With a few days to process, stew in our frustration and reflect, the 76-67 home loss to Seton Hall certainly doesn’t feel any better.

In the grand scheme of a long season, a single loss in January shouldn’t necessarily feel cataclysmic. And it isn’t. But as I sat down to record my thoughts immediately following the final buzzer, this one felt different. It felt like a breaking point. It still does. But the season is not over. As the team and fanbase look to move on to the next challenge, a tough road test against a bubbly Creighton, I am hoping to close this chapter of this season by taking a final moment to wallow in that frustration before wiping it clean and, hopefully, welcome in the next chapter with an unlikely win in Omaha.

We are deep enough into the season—and deep enough into the Ed Cooley era—that we have to be honest about where we stand. This is not where this team was expected to be. It certainly isn’t where the fans thought we would be. And, based on the body language and the post-game comments, I don’t think it’s where the team thought they would be either.

There is a palpable frustration boiling over in the fanbase, and it is entirely understandable. We are witnessing a decline that isn’t just about the last few games, but a decade-long struggle to return to relevance. As an outlet for fans, I feel that weight. But I also feel the need to look at the basketball itself—to analyze why a team that showed flashes of real defensive identity earlier in the season has regressed into a disjointed collection of parts.

Let us first, wallow…

The hardest part about watching Seton Hall, at least for me, was seeing exactly what we hoped Georgetown would be. Seton Hall is tough. They are physical. They extend pressure. They have an identity. In an alternate universe, Georgetown is where Seton Hall is, and the fanbase is unbearable…for everyone else in the Big East as we celebrate the Hoyas finally cracking the top 25 rankings and staring a battle with UConn dead in the face.

And against the Hall on Saturday, there was some hope. For a portion of the first half, the Hoyas were right there. They battled. They even built a lead early in the second half. But then, the defining moment of the game happened: Seton Hall found a second gear. They composed themselves, ratcheted up the intensity, and Georgetown simply failed to match it.

That inability to “level up” when the opponent punches back has become the story of the season.

Next, we (psycho) analyze…

If I had to pinpoint the single greatest deficiency in this squad, it isn’t necessarily a lack of talent; it is internal leadership.

Coach Cooley’s best teams at Providence were defined by having players on the floor who were essentially extensions of him. They were the guys who, when the arena got loud and the opponent went on a 10-0 run, would get in their teammates’ faces and demand accountability. He’s got one of them on the bench next to him, LeDontae Henton. For Georgetown, I think back to guys like Jabril Trawick—vocal, physical leaders who wouldn’t let the team drift and while flawed, had the play to back it up.

I am struggling to see who that guy is on this roster.

We are in the transfer portal era, which makes building that organic, multi-year leadership difficult. KJ is arguably our most talented player, but he is new to the system, the school and the culture. Malik, whom we hoped would take that leap, seems more like a “lead by example” player when Cooley’s system demands vocal, loud leadership.

I have high hopes for guys like Isaiah and Caleb—they play the right way and have the right mentality—but they, too, don’t seem like the most vocal teammates and are already being asked to do a lot for the sophomores they are. I see many of the requisite leadership qualities in Langston Love, but his role isn’t that of a take-charge guy, and he has real physical liabilities at this point in his career, as he plays his way back from injuries.

What Cooley’s system and culture need seems to be an alpha both on the floor and off. In fact, that combination is critical, and it doesn’t quite seem like this team has that guy, at least he hasn’t yet emerged

Let’s really analyze…

The leadership void is exacerbated by the backcourt’s performance, which was supposed to be this team’s strength.

You can look at any number of stats that all say the same thing: the guard room has underperformed at best and has fallen off a cliff at worst. But let’s not be revisionist about this. It definitely was a cliff, not a hidden valley. The starting combination of KJ+Malik was good early in the year. It’s, in part, why I grant coach some grace in being surprised by where the team is. We all are, particularly after the first 2 weeks of the season. Through the Clemson game, Malik and KJ were Georgetown’s two best players.

That has been on a steady decline since Orlando, but has reached a nadir in the last two games.

The statistic that haunts me (and Coach Cooley per his postgame) is this: 12 assists in 80 minutes.

You simply cannot win high-major basketball games with that level of stagnation. Coach Cooley, in assessing what was happening there, first took responsibility for himself. But you also have to look at the guard play. Our guards struggled immensely against Seton Hall’s ball pressure.

Malik seems to have lost the confidence he had played with early in the season. He struggled to get the team into offense, fell back on some of his worst tendencies–driving without purpose, getting stuck under the rim, and hunting the most difficult midrange shots.

KJ has become too reliant on isolation and the midrange. He is down to 43% finishing at the rim; in his two years at Arizona, he was at 61% and 53%. He’s also struggled in transition, down to 1.12 points per possession in transition (down from 1.38 and 1.42 at Arizona). And he has completely abandoned secondary creation or getting two feet in the paint and spraying it out to shooters.

JWill has just completely lost the poise, aggressiveness and experienced hand he had early in the year. He played himself off the floor against Seton Hall, but his poor performance against the press was something he should have no problem handling.

The ball is sticking. The average possession length is creeping up to 16.5 seconds. We are dribbling the air out of the ball, waiting for a perfect look that rarely comes, rather than moving the defense.

Finally, let us move forward…

Coach Cooley used the word “unacceptable” in his press conference. He admitted they didn’t see this coming. He looked like a man searching for answers, trying to balance being a coach with being a “father figure” to a team that is clearly suffering a crisis of confidence. I’m not going to argue whether that should be frustrating for you. But I do think it’s telling. This is clearly a team in freefall that needs both basketball and emotional answers.

So, what are the answers?

From a basketball perspective, I think you need to shake things up. And yes, to me, that means trying Gabriel Landeira. Though I do not think rolling him out in that Seton Hall game would have been the right move for him or the team, they need a shot in the arm, and Creighton might be the right game for it. Landeira has a critical skillset, and it’s not shooting or size (though those matter); he’s a pass-first guard who can (at least in theory) run offense. Based on his highlights and play in Canada, he is as much a floor general and facilitator as a lights out shooter (count me skeptical about his shooting at least until I see it at this level).

Georgetown needs someone whose primary instinct is to facilitate, to make the entry pass, to find the open man. Even in limited minutes, inserting a playmaker could move the ball and ease the pressure on Malik and KJ to create everything off the dribble. And while I know it is coming, if he gets inserted and doesn’t immediately solve all of Georgetown’s issues, I would caution against drawing big conclusions about the player or the team if he struggles. It’s hard to insert someone mid-year, but it’s worth a shot.

I would also like to see them run more offense through the bigs, mostly Julius, at the top of the key or the nail. Georgetown tried some guard-to-guard screens against SHU. While the results weren’t there, I think that’s a good action to free up space and get the right matchup for your backcourt. I’d also go back to run some of that weave action to initiate the side-to-side movement. Anything they can do to generate ball and player movement. Ultimately, the starting guards have to simply be better. Get into sets quickly, be decisive on the pick-and-roll, and look to spray the ball out, not just put it up.

I’d also consider playing bigger, much bigger. This would be a big change and one that would require preparation time that the team frankly doesn’t have, but, in general, the frontcourt has been a bright spot for you this year. I am not sure that trying a twin towers lineup with Juice and Vince is the right move – though I’d look at it. But I would absolutely look to play with one guard, KJ or Malik and run with Abraham, Caleb + Fort and Vince/Julius. Let me be clear, this would be a Hail Mary that would probably fail, but it has some upside that intrigues me. You’d absolutely get more offensive rebounds, which is good because the ball isn’t going in when you shoot it right now anyway. You’d allow more space for your two best shooters, Caleb and IA, to operate off the wing, without needing them to also get involved down low. And Vince+Fort would be a nightmare to play against, while Julius would slot into the secondary playmaker on offense, a role I think he can excel in. The obvious counter to this would be to ramp up the ball pressure and force anyone but the guard to bring the ball up and initiate, but against Creighton, that’s not so much of a concern. I doubt they’ll try this, and don’t blame them, really. It’s great in theory, difficult in practice, but it’s potentially… something!

Emotionally? Well, that’s perhaps even trickier, and maybe more important. Let me admit my biases. I like the people in this program. I like the staff, and I like the players. I genuinely believe they are hurting just as much as the fans, if not more. They are trying to fix it. But right now, nothing is working.

The expectation that this team would be an NCAA Tournament contender now feels distant. Unless there is a miraculous turnaround in the Big East Tournament, we are looking at another season that falls well short of the standard. But it need not fall short of progress. If that is too small a consolation for you, I get it. I’m not going to argue that you should give this program the benefit of the doubt. I will simply tell you that I am going to give these people the benefit of my doubt.

There will be time to discuss what comes next. For me, it is premature to talk about firing staff or overhauling the roster for next year—they are in the middle of the fight, and I want to respect the process of trying to salvage what they can from this season. Even if that is fundamentally disappointing. We will have those discussions about the coach, the team, the program. But for now, I am rallying behind something we all care about: the District yearns for Georgetown to be good again.

Hoya Saxa.