Georgetown may share a conference with Marquette. But right now, the Hoyas aren’t in the same league as the No. 9 Golden Eagles.
The Hoyas’ sixth consecutive setback, a 91-57 defeat Saturday afternoon at Capital One Arena, was the most lopsided Big East home loss in program history. And it came just a bit over six weeks after a 30-point loss at Marquette early in conference play.
“I didn’t like our fight today,” Hoyas Coach Ed Cooley said. “I didn’t like our will. I didn’t like our ‘it.’ I didn’t like our physicality. Let’s face it: Marquette had a lot to do with that. They’re a top-10 team for a reason, and the Big East is a monster. Just disappointed.”
Kam Jones returned from a one-game absence because of an ankle injury to score a career-high 31 points for the Golden Eagles (17-5, 8-3), who have won six in a row. They improved to 6-0 against Georgetown under Coach Shaka Smart, all by at least 11 points.
Rowan Brumbaugh scored 12 points as the Hoyas (8-13, 1-9) reached the midpoint in Big East play. Jayden Epps, the Big East’s leading scorer, was held to seven points after not practicing since Tuesday because of an illness that also affected starters Wayne Bristol Jr., Supreme Cook and Dontrez Styles.
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It was Epps’s lowest output since he scored five points in the season opener against Le Moyne.
“If I could do it again, I wouldn’t have played Jayden,” Cooley said.
As is its custom after most losses, Georgetown did not make players available for interviews.
A healthy Epps would not have altered the outcome. Not with former George Mason guard Tyler Kolek sharp from the start and finishing with 17 points and eight assists. Not with David Joplin making three early three-pointers on his way to 15 points. And certainly not with Jones connecting on his first six outside shots as he shredded Georgetown’s shoddy defense.
“We’re just a different team when he’s clicking like that,” Smart said.
All of that — along with slick passing, sharp cutting, tenacious defense and a striking connectivity — explains why Marquette won. It doesn’t absolve Georgetown for delivering none of those things.
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The Hoyas gamely hung around for nearly 10 minutes and trailed 18-14 at one point. Then came a 16-0 Marquette run with two Cooley timeouts wedged in, and the Hoyas never got closer than 17 from there. They trailed by as many as 42 points in the game’s final minutes.
Georgetown committed 19 turnovers and was outscored 35-5 off giveaways.
“[A 21-0 deficit] in the first half in points off turnovers, those are pick-sixes,” Cooley said. “You can’t recover from those, especially when you’re struggling to score, knowing you’re not as healthy.”
Cooley’s first season with the Hoyas has not featured an eye-catching victory, though Georgetown played well in stretches against TCU, Seton Hall, Connecticut, Xavier and Providence. Yet it also turned in two of its worst outings in its past two home games. A 90-66 loss to Butler on Jan. 23 left Cooley fuming. That defeat and the latest drubbing evoked memories of various forgettable moments during the tenure of Cooley’s predecessor, Patrick Ewing.
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Saturday’s setback sunk lower than any of those. Georgetown’s previous worst home Big East loss was an 88-56 pounding administered by Villanova in January 2018 during Ewing’s first season.
“I can feel the angst of some of our people — ‘Is this the same? What’s going on here?’ ” Cooley said. “... That’s the challenge of change. Sometimes it’s not as quick as everybody wants it to be. I knew coming in it would probably be the hardest challenge I’ve had as a head coach.”
He’s not kidding. Cooley’s teams have endured just one other six-game losing streak in a single season during his head coaching career, back in 2007 during his second year at Fairfield. No amount of coaching acumen or alchemy will fix the Hoyas’ roster limitations — in depth, size and especially defense — over the next 10 games plus the Big East tournament.
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For his part, Cooley struck a supportive tone for his players and declared that he thrives on the sort of skepticism that’s bound to surface after a showing such as Saturday’s. A tough stretch has not shaken his belief in what he thinks Georgetown can be.
“The last two home games, we have played absolutely [terrible],” Cooley said. “Really bad. Really, really bad. I’m not taking that away. And I’m in charge of that. I’ll hold myself accountable to that. Not going to run. Not going to hide. I’ll deal with the music in front of me. But let me tell you something: That music is going to sound really, really good. I’m going to relish that music. Make sure they play some R&B.”
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