There are few joys in life greater than besting Duke’s Blue Devils. So when the Hoyas landed a new recruit on Nov. 1—6-foot-8-inch center Tyler Adams—it felt like a preseason victory. Adams, in order to play for Georgetown, had decommitted from Duke.
A few weeks ago, I wrote that in the world of college basketball recruiting, it gets late early, and the Hoyas needed to move quickly to secure a good recruiting class. At the time, the Hoyas had zero committed recruits in the Class of 2015, while Big East rivals Villanova, Syracuse, and Louisville each had several.
Since then, the Hoyas have quickly built a recruiting class that is nothing short of formidable.
When Adams ditched Duke and quickly committed to Georgetown after attending Midnight Madness, he became the fourth recruit to commit in the last month and a half.
Weighing in at 255 lbs, Adams is a broad-shouldered bulldozer who will act as another frontline presence for the Hoyas. Extremely difficult to score on, Adams could become one of a long line of great defensive Georgetown centers.
But the first puzzle piece that fell into place was 6-foot-5-inch shooting guard Jabril Trawick of Jenkintown, Pa. Trawick is a four-star recruit who gained recognition at the AAU Myrtle Beach Slam 2 this summer for his ability to get to the rim and consistently hit threes.
The Hoyas soon landed DeMatha High School star and Maryland native Mikael Hopkins, a powerful, 6-foot-8-inch forward-center who will spend most of his time in the post once he gets to the Hilltop. Hopkins is a nice score for head coach John Thompson III and his staff as he’s only Georgetown’s second DeMatha recruit in the last 40 years.
Georgetown’s fourth verbal commitment comes from Brandon Bolden, another Midnight Madness attendee, and the Hoyas’ first commitment for the Class of 2016. Although Georgetown snatched Bolden, a 6-foot-8-inch forward from South Carolina, early in his recruitment process, he has said he felt sure that Georgetown was the best fit for him.
Thompson still has one spot left to fill in the Class of 2015 and two more spots for the Class of 2016. But for now, he has met the challenge that other Big East counterparts seemed to get a jump on, and has formed a deep class that will be highly competitive.
More important than who’s coming in, however, is how the Hoyas’ future teams will look with these players on the roster. This year’s team will be guard-focused with Austin Freeman, Chris Wright, and Jason Clark at the helm, but it looks as though Thompson is aiming to make Georgetown ‘Big Man University’ once again.
After Freeman, Wright, Julian Vaughn, and Ryan Dougherty graduate this year, Georgetown’s remaining roster is awfully tall, with nine players measuring at least 6-feet-6-inches including newcomers Hopkins and Adams.
Trawick, Clark, Vee Sanford, and Markel Starks will be the only players on the roster under 6-feet-6-inches.
Georgetown will be tall once again after this year. But in the meantime, the good news is that our recruitment class—which was empty just one-and-a-half months ago—is almost filled. And that’s big.
