The Georgetown Hoyas Are Winning & Inspiring With Defense and Details

The Georgetown Hoyas are 9-1 as they near the end of their non-conference slate, their best start to a season since 2011-12.

It's difficult to even quantify what this season and this start means as a whole for the Hoyas and anyone associated with the program. First year Head Coach, Tasha Butts, passed away due to cancer shortly before the season started after taking a medical leave of absence. Butts, a beloved member of the basketball community at large, was a lightning rod for positivity and brought a new level of excitement and an edge to a program looking to rebuild.

The team went from Butts' memorial service in Milledgeville, Georgia on November 4th, to playing their first game of the season less than two days later back in D.C. against Maryland-Eastern Shore.

I think it goes without saying that what this season is about supersedes wins and losses, stats, championships, etc. How do you come together as a group? How do you come to grips with that? Where do you go from there?

There isn't a gameplan for something so sudden, devastating, and emotion inducing. That's what has made watching this team meaningful to me. They play with a grit, intensity, and collectiveness that any coach in basketball would grin at. I admire the level they're playing at, and am in awe of what they've endured as a group to still be here doing this.

The Hoyas are 7th in Defensive Rating in the NCAA, allowing just 46.5 points per game.

Georgetown plays at a slower pace, the 9th slowest pace in the country (64.9 possessions per game), in fact. They grind games out, and look to work the possession margins as they swarm you defensively.

Opposing offenses shoot 32.8% from TWO against the Hoyas through ten games, an astonishing mark. Read that again: 32.8% on twos. Just wow.

They play with physicality, willing to foul, but not overdoing it. They're 20th in the country in block rate and 39th in steal rate, forcing turnovers at a high level, but also not relying on it as the backbone of their defense. I'd consider the turnovers more of a byproduct of their freneticism, an important distinction.

Georgetown is a switch heavy team, I'd argue the most comfortable switching team I've seen this season in D1. There's often an idea that switching is easy... because all you do is switch, right?

No!

The Hoyas embody what it means to play team defense through their switching. It looks easy and polished, because they have no doubt drilled it like crazy in practice, and more importantly, bought in as a unit to thrive doing it.

If you "soft" switch, aka give up a switch without fighting the screening action, you cede ground. There's an open pocket created that the offense can use to exploit and build upon.

To switch effectively, you need great communication to call out the switch when and where it's happening. You need the physicality to maintain leverage and erase any kind of pocket. It's kind of a sliding scale, to me; the more or less you do of either side allows for more or less of a pocket to be created in turn.

Yet, it's not just the switching. As emphasized briefly, what happens behind a switch is arguably more important than the action itself. This team communicates at such a remarkably high level. In quieter broadcasts, you can hear the entire defense shouting out to one another. Even if it's simple words, there is emphasis on accountability through vocality, and it pays in dividends.

Georgetown prefers to late switch, using it more as a means of containment than as a mode of dictating what's happening. They're adept and comfortable with show and recover principles.

Every time a screen happens or any sort of movement happens, note how a Georgetown defender is taking a step towards the on-ball player. It seems small, but it is substantial in giving the chaser time to recover and get back in front. If they're screened out, now worries, we'll switch.

Watch that second screen at the 7 second mark. Alex Cowan is screened out by a difficult angle and Graceann Bennett switches off her initial show to contain the ball. However, Northwestern hits with the slip (the best way to beat a switch? a slip) and hits a pocket pass to the roller.

But wait! A defender is there to meet the roller with the ball before the basket and forces the turnover. 

Watch Victoria Rivera (#3) call out the pin down "Screen! Screen! Screen!" freeing up Kaliyah Myricks to help into the lane and contain the roll. Georgetown works constantly to split the back side of a play to overload the strong side with their help in gaps, and that doesn't work without the consistent effective communication and call outs.

If the defense has a step, push them baseline, there's help coming.

The way the Hoyas utilize the boundaries of the court to their advantage has been a blast to watch. They almost play with No Middle concepts (Quite literally a defense that is designed to not give up the middle of the court) at times, and that sticks out here.

As Kelsey Ransom helps on the baseline drive, watch as Myricks cheats down off the slot to occupy Ransom's assignment who floated to the mid-post.

Brianna Scott shows hard help on the weak side backline. Cowan shows help. All 5 defenders have a foot in the paint.

The ball is stopped and swung back out to the top of the key, and the Hoyas uncoil and fly out like a spring that was sprung. Every shot isn't going to miss, but the process stands; Contain the drive, help hard to deny easy outlets in the paint, and contest hard on recovery.

Try to attack with a ton of motion, a spaced out floor, and a slip? Hey we've got that covered too.

The Hoyas win with rim protection by preventing interior looks before the rim, but Brianna Scott has solidified herself as a bonafide rim protector for Georgetown, capable of making these scheme saving type plays (she's averaging 1.9 blocks in 21 minutes per game).

Every defender on the roster is mobile, long, can defend a few positions, and is going to make multiple efforts. However, I think it's so worth noting that the collective buy-in is so much of what gives individuals the room to have breath on an island.

That's stood out in droves with Kelsey Ransom, Georgetown's star player and best defender pound for pound. She has a 5.5% steal rate, in the 98th percentile in the country per CBB Analytics; in other words, she forces a steal on nearly 6% of defensive possessions.

She mirrors ballhandlers at a high level, sliding her feet relentlessly. She cuts off spots and lanes before her assignment can get to them and is fantastic squeezing screens to blow them up or get around them. She uses her hands and wingspan to make them uncomfortable and pester them with more than occasional pressure up the court.

Ransom has been a good defender throughout her career, but she's been a great defender this season with her focus and commitment off the ball as a communicator and helper.

This group has embodied what it means to truly commit to playing great defense, rooted in details, consistency, hard work, and the relentlessness that sets the tone of each game they play. Playing against Georgetown is not fun, but watching them sure is.

Wednesday's Big East opener against Seton Hall (they're good) is a huge game for the Hoyas, their stiffest test of the season thus far. I don't know what the rest of the season holds for this team, but what they've shown and proven thus far is remarkable and commendable. The Georgetown Hoyas deserve your attention.

You can watch Seton Hall vs. Georgetown at 11am EST live on FloHoops.