this season were Kaiden Rice in 21-22, an absolutely insane negative 2.23. And Jahvon Blair, in his sophomore season, at negative 1.87. Defending is obviously a team effort, and a bad defensive team puts enhanced pressure on their bigs, but there is no way around it – Supreme had an all-time bad defensive season. Need more evidence? Supreme’s backup at the five, Drew Fielder, was the only Hoya to have a positive defensive rating this season.

Eligibility: Supreme just completed his fourth full season of college ball after spending the previous three seasons at Fairfield. He is listed as a senior on the Georgetown website but was not recognized at senior night. He has at least one more year of eligibility and possibly two if he wants to take his COVID year.

Areas for Improvement: It has to be defense for Supreme. His offensive game certainly needs work, particularly his hands and feel around the basket, but the numbers (and eye test) show that if he is even average defensively, you can compensate for his offensive limitations. He was clearly thrust into a bit of an unfair role this season, particularly after the Akok Akok departure. Still, he is an outlier for the current game. At 6-9, he’s not quite big enough to play as a true center, and he doesn’t quite have the foot speed or feel to switch onto smaller guys. He compensates against bigger opponents by working hard and absolutely hammering them, but he was not a good help side defender, and he struggled to defend in pick-and-roll, allowing 1.313 points per possession, which is in the 11th percentile in the country. If he is back next season, he needs to be a different player on the defensive end.

Ish Massoud

26 GP, 5.6 PPG, 27% FG, 5.9 FGA, 31% 3PT, 3.6 3PA, 3 RPG, .5 APG, 1. TPG, 22.7 MPG

Good Number: 1

That’s the number of times Ish got engaged this year. Congratulations to Ish and his family!!

Bad Number: …

Look, it didn’t work. There are a lot of numbers that demonstrate what the eye test showed. It was Ish’s worst statistical season but, unfortunately was not too much of an outlier. Coming into this year, I think our expectations were inflated a bit based on his end-of-year form at Kansas State. Starting in the conference tournament and ending in K-State’s Elite 8 loss to FAU, Massoud shot 50% from three, including a 15-point 4-6 performance against Michigan St. in the Sweet 16. Unfortunately, last season, and certainly the end of the year, were the outliers in Ish’s career production. This season, while definitely his worst, is actually somewhat in line with his collegiate career. His usage of 16.3% is the lowest of his five seasons. His effective FG percentage – which adjusts for the fact that a 3-point FG is worth more than a 2-point FG – is the lowest of his career at 39%. He has just never really found his shot, which was a necessity for him coming into the year to be productive. Ed and the Hoyas took a shot on a guy who had operated in a pretty limited role for his first four years of college and tried to see if he could thrive in an elevated role. Who knows if he would’ve been more effective if he hadn’t broken his hand in a secret scrimmage to start the year?

Eligibility: Ish completed his fifth full season of college basketball and has no eligibility remaining.

Areas for Improvement: This serves as a lesson for what to look for in the portal. Especially for a Georgetown team that needs overall improvement. The abundance of the transfer portal can be misleading. For every player who can make a real impact in a new situation, there are probably 5 or 6 (maybe even more) who cannot. We are still in the very early stages of the transfer portal era, and this has only been further complicated by NIL, which gives student-athletes another reason (that has absolutely nothing to do with basketball) to leave one team and join another. It’s not so much the wild west out there but an asteroid field. I would be very particular about what you are looking for. Avoid specialists. Rely on the body of work of a player and not their best or worst. Target all-around players who have proven it at a mid-major level.

Dontrez Styles

32 GP, 12.8 PPG, 43% FG, 10 FGA, 36% 3PT, 4.2 3PA, 5.8 RPG, .8 APG, .6 SPG, .7 BPG, 1.5 TPG, 33 MPG

Good Number: 25.

Trez was a top 25 player in the Big East in nearly every offensive statistical category. His .969 points per possession and 50% effective field goal percentage put him in the conversation for the top 20 most efficient scorers in the Big East this year. He played starter minutes in his first season in the conference and collegiate season. It’s hard not to see his season as a massive success. He went through lulls but proved himself to be a building block piece.

Bad Number: .629.

That’s his points per possession on off-screen action. He needs to improve his efficiency coming off of screens. Unfortunately, that was his most common action this season accounting for 88% of his possessions (which may give an indication of how Ed wants to use him moving forward). In general, he was good at attacking closeouts off of screens and getting to his midrange jumper. He also showed some improvement getting to the rim. If he is able to improve, even slightly, at hitting threes off screening actions, he becomes a completely different player, and the offense opens up entirely. His effective FG percentage on off-screen action (32%) was well below his overall average (50%). It’s really just a matter of getting in the gym and working on it.

Eligibility: Trez just completed his third year of college basketball. He will be a senior next year.

Areas for Improvement: I remain extremely impressed with Trez’s season and his game. He is an extremely solid basketball player, and I am very eager to see how he can improve next season. I’ve mentioned this before, and despite some calling me crazy, I don’t think 50/40/90 or 80 is out of the question. That is a season shooting 50% from the floor, 40% from three and 90 (or 80 percent from the line). And before you again dismiss this completely. That would mean precisely one…ONE…more made three on top of his average this year. I’ll say that again…If he replicates what he did this season, adds just one more made three next year, and raises his free throw percentage, sure, he would be a 50/40 guy and likely in the conversation for all Big East. In fact, this year, in actual games that were played, he was 50/40/90 in 8 games. He achieved this in 25% of his games. His shooting efficiency is what makes this possible, and he has a clear path to get there. No Hoya has even sniffed 50/40/90 on this level of production since Jessie Govan’s last season when he made first-team all-conference.

Jay Heath

32 GP, 8.2 PPG, 35% FG, 7.8 FGA, 34% 3PT, 3.6 3PA, 2.8 RPG, 1.9 APG, 1.3 TPG, 27.7 MPG

Good Number: 1,500

It’s well-documented that Heath surpassed 1500 collegiate points this season. That’s a lot of points and a great accomplishment. 532 of those came at Georgetown, 262 this year.

Bad Number: .829

Jay’s overall points per possession this season are well below expectations and easily the worst of his career. He definitely battled injuries early, but his game took a nosedive this season. His True Shooting percentage, which accounts for the different values of threes, twos, and free throws, was 48%, the first time in his career he dipped below 50%. He just was not efficient, and things snowballed from there.

Eligibility: Jay completed his fifth full season of college basketball and has no remaining eligibility.

Areas for Improvement: With no remaining eligibility, this is less about Jay and more about assessment moving forward. It’s worth looking at what happened to Jay as a defensive player. Heath was not a highly touted defensive player coming out of High School and definitely didn’t shine defensively at BC but during his one season at ASU, he became a very solid on-ball defender. That season, he gave up .824 points per possession, putting him in the top half of the nation. But that doesn’t really do him justice. He allowed .492 PPP defending the ball handler in the pick and roll. That was the 90th percentile. Now, that ASU team was excellent defensively – top 30 in the country and he graded out as the worst defender on that team, but he was still very much a positive on that end, particularly defending the PnR. That was enough to get me excited about his upside as a defensive player at Georgetown, and he unfortunately returned to more of the BC form. Last season, he gave up .988 PPP against, and this season, he gave up .974. Both of those numbers were in the bottom 25% of the nation. Worse than that, his PnR defense fell off just a massive cliff. This season, he was in the 9th percentile in PnR defense, allowing 1.056 PPP. I am not going to speculate on what happened to cause this massive dropoff, and certainly, the Georgetown defensive woes do not fall solely on him. But I would spend some time trying to understand what happened here in the hopes it will never happen again.

Jayden Epps

29 GP, 18.5 PPG, 39% FG, 15.6 FGA, 30% 3PT, 7.2 3PA, 2.4 RPG, 4.3 APG, 1.2 SPG, 3.4 TPG, 34.8 MPG

Good Number: 7

That’s the number of 30-point games Jayden put up this year, including in the final game of the season at MSG. That puts him 5th on the list of most 30-point games by a Hoya, according to the Georgetown Basketball History Project. He’s behind Allen Iverson (13 games) and Jim Barry, Reggie Williams and Mike Sweetney, all with 8 30-point games. Except those are career 30-point games. He did that in one year…Look, it’s a different era of basketball. Scoring is way up. But even so, that’s a remarkable accomplishment.

Bad Number: 16

That’s the number of games Jayden shot below 30% from three. In 11 of those games, he took more than 5 threes. In three of them, he took more than 10. For the most part, he wasn’t disrupting the offense to get his shots up. They very much needed him to take these shots. But they really needed him to make more of them, too. It’s not just a couple of bad shooting nights. He was pretty consistently inconsistent from three. And on that high volume, inconsistency is magnified and exponentially destructive.

Eligibility: Jayden completed his second season of college basketball and has at least two more remaining.

Area for Improvement: His role will need to change. He was asked to be the primary ball handler too much this season. That’s not going to be the role he’s most effective in unless he seriously improves his handling and decision-making. But he doesn’t need to be that. He absolutely has to be more efficient and consistent, particularly in making the three. For two years, he’s been a 30% three-point shooter. In general, that needs to improve significantly because of how important it is to open up the rest of his game. But his efficiency has to be the priority. He averaged 7.2 threes a game. That was third in the Big East behind only Baylor Scheierman and Quincy Olivari. But he was the only player in the Big East to shoot 30% on 5 or more attempts per game. The only other guys who shot came even close to that inefficiency were Trey Alexander (31.5% on 5.4 attempts) and Tristen Newtown (31.9% on 5.3 attempts). Whatever his role is, that is a degree of unreliability from three that massively hurts your offensive rhythm. He’s going to have a choice to make soon, I think. You are a three-point shooter, and the percentage has to be above 35%. Or you prioritize the mid-range and runner and getting to the rim. In that case, the attempts need to be down to 3 per game. Both are potentially viable paths for him, but he’s going to have to decide.

Wayne Bristol Jr.

33 GP, 3.7 PPG, 36% FG, 3.3 FGA, 30% 3PT, 1.7 3PA, 3.3 RPG, .8 APG, .9 SPG, .6 TPG, 20.3 MPG

Good Number: 7

That’s the number of the Hoya’s best 10 lineups based on efficiency margin that includes Wayne this year. That’s a good number. It reflects the role he attempted to play and largely did. A connector, an energy guy who played hard on both ends and gave them good defensive minutes…or tried to.

Bad Number: 62

That’s the number of fouls Wayne committed this year. That’s the 24th most in the BE. Not bad, you say? Well, of the top 30 BE foulers, Wayne committed his 62 fouls while playing fewer minutes than all but three other players and one of those is Drew Fielder. I largely did not have huge issues with how Wayne defended this year, but his tendency to defend with his hands and commit blatant fouls, with really no reason, was disconcerting.

Eligibility: This is really anyone’s guess. He just completed his third full season of college basketball, yet he is listed as a senior. It’s possible he has at least two years remaining, though one would be a grad year.

Area for Improvement: The offensive promise of WBJ just never came. He played well in a fairly limited role. He gave them good minutes and was almost never the reason they lost. He has shown flashes of what could be under the surface, an athletic slasher with a good shot. He just hasn’t shown that consistently to really believe it’s there. Maybe he unlocks that in a Grad year or moving forward.

Rowan Brumbaugh

31 GP, 8.3 PPG, 40% FG, 6.7 FGA, 37% 3PT, 2.4 3PA, 2.2 RPG, 2.6 APG, .9 SPG, 2 TPG, 22.1 MPG

Good Number: 25.1

That’s Rowan’s assist percentage—an estimate of teammate field goals he assisted on while on the floor. That’s a good number to track his assist rate because his minutes were generally up and down. That assist percentage is in the top 10 in the BE this year. I went back and forth between this number and his 37% three-point percentage on the year, which was well above expectation. Both are great numbers.

Bad Number: 11

That’s the number of games Rowan played fewer than 20 minutes. In 6 of those, he was scoreless. There was certainly more of a learning curve for Rowan than I had anticipated, and I think we all expected coming out of his red-shirt year at Texas. ent

Eligibility: Rowan completed his first full season of college basketball and has at least three remaining.

Area for Improvement: I am excited about Rowan’s overall improvement. I think he showed real progress late in the year as he got more comfortable with the speed of the game. Early in the year, he had real problems trying to play faster. By the end of the year, that really wasn’t an issue. That was really encouraging. His three-point shooting was also a really positive indication. He needs to get more comfortable around the basket, but he has already shown great instincts to get a defender on his hip and score. I think Rowan’s future is really bright. He needs to improve his overall on-ball defense. He definitely gave effort and was actually pretty good in rotation, but at times he would get blown by or outmuscled. I think he’ll improve there. His Pick and Roll numbers are really encouraging, especially because he didn’t really have a PnR partner this year. That needs to be a priority for them going into next year. I am confident that Rowan can operate really well out of the pick-and-roll, but he needs a roller that can match him. The actions with him and Drew looked decent, though immature. And Supreme just wasn’t a great fit for him. He needs to improve his .853 PPP in PnR action which was 67th percentile.

Drew Fielder

32 GP, 5.2 PPG, 48% FG, 3.9 FGA, 40% 3PT, 1.7 3PA, 3 RPG, .7 APG, .6 BPG, .4 TPG, 14.6 MPG

Good Number: 20

Yes, that is Drew’s number. And it’s technically a great number because it is Drew’s! I think Drew has a lot of good numbers. 40% from three is good, and his 1.19 defensive rating (the best on the team) is good. -15 (again, the best on the team) is good. 1.471 PPP as the PnR roll man is great (95th percentile in the nation great). Drew showed us this year that he can flat-out play, and I hope we’ll continue to see 20 for at least two more seasons.

Bad Number: 72

I know I already did this for WBJ, but that is the number of fouls he committed this year. He had a top-three foul rate per minute played in the BE this year. He definitely struggled at times defensively this year, but I am frankly not that concerned about it.

Eligibility: Drew completed his first full season of college basketball. He has at least three remaining.

Area for Improvement: Again, I am excited to see his overall improvement. He was one of the real bright spots this season. The team looked their best when he was on the floor. He had his ups and downs, but he was a really pleasant surprise. His pick-and-pop ability is tremendous. I think he has good hands and reads the floor well. I think he can make plays out of the pick-and-roll. He needs to get stronger and faster and figure out whatever knee thing he seems to have carried most of the year, but Drew can play.

Coaching

Good Number: 1

That’s the ranking of Georgetown’s 2024 recruiting class. That, by far, is the best number to come out of this season. A somewhat distant second, but still notable, would be 97. That is Georgetown’s offensive ranking this year. The first time they have been top 100 in the nation since the COVID/BE Tournament Winner year.

Bad Number: 329

That is the Hoya’s defensive ranking this year. The worst defensive ranking in Hoya history. Breaking the previous record set by…last year’s team. 2, for the number of conference wins could also have been a choice here. But ultimately, the defense was just so unbelievably atrocious, and if, in some bizarro world, the Hoyas only manage to win 2 conference games but have even a slightly improved defense from the last few seasons, I think I would take that. There’s not much more to say about the defense. It was, quite literally, almost the worst in the nation. It was so bad that I am confident that it will get better. Because, frankly, it cannot get worse.

Eligibility: Ed Cooley has many years left on his contract. I think. I don’t really care about coaching contracts. I know some of you do, and I support you.

Area for Improvement: See above. Cooley ultimately needs to take responsibility for all areas of improvement. Both for his individual players and the team. To his credit, he has shouldered the load all year. The team is going to look different next year. It may look different in ways we didn’t expect. The defense has to be better. He has an incoming class that is going to do a lot to reset the culture moving forward. He needs to supplement that with the right guys in the portal. And I do mean “right’ not “best.” There are going to be a lot of shiny objects in the portal to throw all that NIL money at, and 80% (that might be a low estimate) are going to hurt more than help. I hope Ed has a clear sense of what he’s looking for.

My suggestions:

1. Guys who have proven to be all around players that have excelled (not just succeeded) but excelled at the low- or mid-major level.
2. Guys who you are certain can understand different defensive schemes, particularly pick and roll coverages.
3. Guys who play hard, but also play smart.
4. DO NOT sort the portal database by “PPG” and target the top of the list. Instead, look at plus/minus or offensive and defensive PPP and target that group.

I’ll be here to breakdown players linked to Georgetown. I hope you all will be, too.