Georgetown Basketball: Key storylines for 2020-21 season

Some key storylines for Georgetown Basketball heading into the 2020-21 season.

With the prospects of another rebuild, it’s understandable why the Georgetown Basketball fan base has talked a lot about the 2021 recruiting class. In 2021 Georgetown will arguably have their best-recruiting class since head coach Patrick Ewing replaced John Thompson III.

The Hoyas will be welcoming in two four-star recruits (Ryan Mutombo and Jordan Riley) and two three-star recruits (Tyler Beard and Jalin Billingsley).

With all the hype around 2021 that class, what happens in 2020 will be the building blocks for 2021.

Georgetown was picked to finish last in the Big East Preseason Poll. On paper, the Hoyas roster looks uneven but there is still talent there but to take advantage of the talent, Ewing will need to change things on offense.

Tri-Towers

Sophomore centers Qudus Wahab (6’ 10”), Timothy Ighoefe (7’0”), and Malcolm Wilson (7’0”) are a blessing and a curse.

Having three legitimate big men gives Ewing plenty of options and depth at a position that most teams don’t have.

But sometimes this is a curse especially in today’s college basketball landscape. It starts on offense. Georgetown runs a lot a pro sets and action which don’t involve two traditional big men. That takes away the ability to play any of them together.

One of the three centers will need to get proficient with a 15+ foot jump shot. That would allow Ewing the option of playing two big men at once ala Roy Williams at the University of North Carolina. As long as one of them can consistently hit a free throw line jump shot that’s enough. The offense doesn’t necessarily need to have a big man stretch to the three-point line.

Of course, this would mean Ewing would have to tweak his offense a bit. Something he hasn’t indicated that he plans on doing.

Playing multiple big men at once could also be a liability on defense. Even though Ewing played some zone last season, it was pretty clear that he didn’t like to. The reason for playing zone was telling. It was because he had a short roster caused by in-season transfers and injuries.

Those roster woes probably won’t be present this season.

With so many college teams going to some pace-and-space principles, having two traditional bigs would mean one or both would need to be able to guard on the perimeter including defending wings who can drive to the basket.

Unless one or some sort of combination of the three sufficiently improved their footwork in the offseason, that probably won’t be the case.