A wild week for Ed Cooley concluded with an ugly home loss on Saturday. Georgetown was gobsmacked by No. 9-ranked Marquette and suffered its 13th loss of the season by a score of 91-57.
Although Cooley already led the Hoyas to a better record in his first year as head coach than Patrick Ewing’s final year as head coach, they are 1-9 in the Big East and 8-13 overall. It’s going to be a process to rebuild the historic program in D.C., but there was some hope that success might come sooner than later.
That does not appear to be the case. Georgetown has not clicked.
In fact, Cooley had to demand one of his players pay attention to the team huddle during the loss to the Golden Eagles. Fox was able to pick up the exchange.
The Hoyas took a timeout during the first half while the game was still somewhat within reach. Jay Heath, a senior guard who averages 27.8 points per outing, was not listening to his head coach.
Cooley called him out!
"Pay attention to the huddle." 😅😂
— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) February 3, 2024
Ed Cooley mic'd up in the Hoyas' huddle 🎙️🍿 pic.twitter.com/Mv2qxZ4Zw6
This is not the first time that a player was distracted during a huddle. It won’t be the last.
That doesn’t mean it’s great look. Louisville basketball was clowned last weekend when an assistant coach was caught watching an on-court performer instead of being involved with a team huddle.
If people are going to criticize the Cardinals for their lack of attention, Heath, Cooley and the Hoyas deserve that same energy. For a coach to have to ask a player to dial-in to what he is saying is not something that should happen often, if at all.
Heath didn’t care enough in that moment to pay attention to Ed Cooley without him asking to pay attention, otherwise he would’ve done so without being asked!