(Photo credit: Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images)

For the first time in quite a while, there is reason for optimism around Georgetown as the Hoyas are set to host Morgan State in the season opener for both schools on Monday in Washington, D.C.

Coach Ed Cooley doubled the Hoyas' win total from Year 1 to Year 2 by finishing with an 18-16 record - the program's first winning mark since 2019.

The next step would be to make the NCAA Tournament in Year 3, matching the rebuilding timeline Cooley accomplished at his last stop in Providence. Georgetown hasn't made the NCAA Tournament since an unlikely miracle run through the Big East tournament in 2021, and it last earned an at-large bid in 2015.

Cooley isn't shying away from increased expectations.

'You expect to be good as you're growing as an organization,' Cooley said at the Hoyas' media day.

'I expect to be good this year. I'm going to put the pressure on myself.'

As is the case all around the country, the Hoyas will look a lot different than they did just one season ago. Gone are Thomas Sorber and Micah Peavy to the NBA. In fact Malik Mack (12.9 ppg) is the lone top seven returning scorer from last year's squad after starting his career at Harvard.

Six transfers from power conference schools joined the Hoyas this offseason. That includes KJ Lewis (Arizona), who earned a spot on the preseason Big East second team.

Morgan State is coming off a 14-18 season that ended with a loss in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference semifinals.

Newcomer Walter Peggs Jr. earned a spot on the MEAC preseason third-team after averaging 30 points per game last season at Division II Spring Hill College (Alabama).

Bears coach Kevin Broadus, who spent nine seasons as a Georgetown assistant over two stints including the Hoyas' last Final Four team in 2007, likes these early season tests against power conference foes.

'You want to play with the big dogs, you want to fare well against them,' Broadus said recently on the Glenn Clark radio show.

'We want to show that we can compete at that level.'

Morgan State, picked fourth in the MEAC, will get two more cracks at major programs with December trips to DePaul (Big East) and California (ACC) on the docket before settling into conference play.

Georgetown has dominated the all-time series against Morgan State winning the 15 previous meetings by double figures while last playing in 2001.

-Field Level Media