The Hoyas fell way off the pace in Darnell Haney’s first official season in charge. What’s going to change going forward after losing big chunks of their rotation?
Team: Georgetown Hoyas
2024-25 Record: 12-19, 4-14 Big East
2024-25 Big East Finish: Tenth, one game behind a St. John’s/Butler tie for eighth, and three games ahead of Xavier.
Final 2024-25 Rankings
NET: #116
Her Hoop Stats: #146
BartTorvik.com: #99
Postseason? Only a two point win over Providence in the 7/10 game in the first round of the Big East tournament and a two point loss to Creighton in the semifinals.
Notable Departures: Georgetown loses their top two scorers from last season, which is two of the three women who averaged at least 9 points a game last season. Those same two are also GU’s best two rebounders, and the top scorer also led the squad in assists last season. So, yeah, losing the 1-2 punch of Kelsey Ransom (20.4 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 2.1 steals, 9.4 references to Knives Out between me and my son) and Ariel Jenkins (11.4 points, 10.0 rebounds, 1.1 blocks) is going to cause some pretty big downstream changes for the Hoyas for next season.
Replacing the other four departing rotation players will presumably be a little bit easier for Georgetown, at least in terms of what they put into the stat sheet on average. Two of them were on their final year of eligibility with Kaliyah Myricks (13.9 minutes in 25 appearances with nine starts, less than a point and 2.4 rebounds per game) finishing up her fourth year with the Hoyas and Siobhan Ryan (14 starts, 17.5 mpg, 2.8 points, 2.0 rebounds) using her COVID bonus season after four years at Richmond.
Freshmen Jayden McBride and Jaeda Wilson also depart after playing rotation minutes for Georgetown last year. That’s not a particularly great sign for the overall direction of the program. McBride started 12 times in her 24 appearances and averaged over 21 minutes a night. She wasn’t asked to carry a heavy load for GU, but she was a reliable enough shooter (33.9% on 2.5 attempts) and chipped in where she could. Wilson, a former Megan Duffy signee at Marquette, had a slightly smaller role (same number of games, fewer starts, 17.3 minutes) but that’s still a rotation spot as a freshman, and that’s something. Both saw their minutes kind of drift downwards as the season went along, so maybe that played a part in leaving for Appalachian State and George Washington respectively.
Notable Returners: Victoria Rivera gets the title of top returning scorer and the only double digit scorer coming back. She averaged 10.5 points per game as a junior last season, and that’s a career high for her. Same goes for her rebounds (3.2) and assists (1.7), not to mention her minutes, even after starting most of the time sophomore year.
Rivera’s 3.2 rebounds end up as second best amongst returning players with Khadee Hession’s 3.9 getting the top spot in this group. She averaged 8.1 points, 2.0 assists, and 1.7 steals while knocking down over 37% of her three-point attempts. That was GU’s best shooting percentage amongst regular rotation players last season, and Hession is the leading returning player in assists as well. Heck, she and Rivera are the only two returning players over an assist per game.
The only other returning player that jumps up to notice here is Alexia Araujo-Dagba, who averaged 10.6 minutes in 24 appearances with two starts, so we’re stretching to the edge of the definition of rotation player. Her minutes were all over the place all season long, with a little bit of an upswing towards the end of the year. I’m curious about what she can do from behind the arc if given consistent minutes after shooting 2-for-5 on the year.
Brianna Scott is technically not a notable returning contributor from last season because she missed the entire campaign due to injury. However, back in 2023-24, she averaged 8.8 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks per game even though she didn’t start and was limited to 21.3 minutes. If she’s healthy and back to form, then that’s a nice extra dimension to add to the court for Georgetown.
Key Additions: I guess I have to tip my cap to the Georgetown coaching staff for looking at two freshmen rotation players bailing out and then just deciding to largely ignore recruiting freshmen for this coming season. They have just one on the roster, and Prep Girls Hoops says she’s not even a top 10 prospect in the state of Colorado. In that case, onwards to the transfers.
Well, most of the transfers, I guess. Two of them barely played as freshmen at their previous stops, one in the Big 12 and one in the SEC, so we have to chalk them up as “maybe they just needed new surroundings” and wait to see if this year brings them something different. One of them is most likely just following her twin sister to Georgetown, as Indya Davis didn’t do much for Georgia, but Summer Davis (5’10” guard) was a part-time starter for the Bulldogs as a freshman. She averaged 15.2 minutes and 3.8 points per game, so it’s not like Davis is obviously going to make a big impact with the Hoyas directly out of the gate.
Speaking of people who didn’t make much of an impact on their teams last year arriving in D.C., I don’t know what to make of the possibilities for Laila Jewett (5’10” guard). She spent three seasons at UCF, but then entered the transfer portal after media day last season. As such, she didn’t appear for the Knights and now she’s with the Hoyas. Back in 2023-24, Jewett averaged 8.3 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 3.4 assists while starting in all 29 of her appearances, and she connected on 39% of her threes, too. If she managed to find a way to stay in basketball shape while not playing organized basketball for a year, I’d have to figure she’ll be in the GU rotation at the very least.
The last three transfers all fall into the category of “sure, why not, I guess.” Brianna Byars (6’0” forward) played in 61 games over the last two years in Cincinnati without starting and averaged 2.3 points and 3.1 rebounds. Khia Miller (5’10” guard) was a part time starter as a freshman at East Carolina, and then a most of the time starter this past year. She averaged 8.6 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 1.6 steals per game in 2024-25, although she actually did more scoring when she was coming off the bench. Not sure what that’s all about, as her minutes were mostly the same no matter the assignment. Last name in the group is Cristen Carter (6’4” forward), who comes over after two years at Butler. She averaged 5.1 points and 4.1 rebounds in a scant 14.9 minutes per game last season for the Bulldogs, although I have to ask the question: Why do you think that things will be much better for you on a team that was worse than the one you were on last year?
Coach: Darnell Haney, entering his second season as full time Georgetown head coach and third overall. He’s 35-31 with Georgetown after a 64-75 stint with Jacksonville.
Outlook: A year ago, I wondered if Georgetown was going to be able to keep things going after Darnell Haney had taken over the program in less than ideal circumstances as cancer took the life of head coach Tasha Butts right before Big East Media Day in 2023. Things went pretty well for the Hoyas in 2023-24, and I wondered if Haney, who does not have a track record as an outstanding head coach, was going to keep pushing forward with this basketball program. I figured that if they could defend well again, they might be okay.
Well…. that did not happen. Georgetown’s defense went from #39 in the country in Haney’s interim season in charge to #304 in the country according to Her Hoop Stats. Losing Brianna Scott for the season probably did not help in that regard, as the Hoyas saw their rebounding rates plummet year over year. Still, that’s just one woman on the roster, and that doesn’t explain losing seven straight Big East games to close out the regular season, and nine straight against teams not named Xavier. In fact, Georgetown was 3-13 after Christmas against teams not named Xavier…. which is, y’know, bad.
And now they lose Kelsey Ransom and Ariel Jenkins, who did a whole hell of a lot for this team. Heck, they lose most of their rotation, and what they do bring back isn’t awe-inspiring, and neither is the group of transfers that are arriving on The Hilltop. Laila Jewett is the only newcomer that’s done for sure after this season, which does at least give the impression of Georgetown building some sort of continuity for the future. However, Brianna Scott and Victoria Rivera — the two I’d project as GU’s two best players — will wrap up their time after this coming season as well.
If those three women are carrying the majority of the workload for the Hoyas in 2025-26, then we might be back here in a year wondering who’s going to step up for Georgetown after they leave. The question is whether or not we’re asking that after a good season or a bad season. Right now, at a glance? It feels an awful lot like it’s going to be after a bad season for the sixth time in the last seven years.
And on that note? Maybe it’s much longer that that, too. Georgetown hasn’t finished a season with a winning record in Big East play since 2012, which is the last time they were in the NCAA tournament.
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