This and That: Holy Cross '23

Below are observations and anecdotes relative to Georgetown's humbling 67-65 loss to Holy Cross, Saturday.

"As you are trying to teach men and rebuild a culture, it's important that you play with incredible intelligence" was how head coach Ed Cooley started to describe Georgetown's 67-75 loss to Holy Cross. "And i don't Think we did. i don't think we played smart down the stretch; Bad fouls. We didn't block out up we were up two, on just a free throw block out". While clearly a strong statement, it holds weight. Big time.

How? Some examples: :

=Holy Cross outrebounded the Hoyas 41-31, despite only one player over 6'6" getting significant minutes.

- Senior HC guard Joe Octave dropped a game high 33 points, 25 in the second half.

- In the paint HC dominated scoring by a 38-18 margin.

= Octave also paced all reboundeers with 11 boards. Only senior forward/center Supreme Cook hit double figure boarding (10r) for Georgetown, with no one else having more than six.

- HC committed just five turnovers, eight less than the Hoyas.

The game, a rock fight essentially throughout, seemed in part to turn with 8:35 remaining to play, G'Town being up a contest best 11 points after sophomore guard Rowan Brumbaugh (17p, 3a) pulled up and sank a jumper.

Around four and a half minutes later, Octave's three ball equalized the score. Another three ball from him pushed the Crusaders ahead for good, with just 56 ticks of the clock left.

G'Town managed two shot opportunities in the last 44 seconds, to no avail. The last resulted in an actual attempt not being released.

Sophomore guard Jayden Epps led Cooley's Crew with both 22 points and three turnovers. Cook had eight points for Georgetown (1-1), which shot 38.1%, 37.9% on three pointers.

Bo Montgomery, a senior guard, logged 15 points, 8 rebounds, both second best for the Crusaders, who as a team shot 46.3% overall, 25% beyond the arc HC Paulsen's guy's are 1-1 on the season.

Paulsen believes of vanquishing G'Town "I think it helps validate. These guys have worked their rear ends off. And they've been coachable, and have let me coach them hard. They've been responsive".

They host Sacred Heath tomorrow, 7p EST.

Georgetown next takes the court Wednesday for a Gavitt Games presentation pitting them against Rutgers. The contest, set for New Bunswick, NJ, is an 830p EST start.

Cooley, who gave his guys off Sunday and was looking forward to preparation for Rutgers this week, implicated himself in this most lamentable loss, noting "A lot of that is on me. So in the finer points of the game i have to do a better job of teaching our men how to deal with that...I thought our men played content.

"We have our work cut out, but this is the process of development. This is part of the process of growing. The pangs you have to go through.".

For more, see Cooley's presser below. Paulsen, joined by Octave, can be seem here.

Starting the second half it was apparent HC's Paulsen dialed up an adjustment - their man to man defense became more of the gap variety, No longer was the lane as open. The move seemed to pay dividends.

"It did" offered Paulsen, when asked if the scheme put G'Town on their heels, before revealing it was "a helluva adjustment" for his guys to execute, as "I would prefer not to clog it up as much and give up threes. Normally I wouldn't want to give up 11 made threes, but we said we have to pick their poison".

Driving that decision was "their athleticism" shared Paulsen, in his first year leading Holy Cross' Crusaders. He additionally cited "Obviously Epps can get downhill. Cook is a monster inside. Styles can get into the paint" as further justification, in addition to "we just really felt we needed to exaggerate being in the gaps and really helping. And win the battle on the glass".

Cooley acknowledged the scheme, but had a different opinion for why there was a -9.6% difference in first and second half overall shooting makes, opining "i don't think we had problems attacking it", instead stressing "I don't think...the ball moved. The ball stuck. i think we had 15 assists. We normally are going to have 20 or 22 assists a game. Additionally, "I thought we took some really tough shots, especially coming down the stretch.

"We couldn't play a worse game. i couldn't have coaches a worse game"

Cooley on his teams' woeful rebounding

"We're going to have to address that...I think rebounding, regardless of your size, regardless of your talent, rebounding is a will and a want and an attitude. And right now, my team just don't have it. My team is reliant on the shirt's name. They rely on 'Georgetown'. They better rely on each other. Cause we got our ass kicked on the glass. We will address that. I promise you we will address that".

Cooley on pushing forward

"it's one game It really hurts. But there is a lot of basketball to be played. There may be more disappointment to come. But that's part of development. A part of organizing. Just moving forward man.

"We're not going to feel sorry for ourselves. We'll get better".

Cooley on ceding those paint points

"Gross. Gross. It was a lack of toughness on my teams' behalf. It was a lack leadership on my team's behalf, in respect to not coming together. I'll say this again; defense and rebounding is a want. A will and a want.

"When you have a team like that, you'll start to win games when you're not scoring the ball and the other team is playing really good defense...they forced us to miss and won the game".

Paulsen on garnering more caroms than G'Town

"To outrebound that team by 10 is a phenomenal effort. I thought we did a much better job on the glass in the second half".

The following recruits were present:

Acaden Lewis, '25 G

Nyk Lewis, '25 G

Cam Ward's father, coaches, brother, '25 wing

Matthew Mena, '27 F

Ethan Sheffey, '24 G

Eric Reibe, '25 C