Hoya fans are about to get the rare August present, live Hoya basketball. Hopefully, there will be some stateside showing of the games so that everyone can bask in the glow of summer exhibition basketball and all of the wild speculation that comes with it. Regardless, The Finger WAG will have you covered with correspondents on site. Make sure you’re following us on socials, subscribed to the Pod and watching this space as we are planning coverage out the wazoo. 

To kick things off, we’ve got our five biggest questions going into the tournament. What are yours? Let us know in the comments.

Has Malik Mack taken a step (particularly his shooting)?

It’s clear Cooley and staff have a lot of faith in Malik. After a very up-and-down first season at Georgetown, they doubled down on Mack as the starting PG. They brought in more guard depth to support him, but he is very much the focal point of that backcourt, along with KJ Lewis. On our roster preview pod, we went in-depth on why Mack’s first season could be seen as a disappointment, while there is significant optimism for his improvement in year two. Put simply, if Georgetown is going to be good, Mack needs to be good. Hopefully, the GLOBAL Jam tournament will give us a first look at the steps we’re hoping Mack has taken. He needed to put on some muscle (and frankly, weight) to contend with 30 games of high major and Big East basketball. Perhaps most crucially, he needs to shoot it more consistently. The buzz out of Georgetown summer practices has been that the defense is going to be solid, if not great. The biggest question facing this year’s team is whether they can produce offense at a high enough level. And Mack is going to be the engine of that offense. 

Really, everything needs to be better for Mack than last season, but particularly his shooting. Mack came in as an all-around point guard who can score. He averaged 17 points per game in his freshman season at Harvard, shooting 41% from the floor, 34% from three, and 81% from the line. That put him at an effective field goal percentage of 47%. That is slightly below average, but not bad for a more undersized freshman guard who took 13 shots a game, 5+ of which were threes. Over the non-conference portion of his first season on the Hilltop, Mack’s numbers were consistent with his Freshman stats, though his scoring was down to 12.5 points per game. Notably, and encouragingly, his three-point percentage was up to 40% on just over four attempts per game. There was a lot to like in his first 10 games, and it was easy to think that he would continue to improve as he got comfortable at the high-major level. He didn’t. In conference play, Mack averaged 11.5 points per game on 34% overall shooting, 27% from three and 76% from the line. For an effective field goal percentage of 40%. We talked a lot about what the cause of that might have been on the pod, but the bottom line is he needs to be the non-conference version of himself across the whole season if Georgetown is going to be successful. That is obviously not going to be answered in a month, let alone August, but it can sure start in Toronto next week. We’ll be tracking Malik’s shooting, as well as his overall confidence, closely, hoping for great things to report back to the Hoya faithful.     

What does the big rotation look like? 

The rotation as a whole will be interesting, but we are particularly interested in what Cooley is going to do at the four and five. Without KJ Lewis, who we expect will not play in Canada coming back from his wrist injury, the guard rotation will likely look much different in the regular season. But the bigs, presumably, are all healthy, and there are some definite questions. First among them is who has the pole position on the starting center spot. The consensus of the Pod is that Vince Iwuchukwu will likely get the first look at the five ahead of Julius Halaifonua. However, I would not be surprised to see them each get a shot in this tournament. Vince is the older, higher-floor option (for now), who will be solid on the defensive end. Julius is the high-upside, potential ceiling raiser on the offensive end that could change the trajectory of this team significantly. Loyal pod listeners know how high Jake is on Vince and, likewise, how high I am on Julius (Kiwi-Jokic, anyone???). We are eager to see how both look at this juncture, and who has the favor of the staff. 

The PF position is just as intriguing, but for other reasons. That spot is a bit of an enigma at the moment, without an accurate PF on the roster. Jayden Fort, who played all of 0 minutes in his first season (we assume a red shirt, but who knows), is the only accurate PF. He has the build and athleticism, but we genuinely know nothing else. We expect that he will slot in behind Caleb Williams, who is really more of a swing forward, but showed last year he can play up. The Finger WAG are certified Caleb-stans, and we are confident that he can take over that starting four position for good. Can he get help? What kind of improvements has he made to his already solid game, and can the Hoyas get any consistent offense from the four? These are questions we hope to begin to answer next week. 

Can anyone shoot? 

This one is pretty simple. Georgetown shot 32% from three as a team last season and had an effective field goal percentage of 50%, both of which were below the D-1 average. Georgetown struggled to generate consistent offense after Sorber went down and struggled to shoot despite Micah Peavy going nuclear for the last 10 games of the year. If the Hoyas are going to improve this season, their offense needs to be better than the 139th in the country they were last year. Outside of Langston Love, who is a career 38% shooter from three, they have a lot of guys who could shoot. But there are a lot of question marks. We talked above about the biggest one – that is, Malik Mack. Who else can make shots consistently? Caleb Williams is a good candidate based on his ability to hit open shots last year. KJ Lewis has never really been a three-point shooter (24% from three for his career). If Langston Love is the only consistent knock-down shooter on this roster, it’s hard to see how the team puts together a functional offense.

What does Cooley think he has in this team?

As we have mentioned on the podcast, this team looks a lot like some Providence rosters from years past. A lot of high effort, solid guys, with some skill upside, but there is not a ton of jump-off-the-page talent. In other words, high-floor, low-ceiling. Cooley had a lot of success with these types of teams at Providence, pushing many of them to their ceiling – an NCAA Tournament bid. Cooley essentially built a program out of this ability, and by identifying upside talent and getting the most out of them. The idea behind bringing Cooley to the Hilltop is that with Georgetown’s brand, history, resources and talent pool, he could maximize his top-end potential. Year three is a big one for Cooley to reward the faith of fans and supporters, but this team isn’t a slam-dunk tournament team on paper. I’m interested to not only see how Cooley feels about individual players, but his feel for the team as a whole. Do they look connected (or connected enough for August)? Does he know what buttons to push offensively and defensively to get the most out of lineups? What does he do if the team can’t score for a stretch? We are not going to have definitive answers to these questions by the end of the tournament, but we should have a better idea. And we hope to be able to ask Coach some of these exact questions, directly in Toronto.

Has Julius continued to progress since June?

As mentioned, the WAG pod is a little split on our favorite bigs going into the year. Jake is very high on Vince. I am on Julius Island, buying up all the property I can get. One area we agree on is that for Georgetown to be good, at least one of these guys has to hit. If one of them really hits, Georgetown could be great. My money is on Julius, and I am eager to see if he has continued to make strides since we saw him last at the FIBA U19 World Cup. He ended that tournament in a different spot than when it began. He looked comfortable, confident and damn near electric. He was New Zealand’s best (and only serviceable) player in a rout by the US team. If Julius, who has all the makings of a great college player, can take that step this season, as opposed to next, well then hold on to your butts. I am eager to see how Julius looks after another month and change on the Hilltop, and how he seems within Cooley’s system.