Surging Georgetown hosts Creighton on Wednesday night in Washington, looking to match its longest Big East regular-season winning streak in over a decade.
As recently as two weeks ago, the Hoyas (12-10, 4-7 Big East) were looking up at everyone else in the league standings after a seventh consecutive conference loss in what was beginning to look like a lost campaign in Year 3 under coach Ed Cooley.
Since then, Georgetown has flipped the script and rattled off three straight wins — at Providence, vs. DePaul and most recently at Butler — to join a crowded group of four schools tied for sixth place heading into this week’s Big East games.
Georgetown last won four straight Big East regular-season games in 2015. That was also the last time the Hoyas earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament under John Thompson III.
So what’s been the difference in the Hoyas’ midseason turnaround?
Cooley thinks the return of big man Vince Iwuchukwu, who missed 10 games due to a medical procedure, has changed his team for the good.
“Having Vince (Iwuchukwu) back in the lineup for a period of time has really helped us,” Cooley said.
The 7-foot-1 senior transfer from St. John’s is third on the team in scoring at 10.8 points per game behind guards KJ Lewis (14.9) and Malik Mack (13.9).
“I wasn’t coming here to score,” Iwuchukwu explained.
“I came here to play defense, protect the rim make sure that guys can play defense to the best of their abilities.”
Despite his intentions, Iwuchukwu has come on during this three-game run by averaging 14.7 points and has expanded his game by making 3 of 3 3-pointers. Iwuchukwu had missed his previous eight attempts in his collegiate career, including four this season.
In the first meeting on Jan. 13, Creighton (12-10, 6-5) outlasted Georgetown 86-83 in overtime behind Austin Swartz’s career-high 33 points.
Since then, the Bluejays have struggled by losing three of four while Swartz has scored a combined 44 points in that stretch after his outburst against the Hoyas that included eight 3-pointers.
With a NET ranking of 76 on Feb. 2, Creighton is in jeopardy of missing the NCAA Tournament after five straight bids that includes three trips into the second weekend.
“You just keep working. That’s all you can do,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said after then-No. 2 UConn trounced the Bluejays 85-58. “As I told them, you want the goal to be as a teammate, what can I do to make my teammates’ job easier? … We just need to take another step with that.”
