LINKS: Hoyas Travel to DePaul Looking for Second Win

The Blue Demons tip-off the final five conference games for Georgetown

Your Georgetown Hoyas (8-18, 1-14 BIG EAST) return to action on Saturday, February 24 with a road trip to Chicago, Illinois to face the DePaul Blue Demons (3-23, 0-15 BIG EAST). Tipoff at Wintrust Arena is scheduled for 6PM ET on CBS Sports Network with Jordan Kent and Tim Doyle. Rich Chvotkin, in his 50th season as the Voice of the Hoyas, can be heard on The Team 980 and SiriusXM.

There’s been much talk as of late about the future, recruiting, NIL, and more but Georgetown and Ed Cooley need to continue to focus on the present and laying the foundation. That foundation has to include defense.

With Pitino coming to town earlier this week after a post-game press conference complaining about defense, this humble lunch blog contributor (I had a mixed cheese hoagie from Wawa today, by the way) has been overly focused on defenses and KenPom’s defensive metrics and rankings.

Well, DePaul’s defensive adjusted efficiency is ranked 313th—two spots ahead of Georgetown (315th). The Hoyas have a top-100 offense (today), while the Blue Demons are 274th.

Here are the links:

Blue Demons Defeated By #7 Marquette | DePaul

DePaul (3-23, 0-15 BIG EAST) was led by Jaden Henley and Elijah Fisher who both tallied 19 points, including 13 first half points from Henley. Fisher tallied 12 made free throws, a personal best. Chico Carter Jr. and Keyondre Young also tallied double-digit scoring with 10 each.

HOW IT HAPPENED – DePaul started the game with its first six points coming in the paint. After a 7-6 Marquette (20-6, 10-2 BIG EAST) lead, the Golden Eagles went on a 20-4 run for a 27-8 lead. Young entered the game and hit back-to-back baskets for a quick five points. The Blue Demons went on a scoring stretch, making five of six field goal attempts in an 8-0 run to bring the score to 37-21. Marquette ended the second half on a 16-3 run for a 59-29 halftime lead DePaul could not come back from.

Men’s Basketball Big East Preview Primer: vs DePaul | Anonymous Eagle

DePaul’s margins of defeats in Matt Brady’s other games in charge after Marquette’s visit to Chicago: 23, 33, 25, 28, 36, and 23. [squints] Oh, wait, my bad. That last one is 11. DePaul ended their game on Saturday on the road against Providence with a 12-0 run in 92 seconds to make it 81-70 at the horn.

[] DePaul was #279 in the KenPom rankings. Now they’re #302. They have gotten worse.

Up to the point where DePaul met Marquette for the first time this season, BartTorvik.com had them playing like the #291 team in the country. Since Matt Brady took over as the interim head coach, the same algorithm has them at #306 in the country, and sub-270 in both offense and defense.

DePaul Drops Road Battle to Providence | DePaul

The DePaul men’s basketball team battled to the finish on the road against Providence, Saturday evening, before the Friars came away with an 81-70 victory. DePaul (3-22, 0-14 BIG EAST) was led by Elijah Fisher and Jaden Henley who both tallied 15 points on the night. Fisher was perfect from the field, going 6-of-6 in addition to four rebounds. Jalen Terry was solid all night long for the Blue Demons, narrowly missing a double-double with nine points and a personal-best eight rebounds.

Providence (17-9, 8-7 BIG EAST) came out first holding an early 9-3 lead at the first media timeout before DePaul answered on back-to-back three-pointers by Terry and Oden. The Blue Demons made their next three consecutive field goal attempts, going into the media timeout down one, 15-14. After DePaul took its first lead of the game, 16-15, Providence held the Blue Demons to a three and a half minute scoring drought for a 21-16 lead. Da’Sean Nelson ended the drought with an offensive rebound and putback before Henley forced a Providence turnover and laid it in for two making it a one point game, 23-22. Providence went into half-time up, 34-30.

Practice Notes: 2.22.24 | HoyaReport: Georgetown Hoyas

Cooley and crew are still making the donuts so to speak, preparing the best they can for each foe. Prep for DePaul, tomorrow’s 6p EST battle to avoid a last place BIG EAST standing, is no different.

With that in mind, below are several generic quotes gleaned from the session, one primarily run by Cooley with a big assist from his former player and present assistant coach, LaDontae Henton.

The Hoyas are 1-14 in Big East play. Georgetown has a 2/3 record in games decided by 3 points or fewer | ABC/ESPN/AP

DePaul is shooting 42.0% from the field this season, 6.6 percentage points lower than the 48.6% Georgetown allows to opponents. Georgetown averages 71.5 points per game, 10.0 fewer points than the 81.5 DePaul gives up to opponents.

TOP PERFORMERS: Chico Carter Jr. is averaging 11.5 points and 3.5 assists for the Blue Demons.

Epps is averaging 17.7 points and 4.3 assists for the Hoyas.

LAST 10 GAMES: Blue Demons: 0-10, averaging 62.7 points, 29.0 rebounds, 9.9 assists, 5.6 steals and 2.6 blocks per game while shooting 40.1% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 88.2 points per game.