Georgetown Basketball: Analysis of the Hoya’s early season minutes and rotations
Head Coach Patrick Ewing has had to mix returning veterans and playmaking freshmen. What’s to make or the minutes and rotations for the Hoyas?
In Saturday’s win over Campbell, Georgetown’s Trey Mourning had career highs in points (27), rebounds (12) and minutes (34). For Mourning and the Hoyas, this is a long time coming. The son of future Hall of Famer, Alonzo Mourning, sat out all of last season with an injury. Mourning’s breakout game puts Coach Patrick Ewing in a good position. How to manage minutes when you’ve upgraded talent at every position?
Mourning’s 34 meant Jessie Govan and Josh LeBlanc saw less minutes despite playing very well. For Govan it was his second lowest minutes total for the season while LeBlanc played his least amount. What’s obvious is Ewing’s lineup is based on how you’re playing that day. There is no sense of guaranteed minutes at any position.
The Hoyas depth isn’t only impacting minutes. It’s also impacting shot attempts in a good way. Look no further than Jamorko Pickett. Last season, the 6’8″ sophomore steadily improved as he gained the trust of Ewing. Early in the season, he was just a corner jump shooter. As the season went on, he started putting the ball on the floor with more confidence and started scoring in other ways.
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This season Pickett’s numbers are down but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. According to KenPom, the sophomore’s numbers are down in Offensive Rating (ORtg) and Percentage of Shots Taken (%Shots). But his stats show improvement in Effective Field Goal Percentage (eFG%) and True Shooting Percentage (TS%).
Pickett isn’t the only one who has seen both a dip and a rise in statistics. When Marcus Derrickson left for the NBA Draft, Govan became indispensable. The day he announced he was heading back to the Hilltop, you could hear the collective sigh of relief from the Key Bridge to Capital One Arena. The thought was, Govan would have to own the lane this season even more than last season. That hasn’t been the case. LeBlanc’s play in the lane has eased Govan’s minutes and need to do everything. The senior big man has seen a rise in ORtg, eFG% and TS% despite a dip in Percentage of Shots (%Poss).
This should be expected with Georgetown’s explosive backcourt. Freshmen James Akinjo and Mac McClung are very confident players. Akinjo does an above average job of finding the open man on penetration, as opposed to, predetermine where the ball is going. Unlike last season, the ball doesn’t necessarily get rotated to the corner like a lot of point guards tend to do. It gets dumped down to a big or kicked to a wing or it’s a shot. KenPom defines 120 and above as an Excellent ORtg. Against, Illinois, Akinjo’s ORtg was 118. Against Campbell, it was 128.
McClung is still a work in progress. He has a problem seeing the open man in an offense that requires it. The freshman predetermines his moves before he catches the ball which causes his eye level to go down towards the floor. Though his turnover isn’t the worst, it takes opportunities away from his teammates and it’s why he’s shooting 14.3% from the three-point line. He’s not allowing his shots to come in the flow.
In years past, this would be an issue for the Hoyas. They would need to keep him out there because of the limits they had in perimeter shooting. Now, McClung can learn slower because of Akinjo, Jagan Mosely and Jahvon Blair. The four of them are sharing backcourt minutes and, for now, it’s working out well for Ewing.
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For all the excitement around the freshmen, the Hoyas success is built on their depth and the skill-set each player brings. Players minutes and shot attempts will fluctuate game by game. For now, it is working out well. If it continues during the Big East season, the depth will be the difference between an NIT bid and an NCAA bid.