NCAA Basketball: Projecting 8 biggest breakout stars for 2019-20

Georgetown is one of the teams I think we’ll see outperform their expectations in Year Three under Patrick Ewing, and improved play from Akinjo is the main reason for that.

The 6-foot point guard showed a ton of promise as both a scorer and playmaker as a freshman. He averaged 13.4 points per game but closed the season strong, scoring at least 13 points in each of his last six games – including a season-best 25 points in an upset win over Marquette in the regular-season finale.

Akinjo showed his complete repertoire in that game, creating shots for himself off the bounce, making shots from deep, and flashing the ability to finish around the rim.

The Richmond, CA native can be unstoppable when he puts it all together on the offensive end like that – the problem is that Akinjo was largely inconsistent, something that can and should be expected of a freshman.

He shot a less-than-ideal 36.5 percent from the field with most of his struggles coming around the basket, where he had to adjust to finishing around bigger defenders. That, plus a bad habit of attacking a bit out of control, led to poor shots.

Becoming more efficient in this area – which he has shown he can do in stretches spanning multiple games – will cause his effectiveness to increase drastically.

Akinjo is also an unselfish playmaker, shown by his 5.2 assists per game. He turned the ball over more than you’d like to see from your point guard (3.0 per game) but, again, a large part of that can be attributed to a freshman learning the college game while being the primary ball-handler.

Both of those numbers historically improve – more assists and fewer turnovers – with experience. If Akinjo simply shows typical progression in those areas along with smarter shot selection, the Hoyas will have a bona fide star point guard.