Ed Cooley Delivers an Early Win at Georgetown

As I was leaving the practice court at the TAC on the day Georgetown introduced Ed Cooley as the new men’s basketball coach back in March, I got out two final questions once my three minutes of one-on-one-time had expired with the Hoyas new leader.

Will we talk to you before the first game in November?

Will we ever be back in this gym to watch a practice?

Without any hesitation Cooley gave a one-word, three-letter answer to both of my questions: “Yes.”

I had no reason not to believe him at that time but as the months have slowly gone by with Cooley as the lone name on Georgetown’s online roster the idea that I was once again Charlie Brown in another Hoyas version of Lucy pulling away the football situation began to gain traction in my head.

That all changed on Thursday as the Hoyas opened their doors and elevators for local media seeking summer updates.

Hopefully this will become the norm as it helps build relationships and shows that the talk of change around Georgetown Basketball is more than just talk. It’s real.

As far as the Q&A time with Cooley before practice, we didn’t learn a whole lot that we didn’t already know coming in but that’s clearly besides the point.

So let’s go over some of the main takeaways:

Cooley’s staff still isn’t finalized even though we pretty much know everyone that will be involved. Most of the staffers have been using social media and are listed in the school’s directory. Initially I felt good about seeing something concrete early into May as many college basketball contracts expire at the end of April. A quick look at the calendar shows that I was obviously way off. It happens. I’d be stunned if we go too far into July without an announcement or at least an updated roster at GUHoyas as we’ve now hit the new academic NCAA year.

Chief of staff has been a position of much interest from the fans over the last few years and it seems to be the final piece to the staff puzzle. All we know is that there will be a new CoS. Two of the names I had heard early on aren’t in the mix so I’m as interested/curious as everyone else.

Another big topic was NIL. If you were or are worried about Georgetown’s spot in the NIL world, Cooley’s words should help ease your mind. The Hoyas new coach feels that Georgetown is in a very strong position and it’s one of the reasons he made the in-conference move.

Cooley also said the schedule is close to being finalized even though he’s not done recruiting for the upcoming season. The Hoyas still have two more scholarships to use if the right player comes along.

As far as future schedules go, he was very positive about a meeting with Maryland sometime in the not so distant future.

I posted one practice video in the moment and just added some more in that twitter thread. If there’s demand for me I can keep adding them but they are all kind of similar. One thing nobody will want to do is race Wayne Bristol as that’s a losing proposition.

As these practice availabilities (hopefully) continue we’ll have something to compare them to. Right now it’s just great that we got the first one out of the way. Obviously talking to some players and/or assistants will be something to look forward to in the future. As someone that has been following the program in one form or another since I got into sports as a kid, it’s kind of crazy that the first practice I get into is the one where I know the least about the roster as the majority of the players and all of the staffers are brand new.

Let’s see, what else can I say?

Here’s two things overheard during practice from Cooley that will be of interest to the fans:

“If you don’t defend you’re never going to play for Georgetown.”

“If there’s somebody open they have to get the ball.”

So there you have it. Cooley has opened the doors to change. Now everybody can go out and enjoy some Kenner League this pre-Holiday weekend. Please consider trying a Kenner hot dog or two!