GAME GRADES: High Marks for Hoyas in Comeback Win Over Villanova

Jayden Epps and Micah Peavy at the head of the class

That’s a sweep! Your Georgetown Hoyas sweep the season series against Villanova for the first time since 1993—that was a team led by Othella Harrington, Robert Churchwell and Joey Brown. Georgetown again executed late on both ends of the floor to come back from a nine-point deficit and beat Villanova on the final shot. This time, it was Jayden Epps with the dagger, but this was a full team effort. If you had no other information, you’d think the Hoyas were the 17th oldest team in D-1, not Villanova, who once again looked awful down the stretch – a direct result of Georgetown’s execution.

Let’s dive in…

Malik Mack – B
10pts, 4-13 30% FG, 2-7 28% 3PT, 0-0 FT, 2 REB, 4 AST, 1 STL, 0 TO, 33 MIN

Malik hit a massive three to start the late surge from Georgetown, cutting the Villanova lead from nine to six with three and a half minutes left. He’s had a knack for hitting the big shot this year. The efficiency still isn’t there, but I thought he played well overall and showed up big when they needed him. He doesn’t take a ton of bad shots (though there are a couple), which I think bodes well for him. He just needs to find his efficiency. But I feel good when he’s on the floor late. He’s going to make a play.

Micah Peavy – A-
19pts, 7-13 53% FG, 5-9 55% 3PT, 0-0 FT, 5 REB, 3 AST, 1 STL, 0 BLK, 2 TO, 40 MIN

What else is there to say about Micah? After a tough one against Marquette where he looked like playing every minute of every game had finally caught up to him, he bounced back with another gem. At the end of January, Peavy went 0-5 from three in the blowout loss to St. Johns and 0-1 in the win against Butler. Since then, he’s shot 47% from three over eight games on almost six attempts per game. Georgetown needed every one of his five threes in this game (interesting side note: Micah made five threes total his sophomore season at TCU).

On top of that, he helped hold Eric Dixon to 0 points in the first half. That wasn’t all due to Micah, and Dixon got it going in the second half, but he drew the primary assignment on Dixon. Keep in mind that Peavy also drew the primary assignment on Steven Ashworth against Creighton (who is the polar opposite build of Dixon). Peavy is giving up at least 40 pounds to Dixon. Despite Nick Bahe’s commentary suggesting Georgetown was only able to shut down Dixon while playing zone, the Hoyas mostly played man in the first half when, again, Dixon scored 0 points. They went back to man with Micah on Dixon late in this game, and Micah won that matchup.

This performance comes on the heels of EvanMiya sharing his most impactful defenders in CBK, according to his DBPR metric. I think Evan does a really good job, and his site and metrics are very good. It’s also difficult to make a great catch-all defensive metric. That said, there is just no way Peavy is not one of the most impactful defenders in the country. Having guys like Hunter Dickinson and Danny Wolf on the list when Peavy is not should tell you that something has gone horribly wrong. I don’t know the specifics of how he’s calculating DBPR (if anyone does, send it to me), but something is amiss. Sorber is third on the list, which is cool but seems further indicative of error. Micah Peavy is one of the most impactful defenders in the country, he is also one of the most impactful players in the country.

Drew Fielder – B+
6pts, 2-7 28% FG, 0-3 3PT, 2-2 FT, 7 REB, 4 AST, 1 TO, 40 MIN

This grade is almost entirely about Drew staying on the floor and being effective for 40 minutes. His shots weren’t quite falling in this game, but they looked fine. We’ve seen how rough it’s been for Georgetown when Drew has gotten into foul trouble. While I don’t think he’s gotten a great whistle this year, he absolutely needed to adjust. This team just needs him on the floor. It’s a testament to his effort, approach, and basketball sense that he was able to adjust.

I thought he did a better job staying vertical when he challenged shots, and jumping straight up. He has had a tendency to jump forward when challenging shots, even if his arms are straight up, which is what I think officials have been calling him on. Whatever he was doing, it worked, and it absolutely paid off. When Georgetown needed a bucket late in this game, they went to a side pick and roll with Mack and Fielder to get Drew a wide-open dunk to cut it to two with two minutes left. And when they had to have a bucket with the game tied and 40 seconds left, they ran a great set to get the ball on the short roll with space to make a play, and he made a great pass to Jordan, cutting from the strong side for an easy dunk. It was a great set and a great read and pass from Drew, one that I’m not sure many guys on the team make.

Jordan Burks – A-
14pts, 5-9 55% FG, 2-4 50% 3PT, 2-3 FT, 6 REB, 1 AST, 1 STL, 0 TO, 32 MIN

Jordan continued his confident play. He just looks more comfortable every game. He was very good in this game. He continued his resurgent three-point shooting and made the great cut and finish mentioned above. But it was his rebounding that really popped in this game. He was flying around on the glass, on both ends. He two of the three biggest baskets of the game late, off the great feed from Fielder and nice slip screen a minute earlier. He’s rolling right now.

Jayden Epps – A+
20pts, 6-12 50% FG, 3-5 60% 3PT, 5-5 FT, 1 REB, 3 AST, 1 STL, 2 TO, 31 MIN

Masterpiece from Epps. He was great, and to his credit, he has been great since seemingly getting healthy. He deserved the moment at the end, hitting the game-winner on another great set from Cooley. Jayden has had the ability to get to the rim. Sometimes, he gets stuck amongst the trees, but he was never settling for the jumper on that last possession, which was smart. In the end, he got himself a fairly easy layup. The real A+ play might have come a few minutes earlier, with Georgetown down six after Mack hit the big three. Jayden jumped into the passing lane and made a great steal out of help defense, and he got fouled on the runout. He made both free throws, something the Hoyas have struggled with this year. Now, it’s possible he stepped out of bounds (it was close), but that was after the great defensive play that not only resulted in two points for the Hoyas but prevented a wide-open ball-reversal three for Villanova.

Curtis Williams – B+
6pts, 2-4 FG, 2-3 66% 3PT, 1 REB, 1 AST, 1 TO, 13 MIN

Confidence is everything, and Curtis looked comfortable and confident again in this game. After coming in, he made his first three, a deep one, followed up with a nice cross-court assist to set up Jordan for a three. He was efficient and effective in his minutes.

Caleb Williams – INC
0pts, 2 REB, 9 MIN

Nice to see Caleb back out there. I hope he’s able to get his legs under him against DePaul. They’ll need him in NYC.

Offense – A Currently ranked 141 in Off. efficiency per KenPom (previously 162)
116.9 Off. Rating, 56% eFG, 45% 3PT (14-31), 61% AST Rate

Easily one of Georgetown’s best offensive performances since Sorber went down. That’s not very controversial when they shoot 45% from three and make the most threes in a game this year. But I thought the process was very good for most of this game and was elite in the clutch. The final three and a half minutes of this game were near perfect.

It started with the big-time individual shotmaking of Mack to drain the three to cut it to six. And then Epps, with the excellent defense to offense play that ended in two free throws, cut the Villanova lead to four. Next, the great side pick and roll action to get Fielder an easy dunk. Two-point lead.

Then they ran a quick set, running Epps off a high and flat off-ball screen to get Jayden the ball in space with Jordan diving to the dunker spot. Epps made a great pass to a wide-open Burks for an easy layup. Then, a horns set to get Epps the ball at the top of the key led to a foul, and Jayden knocked down two big free throws (which was not a given for Georgetown this year). Then, the beauty. They ran the same set as the Burks layup, but with Burks in the strong side corner and Fielder rolling (he popped to the three on the possession prior). A great pass from Epps to Fielder and Fielder to the cutting Burks ended with the baseline dunk.

The final bucket was another really smart set. They cleared out the paint and put Fielder and Burks in a stack at the top of the key to give a driving Epps two safety valve options if he got stuck, plus shooters in both corners. All of those were executed perfectly and without Cooley calling timeouts. Just perfect late-game execution. Villanova looked completely lost on every one of those possessions, and the Hoyas got exactly what they wanted.

Defense – B Currently ranked 47 in Def. efficiency per KenPom (previously 36)
113.8 Def. Rating, 52% eFG, 8.3 TO Rate, 70% DRB Rate

The defense has taken a bit of a dip since losing Sorber. I also think not having Caleb has hurt their versatility, but they remained solid in this one, particularly on the glass. Fielder staying on the floor helps a lot, as without him, they lose almost all of their size. The loud first-half performance of holding the nation’s leading scorer to zero points was followed by Dixon going 8 of 9 in the second half. But I thought Georgetown made it tough on him. And their defense took a step up in clutch time, forcing a couple of turnovers late and a really bad corner three from Dixon that may as well have been a turnover.

Next Up

Georgetown closes out the Big East regular season in Chicago against a DePaul team that handed the Hoyas their only truly bad loss of the year. Georgetown was also without Sorber in that game. The Hoyas can go 9-11 in BE play with a win, which would be their most conference wins since 2019 (the Mackinjo freshman year). Whether they win or not on Saturday, this year has been a success, but this team should not be satisfied. Go get DePaul back and go into the BET feeling as good as you can.