Inside the Numbers: A Look at Georgetown’s Freshmen Trio in Wins v. Losses

Georgetown’s freshmen trio of Mac McClung, James Akinjo and Josh LeBlanc has been a bright spot for the Hoyas all season and has Georgetown fighting for an NCAA Tournament bid. But just how valuable has this trio been to Georgetown’s success? Special thanks to HoyaParanormal for putting together the below:

Against DePaul, #LeMacKinjo combined for 36 points, 12 rebounds, and nine assists. That should be pretty close to a baseline for the three of them. Set the “baseline” at 35, 11, 9, and a trend develops.

Note: Against Seton Hall, the fresh trio put up 18 points, five rebounds, and an astounding one assist.

In Big East games that all three played, here’s how they performed in wins:

Providence (2OT): 40, 19, 11

St. John’s: 48, 12, 14

Xavier: 50, 13, 11

Providence: 40, 21, 13

Villanova: 35, 11, 14

DePaul: 36, 12, 9

And in losses:

Marquette: 37, 15, 11

Creighton: 26, 5, 14

Villanova: 28, 13, 8

Butler: 30, 15, 6

Seton Hall: 18, 5, 1

Creighton: 20, 8, 8

Bottom line: The Hoyas are 6-1 when our freshmen put up “baseline numbers,” and we are 0-5 when they don’t. As much as I hate relying so much on our freshmen, sure I could come up with some sort of similar metric for Jessie Govan, but it wouldn’t be quite as stark, and frankly, at this point in our season, I have more faith in getting consistent effort from the three youngsters than I do in our lone senior starter.

If Akinjo, Mac, and LeBlanc combine for at least 35 points, 11 rebounds, and nine assists in the remainder of our games, Georgetown should be well positioned to beat every team in our league except Marquette (with a healthy Markus Howard). With the right match-ups in the Big East Tournament, that would get us to 4-2, losing twice to Marquette (ultimately in the championship game). I delusionally like our chances.