Georgetown women’s basketball looks to alley-oop off its impressive performance last season. Not only did the Hoyas improve from 14-17 to 19-10 (9-9 in the BIG EAST), but their season culminated with the program’s first appearance in the BIG EAST championship final and a second round appearance in the inaugural Women’s Basketball Invitational Tournament.
After the tragic death of coach Tasha Butts, Darnell Haney took over as interim coach for the 2023 campaign. Adopting the motto of “Tasha Tough,” Haney and the team took on a strong defensive identity. By the end of the season, Georgetown ranked ninth nationally for opposing points per game (PPG), holding teams to just 55.1 on average.
Graduate guard Kelsey Ransom plans to continue that defensive intensity into this season.
“As an individual, I know I have the ability to bring energy, make another team’s point guard take six more seconds off the clock so that the rest of my team doesn’t have to play defense for the entire 30,” Ransom said. “As a team, buying into that, we’re going to defend, we’re going to be there for each other. We can’t be afraid to get beat because we need someone on the help side.”
Ransom led the team in both steals and total turnovers last year, and should be a cornerstone of the Hoyas’ defense this season. However, Georgetown has lost other key players. Graceann Bennett, who led the team in total rebounds, graduated and took her talents to Esperides WBC in Greece. Star senior forward Brianna Scott, who led the team in blocks last season, has no clear timetable for return after tearing her MCL, ACL, and meniscus during the BIG EAST semifinal.
With their absences, Haney and his coaching staff have brought in several new contributors, which has made the starting line up unpredictable. Among the newcomers, graduate forward Chetanna Nweke, who came to Georgetown from Princeton, should help fill the hole left by Bennett.
“Coming in this year, [Haney] told me that I need to be averaging a double[-double], so I need to focus on rebounding and scoring in the post,” Nweke said. “I’ve been taking a lot of pride on that, and I know that’s definitely a big expectation. Just having a good presence—like a good rebounding presence. But in terms of the team expectation, that also goes into the taking pride on defense thing.”
Another potential starter is true freshman forward Alexia Araujo-Dagba. She provides some much needed height to the team at 6-foot-1, and had an impressive run with the Brazilian U18 national team, averaging 11.7 points and 6.7 rebounds per game.
Defense wins championships. But offense gets you there, and Georgetown needs to score more if it wants to make a run in the NCAA tournament. Last season, the Hoya offense ranked 302nd nationally with just 57.9 PPG. That was second-worst in the BIG EAST, ahead of Xavier. What’s worse, Bennett and Scott were the second and third leading scores on the team respectively. If Georgetown is going to improve on offense, the team is going to need players to step up and assist Ransom—something new teammates can do.
“We need to get people that can make shots. But if you come here, you have to play Georgetown defense. It’s who you are, it’s who we are,” Haney said. “A lot of those shots that we missed last year, we’re gonna make this year because we have people that can put the ball in the basket, so I’m really excited about that.”
In addition to Nweke, graduate guard Siobhan Ryan, who joins the Hoyas from Richmond, should provide a needed boost to Georgetown’s offense. For the Spiders, Ryan shot 47% from three on 115 attempts. Last season, the Hoya’s best 3-point shooter with a similar volume, now-graduated Alex Cowan, shot 32.8%. If Ryan can continue her production, combined with Nweke’s presence around the rim, Georgetown should be able to make more noise within the BIG EAST.
The team now has high expectations to prove that last season was not a fluke, something Haney recognizes.
“When we go to BIG EAST expectations, and season expectations, we want to make sure that we are a contender and that we have an opportunity to earn the right to play in the NCAA tournament, earn the right to play in the BIG EAST championship game, so the expectations are that we come in everyday and we earn the right to do everything we have to do to be successful,” Haney told the Voice.
Georgetown has not been to the NCAA women’s tournament since the 2011–12 season and has not been the regular season champion of the BIG EAST since the 1996-97 season. The Hoyas still need to go through the buzzsaw that is Geno Auriemma’s UConn Huskies, but this team has a chance to build on the foundation of the Tasha Tough campaign.
“I think definitely there might be a little bit of a target on our backs because everybody knows that what they did last year was historic and incredible, but I don’t think we’re really necessarily looking into that too much and we’re still going to be the hunters,” Nweke said at BIG EAST Media Day. “We’re going into every game playing like it is the championship game because we know our goals.”
The Hoyas were a wild card last season. Now that teams know more about Haney’s coaching style and how Georgetown plays under him, it will only be harder to capitalize on the momentum from last season. But there’s a new energy to this Georgetown team, energy that is exuded by our star player.
“Once everyone buys into [their roles] and does what they’re supposed to do to the best of their ability, we’ll be successful,” Ransom said.
Georgetown has a lot to prove this season. But fans know they are Tasha Tough already, and will be able to rise to the challenge.
