Georgetown - LeMoyne 11/7/23 Discussion

[DanMcQ]

Hope to see you in person Tuesday night for the beginning of the Ed Cooley era of Georgetown Basketball.

LeMoyne Roster

[hibernatinghoyafan]

T-minus 2 days! Really excited to see the foundation laid out this year and for the young guys to develop over the course of the season. I want to .500% or better this year and safely in the tournament next year is my threshold.

Hoping we can pull off a few upsets.

[bluegray79]

EC in his presser last week:

"Ive had the opportunity to watch LeMoyne play in a couple of exhibition games in which they won both of them pretty handily. They have an older group, some 5th year guys. Coach is doing a dynamic job in their style of play. So, I'm a little anxious yet at the same time excited to see how far we've come along and how far we have to go."

I really like and appreciate this opening game. Fellow Jesuit school, its first game as a D1 basketball program, a favor from EC to schedule it just as Big John did for Cooley back when he was at Fairfield, and a great way to put your starters out there and mix and match, gauge chemistry, work out the butterflies a bit, and play.
For the record, I, too, am anxious and really excited for Tuesday -- 2 days, folks!

[prhoya]

Nov 5, 2023 10:21:09 GMT -5 bluegray79 said:

EC in his presser last week:

"Ive had the opportunity to watch LeMoyne play in a couple of exhibition games in which they won both of them pretty handily. They have an older group, some 5th year guys. Coach is doing a dynamic job in their style of play. So, I'm a little anxious yet at the same time excited to see how far we've come along and how far we have to go."

I really like and appreciate this opening game. Fellow Jesuit school, its first game as a D1 basketball program, a favor from EC to schedule it just as Big John did for Cooley back when he was at Fairfield, and a great way to put your starters out there and mix and match, gauge chemistry, work out the butterflies a bit, and play.
For the record, I, too, am anxious and really excited for Tuesday -- 2 days, folks!

If so, then LeMoyne will not finish #361 (KenPom) and will not affect our numbers as much… that is, if we win…

[thedragon]

Is there any doubt we will be losing at the first TV timeout and the board will be in shambles?! 🤣

[bluegray79]

Dragon -- while mildly amusing, that is cruel and unusual treatment to drop that on the fragile cohort that is the Hoya Talk poster nation. Damn you for playing on that tiny speck of doubt I thought I had pretty well buried deep in my subconscious only to be laid bare by your post.

Going to do some deep breathing exercises.

[jackofjoy]

Nov 5, 2023 11:03:25 GMT -5 thedragon said:

Is there any doubt we will be losing at the first TV timeout and the board will be in shambles?! 🤣

Completely scarred from the past few years so fully expect Hoyas to be down at the 2nd half under 8 TO. Hoyas win by 7. One of their postgrad guys will score 29 going something like 7-12 from three and people will be looking to claw back some first year salary from EC.

[MassHoya]

Go Hoyas. Beat the Dolphins!!! First of two wins against Syracuse teams this year...

[thedragon]

Spread opens at -18.5

[HoyaFanNY]

contest the 3 on defense, limit turnovers on offense and rebound

[bamahoya11]

Well, it’s time for another season. I’m back from my usual off-season hibernation. These first few weeks are always a challenge as I switch between Georgetown basketball and Alabama football.

I’m looking forward to the opener to get an initial glimpse of the Ed Cooley era. I don’t really have many expectations for the game or the season. I was intrigued that the folks who select the Big East preseason ranks have enough respect for Ed that they’ve put us toward the bottom but still toward the middle. A 7th or 8th place finish would be a noticeable improvement after the last several seasons. Looking forward to getting the season under way.

[hoyasaxa2003]

Because we are playing LeMoyne, I think the results and final score have limited value but nonetheless I am looking for these things:

1. I want to stomp LeMoyne. I realize it's our first game, Cooley's first game, there will likely be a lot of nerves. But, when Georgetown has been good (such as most of the JT3 years before the end), we routinely stomped teams like LeMoyne. I want the result (a win) to be clear from the first five minutes.

2. I want to see our guys play defense and defend the three well. Cooley's teams have often been excellent at defending the three and never bad at it, so I expect this. One of the ways we improve a lot on Ewing's performance is to defend.

3. I want to see what we have on our roster. Are we a short roster? Yes. Are we a pretty inexperienced roster with Massoud out? Yes. But do we have some talent? Absolutely. I'm most interested in seeing what we can get from Epps, Styles, Mutombo, and Fielder.

While any regular reader here knows I hate playing the 300+ teams like LeMoyne, I haven't been more excited for a matchup like this in years. There's finally optimism on the Hilltop for basketball, and it feels good.

[calhoya]

Nov 6, 2023 10:34:15 GMT -5 hoyasaxa2003 said:

Because we are playing LeMoyne, I think the results and final score have limited value but nonetheless I am looking for these things:

1. I want to stomp LeMoyne. I realize it's our first game, Cooley's first game, there will likely be a lot of nerves. But, when Georgetown has been good (such as most of the JT3 years before the end), we routinely stomped teams like LeMoyne. I want the result (a win) to be clear from the first five minutes.

2. I want to see our guys play defense and defend the three well. Cooley's teams have often been excellent at defending the three and never bad at it, so I expect this. One of the ways we improve a lot on Ewing's performance is to defend.

3. I want to see what we have on our roster. Are we a short roster? Yes. Are we a pretty inexperienced roster with Massoud out? Yes. But do we have some talent? Absolutely. I'm most interested in seeing what we can get from Epps, Styles, Mutombo, and Fielder.

While any regular reader here knows I hate playing the 300+ teams like LeMoyne, I haven't been more excited for a matchup like this in years. There's finally optimism on the Hilltop for basketball, and it feels good.

I share your sentiments. However, the PTSD from the past several years will assure that I am a nervous wreck about looking bad in these pre-conference games that should be comfortable wins. In addition to your list of who you are interested in watching, I would add Rowan and Cook. Think we know what we have in Bristol and Heath

[thedragon]

Considering Heath missed 6 weeks of practice til recently, I'm going to assume that to start he likely comes off bench in an effort to ramp up his minutes slowly.

If that's the case I'd assume the starters will be:

Brumbaugh
Epps
Styles
Fielder
Cook

Heath
Bristol
Mutombo
Bacote

Rounding out the rotation.

Couple things I will be looking for:

Quick Offense - Team is going to be looking for shots before Ds can get set as often as possible

Rebounding - these early OOC games should give us an idea how rough we might be in this area. If we're playing even on the glass with cupcakes it could portend negatively down the road.

Defense - Running teams off 3 point line as much as possible. Do we play a lot of zone? On ball Defense from Guards.

How do Brumbaugh and Epps mesh? This could very well be our backcourt for the next 3 years - want to see the chemistry, how do they share PG duties, etc.

Shooting - I worry about our 3 point shooting. Epps was inconsistent as a freshman from deep. Brumbaugh and Styles are not known as knock down shooters. With Ish out for the foreseeable future and Heath working his way back from injury, those are your likely 2 best shooters. Does that weakness rear it's head in early games?

Can't believe we're a day away from a new era of Gtown hoops!

[drquigley]

Nov 6, 2023 10:34:15 GMT -5 hoyasaxa2003 said:

Because we are playing LeMoyne, I think the results and final score have limited value but nonetheless I am looking for these things:

1. I want to stomp LeMoyne. I realize it's our first game, Cooley's first game, there will likely be a lot of nerves. But, when Georgetown has been good (such as most of the JT3 years before the end), we routinely stomped teams like LeMoyne. I want the result (a win) to be clear from the first five minutes.

2. I want to see our guys play defense and defend the three well. Cooley's teams have often been excellent at defending the three and never bad at it, so I expect this. One of the ways we improve a lot on Ewing's performance is to defend.

3. I want to see what we have on our roster. Are we a short roster? Yes. Are we a pretty inexperienced roster with Massoud out? Yes. But do we have some talent? Absolutely. I'm most interested in seeing what we can get from Epps, Styles, Mutombo, and Fielder.

While any regular reader here knows I hate playing the 300+ teams like LeMoyne, I haven't been more excited for a matchup like this in years. There's finally optimism on the Hilltop for basketball, and it feels good.

Add Brumbaugh to the list. I really think as he goes so do the Hoyas.

[bearsandbulls]

Nov 4, 2023 19:29:42 GMT -5 DanMcQ said:

Hope to see you in person Tuesday night for the beginning of the Ed Cooley era of Georgetown Basketball.

LeMoyne Roster

Looks like they have 5 players in the 6'6' to 6'9" range and one 6'11'' height....We shouldn't have height matchup problems...

[SSHoya]

Le Moyne only shot 35% from 3 with 8 attempts a game last year. We should win going away!!! (Aaagh, what did I just do!?)

[TC]

Hopefully we can contain Isaiah Salter from three and the three point defense is improved.

[bluegray79]

It is so great to be a day away from the first game and to read conversations like these after so much time. I think you all make good points, and they will certainly be things to watch for and connect about here after games as the season goes on. After all is said and done about everything, I keep coming back to Cooley and the coaching and conditioning staff and what they do as these OOC games are played. I believe that EC is a good coach, a teacher, and a god guy, and that his staff are smart and bring many collective years of big time experience to what they do. We've been over the roster and know that there are strengths and weaknesses, but there are some really intriguing pieces that we can't know more about until we actually play games. How EC mixes and matches and how he and the staff get the most out of them is what it all comes down to for me and what I am most excited to see unfold. Ups and downs, adjustments and injuries -- this is why we went out and got Ed Cooley -- it is an exciting time. Go Hoyas!

[hoyasaxa2003]

Nov 6, 2023 11:21:27 GMT -5 drquigley said:

Nov 6, 2023 10:34:15 GMT -5 hoyasaxa2003 said:

Because we are playing LeMoyne, I think the results and final score have limited value but nonetheless I am looking for these things:

1. I want to stomp LeMoyne. I realize it's our first game, Cooley's first game, there will likely be a lot of nerves. But, when Georgetown has been good (such as most of the JT3 years before the end), we routinely stomped teams like LeMoyne. I want the result (a win) to be clear from the first five minutes.

2. I want to see our guys play defense and defend the three well. Cooley's teams have often been excellent at defending the three and never bad at it, so I expect this. One of the ways we improve a lot on Ewing's performance is to defend.

3. I want to see what we have on our roster. Are we a short roster? Yes. Are we a pretty inexperienced roster with Massoud out? Yes. But do we have some talent? Absolutely. I'm most interested in seeing what we can get from Epps, Styles, Mutombo, and Fielder.

While any regular reader here knows I hate playing the 300+ teams like LeMoyne, I haven't been more excited for a matchup like this in years. There's finally optimism on the Hilltop for basketball, and it feels good.

Add Brumbaugh to the list. I really think as he goes so do the Hoyas.

To add one more fourth point to my original post above--on offense, I am looking for guys to take good shots. Most of the Ewing era consisted of a high-pace shoot-first type approach, which led to a lot of bad shots, namely long two point jumpers. Anybody reading this board the last two years knows that I despise them as the worst shot in basketball (the reason those shots are basically never taken in the NBA anymore).

While our defensive failures last year were easy to spot by anybody, the offensive problems were also pretty significant. Obviously, we have an almost entirely new roster (and Mutombo, Heath, Bristol didn't take many long twos) and a new coach, so I expect a very different approach. Cooley has never been a big three-point shot guy, but I am hoping if we have shooters we take advantage of them.

I do think some are going to be disappointed with the pace after getting used to the Ewing era's fast pace. Historically, Cooley's teams have always ranged from about an average pace to the slower side. He's never had super slow teams like JT3's early teams, except for his first couple of seasons at Fairfield.