Georgetown Basketball

One Door Closes, Another Opens

 5/29/25

To no surprise, Thomas Sorber remains in the NBA Draft pool, formally ending his college eligibility as of midnight. What's next for Georgetown?

The Hoyas currently have 12 on scholarship, losing seven (Sorber, Micah Peavy, and five transfers) from the 2024-25 season and adding six via the transfer portal. Were Georgetown seek to add a backup center to Julius Halaifonua and Vincent Iwuchukwu, they could select among unsigned freshmen, junior college transfers, remaining players in the transfer portal, or overseas talent.

"Thomas Sorber had largely closed the door on a return to Georgetown by the time the NBA draft combine came around, but his departure is still a big blow for Georgetown's hopes of ascending the Big East hierarchy in Ed Cooley's third year," writes Sports Illustrated. "It wouldn't be surprising to see them attempt a late splash either in the portal or international markets, but options are dwindling."

Sorber becomes the 10th early entry candidate for Georgetown in the NBA Draft era. Of these, five were drafted, with Sorber a certainty to be the sixth.

Player	Seasons	Drafted?
Allen Iverson	1995,96	Yes
Victor Page	1996,97	No 1
Jeff Green	2005,06,07	Yes
Dajuan Summers	2007,08,09	Yes
Greg Monroe	2009,10	Yes
Hollis Thompson	2010,11,12	No 2
Otto Porter	2012,13	Yes
Marcus Derrickson	2016,17,18	No 2
Aminu Mohammed	2022	No 1

¹ Never played in NBA.
² Played in NBA as a free agent.

Syracuse Series Not Rescheduled

 Updated 5/29/25

With the announcement of the series with North Carolina, College Sports Today's Jon Rothstein reports that the Georgetown-Syracuse series will not be renewed in 2025-26.

The matchup has declined in interest since Syracuse departed for the ACC, with neither team nationally ranked in the past nine years of the series. The downturn was especially notable in Syracuse, where each of the last four games with Georgetown posted attendance drawing smaller crowds than the year before. Last December's game drew just 17,187, the smallest crowd at the Carrier Dome for a Georgetown game in 43 years.

"The fact is the series has been on borrowed time since Syracuse made the jump to the ACC in 2013," writes Syracuse Post-Standard columnist Brent Axe. "Everything in life reaches an expiration date, and it may be time to face the hard truth that this rivalry has fizzled out of relevance."

The end of the series earned not a single mention in the Washington Post, as it continues its move away from Georgetown coverage.

Were it to have been renewed, the game would have been played in Washington, where Georgetown still has no home games confirmed and announced for 2025-26. Syracuse accounted for three of the four largest crowds at Capital One Arena since 2017, where attendance has fallen by 30 percent in the last seven years.

Schedule Update: North Carolina

 5/28/25

A December road game at North Carolina is being reported by basketball columnist Jon Rothstein.

"Georgetown and North Carolina will begin a home-and-home series this season in Chapel Hill, multiple sources told College Hoops Today," he wrote. "There is no timetable on an announcement. An official date is also TBD, but the game is expected to take place during December of 2025."

North Carolina returns one starter and one reserve from a 23-14 team in 2024-25 team that advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament. Five inbound transfers and three freshmen are part of a still-developing roster in Hubert Davis' fifth season. "Judging by various projected rankings, it remains in need of at least one more impact talent to avoid becoming the program's first team since 2005-06 and just the fourth UNC cast in the past 52 years to begin a season outside the AP Top 25 Poll," writes Sports Illustrated.

The two schools have met nine times, most recently in the 2007 NCAA regional final, with the Hoyas owning a 5-4 lead in the series. Georgetown has played just once in Chapel Hill, a 79-74 win in the 2003 NIT.

This was not confirmed by the basketball office, which instead posted a release Wednesday morning announcing Georgetown's participation in the Nov. 27-28 ESPN Events Invitational, a tournament which was originally reported by CBS Sports.com on February 28.

Georgetown To Play Pre-Season Exhibition

 5/21/25

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that Georgetown will travel to Kentucky for an October 30 scrimmage at Rupp Arena.

The only Big East team which heretofore did not participate in exhibition games, Georgetown has not competed in such a format since the NCAA relaxed rules on pre-season competition. Its last exhibition game of any kind (excepting foreign travel) was a November 1, 2003 game at McDonough Gymnasium with a traveling national team from Israel.

In lieu of exhibition games, which are open to the public and will draw a representative crowd to 23,000 seat Rupp Arena, Georgetown had previously participated in a pair of inter-squad scrimmages each October, closed to the public.

First year coach Mark Pope led Kentucky to a 24-12 record last season and a #12 ranking in the Associated Press poll, advancing to the NCAA regional semifinals until losing to Tennessee. The Wildcats picked up six in the transfer portal, including an add Tuesday in West Virginia transfer Brayden Hawthorne.

"Big Blue Nation is brimming with anticipation after a monster portal haul that should give Mark Pope the deepest bench in America," wrote Sports Illustrated in late April. "Sources tell [Saturday Down South that] Kentucky spent around $17.5 million dollars to land this class, a staggering figure even by current NIL standards. But this wasn't a thoughtless spending spree. Mark Pope had a plan, and this roster makes sense as a collective unit."

The two teams have not met since the 1984 national semifinal in Seattle, while GU's last game in Rupp Arena was the 1985 NCAA final.

In its first news release since April 3, the basketball office posted an announcement on the time and date.