Your Georgetown Hoyas lost to DePaul 71-67 in the first round of the 2025 BIG EAST Tournament. Micah Peavy led the Hoyas with 26 points, and Drew Fielder had a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds before fouling out. N.J. Benson led DePaul with 18 points. Despite clawing back to lead at halftime, the Hoyas ultimately ran out of gas and fell short. But we don’t need to talk about that.
We don’t need to discuss losing to once-lowly DePaul three times this season.We don’t have to talk about perimeter defense. We don’t have to talk about movement or shot selection. We don’t have to talk about an airballed late-game free throw being a metaphor for the season.
We don’t even need to talk about the Crown Tournament or a potential NIT invite.
We’re certainly not going to mention any other second-year BIG EAST coaches.
There are bigger things to discuss, like…
1. Center depth was no surprise. Thomas Sorber is injured. Injuries happen in sports, especially to big guys, and they are not a surprise nor an excuse. Ed Cooley’s staff had an opportunity last spring to add forwards but did not add any depth until August with Seal Diouf (redshirt) and Julius Halaifonua. Halaifonua broke his ankle in early December, but reports indicated that he was not healthy enough to practice immediately when he arrived. The point being, it was no surprise that Drew Fielder—who averaged 1 foul every 6.5 minutes during 2023-24 season and also has had injuries—was going to play many minutes as the backup center. That’s not a great plan for frontcourt depth.
2. Missing Caleb Williams hurt more than expected. Again, depth is necessary and Williams is exactly the player that Ed Cooley should fill the roster with. Not to say that he’s a dime-a-dozen at all, but he proved himself to be fundamentally skilled, energetic, defensively minded, and solid on rebounding (and he’s local). His minutes make the other defenders better. Hope he heals up well.
3. Saying you’re building long term and keeping only two players from last year is contradictory. No one wants to single the players out after a tough game because both did a lot of great things and developed in many ways this season, but who is to say other players who transferred out wouldn’t have grown? If you’re replacing large portions of a roster each year, it’s either an indictment of your staff’s scouting or their ability to retain and develop talent. If continuity is not important, then go get the top portal players one year at a time.
4. Are the redshirts necessary? If it is for academic reasons, fine. But I can’t believe Drew McKenna (2023-34) or Seal Diouf (2024-25) are happy redshirting a year. Fans understand that experience is valued in this era of college basketball, but we all clearly saw a need for depth this year (and last). Who does it help? How often do you see players spend 5 years at a single program these days?
5. Did the 2024 staff change delay portal action last spring? Last year, Kenny Johnson wasn’t hired until April 15th. Whether he was unofficially working before that, it is debatable. Ivan Thomas was hired by Hampton on March 15th. Anyone watching Hampton’s social media can see that Thomas was a big presence and filling his void (and Greg Fahey’s) was not likely immediate. This year, with the staff presumably set, portal recruitment and signing needs to be swift.
Genuinely interested how Georgetown fans feel about state of program after going 0-3 against DePaul. Pretty underwhelming start to Ed Cooley era.
— Zach Braziller (@NYPost_Brazille) March 13, 2025
Here are some links:
Georgetown falls flat in Big East opener, loses for third time to DePaul | Washington Post
Of course, the game wasn’t decided on Epps’s errant free throw. There were 39 minutes 48 seconds of play before it. Had he made both, the Hoyas still would have trailed by one without the ball, needing a few breaks to go their way.
After trailing by 15 points early, the Hoyas switched to a press and zone, made a massive run and eventually led by seven at the start of the second half. But DePaul dissected them in the paint, then made clutch shots late. For Georgetown, the end looked a lot like it did a year ago, almost to the day. In two Big East tournaments under Coach Ed Cooley, it lost on the first night, not even teasing a miracle run to the NCAA tournament.
Georgetown’s season is most likely finished at 17-15, a mark that includes three losses to the Blue Demons. DePaul (14-18) advanced to play No. 2 seed Creighton on Thursday night.
“I thought our emotional discipline, our physical discipline was null and void in all three of the games that we played against them,” Cooley said. “I tell our guys all the time: ‘Dumb will get you beat every night. Dumb will get you beat.’ You have to have some emotional intelligence. You have to have some physical toughness.
DEPAUL DESERVED TO WIN (AGAIN) | Your Hoyas
If you had Layden Blocker and N.J. Benson as the assassins who would murder Georgetown’s season, you win.
Blocker, a transfer guard from Arkansas who shot 4-of-6 from three and finished with 16 points and six rebounds, and Benson, who scored 13 of his 18 points in the second half, en route to a 71-67 victory over the Hoyas (17-15, 8-12) in the opening round of the Big East Tournament.
Benson, who transferred to the Blue Demons (14-18, 4-16) after two seasons at Missouri State, had missed the previous month with a hand injury.
“He meant everything,” first-year DePaul coach Chris Holtmann told Peacock’s John Fanta after the game…
Out of Halftime Ed Cooley dials up a set-play for Malik MackSlips a screen in the post to confuse the defender. Then runs off a pindown into a handoff
Mack executes it perfectly pic.twitter.com/vPVHOahnH4
— Ryan Cassidy (@ryancassidycbb) March 12, 2025
Holtmann Wins First BIG EAST Tournament Game, Blue Demons Advance | DePaul Blue Demons
The Blue Demons used a first half 19-2 run to take a strong 27-12 lead halfway through the first period, behind 5-of-7 three-point shooting. Georgetown pushed themselves in front however before halftime behind a 12-0 run to lead 40-38. DePaul answered out of halftime with back-to-
Rivera tied up the game seven minutes into the period on his first three of the game before Benson began to take over the game with a layup, 53-51.
Benson tallied 13 second-half points to build a nine-point, 65-56, lead for DePaul with five minutes remaining. Georgetown came back within three points, 65-62, as the game hit three minutes remaining. Blocker knocked in a second-chance three-point basket followed by a tip-in layup to JJ Traynor to keep DePaul’s advantage at six, 70-64. After the Hoyas made a three-point play, Georgetown missed the front end of a one-and-one opportunity and Gunn would sink a free throw to clinch the game.
Georgetown coach Ed Cooley called out his fellow Big East coaches for their decision on the Big East Freshman of the Year award.
In a year in which both Thomas Sorber of Georgetown and Liam McNeeley of UConn won seven Big East Player of the Week awards, the UConn freshman was awarded Player of the Year honors on Wednesday, the first day of the Big East Tournament.
“Shame on our [Big East] coaches for not recognizing that [the Trenton, N.J. native should have been Freshman of the Year]. Seriously, shame on the coaches because that kid more than earned it, more than deserved it and again I’m praying my big boy comes back because if he does this room will look blue and grey,” Cooley told reporters after the Hoyas lost to DePaul, 71-67, in the first round.
DePaul gets past Georgetown again, advances in Big East | FLM
DePaul survived on Wednesday despite committing 15 turnovers.
Micah Peavy scored 26 points to lead Georgetown (17-15), which lost for the fifth time in six games. Drew Fielder and Curtis Willimas Jr. added 11 apiece, but Jayden Epps was held to 10 on 3-on-13 shooting as the Hoyas shot 41.4 percent and missed 15 of 20 attempts on 3-pointers.
DePaul hit three treys in 19-2 run and upped their lead to 27-12 on an uncontested alley-oop dunk by JJ Traynor and a jumper in the lane by Gunn with 9:26 remaining.
Thomas Sorber Scouting Report | Gamebreak Now
Sorber projects as a defensive-minded big who will thrive as a rim protector, rebounder, and post defender. His offensive development path will determine his long-term viability—whether he can expand his game into a stretch-big role or remain a traditional interior big.
Comparison Paths:
Defensive Ceiling: Robert Williams Lite – Elite shot-blocker and interior defender but without elite athleticism.
Offensive Ceiling: Bobby Portis Lite – Stretch-big potential with toughness but not a primary scorer.
