Check out our entire college basketball season preview!
The college basketball season is less than three weeks away, and here at FTN Fantasy we have you covered for what promises to be another thrilling year of upsets and incredible finishes. I will be taking you around the country with a betting preview of the major conferences. I recap the betting trends from last season, list projected starters, preview the season, identify a key player, and reveal how I’m backing or fading each team.
Let’s continue with the Big East, home of the two-time defending national champion Connecticut Huskies. This 11-team conference plays its conference tournament in the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden in New York City. While UConn has won two straight NCAA Championships, there has been a new regular-season conference champion in each of the past four seasons. The Big East is one of the few conferences that did not expand or contract, relying on its rich history and elite level of basketball that started 45 years ago.
Let’s continue with our betting preview for the Georgetown Hoyas.
2024-2025 College Basketball Season Preview: Georgetown Hoyas
Conference: Big East
Head Coach: Ed Cooley (2nd season)
2023-2024 Record: 9-23 (2-18)
ATS: 13-19
O/U: 18-14
Projected Starters: G Malik Mack; G Jayden Epps; G Kayvuan Mulready; F Micah Peavy; C Thomas Sorber
The Hoyas only return 23.3% of their minutes from last season, which is a good thing. Georgetown lost 23 games in Ed Cooley’s first season, including a woeful 2-18 in conference play. The Hoyas lost by 18 to Providence in the first round of the Big East tournament, which was their fifth straight loss to end the season. The most damning stat in all my previews? Entering this season, Georgetown has 19 straight losses to a team not named DePaul.
Cooley certainly has job security at Georgetown, so the real assessment on his Hoya tenure starts this season. He only has one returning starter and one returning rotational player, but is that a good thing? The Hoyas have a solid incoming recruiting class, ranked second in the Big East by 247 sports, only trailing Connecticut. Georgetown’s success always starts in the frontcourt, and Cooley brought in 6-foot-9 center Thomas Sorber, a top-50 national recruit. Sorber should start immediately and provide a 250-pound building block in the paint. He will be joined by 6-foot-4 shooting guard Kayvaun Mulready, the No. 2 overall player in Massachusetts, and Caleb Williams the top incoming player from Washington D.C. Cooley added two other big men in 7-foot Julius Halaifonua from Australia and 6-foot-8 Seal Diouf.
While the freshman may have a bigger impact long-term, Cooley’s top-25 transfer class should help right away. Micah Peavy joins the roster from TCU and is a double-digit scorer that contributes to winning, and Curtis Williams Jr. averaged 5.3 PPG as a freshman for Louisville. But any success the Hoyas have in 2024-2025 begins with point guard Malik Mack.
Key Player: Malik Mack
Mack posted over 17 PPG as a true freshman for Harvard, averaging 4.8 APG and 1.3 SPG. He missed over a month of the season with mono, which underscores just how good he was in his first season. He posted 20 or more points in five of his first eight games, highlighted by 32 points (5-of-8 3P) in an OT win at UMass. Georgetown has a lot of young talent, but Mack is the bellwether for success both in the near and distant future.
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