The first official practices of the 17-18 college basketball season are in the books and Paint Touches is celebrating by counting down every Marquette opponent from worst to first. Each preview will contain a look at how the opponent did last season, who they lose, who they gain, reasonable expectations for their season, and our own prediction of how their matchup(s) with Marquette will go. This series will start with the most under of underdogs and progress all the way up to most unbeatable of opponents. While no one was surprised to see DePaul as the first high major on this list, they might be surprised at just how close Georgetown will come to them. A true race to the bottom.
Team: Georgetown Hoyas
16-17 Record: 14-18 (5-13 Big East)
Postseason?: Nooope.
16-17 KenPom: 69
Date: 12/30/17 & 2/26/18
Location: BMO Harris Bradley Center & Verizon Center
Coach: Patrick Ewing (1st Season)
Projected KenPom Range: 75-125
Projected Conference Finish: 9/10 in the Big East
Departures from 16-17
Rodney Pryor: Starting G: 32.6 mpg, 18.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 1.3 apg, 0.8 spg, 0.7 bpg, 1.7 tpg, .480 FG%, .412 3P% (Graduated)
LJ Peak: Starting G: 32.8 mpg, 16.3 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 3.5 apg, 1.1 spg, 0.4 bpg, 2.7 tpg, .481 FG%, .427 3P% (Declared for NBA draft, went undrafted)
Isaac Copeland: Backup F: 19.6 mpg, 5.4 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 0.9 apg, 0.9 spg, 0.0 bpg, 1.0 tpg, .275 FG%, .000 3P% (Only appeared in 7 games) (Midseason transferred to Nebraska)
Akoy Agau: 2nd Man off the Bench: 15.0 mpg, 4.5 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 0.9 apg, 0.2 spg, 0.9 bpg, 1.6 tpg, .506 FG%, .214 3P% (Graduate transferred to SMU)
Tre Campbell: 3rd Man off the Bench: 14.0 mpg, 3.4 ppg, 1.2 rpg, 1.3 apg, 0.6 spg, 0.0 bpg, 0.9 tpg, .377 FG%, .343 3P% (Left team for personal reasons)
Bradley Hayes: 4th Man off the Bench: 13.1 mpg, 4.1 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 0.8 apg, 0.3 spg, 0.8 bpg, 1.2 tpg, .534 FG%, .000 3P% (Graduated)
Reggie Cameron: 6th Man off the Bench: 8.1 mpg, 1.7 rpg, 0.9 rpg, 0.4 apg, 0.2 spg, 0.1 bpg, 0.5 tpg, .391 FG%, .333 3P% (Graduated)
63% of scoring, 51% of rebounding, 50% of assists, 54% of steals, 57% of blocks, 67% of 3PM
Arrivals:
Trey Dickerson: Grad Transfer PG from South Dakota
Jamarko Pickett: 4-star SF, ranked #78 by 247Sports
Antwan Walker: 3-star SF, ranked #222 by 247 Sports
Jahvon Blair: 3-star SG, ranked #233 by 247Sports
Chris Sodom: 3-star C, ranked #261 by 247Sports
Probable Starters:
PG: Trey Dickerson: 6-0 185 lb RSSR: 22.4 mpg, 10.4 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 2.8 apg, 0.6 spg, 0.1 bpg, 1.8 tpg, .404 FG%, .333 3P% (stats for South Dakota)
SG: Jonathan Mulmore: 6-4 185 lb RSSR: 20.2 mpg, 3.6 ppg, 1.4 rpg, 1.9 apg, 0.5 spg, 0.1 bpg, 1.2 tpg, .357 FG%, .345 3P%
SF: JaMarko Pickett: 6-7 190 lb FR: 4-star SF, ranked #78 by 247Sports
PF: Marcus Derrickson: 6-7 250 lb JR: 23.8 mpg, 8.3 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 1.4 apg, 0.4 spg, 0.6 bpg, 1.3 tpg, .432 FG%, .344 3P%
C: Jessie Govan: 6-10 270 lb JR: 21.0 mpg, 10.1 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 1.4 apg, 0.5 spg, 1.0 bpg, 1.7 tpg, .512 FG%, .400 3P%
Probable Bench:
Jagan Mosely: 6-3 205 lb SO SG
Antwan Walker: 6-9 230 lb FR SF
Jahvon Blair: 6-3 189 lb FR SG
Kaleb Johnson: 6-6 205 lb JR SG
Chris Sodom: 7-3 220 lb FR C
Probable Benchwarmers:
Trey Mourning: 6-9 230 lb SR PF
Ra’Mond Hines: 6-4 175 lb SR SG
Geroge Muresan: 6-9 210 lb SO PF
Greg Malinowski: 6-5 215 lb SR SG (Redshirtting)
Notes:
• No Big East team disappointed more last season than Georgetown. Some pundits had them as good as a top 25 team preseason. Instead, they floundered to a sub .500 record and a 2nd to last place finish in the conference. That was embarrassing enough to get past the protection of Big John and fire the younger John Thompson from the head coaching spot. The biggest storyline of the offseason is the one now roaming the sideline for Georgetown. Patrick Ewing, hall of fame basketball player and arguably the most famous Georgetown alumnus, was hired to bring Georgetown back the glory it had when he was a player. Whether you think Ewing was a good hire or not (his lack of recruiting experience is concerning), he faces a stiff task in his first season. With Georgetown’s best two players, most of the bench, and its star 2017 recruit all departing, they look to finish this season back in the cellar of the Big East. Some even think they will be lower than DePaul.
• If Georgetown has success this season, it will be because of their frontcourt. They feature two huge posts who have an exceptional ability to step outside and knock down jump shots. Marcus Derrickson isn’t tall but at 250 lbs he has more than enough weight to throw around. In his first two seasons, he has hit 70 long balls with around 36% accuracy making him a huge inside out threat. Jessie Govan is a mountain of a man standing near 7 foot and 270 pounds. Even with the size advantage on his opponents, Govan prefers to face the basket and take jump shots. He shot 50% from deep his freshman season and 40% last season making 14 in each one. An odd combination of size and accuracy that makes him a terrible defensive matchup. Despite their size, neither Derrickson nor Govan play very large in the post. They aren’t great rebounders or rim protectors once you factor in their size and both foul at an alarming rate. One could reasonably think that having one of the game’s all time greatest big men as their new coach can only help them develop that aspect of their games.
• If Georgetown doesn’t have success this season, it will be because of their backcourt. Last season’s Hoyas saw LJ Peak do most of the ball handling and Rodney Pryor do most of the scoring (with Peak contributing plenty in this category as well). Now that they have both moved on, Georgetown is left with very little. Pryor’s scoring might have to be made up by Jonathan Mulmore. Mulmore averaged a paltry 3.6 ppg last season with poor efficiency numbers, but two seasons ago he was an unstoppable JUCO. He was 2nd in the NJCAA with an eye popping 27.1 ppg. It’s a long jump up to the Big East but he needs to find a way to get his scoring swagger back. Sophomore Jagan Mosely figures to take on the ball handling duties for the Hoyas. He was second on the team in assists last season and played a lot more minutes than one would expect from an unheralded 3-star freshman. His defense is solid but his offensive numbers were not even close to pretty. An interesting contender for minutes is graduate transfer Trey Dickerson. Dickerson started his career at Iowa and found no room on the bench. He transferred to South Dakota and became the point guard for a team that earned an NIT tournament appearance (where they were promptly flattened by his old team, the Hawkeyes). While he did lead the Coyotes in assists, he was at best the third scoring option. Hoya fans shouldn’t have terribly high expectations.
• In the middle of this past summer, the future of Georgetown basketball was looking dim. Coach Ewing got a late start to recruiting and found a trio of lower level three stars that weren’t being chased by many other high majors. Their 2017 class got a huge boost when local four star and former Ole Miss commit Jamarko Pickett signed up to be Coach Ewing’s first top 100 recruit. Pickett decommitted from the Rebels in the middle of July, after his lead recruiter left for another job. Rather than informing his coaches, Pickett stayed silent for weeks, not returning calls and then submitting his request to be released to the National Letter of Intent office without informing Ole Miss. Questionable handling of his decommitment aside, Pickett will end up being a huge boon for the Hoyas. He is 6-7, with a ridiculous wingspan and the speed of a wing. He is not known as a shooter but his athleticism allowed him to get past defenders and into the lane with ease. His combination of wingspan and speed could make him a lockdown defender on the perimeter. While there are better freshmen coming into the Big East, Pickett has a solid shot at the all-freshman team due to the opportunity for minutes available at Georgetown.
• Georgetown was a below average three-point shooting team last season. The only reason they weren’t terrible was due to Pryor’s 84 made threes on 41% shooting. Pryor made more threes than the players who came in 2nd (Peak with 33), 3rd (Derrickson with 32), and 4th (Govan with 14) combined. Now that he and Peak are gone, the Hoyas are going to be searching for ways to stretch out opposing defenses to make room for their decent frontcourt and slashing focused backcourt. Jahvon Blair is the only recruit known for his shooting and he is not expected to make an immediate impact in his freshman season.
Prediction:
A team that relies on its frontcourt for offense and lacks proven options in the backcourt is about as poor of a matchup as you can have for Marquette. The Golden Eagles should rout the Hoyas at the Bradley Center and make short work of them on the road in DC. The only hope the Hoyas have is if both Derrickson and Govan stay out of foul trouble and go bonkers. Which Govan did do the last time he saw Marquette, scoring a season high 23 points and grabbing 8 rebounds. Even so, without the supporting cast Georgetown is likely to go 0-2 this year against Marquette.
Paint Touches 
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