Thomas Sorber is awesome
The Big East Freshman of the Week looks like he will be a true force down low for this Hoyas team that hasn’t had a dominant big man in ages. Sorber has been the engine for Georgetown’s offense through two games, and the freshman has not been scared to jaw with opponents. Averaging 22.5 PPG, 11 RPG, 2 SPG, and 2 BPG thus far, Sorber has made his presence felt in all areas of the game. Additionally, one of the huge bright spots of his game is Sorber’s ability to get to the free throw line and knock down shots consistently. Georgetown needs a big man who can contend with the Ryan Kalkbrenners of the Big East, and they may have found one in the 6’10” freshman.
The Hoyas play a deep rotation; will this continue?
One of the least surprising takeaways from the first two games is that Cooley decided to roll out a relatively deep rotation of players who played meaningful minutes throughout the course of both contests. We knew this could be the case coming into the season: a deep freshmen class paired with the incoming transfers brought a much-needed influx of talent. The playing time given to the big men will be particularly interesting moving forward. Fielder, despite starting in the season opener against Lehigh, played only 13 minutes and didn’t finish the game with the rest of the starting five. It was Jordan Burks, instead, who played significant minutes down the stretch and impressed with his length and ability to defend on the ball. Whether or not Fielder’s limited minutes were a result of the illness that caused him to miss the Hoyas’ second game was not specified by the team, but regardless, many will pay close attention to how minutes are deployed between Fielder, Sorber, Halaifonua and Burks as the season progresses. Despite the typical growing pains we often see from freshmen bigs, Sorber and Halaifonua both seem ready to contribute right away, which is what Georgetown fans had hoped for.
The defense still leaves much to be desired:
There’s no denying the firepower that the Epps-Mack backcourt possesses. It’s one of the best offensive one-two punches that Georgetown has had in recent years, and much of the Hoyas’ ceiling will be reliant upon how much offense both players can create. However, criticisms of how the backcourt would hold up defensively may have validity. Rolling out two undersized guards has its drawbacks on the defensive side of the ball, and we saw that play out in the season opener against Lehigh. Higgins and Gillus were able to combine for 43 points, mostly shooting over the Hoyas and getting easy shots through defensive breakdowns. That 43 number is just 3 shy of what the entire Lehigh team scored against Northwestern just a few days earlier, before putting up 77 points against Georgetown. The defense still has its woes, and these will need to improve if this team wants to make any noise in the Big East.
