What has gone wrong for the Hoyas defensively, and how Tuesday night is an opportunity for a "feel g
Throughout a trying first season at Georgetown, Ed Cooley has spent the better part of his post-game pressers since the start of conference play highlighting the positive, stressing that this wasn’t going to be an overnight rebuild, and dropping nuggets about what he learned about rebuilding programs at Rhode Island, Boston College, and Providence.
Throughout most of the Hoyas’ 2-16 start to Big East play, we haven’t seen the frustrated, edgier Ed Cooley that so often came out after the Friars failed to meet his standard during his time in Providence. At times, it feels as if he believes showing that level of frustration would be conceding in some way that he didn’t foresee this type of season coming, to some extent.
Yet, we saw the type of frustration that had previously been missing after Georgetown blew a 15-point lead and fell to Xavier, 98-93, at home on Saturday night.
“Clearly, our defensive intensity, our defensive alertness, our connectivity defensively — I’m tired of coming in here and repeating the same thing. So, this has got to be personal with our men,” Cooley said in his opening comments on Saturday.
He continued, “Really, really disappointed in our defense. Totally disappointed in our defense. Absolutely horrific, horrific attention to detail in this game.”
The first question from a reporter was cut off and met with the type of response that harkened back to his press conferences at PC after subpar performances.
Reporter: “You’ve had the same things happen over and over and over again, what is the answer to”
Cooley cut him off: “Recruiting.”
Publicly, Cooley hasn’t sent this type of blunt message to his team this season, but giving up over 90 points for the second time this season against Xavier, and watching Desmond Claude repeatedly get to the rim to score 26 of his 36 points after halftime pushed Cooley to an edge that he hasn’t lived at in interviews over the past two months.
The sense of urgency is likely heightened with Providence coming to town on Tuesday.
For a coach that has prided himself on toughness and a defensive identity, Georgetown’s defensive shortcomings have to just grate on Cooley. The Hoyas’ Defensive Rating of 116.9 ranks in just the third percentile in the country — ditto their 55.4% Effective Field Goal Percentage against. They give up 13.4 fast break points per game (4th percentile nationally), 15.6 assists (5th), and allow 36 points in the paint per game.
Their Defensive Rating in Big East games is 125.3, which is listed in the zero percentile in the country.
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