Your Georgetown Hoyas (11-10, 3-7) have found a bit of a rhythm at a decent point in the season, carrying a two-game winning streak into a Saturday matinee against the Butler Bulldogs at Hinkle Fieldhouse. After navigating a difficult stretch of conference play, the Georgetown faithful have noticed that the team’s identity may be finally crystallizing under Ed Cooley in his third season.
Wins over Providence and DePaul have provided a blueprint for success rooted in defensive grit. In the recent 70-61 victory against the Blue Demons, the Hoyas held their opponent to just 41.4% shooting while forcing 11 turnovers.
Many of the Georgetown faithful have said that the first half against Providence felt like a definitive low point for the program, as the team headed into the locker room facing an 18-point deficit that eventually ballooned to 21. Seeing the squad struggle to find an offensive rhythm in such a hostile environment was a difficult test for the fans who have followed this rebuilding process.
However, the historic 56-point second-half explosion may be the turning point everyone has been waiting for, signaling a shift in the team’s resilience and competitive spirit.
By clawing back to win 81-78, your Georgetown Hoyas demonstrated a level of grit that suggests Ed Cooley’s culture is finally taking hold, transforming a potentially devastating loss into a something to build on (as well as sending PC fans spiraling).
People who “know ball” have noted that the presence of Vince Iwuchukwu has been a significant factor in this turnaround. The 7-1 senior has provided a necessary interior presence, averaging 10.3 points and 5.1 rebounds while solidifying the back line of the defense.
Rather than displace Julius Halaifonua, it appears to have taken some of the pressure off of Juice and made him more efficient. Time will tell.
While your Georgetown Hoyas have yet to consistently string together two halves of high-level basketball on both ends of the floor, the win over DePaul and the huge comeback in Providence hinted they can likely compete with any opponent in the Big East.
Many of the Georgetown faithful have said that if the roster maintains that level of play for a full 40 minutes, this group is capable of challenging anyone in the nation.
Hoya fans should take the season one game at a time, but with the defense improving, aiming for a first-round bye in the Big East Tournament has become a realistic objective for this program.
Making any kind of noise in February (and March) would be fun, and a consistent defense can do that.
But perhaps we’re getting ahead of ourselves before a short-rest Butler game.
Here are the links:
Georgetown Set to Challenge Butler on the Road – Georgetown University Athletics | GUHOYAS
Bizjack leads Butler in scoring with 17.2 ppg, followed by Ajayi (16.5 ppg) to round out those averaging double figures. Ajayi is averaging a double-double as his 11.5 rpg lead Butler on the boards. Ajayi and Azavier Robinson pace the Butler offense with 3.2 apg and 2.5 apg, respectively. Butler is led by Head Coach Thad Matta in his fourth season.
ABOUT THE SERIES Georgetown and Butler will meet for the 27th time in program history, with the Bulldogs holding a 14-12 advantage in the series.
Nearly every Butler loss under head coach Thad Matta has been the same recipe of disaster: heavy isolation offense, minimal movement and a lack of urgency on both sides of the ball if the shots are not falling early. Matta has acknowledged the trend several times, emphasizing that his team needs to remain cognizant enough to play defense, even when the shots are not falling. However, thanks to the hot start at the beginning of the year — mixed with a few solid wins early in conference play — there are still meaningful games to be played heading into February and time to right the ship.
The first order of business will be to play a faster brand of basketball. The Dawgs’ best offensive outbursts were early in the season, when they were running up and down the court, essentially playing a brand of basketball that mirrors that of a pick-up basketball game.
Butler battles Georgetown with Thad Matta on verge of 500 wins | FLM
“They’re gonna mix up the defenses. They’re a team that’s better than their record, better than their analytics,” Butler assistant coach Alex Barlow said Wednesday in a postgame radio interview.
Last Saturday, KJ Lewis scored 26 points to fuel Georgetown’s rally from 21 down in the second half in an 81-78 victory at Providence.
Then on Wednesday in a 70-61 win over DePaul, Malik Mack delivered 16 points and seven assists, running an efficient offense that made 51.1% of its shots from the floor.
Butler plays conference rival Georgetown | WWLTV
The Hoyas are 3-7 against Big East opponents. Georgetown is 1-3 in games decided by 3 points or fewer. Butler averages 82.9 points, 9.6 more per game than the 73.3 Georgetown gives up. Georgetown has shot at a 43.9% rate from the field this season, 0.6 percentage points below the 44.5% shooting opponents of Butler have averaged. The Bulldogs and Hoyas square off Saturday for the first time in conference play this season.
Thad Matta enters Saturday’s game with 499 career wins as a head coach. • Butler is 9-3 at Hinkle Fieldhouse this season, averaging 89.1 points per game. All eight games this season that the Bulldogs have shot 50 percent or better from the field have come at home. Eight of Butler’s 10 games this season scoring 85 or more points have come at Hinkle. • Butler enters the contest off a road loss at No. 25/24 St. John’s Wednesday night.
St. John’s has won seven straight games to improve to 16-5 overall and 9-1 in BIG EAST play. The loss snaps a three-game winning streak for Butler (13-8; 4-6 BIG EAST). HOW IT HAPPENED: The Red Storm scored 12 of the game’s first 14 points in taking an early lead five minutes into the contest.
After Butler trimmed a 14-point St. John’s lead to 28-23 with 4:28 remaining in the first half, the Red Storm finished the half 5-for-5 from three-point range after starting the game by missing their first seven attempts from behind the arc. St. John’s led, 43-29, at the half, matching the Red Storm’s largest lead of the first half.
Butler cut the deficit to single digits once in the second half (47-38 with 16:29 remaining) before the Red Storm created separation in the second half.
Behind a quartet of players in double figures, the Georgetown University men’s basketball team picked up the 70-61 home victory against the DePaul University Blue Demons on Wednesday evening. With the win at Capital One Arena, the Hoyas improve to 11-10 on the season with a 3-7 record in BIG EAST play while the Blue Demons slip to 12-9 overall with a 4-6 record in league action.
ON THE RECORD “I thought we had carried over with enthusiasm in our preparation, so happy for our men. I thought everybody that touched the floor did a great job and were able to close it out from the free throw line. So that’s always good to see when you can close games the right way. Looking forward to having a really, really quick turnaround having to go to Butler early game on Saturday.” – Head Coach Ed Cooley
MEN’S BASKETBALL | Hoyas Finally Beat DePaul Behind Strong Defensive Effort | THEHOYA
The Hoyas were able to fight adversity and rally back after the second under-16 timeout. The squad picked up their defensive intensity, especially in the paint, which allowed the team to get out and run. A transition 24-foot 3-point shot from sophomore forward Caleb Williams revitalized the energy exhibited by the Hoyas in the first half; Georgetown now led 39-32 with 16:51 to go.
Although Georgetown maintained relative control throughout, DePaul continued to make pushes, led by Maclin’s crafty guard skills. The veteran guard continuously found his way to the paint, using a change of pace and a variety of pump fakes to get defenders in the air. Maclin had 16 of his 19 points in the second half, shooting 53% from the field on the game. This production was needed for the Blue Demons as guard CJ Gunn was held to just 4 points on 1-8 shooting due to the smothering defense of Lewis and graduate guard Jeremiah Williams.
FROM SECTION 105 | Hoyas Claim the Latest Battle in War of Attrition Against Providence | THEHOYA
Following Georgetown’s improbable comeback, English’s fate at Providence appears sealed, and the Friars will likely have a new man at the helm for the 2026-27 season. And it’s not without cause. Saturday’s loss, in which Providence had, at one point, a greater than 99% chance of winning according to ESPN, can be entirely blamed on English, who made a litany of strange personnel decisions and game-management mistakes.
Most notably, he sat his best player, guard Jamier Jones, for an extended period in the second half. When confronted about his decision to sit Jones in the post-game presser, English confusingly cited Jones making “freshmen mistakes,” despite fellow first-year Stevan Vaaks’ playing and turning the ball over in that same period. It’s a trend this year as the Friars have now dropped five improbable losses — four in overtime to Virginia Tech, Butler University, the University of Connecticut and Marquette University, plus the blown lead to Georgetown…
Georgetown vs Butler Preview | HOUSE-ENTERPRISE
In conference play, Georgetown is slowing games down to a crawl. The Hoyas are last in tempo during Big East play, and played their game against Creighton to 64 possessions. Butler has only played one game below 64 possessions all season, their most recent loss to St. John’s.
Oh, I forgot to mention that the Creighton game went to overtime. So in five extra minutes of basketball, Georgetown played a game that still had fewer possessions than every single Butler game but one. Georgetown really wants to slow it down, which is something Butler has struggled with in league play. However, the Hoyas have also been sped up by teams like Xavier, North Carolina and Seton Hall.
If you pressure the Georgetown ball handlers, they will speed up, which should be Stink Robinson’s MO tomorrow. Get in Malik Mack’s grill.
Georgetown exorcises losing record in statement win against DePaul Blue Demons | GEORGETOWNVOICE
“These are back-to-back games where I thought we played them really well defensively,” Cooley said. “I thought we had great energy and follow-up from the last 10 minutes of our Providence game, and I thought we had carry-over with enthusiasm in our preparation.”
Mack agreed with Cooley, but added that the team has been confident in their abilities since long before the Providence matchup—the big win just helped prove to others what they’ve been practicing internally. “We always believe that we can win games, we’re just having a tough time finishing games, so the Providence game just kind of showed that we can finish games,” he said. “We’re just trying to keep everything on lock, block out the noise, and know that we’re a good team and we can win basketball games.”
