Finally, Something Different

Evaluating the Ed Cooley Product On and Off the Floor

As someone with a marketing and communications background, I tend to pay attention to how brands are perceived in the public eye. I’m that guy who makes off-handed comments about good TV commercials that resonate with me (e.g. Airbnb’s strategy around experiences) and complain when something goes wildly overboard (Wicked’s “just short of obnoxious” that went way past obnoxious campaign). Of course, like all good armchair quarterbacks, most of my thoughts are just quick judgements that aren’t rooted in data or stats. Just conclusions drawn from experience.

Any decent marketer will tell you that a good product is a lot easier to market than a bad one. Sure, you can absolutely put “lipstick on a pig” and sell a bad product for a while, but your audience is going to catch on sooner or later. And in today’s world, it’s usually sooner. 

It should be no secret, dear reader, that the brand of Georgetown basketball has been seriously damaged since JT3’s first losing season almost a decade ago. The program has given us a terrible on-court product while also shying away from building meaningful relationships with students, alumni, the local community, and fans. The administration has asked our blind loyalty as they concocted their secret plans to bring Hoya basketball back to relevance only to continue to deliver poor results. And when we asked questions, we were made to feel disloyal for raising our concerns. For the record I will never call Patrick Ewing’s hire “lipstick on a pig,” but it certainly seemed to be a distraction from more foundational issues within the program.

A year and a half into the Ed Cooley administration the tide seems to have turned, and our beloved program appears to be on the rise. The captain of this ship bears most of the responsibility — the credit and the blame. But are the Hoyas really back or are we building towards another disappointment? Completely devoid of stats and data, let’s look at some of the Cooley-led elements that could bring the brand of Georgetown basketball back to prominence.

Sets & Schemes 

Having grown up in the Fairfield, CT area and with a brother who went to Providence, I would venture that I have watched Ed Cooley coached teams longer than many Hoya fans. His teams at Fairfield and PC played a brand of tough, organized basketball regardless of the talent on the floor. Cooley seemed to take whatever he was given and turn it into a competitive product. He was rightfully recognized for that ability with a Naismith Coach of the Year award. I was excited to see what he could do in a situation where he could attract even more talent than he could in Providence. 

Year one was underwhelming. I didn’t see much of the Ed Cooley sets he ran with the likes of Nate Watson and Bryce Cotton. The team played a disorganized brand of basketball that was a copy-paste from the previous season with Ewing at the helm. But I gave Ed the benefit of the doubt. I knew he was stepping into a bad situation and it would take some time. The man himself even said as much (more on that later). So I expected the 2024-2025 season to be the turning point.      

That’s why my concern level shot through the roof to start this season. The team started out playing almost the exact same way. On 11/23, during the St. Francis game I shared this take with the WhatsApp thread:

Everything that we’ve seen on the court so far this year doesn’t seem to be an effort issue or a talent issue...We just look nervous. We look like we have no confidence out there. We look like we can’t adjust when a team isn’t playing at our pace or running slow sets. It’s as if the team gets bored and tries to force the issue and we either foul or turn the ball over. 

All of this is a coaching issue.

Uncle Dad responded: Could’ve been written at any point in the last 7 years

The point: we were watching the exact same on-court product as we had during the Ewing era. 

One thing that stood out to me up to this point was the lack of a particular flex set that he ran consistently at Providence. It’s old-school basketball at its best. A series of quick pin down and back screens that looks like it all takes place in the paint, but includes a pretty back screen for the wing player who then gets right in the mixer if it’s not there. It usually results in a good look right under the basket or an open jumper at the elbow. Stat wonks may tell you it’s not a great play in the “Steph Curry era” of basketball, but to me it's a sign that a team is well coached, can play with each other, and have a set to rely on when they really need a bucket. It’s really a thing of beauty. But Cooley just didn’t seem to trust that this team could execute it. 

Then, something magical happened on December 14th against Syracuse. They ran it up three with less than 1:30 to play.

It resulted in a missed Micah Peavy lay up, but damn it looked good!     

Cut to almost exactly a month after my Cooley complaint…I shared this during the 12/22 Seton Hall game:

I don’t know why…but it just suddenly looks like an Ed Cooley coached team. The sets look crisp, the D looks well orchestrated, everyone is playing with discipline. The team is gelling at just the right time

Now I know a lot can change in a month. Chemistry gets built, rotations get developed, wins/losses build character; but whatever it is, Cooley’s system seems to have finally hit its stride at Georgetown. And for the record, the flex has been seen a few times, including against Creighton where Caleb Williams hit a beauty at the elbow.

Turns Out It’s Important to Know How to Talk to Kids

Yes, they make money now.  And yes, some of them make a lot of money. But at the end of the day, they’re still kids. 

An indelible memory for me of the Patrick Ewing era was the “Inside the Huddle” segment Fox did coming out of commercial. Unhappy with the shot selection from one of his players, Ewing laid into the off camera offender for a solid 20 seconds. It reminded me of a coaching tip I got when I was coaching middle school kids. Never embarrass a player in front of his teammates. Pull them to the side and coach them in private. Not only did Ewing not pull his player away from his teammates, he embarrassed his player with a camera right in his face. I’ll never shake the feeling that this dressing down on national TV was a major reason that Marcus Derrickson, the easily identifiable culprit, left the program. 

This was just one example of something that the boys in 104 witnessed regularly. Watching time outs from our vantage point was awkward and painful as we saw the team fail to respond to their head coach. At the end of the day, Ewing just didn’t seem to know how to relate to his players. 

We seem to be in a new era of coaching where the days of using fear or embarrassment as a motivational tool appear to be a thing of the past. Guys like Dan Campbell with the Detroit Lions are serving as an example of how building a positive culture can translate to results. It’s as if this new wave of coaches are taking middle school coaching attitudes and applying them at every level — even the pros. 

This isn’t a particularly new concept for Cooley. It’s always appeared to be a part of his DNA when interacting with his players. Like all coaches, he can get intense and get after his team, but it never seems to be insulting or demeaning. 

Time outs feel different now. Cooley seems to be in command of his team and can understand where his players are mentally. He then has the ability to shift their energy to make them as successful as possible. This bodes well for recruiting and retention (looking at you, Sorber).

Transparency & Engagement

Like many alumni, my dad has become disengaged from Georgetown basketball and has shared his thoughts with his former classmates. One of those classmates was recently walking through campus and bumped into Cooley. Sensing an opportunity, he called my dad and handed the phone over to Coach. My dad wasn’t able to pick up, but the voicemail that Cooley left had three main points: (1) I know it’s been tough, (2) we’re working hard to make positive changes, and (3) we need your support. 

These three elements have been part of Cooley’s message from Day 1. He has been honest (sometimes brutally so) about what needs to be done, he’s promised and demonstrated that he and the program will work as hard as they can to make things better, and he has asked Hoyas nation to be a part of the change. 

The skeptical among us may call it good corporate comms. Just the new guy saying what he needs to say to make his customers happy. But when the captain of the ship continues to repeat the same message — whether that’s publicly in press conferences or privately to disgruntled fans via voicemail — you eventually get people to buy into the message.    

Coach’s engagement on campus has been well documented in the Hoya twitter-sphere. But for me, it’s been that transparency. He has made it no secret that he has inherited a program with some fundamental flaws. Again, a skeptic might say that’s another stroke of PR genius to lower fan expectations. But we’ve all seen the mess with our own eyes. It’s almost refreshing to have someone tell us that what we’ve been seeing is actually true. No more smoke and mirrors about legacy and history. Cooley is about the present and the future. 

This engagement extends to his players. As the boys have noted, the vibes are very good. How many Ewing teams signed autographs for the kids after games?!

It Finally Looks Like a Cooley Team

I tend to be cautiously optimistic by nature. But I’ve also been burned too many times by my sports fandom. Hell, even my wife worked that fact into her wedding vows. That led me to my preseason prediction of 16-15 for the season. And that might still play out. But the on-court product is finally showing signs of being different than what we’ve become accustomed to. That should give every Hoya fan no small measure of hope for the future of Cooley’s tenure.