hoyaboya
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Post by hoyaboya on Aug 28, 2023 16:37:55 GMT -5
I have no doubt that this team has a long hill to climb, but in the new reality of "free agency" it should take nowhere near as long to restore some semblance of competency to a program with a rich history, fertile recruiting grounds and a coach willing to promote the program on and off the court. A Coach in the SEC: “Money talks. If you want a kid, you’re going to have to pay for him. It’s a win-now era in college basketball. You can turn a program around in one year with a roster flip. If you’re a top ten transfer portal team, and your team doesn’t perform, what does that say about you as a coach?” www.on3.com/news/college-coaches-confidential-how-has-nil-changed-how-you-recruit-a-player/NIL has made it easier than ever to turn a program around. Especially an established coach with all the advantages Georgetown has. This nonsense talk of what happened this last few years used to matter. Look what Jerome Tang did at KSU. A team that was awful for the 3 years before he got there. Few people on here are willing to state the truth, and that is that Cooley has done a relatively poor job recruiting to date. The only true blue chipper he has lined up is Sorber. The group of bigs heading into this season is one of the worst in high major basketball. Cooley was telling people at John Carroll Weekend that we would be good this year - either he's delusional, he was lying or he's recruited much worse for 2023-2024 than he expected. Sorber will be a nice piece in 2024-2025 but he may be a 1-one-and-done and the other two guys in that class, Mulready and Williams, are dime a dozen wings. It looks like we're banking on Epps and Styles to perform much better as Hoyas than they did at their previous stops. Maybe Cooley will get that out of them, but recruiting-wise, Cooley has done much worse than expected to this point in his tenure. I believe a fair way to evaluate Cooley's recruiting is to see how he's doing compared to other guys hired this past offseason. For example, an article titled "Ten Teams that Won Big in the 2023 Transfer Portal" just came out from On3, showing that 3 of those 10 programs have new head coaches (St. John's, Texas and West Virginia): "St. John’s, Big East G Nahiem Alleyne (UConn), SG Sean Conway (VMI), G Cruz Davis (Iona), G Jordan Dingle (Penn), C Zuby Ejifor (Kansas), G Daniss Jenkins (Iona), F Chris Ledlum (Harvard), SF RJ Luis (UMass), G Glenn Taylor (Oregon State) The skinny: In year one, Rick Pitino has rehauled his roster. He brought in nine players through the transfer portal. Each of the nine has had their own degree of success throughout their basketball careers. Jordan Dingle, son of former UMass star Dana Dingle, was the second-leading scorer in D1 last season at 23.4 per game. Daniss Jenkins, who followed Pitino to St. John’s, was last season’s MAAC Tournament MVP. He averaged 15.6 points and 4.9 assists. Chris Ledlum’s 18.8 points last year led to a first-team All-Ivy nod. Glenn Taylor averaged almost 12 per game last year in the Pac-12. RJ Luis averaged 11.5 last season at UMass and was named first-team A10-All Rookie. Nahiem Alleyne followed up an ACC Championship with Virginia Tech two seasons ago with a National title with UConn last season. Sean Conway shot 37.8 percent from three last season. Zuby Ejifor is a former top-100 recruit. Talent has followed Pitino to New York. Texas, Big 12 G Max Abmas (Oral Roberts), G Ithiel Horton (UCF), PF Ze’rik Onyema (UTEP), C Kadin Shedrick (Virginia), G Chendall Weaver (UT-Arlington) The skinny: Rodney Terry did a good job here of adding depth around a couple of potential star players. This portal class starts with Oral Roberts transfer Max Abmas. The Dallas native returns to the state as D1 active career-scoring leader with 2,561 career college points. The second major addition could be center, Kadin Shedrick. In the 15 games he started at Virginia last season, Shedrick averaged almost ten and five while adding two blocks per game. He shot 69 percent from the floor in those games and was a high-level rim protector. With more touches, in a more up-tempo system, Shedrick could take a step. Watch to see what kind of role Chendall Weaver carves out. Last season’s WAC Rookie of the Year shot 40.2 percent from three. Ithiel Horton is now at his fourth school, but he brings 83 career starts and over 1,100 career points with him. West Virginia, Big 12 C Akok Akok (Georgetown), G RaeQuan Battle (Montana State), G Jeremiah Bembry (Florida State), C Jesse Edwards (Syracuse), G Noah Farrakhan (Eastern Michigan), PG Kerr Kriisa (Arizona), F Quinn Slazinski (Iona) The skinny: Interim head coach Josh Eilert kept things together in the off-season and added some very nice pieces to the roster. West Virginia lost its top six scorers from last year’s team. They added double-double center Jesse Edwards, who also led the ACC in blocks last season. Kerr Kriisa led the Pac-12 in assists last season. RaeQuan Battle, if he can get a waiver, averaged 17.7 points last season at Montana State. They brought in good depth, good size, and some players who have experienced winning.www.on3.com/transfer-portal/news/ten-teams-that-won-big-in-the-2023-transfer-portal/For the high school class of 2024, where Cooley has Sorber, Mulready and Williams committed, he's already trailing Syracuse's Adrian Autry and Texas' Rodney Terry among new head coaches in the recruiting rankings: 8. Syracuse 12. Texas 14. Georgetown www.on3.com/db/rankings/industry-team/basketball/2024/ |
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TC
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Post by TC on Aug 28, 2023 16:41:21 GMT -5
NIL has made it easier than ever to turn a program around. Especially an established coach with all the advantages Georgetown has. This nonsense talk of what happened this last few years used to matter. Look what Jerome Tang did at KSU. A team that was awful for the 3 years before he got there. "All the advantages Georgetown has" are in recruiting HS kids from DC, and that takes a year when you hire a coach in April. |
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hoyaboya
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Post by hoyaboya on Aug 28, 2023 16:44:05 GMT -5
NIL has made it easier than ever to turn a program around. Especially an established coach with all the advantages Georgetown has. This nonsense talk of what happened this last few years used to matter. Look what Jerome Tang did at KSU. A team that was awful for the 3 years before he got there. "All the advantages Georgetown has" are in recruiting HS kids from DC, and that takes a year when you hire a coach in April. Yeah, it's not like Ed Cooley was a well-known Big East basketball coach and had been recruiting the DMV area for over a decade. Oh wait... |
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TC
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Post by TC on Aug 28, 2023 17:00:40 GMT -5
"All the advantages Georgetown has" are in recruiting HS kids from DC, and that takes a year when you hire a coach in April. Yeah, it's not like Ed Cooley was a well-known Big East basketball coach and had been recruiting the DMV area for over a decade. Oh wait... What DC area 2023's were available when Ed Cooley was hired that are above the "everyone but Thomas Sorber is a recruiting failure" watermark you set two posts ago? Our structural advantage as a program is in DC area high school kids. That's going to take some time to mine, in part because of how Patrick Ewing and the Thompsons left things and in part because the 2023 recruiting cycle is mostly over by the time the coaching change happened in April. |
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hoyaboya
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Post by hoyaboya on Aug 28, 2023 17:09:47 GMT -5
Yeah, it's not like Ed Cooley was a well-known Big East basketball coach and had been recruiting the DMV area for over a decade. Oh wait... What DC area 2023's were available when Ed Cooley was hired that are above the "everyone but Thomas Sorber is a recruiting failure" watermark you set two posts ago? Our structural advantage as a program is in DC area high school kids. That's going to take some time to mine, in part because of how Patrick Ewing and the Thompsons left things and in part because the 2023 recruiting cycle is mostly over by the time the coaching change happened in April. Complete hogwash on the "2023 recruiting cycle" - that cycle was just beginning for the transfer portal when Cooley was hired. The reality is that Cooley struck out with his top targets, notably Hunter Dickinson and Cam Spencer. He identified those kids as targets, some have said that he tampered to get them to transfer away from their previous schools, he just couldn't reel them in. How much time in the "2023 recruiting cycle" did Eilert at West Virginia have to get his roster together? Yet he's got a better transfer portal class than Cooley. |
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prhoya
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Post by prhoya on Aug 28, 2023 17:15:24 GMT -5
NIL has made it easier than ever to turn a program around. Especially an established coach with all the advantages Georgetown has. This nonsense talk of what happened this last few years used to matter. Look what Jerome Tang did at KSU. A team that was awful for the 3 years before he got there. "All the advantages Georgetown has" are in recruiting HS kids from DC, and that takes a year when you hire a coach in April. This is not true. With the free transfer, GU and Maryland are in the driver's set for DMV college players who want to transfer back home. Proven players vs. newbies... The only issue is that Cooley will not know who's available in the portal until after the season. It will take a lot of monitoring, DMV word-of-mouth, establishing long-term relationships with high school players, etc... Not easy, but a winning team with an enviable NIL bag will go a long way. |
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TC
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Post by TC on Aug 28, 2023 17:23:56 GMT -5
Complete hogwash on the "2023 recruiting cycle" - that cycle was just beginning for the transfer portal when Cooley was hired. The reality is that Cooley struck out with his top targets, notably Hunter Dickinson and Cam Spencer. He identified those kids as targets, some have said that he tampered to get them to transfer away from their previous schools, he just couldn't reel them in. How much time in the "2023 recruiting cycle" did Eilert at West Virginia have to get his roster together? Yet he's got a better transfer portal class than Cooley. Will you drop the tampering nonsense that we know you don't actually think is wrong, but hold up as virtue signalling because you will throw any argument against the wall to complain about Cooley, no matter how disingenous or dishonest? In paragraph one, you're faulting Cooley for going after two players who will be graduate students and free to transfer. In paragraph two you're holding up Eilert as a success for doing the exact same thing at our expense. |
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prhoya
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Post by prhoya on Aug 28, 2023 17:41:18 GMT -5
What DC area 2023's were available when Ed Cooley was hired that are above the "everyone but Thomas Sorber is a recruiting failure" watermark you set two posts ago? Our structural advantage as a program is in DC area high school kids. That's going to take some time to mine, in part because of how Patrick Ewing and the Thompsons left things and in part because the 2023 recruiting cycle is mostly over by the time the coaching change happened in April. Complete hogwash on the "2023 recruiting cycle" - that cycle was just beginning for the transfer portal when Cooley was hired. The reality is that Cooley struck out with his top targets, notably Hunter Dickinson and Cam Spencer. He identified those kids as targets, some have said that he tampered to get them to transder away from their previous schools, he just couldn't reel them in. How much time in the "2023 recruiting cycle" did Eilert at West Virginia have to get his roster together? Yet he's got a better transfer portal class than Cooley. I'll agree with boya in that Cooley couldn't fill a college basketball roster in his first year, and don't tell me he intended to play the season with 9 or 10 scholarship players. Whether we like it or not, Cooley will be compared to Pitino. Both started around the same time, had 3 returning players, one brought in 10 to 11 players vs. 6 players, and both lost one solid rotational player during the summer. Why are we at 9 confirmed scholarship players (never mind the unpublished roster) and SJU has more players than scholarships? Our resident John Carroll Award-winning historian can tell us if we have seen a similar limited roster, but in my "decades of experience" I don't recall a roster with 9 scholarship players. That is far from ideal. Hopefully some reporter asks open-door Cooley. Is it wrong to think that Cooley has an ace up his sleeve this late? Here's hoping, but prepare for the season-long talking point during games. |
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thedragon
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Post by thedragon on Aug 28, 2023 17:52:09 GMT -5
We live in a Now Now Now world. From social media to NIL to playing time to the portal to coaching hot seats and everywhere in between. Patience is a lost virtue. And while anyone who said that it's easier and often quicker to turn programs around in today's era is absolutely correct - it's not a one size fits all narrative.
Pitino is in a situation where he has a window of 3 years or so to try and bring St. John's back to prominence and rehabilitate (although I would argue its not necessary as he's one of the best ever no matter the history) his reputation in high major D1 basketball. St John's and Pitino have taken a push all the chips into the middle from day 1 approach. I'm not here to knock it, but it's certainly not the only way. Steve Cohen tried this in baseball. Year 1 it looked like they found gold. By year 2 they had morphed back to the Wilpon Mets and whether they admit it or not, a multiple year rebuild awaits even with unlimited funds.
I think a lot of coaches even in today's climate would tell you that while they focus on HS recruiting less in a need to stay older and be more portal heavy then ever before - that the building blocks of a culture are still through those underclassmen at early stages. And that creating leaders that have started at that school from day 1 to supplement the voices of the staff in the early stages of program building is paramount.
Cooley is here for the long term. Likely til he retires if things go as planned. He and his staff have decided that if they couldn't reel in the biggest of fish then they were better off holding scholarships open and NIL money for future classes. Whether it was smart to go after the Dickinsons or Spencer's of the world knowing the selling points of a program with Gtowns recent past and outlook for next season has been argued ad nauseum and I have zero interest in rehashing. I will leave that to the Boyas of the world who relish the negatives no matter the context or narrative. But it seems pretty apparent to me and well, Cooley has said a million times himself, this will take time. Cooley has turned over every corner of the basketball staff and direct to bball administration. Cooley has reengaged basketball alumni, students and stakeholders from across the University spectrum. He has emphasized local recruiting/relationships and made it a priority to go after transfers with multiple years of eligibility as the core of the initial roster. Personally, I love the way he and his staff have moved forward. This was never in my mind going to be a quick fix, as anyone who compares us to KSU or even SJU really don't realize just what an absolute joke we had become to the basketball world at large. We have guys like Rowan and Epps and Styles who will hopefully be part of a core for several years. We have a 5 star recruit center for next season who seems to be on an upward trajectory even at his already lofty heights. All of a sudden we become a lot more attractive for those "big fish" portal transfers in coming years. And maybe it will be the 'hope that kills us' but I doubt it. I see a staff building the right way and I am MORE than happy to see stability and competence take the reigns over the next few years than a get rich quick scheme based on a wing and a prayer.
My expectations are pretty reasonable -
Be competitive year 1. Win 6 to 8 big east games. Have a near or at .500 overall record thanks to an easier OOC.
Be a bubble team year 2 fighting for an NCAA spot.
Be a tournament team year 3 and sustainable into the future.
I hope our fans will embrace this roster and staff in year 1 no matter the results, but I also realize that the end of the day, winning trumps all. That day is coming. Maybe it's not tomorrow, but it feels closer than it has in some time and for the start of the 23-24 academic year/season, that's enough for me.
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TC
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Post by TC on Aug 28, 2023 17:59:10 GMT -5
I'll agree with boya in that Cooley couldn't fill a college basketball roster in his first year, and don't tell me he intended to play the season with 9 or 10 scholarship players. I don't believe that at all - there is intention in our roster looking the way it does. I think he absolutely could have gone into the lower conferences this summer with some NIL and signed some rando 2* bigs with minutes promises, or do a Patrick Ewing and sign a couple of 2023 HS kids and then recruit over them and force them to transfer the next year. The point isn't just to have bodies and to have people around that you don't intend to develop, and having people around who you aren't fulfilling promises to is bad for building a culture. |
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Post by dariantownesvanzandt on Aug 28, 2023 18:42:20 GMT -5
I'll agree with boya in that Cooley couldn't fill a college basketball roster in his first year, and don't tell me he intended to play the season with 9 or 10 scholarship players. I don't believe that at all - there is intention in our roster looking the way it does. I think he absolutely could have gone into the lower conferences this summer with some NIL and signed some rando 2* bigs with minutes promises, or do a Patrick Ewing and sign a couple of 2023 HS kids and then recruit over them and force them to transfer the next year. The point isn't just to have bodies and to have people around that you don't intend to develop, and having people around who you aren't fulfilling promises to is bad for building a culture. How does that make sense? We have 5 walk-on guard/wings. In all likelihood, they're not sniffing the court. Why couldn't we have any walk-on bigs? According to EvanMiya.com, there are about 30 unsigned PF/C seniors in the portal. What's the rationale for not adding any of them? I mean... once you do DD and determine he'll be a good practice/emergency player for just 1 year, what's the harm in even giving him an 11th (not even 12th or 13th) scholarship spot? This all seems very weird. |
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TC
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Post by TC on Aug 28, 2023 19:03:38 GMT -5
According to EvanMiya.com, there are about 30 unsigned PF/C seniors in the portal. What's the rationale for not adding any of them? Probably because like Ighoefe (who I think is in the portal) they are 2nd time transfers and won't be eligible, or have some other reason why they would be in the portal on August 28th. |
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Post by dariantownesvanzandt on Aug 28, 2023 19:08:15 GMT -5
According to EvanMiya.com, there are about 30 unsigned PF/C seniors in the portal. What's the rationale for not adding any of them? Probably because like Ighoefe (who is in the portal) they are 2nd time transfers and won't be eligible. Yes - some are not. That's not the point. There are places to rent in Tuscany, Bob Cobb. |
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DFW HOYA
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Post by DFW HOYA on Aug 28, 2023 19:26:59 GMT -5
How does that make sense? We have 5 walk-on guard/wings. In all likelihood, they're not sniffing the court. Why couldn't we have any walk-on bigs? According to EvanMiya.com, there are about 30 unsigned PF/C seniors in the portal. What's the rationale for not adding any of them? I mean... once you do DD and determine he'll be a good practice/emergency player for just 1 year, what's the harm in even giving him an 11th (not even 12th or 13th) scholarship spot? This all seems very weird. I see a method to this weirdness. If someone pops up this week, fine. If not, Cooley has three more scholarships available for next season, OR... a top athlete who isn't getting enough time decides to transfer mid-season and has immediate eligibility. A school with no open scholarships can't add players mid-season. Cooley could make an offer (with NIL) that could add a center on the team by the start of Big East season. |
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DallasHoya
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Post by DallasHoya on Aug 28, 2023 19:36:32 GMT -5
Probably because like Ighoefe (who is in the portal) they are 2nd time transfers and won't be eligible. Yes - some are not. That's not the point. There are places to rent in Tuscany, Bob Cobb. Nice maestro reference. |
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Post by dariantownesvanzandt on Aug 28, 2023 20:26:59 GMT -5
How does that make sense? We have 5 walk-on guard/wings. In all likelihood, they're not sniffing the court. Why couldn't we have any walk-on bigs? According to EvanMiya.com, there are about 30 unsigned PF/C seniors in the portal. What's the rationale for not adding any of them? I mean... once you do DD and determine he'll be a good practice/emergency player for just 1 year, what's the harm in even giving him an 11th (not even 12th or 13th) scholarship spot? This all seems very weird. I see a method to this weirdness. If someone pops up this week, fine. If not, Cooley has three more scholarships available for next season, OR... a top athlete who isn't getting enough time decides to transfer mid-season and has immediate eligibility. A school with no open scholarships can't add players mid-season. Cooley could make an offer (with NIL) that could add a center on the team by the start of Big East season. Leaving an open scholarship is fine. Sitting on three empties is absurd. And if McKenna ends up being ineligible...? Oof. Basically right now we have a less experienced version of the '20 team AFTER all of the defections (Allen, Robinson, McClung, Blair, Mosely, Pickett, Wahab, Yurt, Big Tim). What happens when Mac (Epps) & Yurt (Cook) get hurt this time around? Rowan & Heath start going 38mpg/night? Ryan has to play 28-30mpg? What other team has intentionally started a season that way? I like our guys, but you don't roll into a new year with this lineup and no net. Let's hope no roster on the website means there's more to come. |
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guru
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Post by guru on Aug 28, 2023 21:12:03 GMT -5
I don't believe that at all - there is intention in our roster looking the way it does. I think he absolutely could have gone into the lower conferences this summer with some NIL and signed some rando 2* bigs with minutes promises, or do a Patrick Ewing and sign a couple of 2023 HS kids and then recruit over them and force them to transfer the next year. The point isn't just to have bodies and to have people around that you don't intend to develop, and having people around who you aren't fulfilling promises to is bad for building a culture. How does that make sense? We have 5 walk-on guard/wings. In all likelihood, they're not sniffing the court. Why couldn't we have any walk-on bigs? According to EvanMiya.com, there are about 30 unsigned PF/C seniors in the portal. What's the rationale for not adding any of them? I mean... once you do DD and determine he'll be a good practice/emergency player for just 1 year, what's the harm in even giving him an 11th (not even 12th or 13th) scholarship spot? This all seems very weird. It's extremely weird, and those who are refusing to even admit that are making themselves look quite silly around here. And look, I like Cooley and hope he finds runaway success here - but for anyone to post that we are heading into the season with 5 walk-ons "by intention"? It's very hard to take that stance seriously. |
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prhoya
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Post by prhoya on Aug 28, 2023 21:21:22 GMT -5
There were plenty of reports of Cooley going after center prospects. He just couldn’t close. Fair enough. But I think it's important to recognize also that Cooley was entering a horrible situation inherited from Ewing. The program was in the dumps. Georgetown has been a laughing stock the last couple of years. Ewing also invested very little in fostering local relationships and in recruiting. On top of that, NIL under Ewing was not well developed, and while Cooley surely had some NIL resources available, I am sure that was in transition too with the change from the Ewing regime to Cooley's. So, there were a lot of factors that surely made Cooley's job difficult when he got to Georgetown. And on top of that, with the NCAA seemingly actually cracking down on giving waivers to 2-time transfers, it essentially took all of Cooley's best players at Providence off the board for transfers. That said, while I think Cooley's success in recruiting for the 2024-2025 class has been really excellent, I did think he might do a bit better with putting together a roster using the portal. And he did get some nice pieces, but without Akok we are pretty thin. But, even with Akok we would have been thin. This is where I largely defer to the coaching staff, because I have no idea what their plan consists of. For example, there was little reason for Cooley to take on potentially problematic recruits or those with less talent, (even if talented) for a one year shelflife. Indeed, the comment from Hilltop Hoops seems to confirm this approach, "When Akok Akok finally announced his transfer, I heard from a couple of people in the program that Georgetown would be open to bringing in another center, but would not force the issue if there wasn’t a good fit." To be clear, I am not making excuses for Cooley. I would have liked to see a stronger roster for 2023-2024, but I also realize that with limited time as head coach thus far, Cooley's ability to bring in more people are limited. I think we also need to underscore: barring major unforeseen jumps from multiple players (or a last minute ace recruit), this is not even close to an NCAA team. That alone makes the pitch to better recruits, especially transfers with a lot of options open, a difficult one to sell. I am willing to give Cooley the benefit of the doubt, especially with the 2024 high school class looking good. Right now, we need 2023-2024 to be a reversal of fortunes from 2021-2022 and 2022-2023, and Cooley needs to put out a well coached--if perhaps thin--team on the floor that competes strongly on both sides of the ball. Maybe get 6-7 Big East wins, knock off a few good teams, and build the "Cooley is getting things in order narrative going." Right now, the absolute worst thing that could happen would be a dismal season like last year. One where he coaches, players, and fans are disengaged, since that would create problems for 2024-2025. But, I really think the odds of that happening are close to zero given that Cooley is a substantially better coach than Ewing. I get your point. I just believed Cooley's words at the JCW in April. Either he misjudged the situation, he's fine with what we have and we're going to be better than you think, or Cooley has something up his sleeve. |
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Post by hoyasaxa2003 on Aug 28, 2023 21:36:55 GMT -5
Fair enough. But I think it's important to recognize also that Cooley was entering a horrible situation inherited from Ewing. The program was in the dumps. Georgetown has been a laughing stock the last couple of years. Ewing also invested very little in fostering local relationships and in recruiting. On top of that, NIL under Ewing was not well developed, and while Cooley surely had some NIL resources available, I am sure that was in transition too with the change from the Ewing regime to Cooley's. So, there were a lot of factors that surely made Cooley's job difficult when he got to Georgetown. And on top of that, with the NCAA seemingly actually cracking down on giving waivers to 2-time transfers, it essentially took all of Cooley's best players at Providence off the board for transfers. That said, while I think Cooley's success in recruiting for the 2024-2025 class has been really excellent, I did think he might do a bit better with putting together a roster using the portal. And he did get some nice pieces, but without Akok we are pretty thin. But, even with Akok we would have been thin. This is where I largely defer to the coaching staff, because I have no idea what their plan consists of. For example, there was little reason for Cooley to take on potentially problematic recruits or those with less talent, (even if talented) for a one year shelflife. Indeed, the comment from Hilltop Hoops seems to confirm this approach, "When Akok Akok finally announced his transfer, I heard from a couple of people in the program that Georgetown would be open to bringing in another center, but would not force the issue if there wasn’t a good fit." To be clear, I am not making excuses for Cooley. I would have liked to see a stronger roster for 2023-2024, but I also realize that with limited time as head coach thus far, Cooley's ability to bring in more people are limited. I think we also need to underscore: barring major unforeseen jumps from multiple players (or a last minute ace recruit), this is not even close to an NCAA team. That alone makes the pitch to better recruits, especially transfers with a lot of options open, a difficult one to sell. I am willing to give Cooley the benefit of the doubt, especially with the 2024 high school class looking good. Right now, we need 2023-2024 to be a reversal of fortunes from 2021-2022 and 2022-2023, and Cooley needs to put out a well coached--if perhaps thin--team on the floor that competes strongly on both sides of the ball. Maybe get 6-7 Big East wins, knock off a few good teams, and build the "Cooley is getting things in order narrative going." Right now, the absolute worst thing that could happen would be a dismal season like last year. One where he coaches, players, and fans are disengaged, since that would create problems for 2024-2025. But, I really think the odds of that happening are close to zero given that Cooley is a substantially better coach than Ewing. I get your point. I just believed Cooley's words at the JCW in April. Either he misjudged the situation, he's fine with what we have and we're going to be better than you think, or Cooley has something up his sleeve. I understand what you mean and I understand why people are disappointed with this roster given what Cooley said at the John Carroll weekend. Perhaps Cooley thought he would be in a different position now via the transfer portal, maybe he was trying to be optimistic or was too optimistic, or maybe he is a ruthless competitor trying to trick everybody to cover for his own weaknesses (I don't believe that, but I am channeling hoyaboya to cover all grounds). I am not sure we will ever know. The fact is the 2024 class is good thus far--Sorber, and while boya calls Mulready and Willaims "dime a dozen," that makes no sense given that they are both about top 150 or better kids, and if that's true they're clearly not a dime a dozen. We need guys like that if we are going to suceed long time, and so boya's comments are an exaggeration, in my mind. As far as Cooley not "closing" on guys like Dickinson, that's fair. But, based on reports, other schools were offering him $2 million plus in NIL, and Georgetown did not. So, do we have more NIL than we once had? Yes. Do we have that kind of money for one guy, for one year? I am not so sure. I still stand by my position that people are focusing way too much on the walk-ons as if that is a meaningful metric. It's almost surely for practice purposes and/or catastrophic injury purposes. I do not expect Cooley to be playing tons of walk-ons. The blunt fact is that there are tons of coaches who play rotations of 7-8 guys. Now, that may not be ideal, but it's doable, and so if the guys we have do perform, I think it may be fine. If we get a lot of injuries, or if some of our young guys are just plain bad, it might be a long season. I have some of the same concerns about the roster that everybody else has here, but I also am going to wait to see the guys on the court before I get alarmed. Ed Cooley has never had a problem recruiting or had to resort to walk ons. To the extent that is the case this year, it would likely be because Cooley made a specific choice not to bloat the roster with guys from small conferences (cough cough, Primo Spears) who really aren't good enough to get a lot of minutes on a Georgetown team. And you know what? If people compare us to Pitino they are going to be disappointed. I wanted Pitino too, badly, but we didn't get him. I'm happy with Cooley as the next choice. But, some people aren't going to get over Jack DeGioia not considering Pitino. I get that, but in the world we live in Georgtown isn't rolling out Coach Pitino. So, we need to live with it and see what happens. If Cooley doesn't get the job done, I'm happy to say that. But we haven't even seen the guy coach a game yet. |
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Post by hoyasaxa2003 on Aug 28, 2023 21:40:06 GMT -5
The only advantage would be for us in that it would eliminate the possibility of someone poaching him before September of 2024 This is, unfortuantely, not true. With the free transfer rule, as long as he doesn't play a game, he can freely transfer anyway. The current system of free transfers plus NIL is absolutely horrible for the game. Great for some players. Not great for anybody else. |
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